UNIVERSITY OF NORTH ALABAMA AR 281 ART HISTORY SURVEY I A study of the history of Western art from prehistoric times through the Middle Ages.

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1 UNIVERSITY OF NORTH ALABAMA AR 281 ART HISTORY SURVEY I A study of the history of Western art from prehistoric times through the Middle Ages. 3.0 Credit Hours Course Description This course is a general introduction to the history of Western art from prehistoric times through the Middle Ages. It uses illustrated lectures, readings, student writing, and exams. Course Objectives The course will acquaint you with the history of Western art and will deepen your understanding of art historical methodology. Textbook Your textbook is the latest revised edition of Marilyn Stokstad with contributions from David Cateforis, Art History, vol. 1, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, It will be available in the University bookstore. Rather than assign readings for particular dates, I have sketched below which chapters we ll be dealing with each week. Please do the chapter readings in advance so that you will be better prepared to ask questions. I also recommend re reading the relevant chapter at the end of each week. Evaluation Your grade will be based on two exams and two papers, each worth 25%. Exams: I do not require you to memorize the names of artists and patrons, the titles of their works, or any dates. Instead, exams will consist of questions that you will answer in essay form (no bullets). Your answers to these questions will combine formal analysis with a discussion of historical context/relevance. In order to test your ability to apply course information independently, exams may contain questions with objects you have not seen in class and that may not be in your textbook. You must be present for exams; make up exams, should I decide to give them, will be scheduled at my convenience. Paper 1 (Formal Analysis): Discuss the classical elements in a building or monument in The Shoals. You are not to tell me the history of this object, nor are you to repeat in your paper any historical information you may have found out about it. Rather, I wish to see that you are applying what you have learned in 1

2 class to looking at and analyzing the world around you. The paper will be no more than two pages long, typed, double spaced, and in a standard, 12 point font. It should also include an illustration, preferably a photograph. Paper 2 (Position Paper): You will find a list of paper topics below, and you should choose one, either a comparison of two texts or the analysis of one scholarly article. Copies of these texts will be on reserve for you at the library. Your paper may not merely summarize your reading. I am interested in seeing that you can read critically and analytically; that you can take a particular, individual stand towards your reading; and that you can construct a clear and logical argument laying out and defending the point(s) you wish to make. The paper will be not more than three pages long, typed, double spaced, and in a standard 12 point font. You will use footnotes for every direct quote or paraphrase that appears in the paper. If you do not know the correct format for footnotes, consult a style manual. Make sure you proofread your papers carefully before submitting them. Although I do not base grades on grammar and spelling, a visually sloppy, ungrammatical, and misspelled paper is not a finished paper that adheres to academic standards. Each paper must be handed in at the beginning of class on the due date. Do not send it to me as an e mail attachment. I will subtract five points from its grade for every day that it is late. I expect you to observe a strict code of academic honesty. Cheating on an exam automatically earns you a grade of zero. You will receive a zero if I find that you either have committed plagiarism or have colluded with another student on your papers. If you cheat or plagiarize, I may report you to the University administration (see your student handbook, p. 12). Attendance The University expects regular and punctual attendance of all students at all scheduled classes and activities. It is regarded as integral to course credit. I furthermore expect you to be awake and alert during class. You will sign your name on an attendance sheet at the beginning of each class. You may miss three classes, but any absences beyond the first three will demand a written excuse. I reserve the right to strike ten points off your final grade for unexcused absences. If you miss more than four weeks of class and do not withdraw from the course, you will receive an F (see your student handbook, p. 13). 2

3 Illness, Field Trips, and All Other Absences Official written excuses for absences are issued only for group absences incurred in connection with required, regularly scheduled University sponsored activities, such as intercollegiate athletics and special performances. All other types of group or individual absences, including illness, authorized or excused, are the province of the instructor. If you think that you will not be able to complete the course or will be absent from a large portion of the course, you should probably drop the course. I will approve the drop rather than be forced to fail you at the end of the semester. I will excuse any absence due to illness if you provide a doctor s excuse. I will excuse any absence due to attending a scheduled field trip in your area of study if you provide a letter from the supervising instructor. Student Disability Statement It is the policy of the University to afford equal opportunity in education to qualified students. If you have a disability that will prevent you from meeting the course requirements, contact the instructor within the first three class sessions to file a Student Disability Statement and to develop an accommodation plan. Course requirements will not be waived, but accommodation will be made to allow you to meet requirements, provided that you are timely in working with the instructor to develop a plan. For further information, contact the Developmental Services Office (GUC, Ste. 111, ). Class Schedule Week One: Introduction and Chapter 1, Prehistoric Art Week Two: Ch. 2, Ancient Near East Week Three: Ch. 3, Ancient Egypt Week Four: Chs. 4 and 5, Aegean Art/Ancient Greece Week Five: Ancient Greece (cont.) Week Six: Ch. 6, Etruscan and Roman Art Paper 1 is due Week Seven: Roman Art (cont.) 3

4 Week Eight Mid Term Ch. 7, Early Christian, Jewish, and Byzantine Art Week Nine: Ch. 14, Early Medieval Art in Europe Week Ten: Ch. 15, Romanesque Art Week Eleven: Romanesque Art (cont.) Week Twelve: Romanesque Art (cont.) Paper 2 due Week Thirteen: Ch. 16, Gothic Art Week Fourteen: Gothic Art (cont.) Week Fifteen: Gothic Art (cont.) Week Sixteen: Gothic Art (cont.) Final Exam Topics for Paper 2 Ask yourself questions as you read: Do you agree with the author(s)? What methodologies do these scholars follow? Do they have a particular agenda? If they re writing about the same topic, how do they differ? Why? Who s more believable and why? Do you agree with how the authors use their primary sources? What could they do differently? Think up questions of your own! 4

5 Compare and contrast (choose one pair) C. H. Hallett, The Origins of the Classical Style in Sculpture, Journal of Hellenic Studies 106 (1986): pp , and Nigel Spivey, The Greek Revolution, Ch. 2 in Understanding Greek Sculpture: Ancient Meanings, Modern Readings, London: Thames and Hudson, 1996, pp J. J. Pollitt, Rome as a Center of Hellenistic Art, Ch. 7 in Art in the Hellenistic Age, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986, pp , and Miranda Marvin, Copying in Roman Sculpture: The Replica Series, in Roman Art in Context: An Anthology, ed. Eve d Ambra, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1993, pp Vitruvius, Book II, Ch. 1 in The Ten Books of Architecture, tr. Morris Hickey Morgan, New York: Dover, 1960 [Harvard, 1914], pp , and Yvon Thébert, Some Theoretical Considerations and Private and Public Spaces: The Components of the Domus, in Roman Art in Context: An Anthology, ed. Eve d Ambra, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1993, pp Cyril Mango, Michael Vickers, and E. D. Francis, The Palace of Lausus at Constantinople and Its Collection of Ancient Statues, Journal of the History of Collections 4/1 (1992): pp , and Sarah Guberti Bassett, Excellent Offerings : The Lausos Collection in Constantinople, Art Bulletin 82/1 (2000): St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Apologia to William, Abbot of St. Thierry, in A Documentary History of Art, vol. 1, ed. Elizabeth Gilmore Holt (New York: Doubleday Anchor, 1957 [Princeton, 1947]), pp.18 22, and Conrad Rudolph, Bernard of Clairvaux s Apologia as a Description of Cluny, and the Controversy over Monastic Art, Gesta 27/1 2 (1988); pp Abbot Suger, from On the Abbey Church of St. Denis and Its Art Treasures, ed., tr., annotated by Erwin Panofsky, second ed. Gerda Panofsky Soergel, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979 [1946], pp (dual language: pages on left are in Latin original, so halve the reading), and Otto von Simson, The New Church, Ch. 4 in The Gothic Cathedral: Origins of Gothic Architecture and the Medieval Concept of Order, pp

6 Analyze (choose one) Robert D. Biggs, The Birth of Writing, the Dawn of Literature, Ch. 6 in The Looting of the Iraq Museum, Baghdad: The Lost Legacy of Ancient Mesopotamia, ed. Milbry Polk and Angela M. H. Schuster, New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2005, pp Irene J. Winter, The Program of the Throneroom of Assurnasirpal II, in Essays on Near Eastern Art and Archaeology in Honor of Charles Kyrle Wilkinson, ed. P.O. Harper and H. Pittman, New York: Metropolitan Museum, 1983, pp Christian Norberg Schulz, Egyptian Architecture, Ch. 1 in Meaning in Western Architecture, New York: Rizzoli, 1980 (1975), pp Blanche R. Brown, Novelty, Ingenuity, Self aggrandizement, Ostentation, Extravagance, Gigantism, and Kitsch in the Art of Alexander the Great and His Successors, in Art the Ape of Nature: Studies in Honor of H. W. Janson, ed. Moshe Barasch, Lucy Freeman Sandler, New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1981, pp Paul Zanker, Conflict and Contradiction in the Imagery of the Dying Republic, Ch. 1 in The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus, tr. Alan Shapiro, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 1990 [1988], pp Richard Sennett, Time in the Body: Early Christians in Rome, Ch. 4 in Flesh and Stone: The Body and the City in Western Civilization, New York: W.W. Norton, 1996 [1994], pp Otto Karl Werckmeister, The Political Ideology of the Bayeux Tapestry, Studi medievali, third series, 17 (1976): pp Meyer Schapiro, On the Aesthetic Attitude in Romanesque Art, in Romanesque Art: Selected Papers, New York: George Braziller, 1993 [1977; 1947], pp Lynn White, jr., Natural Science and Naturalistic Art in the Middle Ages, in Medieval Religion and Technology: Collected Essays, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978 [1947], pp Michael Camille, Visual Signs of the Sacred Page: Books in the Bible moralisée, Word & Image 5/1 (1989): pp

Learning Outcomes After you have finished the course you should:

Learning Outcomes After you have finished the course you should: ARTH103 Global Art History Survey: From Pre-History to the 14 th Century Summer Session I 2019 3 Credits Monday-Friday 8.30-10.20am Professor Jonathan Shirland Contact Information: Jonathan.Shirland@bridgew.edu