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This course surveys the history of Western painting from the start of the 14th century to the late 20th century and our own moment. Lectures introduce important artists (Giotto, Rembrandt, Velazquez, Goya, Manet, Matisse, Pollock, and others), and major themes associated with the art of particular periods and cultures. The course emphasizes training students to look closely at - and to write about - works of art.

In the decades 480-460, just before work began on the Parthenon, the sculptor Myron, creator of the Discus-Thrower, was even more celebrated for his bronze cow. Ancient authors describe an image so palpably alive that shepherds threw stones at her, thinking that she had strayed from the herd, and bulls vied for her attention. A century later, the quest for mimesis prompted a contest between two artists. Zeuxis painted a bunch of grapes seductive enough to attract hungry birds; Parrhasios then added a linen curtain, which Zeuxis asked to be removed from his painting. Zeuxis conceded defeat since he had fooled only birds, whereas Parrhasios had deceived an artist. nnThis course explores the art and culture of the ancestors of these men. The Greeks of the archaic period (1000-480) would have understood the painters¿ competitive zeal, but only toward the end of the period would they have recognized naturalism as an artistic aim. nnEarlier Greek art is more abstract than life-like, closer to Calder than Michelangelo. In the eighth century Homer¿s descriptions of the rippling muscles (and egos) of his heroes, and the grief of Achilles¿ horses, evoke living men and sentient animals, but his fellow sculptors and painters prefer abstraction.nnThis changes in the seventh century as a result of commercial contacts with the Near East and Egypt. Imported bronzes, ivories and other Near Eastern exotica alerted Greek artists to a wider range of subjects, techniques and intentions, including naturalism. Later in the century, Greek expatriates learned the art of carving hard stone from Egyptian masters and soon marble sculpture and architecture spread throughout Greece. nnIn the course of the sixth and early fifth centuries Greek artists assimilate what they had borrowed, compete with one another, obey and disobey their teachers, test the tolerance of the gods and eventually produce works of art that speak with a Greek accent. When the Persians invaded the Acropolis in 480 and 479, they encountered artifacts with little trace of alien influence or imprint and, at Salamis and Plataea, fought decisive battles in which the Greeks prevailed. In the aftermath of the war, as the Greeks rebuilt their cities and their lives, Myron¿s cow reminded them of their debts to other cultures and their resolve to remain true to their own.

New techniques of pictorial illusionism and the influence of the humanist revival of antiquity in the reformulation of the pictorial arts in 15th-century Italy. How different Italian regions developed characteristic artistic cultures through mutual interaction and competition.

Art 142 is an introduction to the history of architecture since 1900 and how it has shaped and been shaped by its cultural contexts. The class also investigates the essential relationship between built form and theory during this period.

This course considers the ethics of looking at art, photography, and other forms of visual representation that have been declared obscene or indecent, whether by religious authorities, government officials, community representatives, or legal opinions. What are the ethical stakes of looking at such materials? And what are the ethical implications of looking away and insisting that others do so as well? nnThe creation of vanguard art since the late 19th-century has often been linked to the concept of transgression. Is it, we will ask, the modern artist's responsibility to challenge accepted standards of representation and the protocols of looking? If so, how are we, as viewers and students of art, to distinguish between legitimate art and unfit obscenity?

Introduction to major themes, figures, movements and ideas in contemporary art, beginning with the question of art and politics in the 1960s. Topics: Postmodernism and the rise of consumer and spectacle culture; the "death" of painting, the impact of technology, cybernetics and the rise of new media; art at the end of the Cold War; globalization and the new global art world. An intro art history course is recommended.

A mixture of lecture and discussion, this course presents a chronological introduction to some of the defining monuments in the history of Japanese visual culture from prehistory to the mid-19th century. This introductory class presumes no prior knowledge of art history or of Japan. We will emphasize certain overarching themes like religious life; notions of decorum appropriate to various classes (court, warrior, and commoner); the relationship between and among the arts, such as the visual and the verbal, or the symphonic assemblage arts as seen in the tea ceremony; pervasive cultural tropes like nostalgia, seasonality, or the sense of place; and broader issues such as censorship, patronage, gender issues, and the encounters between Japanese and foreign cultures.

The seminar considers Greek artifacts in the context of Greek life (including the life of the workshop), and the endless ways in which craftsmen served the needs of Greek society. Their foundries, factories and ceramic studios produced the material goods that defined Greek life: temples, statues and other offerings for the gods; arms and armor for warriors; sporting equipment and prizes for athletes; houses, clothing and crockery for the family; ships and sailcloth, wagons and ploughs, wine and oil-presses for a thriving domestic and overseas economy; gravestones and funeral vases for the dead. (Formerly CLASSART 109.) nMost of the antiquities exhibited in museums, or purchased by private collectors from galleries and auction houses, survive because they were buried with people who used and cherished them. The Greeks¿ belief that the artifacts they valued in life would serve them in the afterlife informs the second part of the seminar, which is devoted to the recent history of tomb looting and the illicit trafficking in antiquities.

In the aftermath of the Arab Spring, the city of Cairo has become a theater of social and political upheaval. In Istanbul, the Gezi protests in spring and summer 2013 drew attention to the contested public space. These events are the result of longstanding developments in the urban and social fabric. This seminar introduces students to the architectural and urban history of Istanbul and Cairo, with the current transformations as a central point of reference. Readings will focus on the tension between historical center and recent urban development, the social problems arising from the segregation, and reactions of scholars, architects, and artists to these issues.