Art History

Along with an introductory survey of the most important art of the period, the course covers various controversies regarding the works' essence. The central aspects and artists of the period are introduced in the first seven weeks. Based on the textbook, lectures, and excursions, students are challenged to create a kind of survey for themselves. The second part of the course gives representative examples of the methods and fields of research that are central to the subject of seventeenth-century Dutch art. An attempt is made to offer a complete survey of the important painters from the seventeenth century, but of course a selection has to be made. There is an emphasis on Rembrandt, not only because he was the most important seventeenth-century Dutch artist, but also because his work has been researched in a number of ways. Additionally, there is an emphasis on painters and art historians from Utrecht, because their work is close at hand in the museums in this city, and because knowledge of Utrecht culture might contribute to a feeling of home. Prerequisites for this course include a course on art history or museum studies.

This course analyzes economic, political, cultural, religious, and ideological factors and their reflection on European society and art of the Modern Age. Topics include: formation of European society in the 15th and 16th centuries; centers of power and art; artist training; philosophy, religion, literature, and their impact on art; political and social changes in Renaissance and Baroque Europe; new centers of art; prestige of music and theater.

This course provides a survey of painting, sculpture, and architecture in Europe and beyond from c. 1280 to c.1580. It follows a roughly chronological course, from Giotto at the beginning of the 14th century, to Dürer, Michelangelo, and Titian in the 16th century. Attention is paid to the issues relating to the wider artistic situation of the Late Medieval and Renaissance periods, including those of patronage, iconography, materials, technique and types of commission. Although the primary focus of the course is on Western Europe, lectures also address how European art formed alongside non-Western traditions, including the important role played by global trade.

The Visual Literacy course equips students with a new language to communicate with the world: visual language. Simply put, visual literacy can be described as the "ability to construct meaning from images." Through this course, students learn the components and rules of visual language, enabling them to read, understand, and analyze various types of images. Beyond analysis, the course also focuses on developing the ability to create intentional images using visual language and articulate these images in verbal and written forms. The course combines theoretical lectures with practical exercises, including art appreciation and essay writing. A significant component of the course involves field trips to museums or galleries to observe and analyze artworks. Additionally, students participate in hands-on activities where they create images using the syntax and principles of visual language. For example, assignments may include expressing narratives using basic shapes, helping students internalize how images communicate meaning. This course is designed for a broad audience—not only for students majoring in art or design but also for those who wish to develop an appreciation for art, effectively use digital platforms, or write about art. Starting from the fundamentals, the course provides a step-by-step exploration of what visual literacy is and why it matters in contemporary society. 

This course is an introductory survey of architectural history in a range of global settings between c. 1775 and 2000. It is not just about buildings and designs, but seeks to place architecture in its historical contexts. What can architecture tell us about wider developments in social, political, cultural, and urban history? How did those contexts inform design and practice? The idea of "modernity" appears throughout the course. How has this idea informed architectural debate and production? The course begins with the stylistic revivals that dominated western architecture in the early 19th century. It also discusses the 19th century development of new typologies along with the new materials and technologies that made them possible. In the second part of the course, students turn to 20th-century Modernism in global contexts, including Europe, Africa, and Latin America. They explore how architects and their clients sought to invent new architectures, and the ways in which the results balanced international agendas with local and national concerns. The course concludes with the revision of Modernism in the 1950's and 60's and the emergence of a Post-modern consciousness.

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.