68 courses with the subject ARTH, each shown exactly as we captured it from the college's catalog, with every element we hold. Where the wording looks broken, that is our reading of the catalog, not the college's text.
ARTH 1004A History of Architecture3
Effective Date 03/22/2010 This course will introduce students to the study of architecture through an examination of selected examples from the history of architecture with a focus on Europe and the United States and buildings relevant to those regions (e.g. the Great Pyramids, the Parthenon, Versailles). Classes will be a combination of lectures and discussions as students are taught the fundamentals of architectural history as well as how to analyze buildings.
Effective Date 05/16/2016 A survey of the great monuments of art and architecture from their beginnings in caves through the arts of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece and Rome, Byzantium, the Islamic world, and medieval western Europe. The course attempts to make art accessible to students with no background in the subject, and it explains the ways in which painting, sculpture, and architecture are related to mythology, religion, politics, literature, and daily life. The course serves as a visual introduction to the history of the West.
Effective Date 04/21/2022 An overview of art from the perspective of both its history and the ways it operates in the world today. Focusing on case studies from different periods and world regions, topics include how art works in museums, in the markets, in the law, in communities and the public sphere. The course addresses also how art relates to the sciences, cultural appropriation, social justice, and offers an overview of art historical methodologies to study it. Requisites Students can’t enroll if previously taken ARTH 1559 #3 How Art Works
ARTH 1153Space Out! Cosmic Art from Prehistory to the Present3
Effective Date 01/01/2026 Throughout history, artists, philosophers, & scientists have consistently sought to situate themselves within the cosmos & comprehend its heavenly machinery. This course traces the development of scientific, political, spiritual, magical, & intellectual technologies of power that have tied individuals to their views & uses for astronomy. Topics include: stars & rule, astrology, Ptolemy, alchemy, magic, medicine, Galileo, Chesley Bonestell, Remedios Varo, Kambui Olujimi, Star Trek, & Star Wars. Requisites Students may not enroll if they have previously completed ARTH 1503 Topic #1 Art and Astronomy
Effective Date 05/01/2026 Spanish Art is considered one of the richest global traditions, including masterpieces ranging from the prehistoric Altamira caves to the greatest figures of the 20th Century such as Gaudi, Picasso, Dali and Miro. Architectural riches throughout the Iberian peninsula include ruins left by the Romans alongside medieval cathedrals and castles. Paintings from the Golden Age include works by Velazquez, El Greco, Murillo and Ribera. Requisites Students cannot enroll if they have previously completed SPAN 4707 or ARTH 1501 - Topic #1 Introduction to Spanish Art
Effective Date 01/01/2026 Introductory Seminars in Art History are small classes for first- and second-year students that emphasize reading, writing, and discussion. While subject varies with the instructor, topics will be selected that allow students to engage broad issues and themes historically and in relationship to contemporary concerns and debates. Subject is announced prior to each registration period. Enrollment is capped at 15. Requisites 1st- or 2nd-year
Effective Date 02/13/2025 This course will train students to understand and evaluate global cultures from a critical and culturally sensitive perspective.
Effective Date 01/01/2026 This course introduces the art forms, trade objects, & religions that flourished along the historical Silk Road. Stretching 8000km, the Silk Road is a network of trade routes that provided a bridge between the east & west between the 1st & 14th centuries CE. The Silk Road flourished as a commercial & at times military highway. But more than that, it was a channel for the transmission of ideas, technologies, & artistic styles, with far-reaching impact beyond China & the Mediterranean world. Requisites Students may not enroll if they have previously completed ARTH 1507 Topic #2 Art and the Silk Road
Effective Date 08/01/2026 What is the history of art and how does it both explore the past and open onto the future? This course explores the skills, methods, and sources that enable visual and material analysis, that facilitate the creation and analysis of art historical narratives and that provide an understanding of art markets, museums, and exhibitions. Class meetings will make ample use of collections at The Fralin Museum of Art, Kluge-Ruhe Collection of Aboriginal Art, UVA Library, and Studio Art Program.
Effective Date 08/01/2012 Survey of Egyptian art and architecture (Predynastic-New Kingdom, 4000-1100 BC). The course introduces students to the great monuments and works of art, and to the beliefs that engendered them. While the focus is on pharaonic ‘visual’ culture, neglected ‘others’ (women, cross-gendered persons, foreigners, commoners) and their material/visual cultures are brought to attention to provide a nuanced understanding of Egyptian society and culture.
Effective Date 08/01/2021 The vase painting, sculpture, architecture, and other arts of the Greeks, from the Bronze Age through the Hellenistic periods. Works are studies in their social, political, and religious contexts with a special focus on archaeology and material culture.
Effective Date 04/11/2017 Following an overview of Etruscan art, the course examines the development of Roman architecture, urbanism, sculpture and painting from the Republic to Constantine. A focus is Rome itself, but other archaeological sites, such as Pompeii, in Italy and throughout the empire are also considered. Themes, such as succession, the achievements of the emperor, the political and social role of art, and the dissolution of classical art, are traced.
Effective Date 08/01/2011 Introduces the history, theory, and field techniques of classical archaeology. Major sites of the Bronze Age (Troy, Mycenae) as well as Greek and Roman cities and sanctuaries (e.g., Athens, Olympia, Pompeii) illustrate important themes in Greek and Roman culture and the nature of archaeological data.
Effective Date 08/01/2012 Introduction to the art and archaeology of the prehistoric Aegean, from the Early Bronze Age to the end of the Late Bronze Age (ca. 3000-1200 BCE). Notable sites examined include Troy, Knossos, Mycenae, Thebes, Pylos. The course also examines cultural and artistic connections with New Kingdom Egypt and the Late Bronze Age Levant.
Effective Date 01/01/2026 Discover the spectacular world of Byzantine art and architecture, from glittering mosaics and soaring domes to sacred icons and jeweled masterpieces. This course explores eleven centuries of artistic brilliance, revealing how visionary Byzantine artists and builders fused faith, innovation, and power to create one of history’s most extraordinary cultural legacies.
Effective Date 01/01/2010 From the Romanesque churches along the Pilgrimage Routes to the new Gothic architecture at St. Denis outside Paris and on to late medieval artistic production in Prague, this course examines profound and visually arresting expressions of medieval piety, devotion, and power made by artists from roughly 1000-1500. Throughout our investigations, particular attention will be paid to the contributions of important medieval women.
Effective Date 08/01/2011 Studies the painting, architecture, and sculpture or the sixteenth century, emphasizing the works of major artists, such as Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, Giorgione, and Titian. Detailed discussion of the social, political, and cultural background of the arts.
Effective Date 08/01/2015 Surveys major developments in painting and graphics in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in the Netherlands and Germany. Includes the rise of Netherlandish naturalism and the origins of woodcut and engraving. Explores the effects of humanist taste on sixteenth-century painting and the iconographic consequences of the Reformation. Emphasizes the work of major artists, such as Van Eyck, Van der Weyden, Durer, Bosch, and Bruegel.
ARTH 2281The Age of Caravaggio, Velazquez, and Bernini3
Effective Date 12/15/2015 Studies the painting, sculpture, and architecture of the seventeenth century in Italy, the Low Countries, France, and Spain. Focuses on Caravaggio, Bernini, Velazquez, Rubens, Rembrandt, and Poussin.
ARTH 2282The Age of Rubens and Rembrandt: Baroque Art in the Netherlands3
Effective Date 08/01/2011 A survey of the art of the Dutch and Flemish Golden Age, including such artists as Rubens, Rembrandt, van Dyck, Hals and Vermeer. The course examines innovations in style and new subjects like landscape, still life and daily-life genre in relation to major historical developments, including the revolt of the Netherlands, the rise of the Dutch Republic, and the Counter-Reformation. The course includes a survey of Dutch architecture.
Effective Date 08/01/2011 Surveys European painting and sculpture from the last decades of the Ancien Regime to the liberal revolutions of 1848. Major artists, such as David, Canova, Ingres, Constable, Turner, Gericault, Delacroix, Friedrich, Goya, Corot, and Thorvaldsen are examined in their political, economic, social, spiritual, and aesthetic contexts.
Effective Date 08/01/2011 This survey of British Art in the modern period examines the work of some of Britain’s greatest painters, sculptors, and printmakers including Hogarth, Blake, Flaxman, Turner, the Pre-Raphaelites, Sickert, Bacon, and Freud. Major themes include the relationship of British art to religion, urbanization, empire, industrialization, and post-colonialism.
Effective Date 05/01/2026 In this class we analyze different Spanish artistic styles from the twentieth century to the present day. We explore discrete historic Avant-gardes (such as Cubism, Futurism, Orphism) as well as Surrealism, focusing upon the masterpieces of Miro, Dali and Picasso. We will also go deeper into the second avant-gardes and their repercussions for Spanish artistic production during the century’s final decades. Requisites Students cannot enroll if they have previously completed SPAN 4709 or ARTH 3545 topic #1
Effective Date 03/01/2009 Surveys modernist movements in European art during the second half of the nineteenth century. Major themes include the establishment of modernity as a cultural ideal, the development of the avant-garde, and the genesis of the concept of abstraction.
ARTH 2372Paris, “Capital of the Nineteenth Century”3
Effective Date 08/01/2011 Examines the places, spaces, practices and representations of Paris in the nineteenth century. Tracing the changing faces of the city, we will study the modern city through architecture and urban planning, painting, drawing, photography, popular imagery and literature. Topics include Paris ‘types’; fashion and birth of the department store; Haussmannization; and the ‘spectacular’ Paris of the panorama, morgue, Opera, and World’s Fairs.
Effective Date 12/10/2024 Art in the 20th Century surveys visual art from 1900 to 2000 with an international perspective. Major questions and themes will be tracked across a range of media (sculpture, painting, printmaking, video art, performance art, etc), attending to the social, theoretical, and practical concerns structuring the making and reception of modern and contemporary art.
Effective Date 04/08/2020 This course is designed to familiarize you with the major themes, issues, and questions being pursued in today’s art world. Focusing on the last twenty years, the class is organized around five themes that define the majority of art being made today: portraying, experiencing, performing, reproducing, and agitating.
Effective Date 02/21/2011 Surveys art production and theory in the U.S. and Europe since World War II. Relationships between artistic practice and critical theory are stressed in an examination of movements ranging from abstract expressionism to neo-geo.
Effective Date 08/01/2011 General survey of the photographic medium from 1839 to the present. Emphasizes the technical, aesthetic, and critical issues particular to the medium.
Effective Date 08/01/2026 Subject varies with the instructor, who may decide to focus attention on museological studies, writing-intensive art historical research, experimental engagement with diverse art historical materials, and/or hands-on aspects of collaborative art historical and studio practice. Instructors announce their subjects prior to each registration period.
Effective Date 01/01/2026 This course surveys visual art produced by artists of African descent in the United States from the late-nineteenth century to the present. Relationships between artistic practice, socio-political developments, and critical theory are stressed in an examination of a range of modern and contemporary practices, including painting, sculpture, photography, and performance art.
Effective Date 01/01/2023 This interdisciplinary course covers the American South to the Civil War. While the course centers on the visual arts ‘architecture, material culture, decorative arts, painting, and sculpture’ it is not designed as a regional history of art, but an exploration of the interrelations between history, material and visual cultures, foodways, music and literature in the formation of Southern identities.
Effective Date 01/01/2025 This course examines the flourishing of queer artistic production (painting, sculpture, film, photography, performance, and conceptual art) in the United States after World War II. It will chart how–despite attempts to censor or erase them–artists working with lesbian, gay, otherwise non-heterosexual, and/or transgender themes made major contributions to the development of art, culture, society, and politics in the United States. Requisites Students can’t enroll if previously taken ARTH 2559 topic #42 Queer Histories of American Art, 1950s to 1990s
Effective Date 08/01/2011 Introduces the artistic traditions of China, Korea, and Japan, from prehistoric times to the modern era. Surveys major monuments and the fundamental concepts behind their creation, and examines artistic form in relation to society, individuals, technology, and ideas.
ARTH 2862Arts of the Buddhist World- India to Japan3
Effective Date 08/01/2011 Surveys the Buddhist sculpture, architecture and painting of India, China and Japan. Considers aspects of history and religious doctrine.
ARTH 2882Sex, Spirits & Sorcery: Modern Aboriginal Art4
Effective Date 11/04/2020 Located in Australia’s tropical north, Arnhem Land has long been one of the epicenters of the modern Aboriginal art movement. The art of the region opens a window onto another world: a world in which ancestral spirits remain a constant presence in the land. Using the world-class holdings of the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection, we’ll explore the art of Arnhem Land from 1911 to the present.
Effective Date 08/01/2024 This course offers an introduction to the arts of African civilizations from the first millennium to modern times, including Nok, Ife, Djenne, the Kingdom of Kongo, the Dogon and Yoruba peoples.
Effective Date 01/01/2024 This course will examine key artists, movements & theories of modern & contemporary art in Africa from the 20th century - present. Beginning with Modernism, we will explore some of today’s most established artists working w/ different media. We will situate works within the continent’s rich history of art making & the field’s “global turn.” Topics include Modernism, Post-colonialism, Pan-Africanism, Feminism, Afro-futurism, & exhibition histories.
Effective Date 01/01/2024 The class is an overview of art made in the service of Islam in the Central Islamic Lands, Egypt, North Africa, Spain, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and South and Southeast Asia. Discussion sections offer more in depth discussions of larger issues raised in the lectures.
Effective Date 11/02/2016 Survey of the major styles, techniques, and painters of Greek vases produced in the Archaic and Classical periods (c. 700-350 b.c.). Emphasizes themes of myth and daily life, the relationship of vases to other ancient arts, the legacy of form and decoration in the arts of later periods, such as 18th century England, and comparisons with other cultures, such as the Native American southwest.
any course in Art History, Anthropology, Classics or History. Credits: 3 to 4
ARTH 3062Pompeii3
Effective Date 03/01/2009 Explores the life, art, architecture, urban development, religion, economy, and daily life of the famous Roman city destroyed in the cataclysmic eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in a.d. 79.
Effective Date 01/01/2012 During the medieval period, power and knowledge required the endorsement of clerics. Alongside secular courtiers they also cultivated creative expressions of their erudition, revealing the medieval interpenetration of art, science and religion. The artworks surveyed in this course provide lasting records of critically creative confrontations between the scientific and spiritual traditions linked to medieval Christianity, Islam, and Judaism.
ARTH 3153Prague: Threshold of European Art and Culture3
Effective Date 10/10/2024 In this course, students will learn the entire visual and cultural history of Prague and the Czech Republic, former seat of the Holy Roman Empire. The art history of Prague from its earliest Romanesque roots to the fall of Communism and even current contemporary artistic exploration following the Velvet Revolution of 1989, introduces students to extraordinary examples of Central European art and architecture. Requisites Student cannot enroll if they completed ARTH 3559 Topic 43: Prague: European Art & Culture.
Effective Date 01/01/2021 An analysis of Leonardo da Vinci’s paintings, drawings, and notes, giving special attention to his writings and drawings on human anatomy, the theory of light and shade, color theory, and pictorial composition. His work is considered in relation to the works of fellow artists such as Bramante, Raphael, and Michelangelo as well as within the context of Renaissance investigation of the natural world.
Effective Date 03/01/2009 Firsthand, direct knowledge of Renaissance art and architecture through an intensive program of on-site visits in Florence and Rome. The course aims to provide a deeper understanding of the specificity of images and sites; that is, their materials, texture, scale, size, proportions, colors, and volumes. It also aims to instill a full sense of the importance of the original location for the understanding and interpretation of Renaissance art.
Effective Date 05/01/2026 Throughout this semester we explore the artistic production of Pablo Picasso and his relationship to the different artistic movements with which he was affiliated in a decisive way: Cubism, Surrealism, Expressionism. This class assumes a primarily cultural perspective, proceeding from a purely formal and stylistic analysis of the artworks to clarify their cultural, intellectual, and sociopolitical significance. Requisites Students cannot enroll if they have previously taken SPAN 4708 or ARTH 3545 Topic #2 Picasso
Effective Date 09/25/2021 This course focuses on building and improving undergraduate research and writing skills in preparation for larger research projects through a sandbox process. We will cover a variety of topics, such as why research is useful and how it can be personally satisfying. The course helps students build skills using a groundwork of essays, papers etc. from other courses, or experimenting with new topics, and expanding them into viable research projects.
Effective Date 08/01/2026 The Art History Colloquium combines lecture and discussion. Subject varies with the instructor, who may decide to focus attention either on a particular period, artist, or theme, or on the broader question of the aims and methods of art history. Subject is announced prior to each registration period. This course fulfills the second writing requirement, involving at least two writing assignments totaling at a minimum 4,000 words (20 pages).
Effective Date 01/01/2026 The Art History Practicum course places added emphasis on immersive experience and the active construction of knowledge, involving hands-on projects, experiments, lab work, and field trips of varying lengths, including on-site studies at archaeological sites, laboratories, or museums.
ARTH 3651Anthropology of Australian Aboriginal Art3
Effective Date 03/22/2010 This class studies the intersection of anthropology, art and material culture focusing on Australian Aboriginal art. We examine how Aboriginal art has moved from relative obscurity to global recognition over the past 30 yrs. Topics include the historical and cultural contexts of invention, production, marketing and appropriation of Aboriginal art. Students will conduct research using the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection and Study Center.
Effective Date 10/10/2024 This course centers on art & visual culture of the Black experience in Latin America. Topics include the role of Spain & Portugal in the slave trade, Africans in the early colonial period, Afro-Indigenous solidarity, revolution, nation building, Afro-Atlantic cultural expressions & the consolidation of a global Black consciousness. Please be aware that some of the images discussed include offensive, controversial or otherwise difficult content.
Effective Date 08/01/2012 The course is a survey of the major epochs of Chinese art from pre-historic to the modern period. The course intends to familiarize students with the important artistic traditions developed in China: ceramics, bronzes, funerary art and ritual, Buddhist art, painting, and garden architecture. It seeks to understand artistic form in relation to technology, political and religious beliefs, and social and historical contexts, with focus on the role of the state or individuals as patrons of the arts. It also introduces the major philosophic and religious traditions (Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism) that have shaped cultural and aesthetic ideals, Chinese art theories, and the writings of leading scholars.
Effective Date 01/01/2022 This course introduces the concepts on nature in East Asian traditions–Daoism, Shinto, Buddhism, Confucianism, their impacts on the relationship between human and their natural environment, and the art forms in which the theme of nature predominates, from landscape paintings to religious and garden architecture. It also explores how these ideas can contribute to the modern discourse on environmental ethics and sustainability.
Effective Date 08/01/2026 This course introduces art history majors to the basic tools and methods of art historical research, and to the theoretical and historical questions of art historical interpretation. The course will survey a number of current approaches to the explanation and interpretation of works of art, and briefly address the history of art history.
ARTH 4591Undergraduate Seminar in the History of Art3
Effective Date 08/01/2026 Subject varies with the instructor, who may decide to focus attention either on a particular period, artist, or theme, or on the broader question of the aims and methods of art history. Subject is announced prior to each registration period. Representative subjects include the life and art of Pompeii, Roman painting and mosaics, history and connoisseurship of baroque prints, art and politics in revolutionary Europe, Picasso and painting, and problems in American art and culture.
Effective Date 08/01/2012 This is the second semester of the internship at either the Fralin Museum of Art or Kluge Ruhe. Students will work approximately 100 hours per semester in the museum, and will participate in three training sessions and three academic seminars. Prequisite: ARTH/GDS 4951 and instructor permission, by application. Please see information at www.virginia.edu/art/arthistory/courses and www.artsandsciences.virginia.edu/globaldevelopment
Effective Date 08/01/2014 This is the second semester internship at either UVA Art Museum or Kluge Ruhe. Students will work approximately 100 hours per semester in the museum, and will participate in three training sessions and three academic seminars. ARTH/GDS 4951 and instructor permission, by application; deadline May 1. Please see information at www.virginia.edu/art/arthistory/courses and www.artsandsciences.virginia.edu/globaldevelopment
Effective Date 05/21/2009 Research for a thesis of approximately 50 written pages undertaken in the fall semester of the fourth year by art history majors who have been accepted into the department’s Distinguished Majors Program.
Effective Date 05/21/2009 Writing of a thesis of approximately 50 written pages undertaken in the spring semester of the fourth year by art history majors who have been accepted into the department’s Distinguished Majors Program.
