Art History

This course explores the art of Europe in the long 15th century (approximately 1380-1520) with particular attention to religious culture and belief; how gender and the body were understood and expressed; the role of pilgrimage, suffrages and the saints; the differences of artistic expressions between northern Europe (e.g. Flanders) and southern (Italy); the art of crises such as witchcraft, plague and religious reform; and the ways in which naturalism and humanism challenged existing modes of artistic expression. Students also look at whether the view of the period as one steeped in pessimism, the macabre and thoughts of decay, known according to the formulation of Jan Huizinga as the "waning of the Middle Ages" is still useful. The dominant centers to be examined are the cities of Flanders and Italy, but the art of northern France, England, Germany, and elsewhere is also drawn on.

This course examines European Gothic architecture from its origins in 12th-century France to the end of the Middle Ages. It focuses on ecclesiastical architecture, and on English and French Gothic, for it is in these fields that the growth and formal development of the style is best understood. Military, civic, and domestic architecture is examined, and individual lectures are devoted to Gothic architecture in Scotland, Germany, the Low Countries, Spain, Italy, and Central Europe. 

In 1370 the Turco-Mongol conqueror Timur (Tamerlane) founded his empire and made Samarqand his capital. This course introduces a culture Timur and his successors created and its transition during the long 15th century. Students explore the art and architecture under their patronage in the eastern Islamic world, including present-day Iran, Afghanistan, and Central Asia. Emphasis is placed on the impacts of their nomadic tradition, politics, and ideology on the artistic production and urban landscape. The latter part of the course centers around the late Timurid court in Herat.

This course focuses on the Greek world. The course includes a study of the built environment, from the major urban and imperial monuments of Athens to the forts and farms of the frontiers, the images housed in public buildings, houses, and tombs, as well as portable objects and the material residues of daily life and ritual. Students learn to apply the different perspectives and methods of archaeologists and art historians in interpreting material remains and visual images. The course combines close study of individual pieces of evidence with an evaluation of how they may illuminate the societies, cultures, institutions, and economies of classical antiquity. The students also learn to access sources of evidence in printed and digital form and in museum collections in London where key relevant source material can be inspected at first hand. Students in this section take only one term of the year-long course Art & Archaeology of Greece & Rome.

The course unit uses in-depth analyses of individual artworks to introduce students to key methods and concepts of art historical understanding. Each lecture is focused on the detailed exposition of one artwork and the critical debates surrounding its interpretation. The lectures as a whole are arranged chronologically from the Ice Age to the Baroque, covering art produced around the globe. This is neither the study of a canon nor a traditional survey of art history, although it will reflect upon both. It examines some well-known artworks of the past alongside others that have been considered marginal or have been neglected. 

In this course, major musical styles and genres of the 20th century, within and beyond the Western canon, are presented and discussed from the theoretical, aesthetic, and socio-cultural points of view. The first part of the course focuses on the mutual influences between jazz and classical music in the first half of the 20th century. An analysis of musical ensembles, forms, and other structural elements leads to an understanding of how and to what extent these two distinct musical worlds influenced each other and in some cases even blended, making the stylistic categorization of some works uncertain. The second part of the course provides an in-depth study of musical genres and listening approaches in relation to the radical technological transformations of the 20th century, which leads to a reflection on the concept of art music and the problem of value in music. Students learn to identify and distinguish musical trends; assess how musical movements have informed contemporary society and recent history, and how society and history have fostered certain musical movements and for what reason; and evaluate how the dialogue between music and technology has evolved over the past decades, and predict potential future scenarios. 

This course examines tombs from the Neolithic period to the Yuan dynasty with a focus on the period between the 2nd and the 14th century to examine their artistic, religious, and social significance.

This course examines the relationship between patrons and audiences in painting, sculpture, and architecture through the 15th century.

The idea of "Britain" has been shifting and contentious throughout the history of the British Isles. A "United Kingdom" only since 1707, Great Britain moved from a minor island nation to an imperial power over the course of the Early Modern Period and contemporary political issues such as Brexit show that its position on the global stage is no more secure or straightforward today. This course looks at art in Britain from the Middle Ages to the present day, exploring how art and artists have responded to and, to some degree, have shaped these social and political developments. Throughout the lectures and seminars, students are invited to question what we can understand to be "British art" and how conceptions of it may have changed.

This course is a survey of the architectural output of the Islamic world from from Spain to Indonesia from the 7th century to the present. It presents major examples of religious and secular architecture, including mosques, madrasas, palaces, and caravanserais and offers an insight into different Islamic dynastic styles in their respective geographic territories beginning with the Umayyads in Syria and ending with the contemporary architecture. With the help of visual material and field trips, the course analyzes major monuments with the objective of arriving at an understanding of each dynasty’s contribution in the context of the continuous development that nurtured it. The course facilitates enjoyment of Islamic architecture, provides an understanding of how art historians think and argue with one another, and expands visual memory.