Course Description
Focuses on select monuments of art and architecture from the Renaissance and Baroque periods, the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, to the global contemporary. 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 Ren-Cont Honors
Equivalent Courses
Not open to students with credit in ARHI 2400, ARHI 2400E
Prerequisite
Permission of Honors
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
Through assigned readings and in-depth in-class analysis, students will master the basic art historical facts—who, what, where, and when—while also gaining valuable insights into the art historical methods by which objects are analyzed and assessed. Students will also come to appreciate historic monuments and visual production beyond their formal beauty or material worth, as meaningful expressions of other cultures and their values. Thus, by the end of the semester, students will be able to interpret, contextualize and identify important works of art. In addition, they will have acquired the basic skills of visual analysis, interpretation, and critical thinking and writing, all of which will have been practiced and honed over the course of the semester during the course of various writing assignments and in-class discussions. 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 after 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. Italian Baroque 2. Meso-American/Spanish Baroque 3. Northern Baroque 4. Rococo/Neo-classicism 5. Neo-classicism 6. Exam I/Romanticism 7. Romanticism (Orientalism) 8. Realism/Manet 9. Impressionism/Japanese Prints 10. Post-Impressionism 11. Exam/Early 20th c Avant-garde 12. Early 20th c Avant-garde 13. WW I 14. Ab Ex 15. Pop-Present
General Education Core
CORE IV: World Languages and Global CultureSyllabus