Global Arc

The Song Dynasty has long been considered the high point of Chinese painting, representing a classical period to which later artists consistently looked back.This seminar will explore the artistic qualities and development of landscape, figure, and flower-and-bird painting and will consider main issues concerning these genres. Such issues include the relative importance of different genres, the relationship between the natural and the human world, the roles of the court and literati in producing art, and the materiality and visuality of Song painting.

This seminar examines the visual arts over the course of Japan's history and, especially, how contemporary Japan makes use of its visual past. The primary focuses are painting, sculpture, architecture, and ceramics, though literature also plays a prominent role. Each week's session is designed to cover an aspect of Japan's visual cultures and build a base of knowledge upon which students will engage Japan, in Japan, over fall break. The seminar will travel to Japan for eight days and, based in Nara, Kyoto, and Tokyo, will visit many of the sites of art studied in Princeton, including temples, museums, and ceramic studios.

Topics in medieval art and/or architecture. Prerequisite: a course in the art of this period or instructor's permission. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 2 distribution requirement. One three-hour seminar.

The emphatic sensuality of Bernini's women--sculptures of historical, allegorical, biblical and mythological females--has endured from their 17th-c creation through their reception in the Me Too era. This course explores Bernini's transformation of insensate stone into seemingly carnal existence and its controversial impact on viewers. We will situate the interplay of touch, desire, erotics, and violence that animates his female bodies in early modern contexts, including notions of gender. Moving into modernity, we will study the imitations his women inspired and the critiques that revisit them from aesthetic, theoretical and feminist lenses.

Architects did not describe themselves as architects in the Renaissance. Sculptors, painters, writers, and engineers all designed buildings while simultaneously - and often primarily - focusing on other arts. What happens when a goldsmith builds a dome or an artillery engineer constructs a staircase? How does an artist's work across various media inform an architectural project, and vice-versa? Using artists including Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Rubens as case studies, this course explores the concept of the early modern multimedia architect to ask: what is architectural about architecture?

The seminar explores the means by which messages of political and religious content were conveyed in Islamic architecture. Selected key monuments or ensembles will be discussed on the basis of their specific historical and religious setting. Special attention will be given to the problem of symbolism in Islamic architecture. For department majors, this course satisfies either the Group 1 or 2 distribution requirement.

How did early modern people depict phenomena they could not see? This course traces attempts to represent the invisible: from angels and the influence of stars and magnets, to microscopic creatures and magical effects. Philosophers, painters and magi puzzled over these unseen forces, beings and structures, seeking to describe them in writings and artworks. We will unpack their arguments and try to reconstruct their practices, including optical tricks and alchemical experiments. The course culminates in a virtual exhibition, curated by students, as we follow in the steps of Renaissance thinkers and artists, and put the invisible on display.

Topics in 15th- and 16th-century art. Prerequisite: a course in the art of this period or instructor's permission. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 2 distribution requirement. One three-hour seminar.

This seminar considers aspects of the interactions of art, science, and magic during the Early Modern Period (the Renaissance) in Europe. Topics include nature studies and natural history, collecting, art and magic, art and astrology, art and alchemy, and art and witchcraft. Students will also have the opportunity to pursue their own special interests.

Examines the global exchange in art and architecture between and among the continents of Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas in the period 1492-1800. The course focuses on the geographical, historical, religious, anthropological, and aesthetic aspects of issues such as cultural encounters, diffusion, transculturation, regionalism, and related topics. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 2 distribution requirement. One three-hour seminar.