Global Arc

Historical patterns of development in Western European architecture between 300 and 1300: Early Christian through Gothic, with emphasis on Romanesque and Gothic innovations. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 2 distribution requirement. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

Art in late antiquity has often been characterized as an art in decline, but this judgment is relative, relying on standards formulated for art of other periods. Challenging this assumption, we will examine the distinct and powerful transformations within the visual culture of the period between the third and sixth centuries AD. This period witnesses the mutation of the institutions of the Roman Empire into those of the Christian Byzantine Empire. The fundamental change in religious identity that was the basis for this development directly impacted the art from that era that will be the focus of this course.

A technical and historical introduction to manuscript illumination from the invention of the codex to the advent of the printed book. Topics include the history of script and ornament, genres of illuminated manuscripts, the varying relations between text and image, owners of books, circumstances of production. Extensive work with Princeton's manuscript collections. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 2 distribution requirement. Two 90-minute classes. Offered in alternate years.

Painting and sculpture of the formative years of the early Renaissance in Italy (ca. 1250-1400) with emphasis on the cultural, social, and religious concerns that found expression in art. Topics include the relationship between art and piety, the effect of the Black Death, and the rediscovery of the classical heritage. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 2 distribution requirement. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

The fabric and image of the city seen in planning, architecture, and the works of artists and writers. Attention to the city as an ideal and an example, from its foundation to the present, with emphasis on major periods. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 2 distribution requirement. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

The class surveys connections in art of different cultures and continents throughout the world from the first civilizations to the present. Attention will be paid to distinctive and related forms of culture and their expression in art and architecture that includes trade, migration, gift exchanges, war and economics.

The 18th century saw the emergence of the first architectural and engineering schools. Architects and engineers started to compete all over Europe in a time when technical knowledge and efficiency were becoming as important as experience and learnedness. This course provides students with a survey of 18th-century European architecture in the light of the rivalry between two trades on the verge of professionalization. The first weeks will be devoted to the actors of the building world before focusing on the fields of contest between architects and engineers and how this battle defined the nature of each profession, between art and science.

This course will focus upon prints or drawings studied from original works of art. All periods of European art may be considered along with occasional Asian objects. Classes will be conducted in the Princeton University Art Museum, New York (museum and dealer and/or auction house), and possibly Washington D.C. (National Gallery of Art). For fall 2016 the course will study drawings from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century.

This class is an extensive introduction to the materials and techniques of art through the ages. It will involve direct study of works of art in the museum introducing each week a different kind of object and problem drawn from Princeton's extensive collections. Museum staff will help teach classes every week. Students will learn not only how works of art are made, but how intense study of objects can lead to knowledge about them and about the past, and how we can tell who made them. Copies, fakes, and replicas will all be considered. Works of art from a wide variety of times and places will be considered.

In the Western world and since the 18th century, mental asylums and prisons are linked not only by their architectural features - security, isolation, restriction of movements - but also by their common history and the goals of their builders: reforming minds and bodies through isolation and architectural coercion. In this community-engaged course, conceived in partnership with the New Jersey Prison Watch, students will learn the architectural history of Western mental hospitals and correctional facilities, while applying this knowledge to the critical assessment of contemporary facilities in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.