Spring 2010 Course Offerings

Graduate

ARTHIST 592: Introduction to Graphics and Computer-Aided Design

Shpuza---------------------Tuesday 6:00 – 9:00 PM ----------------------Max: 2

Content: This course is designed to provide students interested in architecture with a basic understanding of computer-aided design and graphic analysis. Emphasizing a hands-on approach, the course is structured around two projects which are designed to let students explore the potential of the computer, not merely as a drafting and presentation instrument but as an active analytical and design aid.

Texts: TBA

Particulars: TBA

ARTHIST 596R: Internship

Coordinator: Stone

May be repeated with permission from the director of internships. Interns must be nominated by the department for internships at the Michael C. Carlos Museum, the High Museum of Art, and elsewhere. Variable credit.

ARTHIST 597R: Directed Study

Faculty; variable credit.

ARTHIST 599R: Thesis Research (Permission only)

Faculty

ARTHIST 719: Controlling the Cosmos: Kingship in Ancient Egypt

Robins ---------- Tu 9:00 AM -12:00 PM ---------- Max: 10

Content: The office of kingship was central to the Egyptians' view of the universe, since the king was charged with maintaining the order of the created world and preventing it from succumbing to the ever-encroaching forces of chaos. To this end, the king built temples and enacted rituals for the gods, and fought the enemies of Egypt, who were the representatives of chaos; in return, the gods confirmed the king in his rule. The ideology of kingship and the duties it imposed upon the king are reflected in both representational and textual material. The purpose of this seminar is to explore how the Egyptians expressed their notions of kingship visually, where these images were displayed, what their function was, and who the intended audiences might have been. Textual material relating to kingship will also be studied in translation.

Texts: Selected articles and book chapters.

Particulars: Discussion of readings; museum visits; oral presentation of research topic; 17-20 page research paper.

ARTHIST 749: Books of the Art, 1100-1600
(crosslisted with HIST 585)

Campbell ------------------------------ Tu 1:00 - 4:00 PM ----------------------------Max: 10

Content: This course will consider the special category of texts known as artists’ manuals, ranging from the book of the Benedictine monk Theophiius Presbyter in the twelfth century to the rarely-discussed prefaces on technique which prefaced Giorgio Vasari’s Lives of the Painters Sculptors in the sixteent. The goal will be to understanding the relation between making and meaning, as represented in these treatises, especially with relation to incarnational concerns. Our central focus will be Cennino Cennini’s Il Libro dell’arte (c. 1400), a text which is undergoing significant re-evaluation, but which is historically situated as a precursor to the sorts of modernity associated with the Renaissance, both in the history of art and in the history of science. The themes to be discussed in this course include the trope of secrecy and its use by the knowledge cultures of the late medieval and early modern Europe; the value of artisanal knowledge within different settings (monastery, court, city), and the displacement of technique from the discussion of style in early modern Art History.

Primary Texts:

• Theophilus, De diversis artibus (1100-1120)
• Cennino Cennini, Il Libro dell’arte (c. 1400)
• Leon Battista Alberti, De pictura/Della pittura (1435)
• Giorgio Vasari, “Dell’architettura,” “Della pittura,” “Della scultura” (1568)

Secondary Texts:  Selected authors, including: William Eamon, Pamela Long, Andrea Bolland, Pamela Smith, Fabio Frezzato, Christiane Kruse, Mark Jarzombek, Pamela Long, Elizabeth Cropper, Georges Didi-Huberman, Robert Williams, Philip Sohm.

Assessment: Seminar presentation and paper.

Prerequisites: Reading knowledge of Italian or willingness to cope and learn. The course will involve working, with the help of translations, with primary language text-editions, especially of Cennini’s Libro.

ARTHIST 759: Imago Urbis: Representations of the Eternal City

McPhee----------------------------M 1:00 - 4:00 PM-------------------------- Max: 10

Content: In 1551 Leonardo Bufalini published his printed map of Rome, the first of a rich and varied succession of images of the city that would appear over the following two centuries. The maps of Bufalini, Ligorio, Maggi, Tempesta, Falda and Nolli, to name a few, were printed at large scale and in multiple plates and constitute a precious record of the rapid evolution of the fabric of the city and its representation in two-dimensions. Working with original editions held by Woodruff Special Collections and with facsimiles issued by the Vatican library, this seminar will consider early modern mapmaking in Italy and the changing constructions of the imago urbis. Among the issues we will consider are: methods for mapmaking: surveying, tools and technology; ichnographic plans and bird’s eye views; the topography and urban development of the city; ancient roads and early modern pilgrimage routes; orchestrated viewing: the relationship of maps to guidebooks and to the tradition of the vedute or pictorial city views.

Readings: TBA

Particulars: TBA

ARTHIST 789: African Art, Cultural Heritage, and Globalization
(crosslisted with ILA 790)

Kasfir ---------------------------- W 9:00 - 12:00 PM -------------------------- Max: 4

Content: Two very broad changes have affected African art in the past twenty years: the movement of artists and their work from African countries to Europe and North America, as part of a broader migration and globalization process, and the designation of World Cultural Heritage sites by UNESCO, which has brought cultural tourism to many parts of Africa previously less visited and opened up new avenues of art patronage  and economic development. These two changes in turn have created a hotly-debated globalization discourse among African cultural critics and intellectuals and a parallel, if quite different, “cultural heritage” discourse among African cultural bureaucrats, business entrepreneurs and local political leaders. We will look at case studies of how each of these phenomena have altered the meanings of tradition, cultural identity and the global cultural field.

Texts: TBA

Particulars: The course will follow a seminar format of readings and discussion, with a major research paper.

ARTHIST 791: Teaching Art History

Fletcher------------------------ W 12:50 - 2:50 PM----------------------- MAX: 12

CONTENT: ARTHIST 790/791 is designed to meet the Graduate School (TATTO) requirement for a teacher training course for students in art history. It is required of those graduate students serving as TAs in ARTHIST 101/102, and is offered in concert with their teaching experience in those courses.

TEXTS:

• Stokstad, Art History, 3rd ed.
• Davis, Tools for Teaching, 2nd ed.

PARTICULARS: none

ARTHIST 796R: Internship
Stone

ARTHIST 797R: Directed Study
Faculty

ARTHIST 798R: Exam Preparation
Faculty

ARTHIST 799R: Dissertation Research
Faculty

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