Global Arc

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.

European architecture from 1420 to the mid-18th century with particular emphasis on its historical and social background. The various architectural movements--Renaissance, baroque, and rococo--are studied in terms of important architects and buildings especially of Italy, France, and England. For department majors, this course satisfies the 400-1400 historical period distribution requirement. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

This course introduces the student to the art of the Byzantine Empire from ca. 800 to ca. 1200. Byzantine art has often been opposed to the traditions of western naturalism, and as such has been an undervalued or little-known adjunct to the story of medieval art. In order to develop a more sophisticated understanding of our visual evidence, this course will stress the function of this art within the broader setting of this society. Art theory, the notions of empire and holiness, the burdens of the past and the realities of contemporary praxis will be brought to bear upon our various analyses of material from all media.

Painting, sculpture, and architecture in Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Germany, and Russia, ca. 1450-1800. Special emphasis is placed on the changing roles of court, city, cloister, and aristocracy and the relation of local styles to international trends, including art elsewhere in Europe. For department majors, this course satisfies the 400-1400 historical period distribution requirement. Offered in alternate years. One three-hour seminar.

Photography and violence have been entwined for as long as there have been photos. These images pose questions about the past and present: What are the ethics of global representations of war, so-called natural disasters, and other atrocities? How have violent pictures particularly shaped US culture? What does it mean to bear witness through photographs? Grounded in visual analysis of complex and disturbing images such as photographs of enslaved people and photographs of victims of the Holocaust, this class will engage in rigorous conversations about the meaning, circulation, and power of photos.

The rediscovery of classical antiquity has been the central narrative of Renaissance art history. This class takes the opposite tack to consider how architects reacted to challenges when antiquity offered no precedents. How have architectural responses to particular conditions shaped the modern world? Beginning in the twelfth century with a special focus on France and Italy, we will explore key problems in the history of architecture, including how new technologies and theoretical shifts affected practice. We will examine a set of institutional types to consider how the absence of historical models prompted experiments in building form.

Was Clio Hall built by the Ancient Greeks? McCormick by the Venetians of the Renaissance? Princeton Chapel by English masons of the Middle Ages? Some of the most recognizable architectural landmarks of Princeton's campus were built in reference to past architectural styles. This class will focus on the concept of "neo-styles" in the history of Western architecture, decoration and furniture, from the Renaissance to Postmodernism, interrogating the complex relationships between present needs and past dreams. Each week, students will confront the theoretical context of neo-styles with a series of American architectural case studies.

An often interdisciplinary study of themes and problems in 19th-century art with special attention to recent writing in the field. Possible topics include: the persistence of realism, Impressionism and its aftermath, shifting representations of masculinity and femininity, and the formation of the first European avant-gardes. The course may also center on a particular artistic medium or geographical location. For department majors, this course satisfies the 1800-present historical period distribution requirement. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

An often interdisciplinary study of themes and problems in 20th-century art with special attention to recent writing in the field. Possible topics include: models of abstraction, critiques of the traditional mediums of art, artistic responses to technological transformation and/or political revolution, and artistic explorations of the unconscious. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 3 distribution requirement. Two 90-minute classes.