Summer Sessions | Courses | Art History and Archaeology

Severed heads of young boys thrown at enemies, necks of virginal maidens slashed by warriors’ swords, children stabbed to death by their own mothers, tongues of raped women cut by the abusers: these are not the images one expects to encounter in Greek art, which is still almost exclusively and rather anachronistically associated with beauty, symmetry, and formal perfection. And yet, violent themes of death and abuse in all their gory details populate the world of Greek images from the Archaic to the Hellenistic period. Aim of the course is to offer an alternative – more ‘realistic’ – view of ancient Greek art and understand its violence and goriness as parts of its (at least) two faces; to add, as it were, the lightless night of violence to the luminous day of the athletic, heroic, and divine realms.Violence in art will be placed in a broader political, social, historical, and intellectual context. In addition, violence in art will be understood as a powerful visual means for the construction and de-construction or even destruction of images of dangerous Otherness: the aggressive barbarian (Persians), the uncontrolled nature outside the constraints of the polis (Centaurs), and the all too powerful or independent female (Amazons).

This course examines some of the key moments of architectural modernity in the twentieth century in an attempt to understand how architecture participated in the making of a new world order. It follows the lead of recent scholarship that has been undoing the assumption that modern twentieth-century architecture is a coherent enterprise that should be understood through avant-gardist movements. Instead, architectural modernity is presented in this course as a multivalent, and even contradictory, entity that has nonetheless had profound impact on modernity. Rather than attempting to be geographically comprehensive, it focuses on the interdependencies between the Global North and the South; instead of being strictly chronological, it is arranged around a constellation of themes that are explored through a handful of projects and texts. Reading primary sources from the period under examination is a crucial part of the course.

This course introduces major forms of Chinese art from the Neolithic period to the present.  It stresses the materials and processes of bronze casting, the development of representational art, principles of text illustration, calligraphy, landscape painting, imperial patronage, and the role of the visual arts in elite culture.  Works of Chinese art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art will receive special attention, as you will be able to study these closely online and see the real things at the museum.  Throughout the course we will attempt to study not only the history of Chinese art but also how that history has been written, both in China and in the West. Please note that students will be required to keep their webcams on throughout the class sessions. We will take appropriate breaks.

Required course for department majors. Not open to Barnard or Continuing Education students. Students must receive instructors permission. Introduction to different methodological approaches to the study of art and visual culture. Majors are encouraged to take the colloquium during their junior year.

Obsession with the Classical often kept us from looking at the Hellenistic period with its artistic achievements as a time of innovation and\ experimentation in art. In Hellenistic times, new cultural and artistic centers arose besides Athens: Alexandria in Egypt, Antiocheia and Pergamon in Asia Minor, or Rhodes. Especially in sculpture, artists and patrons demonstrated an unprecedented interest in subjects such as ugly old women, working peasants, slaves with disfigured bodies, or non-Greeks. The seminar will study the sculpture of the Hellenistic period as an extremely imaginative and dynamic artistic expression without the Classical bias. In addition, it will look into the societal conditions that allowed this multi-cultural and rather inclusive style in sculpture to be created. The styles of the various Hellenistic artistic centers will be individually analysed based on representative works and then compared to each other and to the sculptural traditions of the Classical period, so that Hellenistic sculpture can be understood both as a continuation of the Classical and especially Late Classical sculpture and as an artistic, intellectual, and social creation – a creation that often went against the ideals of the past.

From antiquity to the present day, people have traveled to local or far-off sites to approach holy figures, to appeal for divine intervention, and to fulfill religious obligations. This seminar explores the material dimensions of these journeys, from the spaces entered and sights encountered to the things travelers brought or took away. Classes and (if possible) collection visits will focus on medieval Christian and Islamic shrines, although student projects may cover a larger scope.

*Visits to NYC-area museums, monuments, and/or special collections will be added if conditions permit, and assignments and schedule will change to incorporate them.

In The Stroke of the Brush (1989), David Rosand introduced the authoriality of Titian’s brushwork by discussing it in the light of contemporary painting processes, such as Willem de Kooning’s Abstract Expressionism. In the exhibition Titian: Love, Desire, Death, currently at the National Gallery, London, Matthias Wivel presents the Renaissance Venetian artist as the “father of modern painting”. To what extent can a Renaissance painter be modern? How can we conceptualize that modernity? Examining Titian’s life and work in sixteenth century Venice in the light of sources, literature and technical data, the seminar will reconsider the paradigm of the modernity of the Renaissance master. Investigating what defined painting as ‘modern’ in Titian’s own period, as well as its reception in modern time, the seminar will also discuss how the theorization of contemporary societal issues could allow us to think differently about Titian’s work.

The course will be run as a seminar, with meetings devoted to discussions. Students will be responsible for the summary and introduction of the weekly readings for discussion. Each student will also be asked to carry out a research project, culminating in a class presentation and a final paper (10/ 15 double-spaced typed pages + illustrations).

This course explores the core classical literature in Chinese, Japanese and Korean Humanities. The main objective of the course is to discover the meanings that these literature offer, not just for the original audience or for the respective cultures, but for us. As such, it is not a survey or a lecture-based course. Rather than being taught what meanings are to be derived from the texts, we explore meanings together, informed by in-depth reading and thorough ongoing discussion.

This course explores the core classical literature in Chinese, Japanese and Korean Humanities. The main objective of the course is to discover the meanings that these literature offer, not just for the original audience or for the respective cultures, but for us. As such, it is not a survey or a lecture-based course. Rather than being taught what meanings are to be derived from the texts, we explore meanings together, informed by in-depth reading and thorough ongoing discussion.

Introduction to 2000 years of art on the Indian subcontinent. The course covers the early art of Buddhism, rock-cut architecture of the Buddhists and Hindus, the development of the Hindu temple, Mughal and Rajput painting and architecture, art of the colonial period, and the emergence of the Modern.