Significant historical examples will be examined and their impact on social, economic, and religious conditions. Exposure to the forms and content of visual expression developed in Western civilization from the High Italian Renaissance through the Modern period. Emphasized will be the works of major innovators of each period. Discussion will center around the function of works of art in each period both on their own terms and in terms of the culture they represent. Contemporary trends in the perspective of historical parallels, their origins, stylistic changes, and artistic innovations from the school of Paris to the present.
Art is related to changing social and political situations.
The course explores the history of American painting, sculpture, architecture, photography, and other significant arts and crafts from the settlement period to the present. Students may earn credits toward the final grade by visiting art museums and sites of notable architecture, supplemental reading, viewing recommended art films and television programs, and attending art programs on and off campus. This course is a chronological survey of the art and architecture of India, China, and Japan, from the earliest times to the 19th Century. Spanning Indian art, the rise of Buddhism in India, and Indian art under the influence of Hinduism and Islam. The mutual influences of Chinese and Japanese art and their respective exposure to the arts of Islam and the West is covered.