Art 210

Introduction to Art History

Pre-Classical, Ancient, Early Christian and Medieval Art

Text: M. Stokestad, Art History, volume I.

Students are advised to read text ahead of the lectures. Note that the organization of the lectures is different from that of the text.

After class the slides which have been used in lecture will be exhibited in a slide case located in the hallway across from the Art Office. You should plan to visit the slide case for about 15 minutes after each lecture. Your study time at the slide case is the major homework assignment.

For examinations you should be prepared to identify the works as follows: Paintings (including mosaics, vase painting): name of artist (if known), title or subject, city or country of origin, period or style as relevant. Architecture and sculpture: artist (if known), subject, period or style, original location (if appropriate). In addition you should be prepared to demonstrate in brief form an understanding of the issues implicit in the art shown. The works should be weighed against the values of the culture that produced them and, where appropriate, be discussed as vehicles of power, class, ethnicity, gender, etc.

Examinations will take the form of identification of works of art and a brief explanatory essay for each. The final examination will consist of the above and also include a longer essay. In-class assignments may be given, as well as short unannounced quizzes.

A number of study sections are offered. These permit you to participate more freely in discussion in small groups, to review material in a relaxed atmosphere. Their purpose is to support your study needs. The sections may be taken for a unit's credit on a credit/no credit basis, or may be taken without credit. Regular participation in a study section is highly recommended.

Regular attendance in the lecture class is required. Role will be taken. Unexcused absences may affect your grade.

Examinations: Quizzes as given, Two midterms and a final.

Grading method: to be discussed in class.

Instructor: Susan McKillop. Office: Art Department room 103. Hours M 5-6; T 3-5

Reading Assignment:

The initial reading assignment: Introduction and Chapter 1, Prehistory and Prehistoric Art in Europe

EGYPT

Primitive and civilized cultures: Predynastic 4000-3150 BC,

Stylization

Theocracy

Early Dynastic: 3150-2700 BC Dynasty I

Narmer

Old Kingdom: 2700-2190 BC Dynasties III, IV, V-VI

Zoser

Great Pyramids at Giza

Middle Kingdom: 2040-2674 BC Dynasties XI and XII

Mentuhotep

New Kingdom: 1552-1674 BC Dynasties XVIII-XX

Hatshepsut

Tutankhamon

Ramses II

Reading: Chapter 3, Art of Ancient Egypt

ART OF THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST

The fertile crescent

Development of the city-state

Development of Near-Eastern Kingship

Sumerian: 3500-2340 BC

Eannatum

Ziggurat

Death Pit at Ur

Akkadian: 2340-2180 BC

Sargon I

Neo-Sumerian and Old Babylonian

Gudea

Hammurabi

Assyian and Late Assyrian: c. 1350-100 BC; 1000-612 BC

Ashurnasirpal - Nimrud

Sargon II - Khorsabad

Ashurnasirpal - Nineveh

Neo-Babylonian: 612-539 BC

Nebuchadnezzar

The Hanging Gardens at Babylon

Achaemenid Persian: 550-331BC

Reading: Chapter 2, Art of the Ancient Near East

AEGEAN ART

Cycladic: 3000-1600 BC

Minoan Civilization on Crete: 3000-1400 BC

Palace at Knossos

Mycenaean Civilization

Heinrich Schliemann and the discovery of Troy, 1870 AD

Tiryns, 1400-1200 BC

Mycenae, 1600-1200 BC

Reading: Chapter 3, Aegean Art

GREEK ART

"Doric migrations": c. 1100-900 BC

Greek concepts of space; the human body; proportion

Geometric period: c. 1000-c. 700 BC

Orientalizing period: c. 700-600 BC

experimental

Archaic period: 600-480 BC

Black-figured technique of vase-painting

Persian wars 500-480 BC

Classical Period: 480-323 BC

Age of Pericles

The Acropolis, Athens

Red-figured technique of vase painting (beg. c. 530 BC)

Plato, Aristotle

Hellenistic Period: 323 BC-27 BC

Death of Alexander the Great 323 BC

Greece becomes a Roman province: 146 BC

Roman conquest: 27 BC

Reading: Chapter 5, Art of Ancient Greece

ETRUSCAN AND ROMAN ART

Etruscan Civilization: 800-510 BC

Republican period: 510-44 BC

Civil architecture and engineering

Julius Caesar

Susan McKillop Oct 1998