Global Arc

This course examines the arts in Japan during the brief yet pivotal Momoyama period, when artists and patrons in the newly reunified nation explored several--often contrasting--aesthetic ideals. We will survey developments in a range of mediums, including painting, architecture, ceramics, and lacquer. Themes treated include: the workshop in Japanese art; the art of tea; the impact of the first arrival of Europeans on Japanese visual culture; the synchronic cross-fertilization of mediums in Japanese art; and the role of the sacred.

Surveys the history of prints in Europe and the United States from 1400 to the present. It will combine two main approaches: first, the distinctive history of printmaking, including origins, evolution of techniques, and the political, religious, and cultural functions of prints; and second, individual artistic developments, with emphasis on the work of major printmakers, iconography, and formal innovations. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 2 or 3 distribution requirement. One three-hour seminar.

This course examines the prodigious output of paintings in China and Japan that depict the landscape, with an emphasis on the pre-modern period. For over a millennium, even up to the present day, painters have employed the subject of landscape to explore not only ideas of the natural world, but also reclusion, poetry, power, the sacred, and the creative possibilities of making marks with a brush. The course will visit the Art Museum often to study actual paintings. Students are encouraged to explore their own interests, including themes not covered in class.

In this course, we will examine archaeological evidence for and art historical depictions of plagues and pandemics, beginning in antiquity and ending with the COVID-19 Pandemic. The course will explore bioarchaeological investigations of the Black Death, the Justinianic Plague, and other examples of infectious diseases with extremely high mortalities, and students will complete six "Pandemic Simulation" exercises throughout the semester. We will also consider the differing impact of plagues during the medieval, early modern, and modern periods: themes in art; the development of hospitals; and the changing ideas of disease and medicine.

This historical survey considers why photographs of models wearing the latest clothes replaced drawn illustrations starting in the late nineteenth century and how the styles and content of fashion photographs reflect changing camera, lighting, and printing technologies; the structure of the garments themselves; national ideals of beauty and gender presentation; and the economics of publishing and advertising. Topics also include the studio as theatrical space; fashion photography in the developing and non-Western worlds; and the recent expansion of the ethnicities, ages, body types, and gender identities of models in fashion spreads.

This course explores the ancient culture known today as Olmec, which flourished from 1500-600 B.C. Renowned for its monumental sculpture, fine pottery, and delicate jade carvings, many aspects of the Olmec remain enigmatic. In this course, we will delve deeply into what is and is not known about the Olmec, with a heavy focus on visual culture both as explanans and as explanandum. The course will include intensive study of original works of art, both in the collections at Princeton and in other area collections. Issues of authenticity, quality, and provenance related to these works will also be considered.

Detailed examination of the Pre-Columbian arts of the indigenous civilizations of Mexico. The first part of the course will examine the architecture, monumental art, and craft art of the Aztecs and their contemporaries, the Huaztecs, Tarascans, Mixtecs, Zapotecs, and Mayas. The rest of the course is designed as a survey of the major Mexican art traditions that preceded them. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 1 distribution requirement. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

The medieval history of the land now called Spain and its Muslim, Christian, and Jewish inhabitants is often oversimplified, whether as a model of cultural tolerance, a precursor to colonialism, or a justification of modern antagonisms. This course examines the history of the Iberian Peninsula through the visual traditions of the medieval peoples whose cultures laid the foundations of modern Spain. Highlighting such key issues as the interplay of foreign and local traditions, the expression of religious and ethnic identity, and the reuse of artistic forms and objects, it pursues a more forthright understanding of the Iberian past.

This course is an introduction to American museums as modern institutions and to the challenges that they currently face. Through readings, field trips, meetings with museum staff, and practical exercises, students will explore how museums use objects to construct narratives; how they grapple with changing audiences and funding sources; and how they are touchstones for debates over societal values and collective memories. Although the focus will be on art museums, we will examine museums of natural history, material culture, and ethnography to better understand the collecting practices and displays of art museums.

In China, denizens of the imperial court--emperors and entertainers, mighty and low-class, and the ministers who administered the realm in the middle--populated the court praxis of the arts. This course studies the courtly arts, from the rule of the first emperor Qin Shi Huang to the Empress Dowager Cixi in the early 20th century. It will show how these artworks were made and used in changing historical contexts and became an important legacy of Chinese culture. It particularly emphasizes the archaeology of early imperial tombs.