Spring 2027

History of Western Art I: From Pyramids to Cathedrals

Survey of European and Mediterranean art before the Renaissance, linking canonical works and material culture to context and art history skills.

offering recorded4 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Nick Cahill

Summary

1 / 5

Past student reviews · Thomas Dale

Exams were reported as difficult to study for, specifically demanding the memorization of close to 100 pieces of art.

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

None

  • None
ARTHIST 201 used by

“Used by” includes alternatives; linked courses may have other requirements. This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • None

Professors

Spring 2027
Historical instructors & teaching patterns

THOMAS DALE is recorded teaching in Fall 2007, Spring 2008, Fall 2009, Fall 2011, Fall 2013, Fall 2015, Spring 2017, Fall 2019, Spring 2024. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
DIS 301Classroom Instruction0 / 200
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 880
DIS 302Classroom Instruction0 / 200
DIS 303Classroom Instruction0 / 200
DIS 304Classroom Instruction0 / 200
DIS 310Classroom Instruction0 / 00

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Thomas Dale

Past students described the course as knowledge-intensive, requiring the memorization of 100 works of art and some essays for assessments.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2023: 3.09 GPA, 47.8% A/AB (n=69 letter grades); Spring 2024: 3.12 GPA, 56.1% A/AB (n=41 letter grades); Spring 2025: 2.98 GPA, 38.7% A/AB (n=31 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Thomas Dale

Exams were reported as difficult to study for, specifically demanding the memorization of close to 100 pieces of art.

Past student reviews · Thomas Dale

One student found the professor approachable during office hours and noted he provided information for memorization tasks beforehand.

Topics

  • Ancient Egyptian monumental architecture and funerary culture.
  • Classical Greek temple architecture and civic representation.
  • Roman and Hellenistic sculpture and ideals of the body.
  • Byzantine and Islamic sacred architecture across the Mediterranean.
  • Medieval Christian manuscript illumination and Gothic cathedral design.
  • Late medieval painting and the transition toward early Renaissance narrative space.
  • Everyday material culture as a form of artistic and cultural expression.
  • Art’s relationship to power, identity, belief, empire, and human experience.

Skills

  • Critical visual analysis of artworks and architectural spaces.
  • Interpreting art within social, historical, religious, and political contexts.
  • Using art historical research methods and resources.
  • Understanding how art historical narratives and interpretations are constructed.
  • Communicating art historical arguments orally, in writing, and through digital formats.

Grades

Historical instructor

Spring 2027 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 4 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

8 earlier forecasts · 0.24 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Spring 2027

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2025 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1286 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

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Selected offering source records
ARTHIST 201 · Spring 2027

History of Western Art I: From Pyramids to Cathedrals

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:180:001292",
    "course_id": "ARTHIST 201",
    "course_uid": "course_bf30d89c6ccd1bdee19585a1",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "001292",
    "source_subject_id": "180",
    "title": "History of Western Art I: From Pyramids to Cathedrals",
    "credits_min": 4,
    "credits_max": 4,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "a96a3f86bb34a414a4a7f0fd03a6c823460f7a2ea34ded99101aff670de99fbd",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}