printer friendly pageARTHIST 408B: The Art of Medieval Spain: Muslims, Christians, Jews (ARTHIST 208B)
The seminar reveals the religious and ethnic hybridity of the art medieval Spain, where the lives, material cultures, and artistic practices of Muslims, Christians, and Jews were more intertwined than any other region of the medieval world. We work thematically rather than strictly chronologically in order to build a model of engagement with medieval art in which the movement of ideas and objects between the three major religions is in itself a focus of study.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
Instructors:
Pentcheva, B. (PI)
ARTHIST 408D: Virginity and Power: The Mother of God and Visions of Empire (ARTHIST 208D)
Mary has been the most influential female figure in Christianity. Her powers stem from her paradoxical virginal motherhood. Victory over nature means indomitable power. She was perceived as the general of the Christian armies and the protector of cities, states, and rulers. Mary inherited and combined the functions of the ancient goddesses of war, victory, and maternity and offered an enduring Christian equivalent. This course explores images, relics, chants, and processions in the public and private expressions of the Marian cult.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
Instructors:
Pentcheva, B. (PI)
ARTHIST 409: Theories of the Image: Byzantium, Islam and the Latin West (ARTHIST 209C, CLASSICS 158, CLASSICS 258, REES 409)
This seminar explores the role of images in the three major powers of the medieval Mediterranean: the Umayyads, the Carolingians, and the Byzantines. For each the definition of an image- sura, imago, or eikon respectively-became an important means of establishing religious identity and a fault-line between distinct cultural traditions. This course troubles the identification of image with figural representation and presents instead a performative paradigm where chant or recitation are treated as images. As such, students will be able to see the connections between medieval image theory and contemporary art practices such as installation.
Last offered: Spring 2021
ARTHIST 409A: Image, Icon, Idol: Theories and Practices in Byzantium, Islam, and the Latin West
This course explores the phenomenon of iconoclasm, iconophobia, and aniconism as markers of a vast and profound cultural transformation of the Mediterranean in the period from the seventh to the ninth centuries. As the Arabs established the Umayyad caliphate in the seventh century, quickly conquering Holy Land, Egypt, and advancing all the way to Spain, they perpetrated an identity crisis in the region. By the seventh century three large political entities formed in the Mediterranean ¿ the Umayyads, the Carolingians, and the Byzantines ¿ each competed for legitimacy; all three emerged from the ashes of Late Antique culture, yet each tried to carve out an identity out of this common foundation. In this parting of the ways, the three cultures took among others the issue of what constituted an image and what role it played in devotion. Eik¿n, imago, ¿ura became the basis on which to built differences and accuse the other political players of idolatry.
ARTHIST 410: The Masters: Raphael
Five hundred years after Raphael mysteriously died (April 6, 1520), this seminar reflects on his contributions to the arts. Raphael's art is often defined as a negation of death. He painted eternal myths, unearthly saints, and timeless beauties. His sketches served as exemplars and the very paragon of drawing for hundreds of years. So much so that art historians have done little more than admire his art. How come Raphael has resisted criticism for half a millennium? What does his unremitting fame tell us about the state of art history? While studying eight of Raphael's masterpieces in depth, this course also reflects on the shortcomings and potentials of art history as a critical discipline. [Undergraduate enrollment with consent of one of the instructors].
Last offered: Spring 2020
ARTHIST 411: Childish Enthusiasms, Perishable Manias (FILMEDIA 411)
Universities are sites of gravitas, but what of levitas -- a lighter, more playful category? Does intellectually credible work depend upon a â¿¿critical distanceâ¿ between scholar and object of study? Can we take something seriously without imposing a seriousness that it may not possess (or want)? How to retain (or recover) the intensely pleasurable relation to objects that we were allowed when younger? The seminar is predicated upon the proposition that effective scholarship need not suck the joy from the world.
Last offered: Winter 2020
ARTHIST 412: Desiring Machines: Buildings, Maps, and Clouds (ARTHIST 212, COMPLIT 212A, COMPLIT 312A, ILAC 212A, ILAC 312A)
Focus is on early modern machines as tools for experience and action. In their break with Freudian psychoanalysis, French theorists Deleuze and Guattari speak of the machine as a tool of desire and attraction itself as "machinic" rather than desire for something that is missing. The goal of this course is to equip students with a different way of thinking by exploring a large group of objects from the early modern world (poems, buildings, costumes, maps, nets, and clouds) that help us to approach the period in a new way.
Last offered: Winter 2022
ARTHIST 417: Architecture, Mysticism, and Myth (ARTHIST 217)
This course examines global origin myths for architecture, for example cosmic symbolism (e.g. the Mandala/dome), and the magic of technologies (e.g. the "petrification" of the wooden hut in permanent architecture). Examples range from Ethiopian rockcut churches, to the Parthenon, to the Ise Grand Shrine, to Fire Temples, and Navajo lodges. The course concludes with the modern mythology of industrialisation and the mechanised building.
ARTHIST 417B: Architectural Design Theory (ARTHIST 217B)
This seminar focuses on the key themes, histories, and methods of architectural theory -- a form of architectural practice that establishes the aims and philosophies of architecture. Architectural theory is primarily written, but it also incorporates drawing, photography, film, and other media. nnOne of the distinctive features of modern and contemporary architecture is its pronounced use of theory to articulate its aims. One might argue that modern architecture is modern because of its incorporation of theory. This course focuses on those early-modern, modern, and late-modern writings that have been and remain entangled with contemporary architectural thought and design practice. nnRather than examine the development of modern architectural theory chronologically, it is explored architectural through thematic topics. These themes enable the student to understand how certain architectural theoretical concepts endure, are transformed, and can be furthered through his/her own explorations.nCEE 32B is a crosslisting of
ARTHIST 217B/417B.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
Instructors:
Beischer, T. (PI)
ARTHIST 418A: Michelangelo: Gateway to Early Modern Italy (ARTHIST 218A, HISTORY 237B, HISTORY 337B, ITALIAN 237, ITALIAN 337)
Revered as one of the greatest artists in history, Michelangelo Buonarroti's extraordinarily long and prodigious existence (1475-1564) spanned the Renaissance and the Reformation in Italy. The celebrity artist left behind not only sculptures, paintings, drawings, and architectural designs, but also an abundantly rich and heterogeneous collection of artifacts, including direct and indirect correspondence (approximately 1400 letters), an eclectic assortment of personal notes, documents and contracts, and 302 poems and 41 poetic fragments. This course will explore the life and production of Michelangelo in relation to those of his contemporaries. Using the biography of the artist as a thread, this interdisciplinary course will draw on a range of critical methodologies and approaches to investigate the civilization and culture of Italy in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Course themes will follow key tensions that defined the period and that found expression in Michelangelo: physical-spiritual, classical-Christian, tradition-innovation, individual-collective.
Last offered: Spring 2022
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