We're still actively developing this site. If you encounter any issues, please report them! - Report an issue

HISTORY OF WESTERN ART I: FROM PYRAMIDS TO CATHEDRALS

ARTHIST 201
Course Description

Examines the arts and cultures of Europe and the Mediterranean basin before the Renaissance. Explores canonical works such as the pyramids at Giza, the Parthenon in Athens, the Venus di Milo, Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, the Book of Kells, the Great Mosque at Córdoba, Chartres cathedral, and Giotto's Arena Chapel. Define art broadly, to encompass the material culture of everyday life, including jewelry, ceramics, and textiles. Considers the social and historical contexts of art and artistic production - art and imperialism, ethnicity, technology, religious ritual and belief, and myth and storytelling, and its relationships to basic human concerns: death and the afterlife, desire and the body, self-definition and portraiture, power and propaganda, monstrosity and the supernatural, the divine and the sacred. Develops crucial skill sets: critical visual analysis, contextual interpretation, research methods and resources, historiography, and oral, written and digital communication.

Prerequisties

None

Satisfies
Credits

4

Offered

Fall, Spring

Grade Point Average
1.94

-28.24% from Historical

Completion Rate
92.42%

2.88% from Historical

A Rate
27.27%

7.37% from Historical

Class Size
66

-35.9% from Historical

Instructors (2025 Fall)

Sorted by ratings from Rate My Professors

Similar Courses

ROMANESQUE AND GOTHIC ART AND ARCHITECTURE

ARTHIST 318

Art and architecture of Western Europe, ca. 1000 to ca. 1350. Particular emphasis on the relaionship of the arts to theology, ritual, concepts of the body, rulership and courtliness.

HISTORY OF WESTERN ART II: FROM RENAISSANCE TO CONTEMPORARY

ARTHIST 202

Examine the arts and culture of Europe and North America from the Renaissance through the present. Explore important fine art, architecture, decorative arts, and photographic masterpieces by artists like Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt van Rijn, Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne, Pablo Picasso, Frida Kahlo, and Frank Lloyd Wright. Learn how works of art were valued from the moment of their making, fought over by different nations, bought, sold, stolen, or ignored for centuries and revived only recently for study through the political, historical, social and cultural contexts of their making. Critically examine the concept of artistic genius; the influence of colonialism and imperialism on artistic production and consumption; the role of the patron and the art market in art's production and circulation; the relationship of fine art and popular culture; and the idea of globalization as it relates to "western" artistic traditions. Develop skills in visual analysis to understand artistic production.

TOPICS IN MEDIEVAL ART

ARTHIST 715

Various themes of current interest in the art, architecture and visual culture of medieval Europe and the Mediterranean (including the Byzantine Empire and Islamic states of the Mediterranean rim).

FROM MICHELANGELO & RAPHAEL TO TITIAN: THE ARTS IN 16TH CENTURY ITALY

ARTHIST 323

Examines art from 1500-1570, or the High Renaissance to Mannerism, and concludes at the beginning of the Church Reform period. Emphasis is on painting, sculpture and architecture, but the graphic and decorative arts as well as patronage and the impact of global discoveries also are included.

TOPICS IN ART HISTORY

ARTHIST 103

Offers an introduction to world art by taking a thematic approach. Topics will center around art and architecture produced in a variety of media, from a wide time span, and a range of cultural and geographic points of origin.