Course Description
Various topics related to the history of the Western encounter with South Asian art and religion from the fourteenth to nineteenth centuries. Topics of interest include Orientalist representations of South Asia in the context of the European colonial enterprise, Victorian perceptions of South Asia, post- colonial criticism, and the institutional development of the colonial museum.
Athena Title
ASIAN ART SEMINAR
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
Under the rubric of “Western Encounters with South Asian Art,” the specific content of this seminar may vary each semester it is offered. Sample Course Syllabus This class will retrace the history of the Western encounter with South Asian art and religion from the fourteenth to nineteenth centuries. Particular emphasis will be placed on examining Orientalist representations of South Asia in the context of the European colonial enterprise. From late medieval travelers to eighteenth and nineteenth century antiquarians, orientalist scholars and colonial administrators, Indian art and religion has been confronted, represented, and evaluated in multiple, often irreconcilable, contexts. This class will begin by exploring the nature of Western encounters with India in the pre-colonial period, from Marco Polo to Portuguese Missionaries to early 'Orientalists'. The second period to be engaged will focus on the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, which witnessed the formal establishment of British Imperial control in South Asia. This class will examine the early historical development of colonial institutions for discovering, conserving and displaying Indian Art, as well as various contexts in which less formal representations of Indian art impacted arenas of Western popular culture.
Topical Outline
1. Methodological Considerations with regard to 'Art and Empire in South Asia' 2. Medieval Travellers' Tales and Missionary Reports 3. The Discovery of Hinduism and Early Encounters with Hindu sculpture/Architecture 4. The Discovery of Buddhism and Buddhist Art 5. Archaeology, Numismatics, Epigraphy - Scientific Discovery and the Descriptive Imperative 6. The Empire and its Antiquities 7. The Museum in the Colony 8. Displaying the Colonies - The Indian Exhibition of 1886 9. Victorian Presuppositions and the Aesthetics of Indian Art 10. Eroticism and Sexuality in Indian Art 11. Spiritualism in Indian Art - Havell and Coomaraswamy 12. The 21st Century - Assessing Present Attitudes 13-15. Presentations of Independent Research Projects