Course Description
Focuses on select objects and buildings between Prehistory and the Renaissance, such as the Ancient Near East, Egypt, Greece, Rome, Byzantium, the Islamic world, and Medieval Europe. Considering content, style, and cultural context, the discussion will introduce students to the academic discipline of art history through historic trends, intellectual ideas, and contemporary methodologies.
Athena Title
Intro Art Hist Preh-Ren Honors
Equivalent Courses
Not open to students with credit in ARHI 2300, ARHI 2300E
Prerequisite
Permission of Honors
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
This course is intended to serve as an introduction to the history of art before 1600 through the analysis of major monuments. By considering different cultures and periods and their visual traditions, students will come to understand the visual arts as a shared human activity. Unlike the large survey course, this course’s limited number of students and the more rigorous standards of the Honors program will allow for in depth discussion of particular artworks as well as the varying methods that art historians use to assess meaning in art. Students will work to acquire appropriate vocabulary and basic skills of visual analysis, interpretative methods, and critical thinking and writing. Through weekly readings, classroom presentations, written assignments, and exams, students will be expected to demonstrate their ability to comprehend, assimilate and present, in written and verbal form, stylistically and conceptually appropriate art historical analysis. In this context, students will be expected to produce shorter written exercises, longer papers, or formal presentations to the class.
Topical Outline
The objectives of this course can be achieved through a broader or more focused survey of art before 1600, according to the tenured or tenure-track faculty member’s expertise and to special opportunities to study relevant works of art in the Athens area, for example, through temporary exhibitions at the Georgia Museum of Art or High Museum. Exposure to original works of art, particularly at the introductory level, is a valuable, enriching experience that can only be accomplished with a small class. Therefore, topical outlines may vary following those opportunities or that expertise, but all will accomplish the course objectives by moving chronologically through a coherent selection of monuments from the following units: 1. Intro-Lascaux/Stonehenge 2. Near Eastern/Mesopotamia/Indian 3. Egypt 4. Minoan/Greece 5. Greece/Exam 6. Rome 7. Early Xian/Byzantine/Coptic 8. Islamic/African 9. Insular Art/Romanesque 10. Romanesque/Exam 11. Gothic 12. Chinese/Trecento 13. 15th c /Italy/15th c North (through Durer) 14. 15th c Italy (through Leonardo) 15. 16th c through Michelangelo and Bruegel
General Education Core
CORE IV: World Languages and Global CultureSyllabus