printer friendly pageCLASSICS 166: The Body in Roman Art (ARCHLGY 166)
(Formerly
CLASSART 105.) Ancient and modern ideas about the body as ideal and site of lived experience. Themes include representation, portrayal, power, metamorphosis, and replication. Works that exemplify Roman ideas of heroism and power versus works portraying nude women, erotic youth, preserved corpses, and suffering enemies. Recommended: background in ancient Mediterranean art, archaeology, history, or literature. May be repeated for credit.
Last offered: Spring 2016
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
| Repeatable
for credit
CLASSICS 167: Archaeology of Roman Slavery
The archaeology of Roman slavery embodies a paradox: slavery was ubiquitous in Roman society but did not leave distinct material traces that archaeologists can easily identify. Explore that paradox by examining ancient writings on Roman slavery in conjunction with built spaces, visual images, and artifacts. Discuss more recent slave societies for purposes of comparison and contrast. Learn to analyze different kinds of historical and archaeological evidence, how to reconstruct social and spatial dynamics, and how ancient Roman slavery and society worked.
CLASSICS 168: Engineering the Roman Empire (ARCHLGY 118)
(Formerly
CLASSART 117.) Enter the mind, the drafting room, and the building site of the Roman architects and engineers whose monumental projects impressed ancient and modern spectators alike. This class explores the interrelated aesthetics and mechanics of construction that led to one of the most extensive building programs undertaken by a pre-modern state. Through case studies ranging from columns, domes and obelisks to road networks, machines and landscape modification, we investigate the materials, methods, and knowledge behind Roman innovation, and the role of designed space in communicating imperial identity.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
CLASSICS 169: Archaeology of Britannia (ARCHLGY 169)
Life in the Roman Empire: this course is a broad introduction to the archaeology of one of the best known provinces of the empire.
Last offered: Spring 2015
CLASSICS 171: Byzantine Art and Architecture, 300-1453 C.E. (ARTHIST 106, ARTHIST 306)
(Formerly
CLASSART 106/206.) This course explores the art and architecture of the Eastern Mediterranean: Constantinople, Jerusalem, Alexandria, Antioch, Damascus, Thessaloniki, and Palermo, 4th-15th centuries. Applying an innovative approach, we will probe questions of phenomenology and aesthetics, focusing our discussion on the performance and appearance of spaces and objects in the changing diurnal light, in the glitter of mosaics and in the mirror reflection and translucency of marble.
Last offered: Spring 2016
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
CLASSICS 172: Art & Architecture in the Medieval Mediterranean (ARTHIST 105, ARTHIST 305)
Chronological survey of Byzantine, Islamic, and Western Medieval art and architecture from the early Christian period to the Gothic age. Broad art-historical developments and more detailed examinations of individual monuments and works of art. Topics include devotional art, court and monastic culture, relics and the cult of saints, pilgrimage and crusades, and the rise of cities and cathedrals.
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
CLASSICS 173: Hagia Sophia (ARTHIST 208, ARTHIST 408, CLASSICS 273)
By employing a methodology based in psychoacoustics, semiotics, and phenomenology, this course explores the relationship among sound, water, marble, meaning, and religious experience in the sixth-century church of HagianSophia built by emperor Justinian in Constantinople. We will read medieval sources describing the interior and ritual, make short movies exploring the shimmer of marble in buildings on campus, and study the acoustics of domed buildings through computer auralization done at Stanford's CCRMA (Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics)
Last offered: Winter 2016
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
CLASSICS 174: Art and Religious Experience in Byzantium and Islam (ARTHIST 209, ARTHIST 309)
This course presents a comparative study of Christian and Islamic paradigms (sixth to the thirteenth centuries) in the construction of religious experience through the material fabric of the building, the interior decor, objects, and rituals. We will read medieval ekphrastic texts and poetry, which stirred the viewer/participant to experience the building/object as animate. Among the sites we will study are: Hagia Sophia, the Ka'ba, the Dome of teh Rock, the Mosque at Damascus and at Cordoba. We will read Byzantine and Arabic writers such as Paul the Silentiary, Patriarch Germanos, Maximus Confessor, Shahrawardi, and Ibn Arabi.
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
CLASSICS 177: Describing and Identifying Ancient Coins (CLASSICS 277)
In numismatics, as in all other disciplines dealing with documentary sources of the ancient world (like epigraphy and papyrology), it is essential to work hands-on with the primary material. This course, an optional accompaniment to the graduate seminar in ancient numismatics, will focus on practical work with ancient coins from the collection at the Cantor Arts Center: students will learn how to describe and identify ancient coins and how to properly catalogue and classify them. A special focus will be on the identification of fakes. Participants will be trained to use the main reference works on ancient coinages in the Frank L. Kovacs library, recently donated to Stanford University.
Last offered: Spring 2016
CLASSICS 178: Ancient Greek Political Thought
This class traces some of the intellectual roots of modern political thought to authors of classical antiquity, such as Herodotus, Thucydides, Plato, Xenophon, and Aristotle. We will read portions of their work, in translation, as well as discuss the historical background. Topics will include: political duty, citizenship, and leadership; the origins and rise of Athenian direct democracy; the development of Greek law, constitutional change, and responses to civic strife and civil war.
Last offered: Autumn 2015
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