---

AH 201 Home Page | Lectures & Readings | Discussion Sections

---

ART HISTORY 201: ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL ART

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course will survey the art and architecture of Egypt, the Near East, the Classical Greek and Roman world and Europe, from about 2000 BCE to about 1400 CE. We will consider a wide range of objects and buildings designed both for official, public display and more mundane and private functions. Individual works of art and architecture will be explored not only from the standpoints of style and iconography (content), but also in terms of how they were designed to be used, and how they express the political and religious ideas of the societies that created them.

TEXTBOOKS

We will use a general textbook, with additional readings chosen to focus on certain issues in greater depth and allow students to get some sense of different approaches to art history.   Required and recommended texts can be purchased at the University Book Store and the Reader at Bob's Copy Shop.  Copies of textbooks may also be borrowed from College Reserves in Helen C. White Hall.

Required Texts:

• 1. Fred S. Kleiner, Gardner's Art Through the Ages. The Western Perspective, vol. I. Twelfth Edition, (Thomson, 2006), available from the University Book Store on State St.
• 2. Art History 201 Course Reader, available from Bob’s Copy Shop, 616 University Ave.  Referred to throughout as Reader.

Contents of Course Reader:

SECTION 2: NARRATIVE AND PROPAGANDA IN ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA

• John Malcolm Russell, “Sennacherib’s Lachish Narratives,” in P. J. Holliday, ed. Narrative and Event in Ancient Art. Cambridge Studies in New Art History and Criticism, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993) 55-73.

SECTION 4: THE CLASSICAL IDEAL

• 1. C. H. Hallett, “The Origins of the Classical Style in Sculpture,” Journal of Hellenic Studies 106 (1986) 71-84.
• 2. Excerpt from Thucydides, “Funeral Oration of Pericles” in his History of the Peloponnesian War, excerpted in Art Humanities. Masterpieces of Western Art. Primary Source Reader, Department of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University (New York: American Heritage Custom Publishing, 1996), 3-8.

SECTION 5: THE FEMALE NUDE IN GREEK ART

• l. Excerpts from K. Clark, The Nude: A Study in Ideal Form (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1956/1972): “The Naked and the Nude,” , pp. 2-7; “Venus I” 81-86.
• 2. N. Salomon, “The Venus Pudica: uncovering art history’s ‘hidden agendas’ and pernicious pedigrees,” in Griselda Pollock, ed., Generations and Geographies in the Visual Arts. Feminist Readings (London: Routledge, 1996), 69-87.

SECTION 6: ROMAN PORTRAITURE

• S. Nodelman, “How to Read a Roman Portrait,” Art in America 63 (1975): 27-33.

SECTION 7: EARLY CHRISTIAN ICONOGRAPHY

• Excerpt from Thomas F. Mathews, The Clash of the Gods: A Reinterpretation of Early Christian Art (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993), 23-53.

SECTION 8: THE BYZANTINE ICON

• Excerpt from Thomas F. Mathews, Byzantium. From Antiquity to the Renaissance (Upper Saddle River NJ, Prentice Hall/Abrams, 1998), 42-71.

SECTION 10:  MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPT ILLUMINATION

• Excerpt from Robert G. Calkins, "The Illuminated Word," in Monuments of Medieval Art (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1979), 201-204, 211-216.

SECTION 11: RELICS RELIQUARIES AND PORTRAITURE

• 1. Excerpt from Bernard of Anger, Book of Miracles of Sainte-Foy, from H. Belting, Likeness and Presence: A History of the Image before the Era of Art, translated by E. Jephcott (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994), 536-537.
• 2. Ellert Dahl, “Heavenly Images: The Statue of St. Foy of Conques and the Signification of the Medieval Cult Image in the West.” Acta ad archaeologiam et artium historiam pertinentia 3 (1978):175-191.

SECTION 12: ICONOGRAPHY OF ISLAMIC ARCHITECTURE

• Oleg Grabar, “The Iconography of Islamic Architecture,” in Priscilla P. Soucek, ed. Content and Context of Visual Arts in the Islamic World (University Park PA and London: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1988); rpt. in Oleg Grabar, Early Islamic Art, 650-1100 (Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate/Variorum, 2005), 69-86.

SECTION 13: MONSTERS, FANTASY AND ORALITY IN ROMANESQUE ART

• Michael Camille, “Mouths and Meanings: Towards an Anti-Iconography of Medieval Art,” in B. Cassiday, ed., Iconography at the Crossroads (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993), 43-57.

LECTURES AND DISCUSSION SECTIONS

There will be three fifty-minute lectures and one discussion section a week. Attendance is mandatory: exams will include material from discussion sections as well as from the lectures. Since the professor's  emphasis and interpretation will often differ greatly from those of the textbook, I would strongly encourage you to take detailed notes. Lectures in a course like this are necessarily broad, introducing you to a fairly wide range of objects and issues, and developing the different relationships between art and history. Discussion sections, on the other hand, will consider particular topics in greater depth than is possible in lecture, let students practice their skills of visual analysis and comparison of works of art, and afford the opportunity to read a variety of works by art historians writing as specialists. A list of topics and questions to consider is below; the readings will be found in the Reader or textbook. Although you can obviously ask questions about things that were not clear in lecture, sections are not review sessions: they will further develop themes introduced in lecture, and give a depth of coverage which is difficult to achieve in lectures. For review, the textbook, course website and other resources are more appropriate. Sections will also include regular quizzes (see below).

EXAMINATIONS, AND WHAT YOU WILL NEED TO KNOW

There will be two tests in class during the term -- one on Monday, Feb. 25, the second on Monday, April 7 -- as well as the final examination to be held on Sunday, May 11, 2008, at 12:25 p.m. in L160. Examinations will include slide identifications, identifications of unknown objects, and essay questions based on study topics which will be made available in advance.

The goal of the examinations is to test how well you understand and analyze the works of art presented in the course. We want you to begin to understand how and why they were created in a particular time and place, what were the circumstances under which they were made, viewed and used, and how they are reflected in the efforts of later artists. Such an understanding is best tested with essay questions, and this will be the primary format of the exams. Typically, you will see two views of a single work of art or architecture that you will be asked to identify fully and to analyze in terms of the broader ideas presented in the course. You may also be presented with a pair of slides for comparison, and be asked to address a particular issue relating the two objects. Objects will be chosen for their importance to key themes which will be addressed in lecture, section, and the textbook. However, to understand the history of art you will also need to know relevant information about the objects we will work with: identification, location, medium, dates, artists, etc. This is the basic information of art history; without knowing the works of art themselves, you won't be able to gain a coherent understanding of the broader history they exemplify. You will be responsible for basic information about all the works shown in class which are also illustrated in Gardner as well as additional works included on the website. You should provide the title or description of what the work is and/or represents (subject matter), where it is from, the medium (e.g. marble sculpture, tempera on panel etc.), the appropriate date, the period or culture to which it belongs, the names of the artist and patron (if known). Flash cards, time lines, and materials on the web-site will help you remember this information.

There will also be three quizzes given in section to help you keep up with memorization. Additional quizzes may be added at the discretion of the instructor. The quizzes will sometimes be simple identifications, and sometimes will ask you to place an unknown work of art where you think it belongs historically. They might also occasionally include definitions of terms included in the syllabus (e.g. triglyph, contrapposto, Sedes sapientiae). The lowest score will be dropped in calculating your grade.

ASSIGNMENTS AND RESPONSES

There will be two required writing assignments focusing on the formal analysis and interpretation of individual work s of art on display in the Chazen Museum. Your assignments should be written in essay form, and should be submitted word-processed at font-size 12, double-spaced, no longer than two pages in length. Each assignment is due IN SECTION. In addition, you should prepare brief (one page) responses to discussion questions based on readings for section, to be collected at discretion of your TA. Topics are designed to help you practice your critical reading skills on both primary and secondary texts and to explore issues of current interest in art history.