The objective of this two-semester course is to introduce students to the breadth and diversity of the visual arts worldwide. The painting, sculpture, architecture and other cultural artifacts examined will range from the Paleolithic period through the fourteenth century. The class will encompass works from Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas, arranged chronologically in order to provide a more integrated historical context for their production. In addition to the course textbook, readings will be chosen to broaden critical perspectives and to present different methodological approaches. This course is designed for those students with no background in art history as well as for those who may be contemplating a major either in art history or studio. First year students are welcome and encouraged to enroll.

This course studies major themes and issues in painting, sculpture and photography in the United States over two centuries. Among the topics considered will be the development of various genres (portraiture and landscape painting, for example) and the market for those genres; the relationship between artistic production and class, gender and ethnicity, as well as the relationship between art making and national politics. Works of art will be studied through a variety of interpretive lenses, including iconography, style, and the social context in which art objects were produced and received. The class will be conducted as a combination of lecture and discussion and will also introduce students to issues of museum collection and exhibition. Open to all students.

This course will provide a broad overview of art and cultural production in Latin America including: South America, Central America, Mexico and the hispanophone Caribbean. Beginning with a survey of major Pre-Columbian monuments, the class will then go on to examine the contact between Europe and the Americas during the colonial period, the Eurocentrism of the nineteenth century, and finally the re-affirmation of national identity in the modern era. Open to all students.

This class will trace the chronological development of Greek sculpture, vase painting, and architecture from the geometric period through the Hellenistic age. Topics will include the development of the freestanding life-size nude from Egyptian sources, the depiction of myths and daily life in painting, and the political alliances and institutions which shaped Greek architecture. The stylistic vocabulary and iconography set forth in this class not only expressed contemporary beliefs, attitudes, and policies, but also laid the foundation for future Western art and architecture. Open to all students. Requirements will include two papers, a mid-term, and a final.

An examination of art from the age of Constantine to 1000 A.D., including catacomb painting, the early Christian basilica and martyrium, the domed churches of the East, and Byzantine mosaics and icons. The class explores the contrasting aesthetic of the migrations, the "animal style" in art, the Sutton Hoo and Viking ship burials, the golden age of Irish art, the Carolingian "renaissance," the treasures of the Ottonian empire, and the art of the millennium. Special emphasis is given to works in American collections. Open to all students.

This course views the impact of the Eastern and Western cultures on one another as seen through the art of the world. For example, evidence of cross-fertilization can be followed as early as the second millennium B.C., when the "animal style" began in the Near East and spread to China and then westward to Europe, where it was influential in the decoration of Viking personal articles, Carolingian manuscripts, and Scandinavian churches. Broad topics for discussion include the art of Buddhism and the Silk Road; medieval European borrowings from the East; travelers East and West; Arabs as transmitters of Asian technologies; concepts of heaven and hell; Western missionaries and the introduction of Western culture in India, China, and Japan; chinoiserie in European architecture, gardening, and décor; and Japonisme-the influence of the Asian aesthetic on modern art movements. Open to all students.

The course is an introduction to the major painters of the Venetian School: Gentile and Giovanni Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, Carpaccio, Tintoretto, and Veronese. Students investigate the development of independent easel painting, the poetic landscapes of Giorgione, the enigmatic Venuses of Titian and Veronese, the pageantry of Venetian narrative cycles, and the special character of Venetian patronage and of the city itself. The class attempts to define those qualities that made for a distinctively Venetian style.

In the decades following the Mexican Revolution muralists, largely sponsored by the new leftist government, strove to convey utopian notions of nationhood in order to generate an awareness of patriotic values among the masses. Popular themes included scenes of Revolutionary combat, the Spanish conquest, the social customs and festivals of Mexico's indigenous population, and glorified conceptions of the country's pre-Hispanic past. This course will examine the movement's philosophical origins, the murals of the Tres Grandes ("The Three Great Ones") Orozco, Rivera, and Siqueiros, and the work of lesser known Mexican muralists. Also studied will be the movement's wide ranging impact on murals executed under the WPA in the United States throughout the 1930s, in Nicaragua during the 1970s, and in urban Chicano communities, to name just a few. The class will consist of lectures and visits to murals in NYC and other cities. Students will be required to write an extensive research paper and give an oral presentation with slides. Pre-requisites for the class include either Perspectives in World Art II, Survey of Latin American Art, or special permission of the instructor.

Pre-requisite: 100-level course or permission of instructor.