398. Experimental Course
The Art of the Book
What is a book? How does one read? How do images and written texts complement each other? Beginning with the evolution of the recorded word from roll to codex, in this course we will explore the efflorescence of decorated and illuminated manuscripts from antiquity to the Renaissance. We will examine the technological revolution of the printing press and follow the thread of the relationship between word and picture in modern hand-made books and livres d' artiste. We will investigate how the form of books shape our thinking and consider how the recent computer revolution affects the shape of our reading.
Exhibition Design
This course introduces students to the history, practice, and theory of exhibition design. In this course, we will engage theoretically and practically in all aspects of the exhibition design process through reading, in-class discussions, site visits, and guest lectures. We will also consider the visitor experience and how objects and ideas are interpreted by and for different audiences. Students will gain an understanding of the history of exhibition design as well as the challenges museums/like institutions face in making their collections accessible to the communities they serve. Students will be required to participate fully in the practical component of the course, which involves the research and design for and the installation of an exhibition in the Beard and Weil Galleries. Please note: this course is open by permission of instructor only; interested students should contact Professor Niederstadt.
Women at Work: Art History and Feminism
In this course we will consider the ways in which feminist scholarship has transformed the discipline of art history, examining both the "rediscovery" of exceptional women artists in scholarship from the 1970s onwards, as well as recent feminist critics' efforts to redefine the very structure of the field. Students will therefore examine two interrelated, but not entirely overlapping, categories of "work": the visual production of women artists and patrons, and the textual contributions of feminist scholars and critics. Not only will we consider evolving attitudes toward women's place within the history of art, but also the intersection between feminist criticism and other emerging critical perspectives. There are no prerequisites for this course.
Castles and Cathedrals
Within the 1000 year period we call medieval art, Gothic (b.1140) was the first to pervade the world of "things." Far from being an art solely devoted to architecture, sculpture and painting, Gothic could determine the style of one's shoes or even one's spoons. As the first truly international art, it spread across Europe with astonishing speed. This course seeks to understand the ways in which the visual culture of the Gothic period was a product of changing concepts of time, space, and society. Both religious and secular imagery will be examined, with special attention paid to the construction of the great Castles and Cathedrals of thirteenth-century Europe, and the stunning images and objects that embellished them. Consideration of the representation of the "other" (heretics, lepers and non-Christians) as well as the place of women in Gothic art and medieval society will also be explored. The course then turns to the art of the fourteenth century where the effects of political and religious strife will be analyzed against the backdrop of the imagery of the Great Plague. Hardly an era of decline, the last years of the Gothic age were a lively phase of intellectual development leading directly into the Early Modern period.
Will satisfies Medieval Art category in the Art History Major and Minor in Medieval Studies. (Evelyn Staudinger Lane)
Anatomies (1400-1600): Sexual, Forbidden, and Monstrous
This course will look at the ways in which the body was understood and visualized in the early-modern period. Focusing mostly on France and Italy, the class will address topics such as: the perceived imperfections of the female body; the mystery held by reproductive organs and their function; the theological and physical challenges posed by human dissections; the production of illustrated anatomical treatises; the implication of artists and anatomists in exploring monstrous bodies; and the intellectual and physical fascination with hermaphrodites.
Critical readings of texts, original research, and engaged participation will be emphasized throughout the course.