An introduction to the rich artistic traditions in ancient Mesoamerica and Andean South America. We examine major monuments of sculpture, architecture, ceramics, and painting to better understand the culture's world view, socio-political and economic institutions, and religious beliefs. An interdisciplinary approach is used from the fields of anthropology/archaeology, history and ethnology. GE: F, WRT, NWC.   ENROLLMENT BY DISCUSSION SECTION.

Honors section: EC#52514 W 200-250 ARTS 1234D

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Architecture, sculpture, and painting of the Romanesque period in Western Europe from 1050 to 1200 A.D. Prerequisite: upper division standing.
GE: F, WRT

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An Interdisciplinary study of Romanticism in Britain. Topics include: landscape painting and poetry; art and the industrial revolution; London and images of the city; images of childhood; the Gothic revival and more. Prerequisite: not open to freshmen. GE: F, WRT.

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This course provides an introduction to African art through analysis of African visual culture and symbol systems. It evaluates African art in relation to the history and diversity of the continent and also in relation to perceptions and representation of Africa deriving from its encounter with occidental cultures both in antiquity and from the late 15th century into the contemporary era. African arts deploy sophisticated structures of symbolic communication whose meanings are not exhausted by an appeal to aesthetics defined in terms of European notions of "beauty and ugliness". For this and other reasons, an understanding of African aesthetic forms and structural languages are vital to any comprehension of African culture. This course thus provides a cross-cultural survey of aesthetic conventions and styles of African art using examples drawn from the entire continent. Prerequisite: GE: F, NWC, WRT.

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Islamic architecture between 650 and 1400 in its historical context. Prerequisite: not open to freshmen.

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Introduction to art-historical methods, with emphasis on the historical development of current practices, critical theory, debates within the field,and cross-disciplinary dialogues.

Building upon the material you cover in Fall quarter, This course "wraps" the readings you have done with an historiographic background to some of the major methods to which you were introduced, and locates them in their larger theoretical contexts. At the same time, we will attend to the application of these methods or approaches. The course emphasizes close analysis of argumentation, and to the ideology or politics of an argument, asking "who is the audience" and "what are the stakes" in the point of view taken by the author? Prerequisite: graduate standing. Prerequisite: graduate standing.

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LAS TRES GRANDES: GENDER AND POWER IN THE PRECOLUMBIAN AND EARLY COLONIAL AMERICA
This seminar will focus on images of women in the pre- and post-Conquest Americas. Using an interdisciplinary approach to the analysis of visual representations, Precolumbian art can reveal the gender ideologies which structured societies, shaped religious pantheons and cosmologies, and determined paths to prestige and power. With the imposition of Western male and female norms on the colonized peoples, new patterns emerged. Often absent from male-authored texts, instructive representations of women appear in colonial imagery. In spite of the overlay of Euro-Christian iconography, in some of these images the strength of persistent indigenous traditions becomes evident as a form of cultural resistence and even political subversion. Three iconic female figures (“Las Tres Grandes”) will form illuminating case studies: Malinche, the Virgin of Guadalupe and Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz.

In addition to keeping up with the weekly reading assignments, a short, well-written research essay will be due at the end of the quarter on a relevant topic of the student’s choice.
Prerequisite: graduate standing

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