Course Descriptions

Note   Permission of instructor is a prerequisite for all 500-level courses.

ARTH 501 - (1) (Y)
Library Methodology in the Visual Arts
Required for all entering graduate students
Introduction to the bibliography of the visual arts including architecture, archaeology, painting, sculpture, and the graphic arts. Specific research and reference publications are analyzed in terms of their scope, special features, and applications to meeting research and information needs.

ARTH 512 - (3) (Y)
Archaic Greek Art
A survey of the development of Greek art from the eighth to the sixth century B.C. Examines the social, religious, and political contexts for which works of art were created, as well as the conventional language utilized by archaic artists for single images and narrative scenes.

ARTH 516 - (3) (IR)
Roman Architecture
A survey of Roman architecture in Italy and the Roman Empire from the Republic to Constantine, with special emphasis on developments in the city of Rome.

ARTH 518 - (3) (IR)
Roman Imperial Art and Architecture I
Survey of Roman sculpture, painting, architecture, and minor arts from Augustus to Trajan.

ARTH 519 - (3) (IR)
Roman Imperial Art and Architecture II
Survey of Roman sculpture, mosaics, architecture, and minor arts from Trajan to Constantine

ARTH 522 - (3) (IR)
Byzantine Art
Survey of the art of Byzantium and its cultural dependencies, from its roots in the late Antique period to the last flowering under the Palaeologan emperors.

ARTH 527 - (3) (IR)
Russian Art to Peter the Great
Survey of the art and architecture in Russia from the Kievan period (ca. 950) to the eighteenth century. Special emphasis on connections with Byzantium and on the meaning of icons.

ARTH 536 - (3) (IR)
Italian Sixteenth-Century Painting
Study of the High Renaissance, Mannerism, the Maniera, and related movements in Cinquecento painting.

ARTH 547 - (3) (IR)
Dutch Painting in the Golden Age
A survey of the major artists and schools of the United Provinces from about 1580-1680, including Rembrandt, Frans Hals, Vermeer, and Jacob van Ruisdael, seen in the context of Dutch culture and history. Emphasizes the iconographic method of interpreting daily-life genre and landscape, the role of theory in Dutch art, and the character of Dutch realism

ARTH 553 - (3) (IR)
Modern Art 1885-1940
A history of the individual and group movements that generated the new form and content of twentieth-century art. Includes post-impressionism, symbolism, art nouveau, cubism and derivative movements, French and German expressionism, dada, and surrealism. Discusses the cultural context, iconographic meaning, and form of the new art.

ARTH 558 - (3) (IR)
Approaches to American Art
Introduction to historiography and methodology of American art history from earliest discussions to the present, through an analysis of one particular mode (e.g., portraiture, landscape, genre) over time.

ARTH 590 - (3) (Y)
Museum Studies
A lecture course on the purpose and operation of an art museum, based on the four functions that define a museum: acquisition, preservation, exhibition, and interpretation of works of visual art. The purpose and organization of a special exhibition and of its attendant publication and programs are approached both theoretically and through the organization of an exhibition for the Bayly Museum.

ARTH 591, 592 - (3) (S)
Advanced Readings in the History of Art

ARTH 713, 714 - (3) (S)
Research Problems in Ancient Art
Reading and research on problems in Greek, Etruscan, and Roman art.

ARTH 721, 722 - (3) (S)
Research Problems in Medieval Art
Reading and research on problems in medieval art and its social background.

ARTH 731, 732 - (3) (S)
Research Problems in Italian Art
Reading and research on problems in Italian art and its social background.

ARTH 733 - (3) (S)
Research Problems in Northern Renaissance Art
Reading and research on problems in Northern European art in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

ARTH 741, 742 - (3) (S)
Research Problems in Baroque Art
Reading and research on problems in the art of the seventeenth century in Western Europe.

ARTH 750 - (3) (S)
Research Problems in Eighteenth-Century Art
Reading and research on problems in the art of the eighteenth century.

ARTH 751, 752 - (3) (S)
Research Problems in Nineteenth-Century Art
Reading and research on problems in nineteenth-century art.

ARTH 753, 754 - (3) (S)
Research Problems in Twentieth-Century Art
Reading and research on problems in twentieth-century art.

ARTH 758 - (3) (S)
Research Problems in American Art
Reading and research on problems in American art.

ARTH 761, 762 - (3) (S)
Research Problems in Asian Art
Reading and research on problems in the visual arts of Asia.

ARTH 801 - (3) (Y)
Theory and Interpretation in the Visual Arts
Analysis of the literature of art theory with a view to defining the most important alternatives available to art historical writing today. Reviews the work of “critical” historians of art including Wolfflin, Riegl and Panofsky, and more recent attempts to develop phenomenological, semiotic, Marxist, and feminist positions.

ARTH 822 - (3) (IR)
Art in the Age of Justinian
Study of the art of the Byzantine Empire of the sixth century, the personal role of Justinian, the impact of theological controversies and political realities, and the artistic legacy.

ARTH 827 - (3) (IR)
English Art from the Twelfth through the Fourteenth Centuries
Studies in church building and decoration, and manuscript illumination.

ARTH 833 - (3) (IR)
The Formation of Renaissance Style in Florence
Study of the new art of the early Quattrocento in sculpture, architecture, and painting; its sources, protagonists, principles, and historical background.

ARTH 837 - (3) (IR)
Studies in Renaissance Art and Literature
Studies of historical and stylistic relationships between artists and writers of the sixteenth century. The works of Ariosto, Dossi, Castiglione, Raphael, and others will be considered in an attempt to define specific patterns of sixteenth-century intellectual and cultural history.

ARTH 838 - (3) (IR)
Michelangelo
Study of the development of Michelangelo’s style in sculpture, painting, drawing, and architecture including problems of attribution, chronology, and interpretation

ARTH 859 - (3) (IR)
Problems in Twentieth-Century Art
Investigation of selected problems and periods in the art of this century.

ARTH 880 - (3) (IR)
Modern Poetry and the Visual Arts
An investigation of what painting, sculpture, and architecture have meant to poets of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with discussion of their poetry in relation to the aesthetics of the visual arts, art history, and art criticism. Cross-listed as ENSP 880.

ARTH 890 - (3) (IR)
Advanced Museum Studies or Studies in Museum Exhibition and Interpretation
Artifactual study and related scholarship in preparation for museum exhibition and/or analysis of strategies of past and present exhibition interpretation.

ARTH 895 - (3-12) (S)
Special Reading Problems in the History of Art

ARTH 897 - (3-12) (Y)
Non-Topical Research, Preparation for Research
For master’s research, taken before a thesis director has been selected.

ARTH 898 - (3-12) (Y)
Non-Topical Research
For master’s thesis, taken under the supervision of a thesis director.

ARTH 913, 914 - (3) (IR)
Seminar in Greek Art
Investigation of problems in Greek sculpture and painting.

ARTH 917, 918 - (3) (IR)
Seminar in Roman Art
Investigation of problems in Roman art.

ARTH 921 - (3) (IR)
Seminar in Byzantine Art
Investigation of problems in the art of the Byzantine Empire from the sixth to the fifteenth centuries.

ARTH 924 - (3) (IR)
Seminar in Romanesque Art
Investigation of problems in the art of Western Europe in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

ARTH 929 - (3) (IR)
Seminar in Gothic Art
Investigation of problems in European art of the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries.

ARTH 931 - (3) (IR)
Seminar in Italian Renaissance Art
Investigation of problems in Italian art of the thirteenth through the sixteenth centuries.

ARTH 935 - (3) (IR)
Seminar in Italian Renaissance Painting
Investigation of problems in Italian painting of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

ARTH 936 - (3) (IR)
Seminar in Northern Renaissance Art
Investigation of problems in the art of the Netherlands and Germany in the 15th and 16th centuries.

ARTH 947 - (3) (IR)
Seminar in Northern Baroque Art
Investigation of problems in the art of the Netherlands during the seventeenth century.

ARTH 949 - (3) (IR)
Seminar in Eighteenth-Century Art
Investigation of problems in eighteenth-century art

ARTH 951 - (3) (IR)
Seminar in Neoclassic Art
Investigation of problems in neoclassic art.

ARTH 952 - (3) (IR)
Seminar in Romantic Art
Investigation of problems in the art of the later eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth century in Europe.

ARTH 953 - (3) (IR)
Seminar in Nineteenth-Century Art
Investigation of problems in the art of the nineteenth century in Europe.

ARTH 957 - (3) (IR)
Seminar in Modern Art
Investigation of problems in the art of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

ARTH 958 - (3) (IR)
Seminar in American Art
Investigation of problems in American art.

ARTH 960 - (3) (IR)
Art and Ritual of Early China
Seminar exploring art in relation to society and religious and political rituals in early China, spanning from the Shang (1766-1045 B.C.E.) to the Han dynasty (206 B.C.E.-220 C.E.)—the beginning of the historic period to the formation of the first imperial empire. Topics include bronze technology and decoration, funerary art and architecture, state rites, religious cults and iconography, mythologies, and ethnic and geographical factors in developments of regional cultures. Surveys current ritual theories and art-historical approaches.

ARTH 970 - (3) (E) Seminar in African American Art
Investigation of problems in 19th- and 20th-century art by Americans of African descent.

ARTH 980 - (3) (O) Problems in Contemporary Art
An investigation of the relationship between a current problem in contemporary art (e.g., censorship, gender representation, aesthetic pluralism, or multiculturalism) and current theories about the socially constructed nature of art production/consumption.

ARTH 995 - (3-12) (S)
Supervised Research

ARTH 997 - (3-12) (S)
Non-Topical Research, Preparation for Doctoral Research
For doctoral research, taken before a dissertation director has been selected.

ARTH 999 - (3-12) (S)
Non-Topical Research
For doctoral dissertation, taken under the supervision of a dissertation director.

Continue to: Departmental Degree Requirements
Return to: Chapter 5 Index