FA 30B History of Art II: from the Renaissance to the Modern Age

FA 30b History of Art II: From the Renaissance to the Modern Age M,W, Th: 11:00-11:50 am (Block D) Professor Jonathan Unglaub [email protected] Office hours: Mondays 1:00-3:00 pm, and by appointment, Mandel Humanities Center 211

Scope and Format: The course offers an overview of art and visual culture in Western Europe from the end of the Middle Ages to the mid-twentieth century. Painting, Sculpture, and, to a lesser degree, architecture and graphic arts, will be considered. The first half of the course covers the Renaissance in Italy and Northern Europe (1300-1600). During these centuries, artists looked to the past, especially to classical antiquity, to achieve an unprecedented naturalism and eloquence in their works. These accomplishments brought about an elevation of the artist’s status in society, and gave rise to a critical tradition. While artworks almost invariably served an ulterior purpose, whether religious or political, artists came to be appreciated for their individual style and genius. The second half of the course, spanning the 17th to the mid 20th centuries, examines how artistic valuation gradually shifted from social institutions -- the Church, aristocracy, or the State encoding its own agenda -- to a greater aesthetic self-consciousness on the part of the public and the artist, motivated, in part, by an increasingly open market. Art evolved from a language embodying dominant cultural ideologies to a vehicle exposing and critiquing these assumptions, and well as manifesting the artist’s individual expression. A renewed appreciation of purely formal and expressive elements emerged, leading to the experimentations of Modernism.

Textbook: Davies, Denny, Hofrichter, Jacobs, Roberts, Simon, Janson's History of Art, 8th edition Vol. 2 (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 2010). 7th edition also acceptable.

Additional Readings on LATTE: Other more substantial readings are assigned for the majority of meetings, and are posted on LATTE. They include primary source material, contemporary criticism, and scholarly essays, providing essential cultural and historical background, and more probing analysis of the artworks covered. These should be read carefully, and reflectively. These readings should be prepared for the class date, under which they are listed on the syllabus. Those with * are recommended, but not required.

Study Guides and LATTE: Study guides will be distributed concurrent with the presentation of material in class. These will list the images, names, terms, and information you are required to know for the exams. They will also be posted on the course LATTE site, along with paper assignments and the syllabus.

Images and ARTSTOR: Images correlated to the Study guides will be posted under a separate module on LATTE. These files will be ARTSTOR “off-line image viewer” (OIV) presentations. To open and view these files you will have to download the free OIV software. Instructions are posted on LATTE.

Museum trips: A mandatory visit to the Museum of Fine Arts Boston (MFA) will be scheduled toward the end of the term, focusing on artists covered in class from the 17th- early 20th centuries. We will find a mutually convenient time to schedule this visit in several groups. The course is designed to take full advantage of the exceptional resources of area museums, both through our visit and your written assignments, based on works at both the MFA and the Harvard University Art Museums in Cambridge. Your Brandeis ID grants you admission to the MFA.

Requirements: 2

There will be midterm quiz and final exams on the dates indicated in the syllabus. Their format will include slide identifications with short-answer questions, and longer essays based on slide comparisons. There will also be two papers, each based on the direct visual analysis of original works of art at the MFA and the Harvard Art Museums. The first will be 4 pages, the second 7 pages. 3

Grade distribution: Museum Paper I 20% Friday, February 5th Midterm Quiz 20% Wednesday, February 25th Museum Paper II 30% Friday, April 17th Final Exam 30% Tuesday, May 5th, 9:15am - 12:15pm Attendance (After 2 unexcused absences, 1 point will be deducted from one’s overall average for each additional absence)

Schedule of Classes (Janson, 7 th ed.; Janson, 8 th ed. ):

Week of January 12th M: Principles of Visual Analysis, Narrative, and Tradition Janson, XXI-XXXI; Janson, XXI-XXXI. W: Giotto and Late Medieval Italy Janson, 437-63; Janson, 437-63. * Derbes, Anne and Mark Sandona, “Barren Metal and the Fruitful Womb: The Program of Giotto’s Arena Chapel in Padua,” Art Bulletin 80 (1998): 274-91. Th: Early Renaissance Sculpture and Architecture Janson, 503-515, 533-4, 544-5; Janson, 505-23, 534-5, 546-7. Vasari, Giorgio, “Preface to Part II,” The Lives of the Artists, transl. Julia Conway Bondanella and Peter Bondanella (Oxford, 1991), 47-58.

Week of January 19th M: No class, MLK day W: Masaccio, Alberti, and Visual Story-Telling Janson, 513 (on Perspective), 515-25; Janson, 516 (on Perpsective), 525-30. Alberti, Leon Battista, On Painting, transl. Cecil Grayson (London: Penguin, 1991), 54-8, 72-81, 87-96. Th: Later Fifteenth-Century Painting in Italy Janson, 527-30, 535-52; Janson, 530-33, 536-45, 548-54.

Week of January 26th M: Campin, Jan Van Eyck, Van Der Weyden and the Renaissance in the North Janson, 476-87; Janson, 476-87. Seidel, Linda, “Jan Van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait: Business as Usual?” Critical Inquiry 16 (1989): 55-86. W: Leonardo da Vinci Janson, 555-62; Janson, 557-65. Leonardo da Vinci, On Painting, transl. Martin Kemp and Margaret Walker (New Haven: Yale UP, 1989), 20-46, 76-81, 144-50, 199-202. Th: Raphael Janson, 573-79; Janson, 577-583. Vasari, "Preface to Part III," "Life of Raphael," The Lives of the Artists, transl. Julia Conway Bondanella and Peter Bondanella (Oxford, 1991), 277-83, 305-318, 331-8. * Heinrich Wolfflin, “IV: Raphael,” in Classic Art: An Introduction to the Italian Renaissance, (London, 1994), 87-100.

Week of February 2nd M: Early Michelangelo and the Sistine Ceiling Janson, 564-67, 569-73; Janson, 568-77. 4

Vasari, “Life of Michelangelo,” The Lives of the Artists, transl. Julia Conway Bondanella and Peter Bondanella (Oxford, 1991), 424-30; 438-450. W: Body and Spirit: Later Michelangelo Janson, 563-4, 596-8; Janson, 571-72, 603-5. Vasari, “Life of Michelangelo,” The Lives of the Artists, transl. Julia Conway Bondanella and Peter Bondanella (Oxford, 1991), 430-34. Selected Poems, from James Saslow, The Poetry of Michelangelo (New Haven, 1991).

Th: Bramante, Saint Peter’s and later Renaissance Architecture Janson, 563-4, 598-603, 609, 616-18; Janson, 565-68, 605-9, 613-17. * Ackerman, James, “The Basilica of Saint Peter,” in The Architecture of Michelangelo (Chicago,1986), 193-220. Friday, February 5th, Museum Paper I due

Week of February 9th M: Painting in Renaissance Venice Janson, 580-84, 610-615; Janson, 584-88; 617-22. Rosand, David, “Venetian Aesthetic and the Disegno-Colorito Controversy,” In Painting in Sixteenth-Century Venice, rev. ed. (Cambridge University Press, 1997), 10-25. W: Bosch, Grunewald, and Dürer: Piety, Fantasy and Artistic identity. Janson, 489-93, 633-9; Janson, 490-93; 635-39. Koerner, Joseph Leo, from The Moment of Self-Portraiture in German Renaissance Art (Chicago: 1993), 63-85, 139-42. Th: The Reformation and Printmaking, and their consequences: Dürer and Bruegel Janson, 632-3, 638-45, 648-56; Janson, 634-35; 638-47, 650-58.

Week of February 16th: February break

Week of February 23rd M: Counter-Reformation and Caravaggio Janson, 613-14, 659-65; Janson, 620-21, 661-67. Bellori, Giovanni Pietro, “Life of Caravaggio,” repr. in Howard Hibbard, Caravaggio (New York, 1983), 360-74.

W: Wednesday, February 25th, Midterm Quiz

Th: The Legacy of Caravaggio: Artemisia Gentileschi and her contemporaries Janson, 665-7; Janson, 667-69. Garrard, Mary, “Artemisia and Susanna,” Feminism and Art History: Questioning the Litany (New York, 1982), 147-171.

Week of March 2nd M: The Art of Bernini: Dissolving boundaries Janson, 683-86; Janson, 684-89. Hibbard, Howard, Bernini (Harmondsworth, 1965), 45-64, 128-141. W: Baroque Art and Architecture in Italy and the Church Triumphant Janson, 668-80; Janson, 670-82. Th: Spain,Velázquez and Las Meninas Janson, 629-32, 688-94; Janson, 631-34; 689-96. Steinberg, Leo, “Velasquez’s Las Meninas,” October 19 (1981): 45-54. 5

Week of March 9th M: Rubens and the Catholic Netherlands Janson, 697-706; Janson, 699-708. Carroll, Margaret, “The Erotics of Absolutism: Rubens and the Mystification of Sexual Violence,” Representations 25 (1989): 3-30. W: Rembrandt Janson, 715-21; Janson, 718-24. Riegl, Aloïs, “Excerpts from The Dutch Group Portrait,” trans. B. Binstock, October 74 (1995): 3-30. Th: Vermeer and the Dutch Interior World Janson, 721-30; Janson, 725-34. * Alpers, Svetlana, The Art of Describing, (Chicago, 1983), from Chapter IV: “The Mapping Impulse in Dutch Art,” 119-24.

Week of March 16th M: France under the Sun King: Classicism and Absolutism Janson, 733-48; Janson, 737-52. Le Brun, Charles, “Conference on Poussin’s Israelites Gathering the Manna,” in Art in Theory 1648-1815, ed. Harrison, Wood, Gaiger (Oxford, 2000), 123-131. W: Private Pleasure and Public Discourse: Eighteenth-Century French Art Janson, 757-66, 814-7; Janson, 761-71, 810-13. Diderot, Denis, from “Salon of 1763,” in Art in Theory 1648-1815, ed. Harrison, Wood, Gaiger (Oxford, 2000), 602-608. Th: Neoclassicism: David, Revolution and the Heroic Ideal (Professor Unglaub out of town, rescheduling TBA) Janson, 817-20; Janson, 813-17. * Crow, Thomas, “Patriotism and Virtue: David to the Young Ingres,” in Nineteenth-Century Art: A Critical History, New York, 2002, 18-51.

Monday March 23rd M: Goya: Revolutionary Wit and Horror Janson, 823-8; Janson, 821-5. Licht, Fred, Goya: The Origins of the Modern Temperament in Art (New York, 1979), 104-127. W: Romanticism and Human Tragedy Janson, 842-8; Janson, 840-47. Crow, Thomas, “Classicism in Crisis: Gros to Delacroix,” in Nineteenth-Century Art: A Critical History, New York, 2002, 63-81. * Th: Landscape, Mysticism and National identity in the Nineteenth-Century Janson, 829-37, 849-50; Janson, 827-35, 847-49. Friedrich Ramdohr and Caspar David Friedrich on the Cross in the Mountains, in Art in Theory 1648-1815, ed. Harrison, Wood, Gaiger (Oxford, 2000), 1012-27. John Ruskin on Turner, from “Modern Painters (1843),” in Lorenz Eitner, ed. Neoclassicism and Romanticism 1750-1850, Engelwood Cliffs, 1970, 78-82.

Week of March 30th Professor U in Europe – guest lectures, make-up classes and/or and films TBA (perhaps 3/26* as well) – the following topics/readings are tentative and may be altered M: Courbet, Manet, and The Painting of Modern Life Janson, 861-5, 870-2; Janson, 859-64, 868-70. * Rubin, James, “Autobiography and Social Vision: World Prophecy from the Studio,” in Courbet (London, 1997): 135-154. W: Manet and Painting Women in Nineteenth-Century Paris Clark, T. J., “Olympia’s Choice,” from The Painting of Modern Life (Princeton, 1984), 79-146. Th: Diversions of Paris, the Countryside, and the New Painting: Monet, Degas, and Impressionism Janson, 872-78; Janson, 870-78. Louis Leroy, “Exhibition of the Impressionists (1874),” from John Rewald, A History of Impressionism, New York, 1973, 273-6.

Week of April 6th: Passover break

Week of April 13th M: Later Impressionism, Neo-Impressionism and Urban Life: Monet, Manet, Seurat Janson, 880-81, 908-12; Janson, 877-881; 908-12. W: From the Depths of the Psyche to Ends of the Earth: Van Gogh, Gauguin, Rodin Janson, 912-918, 927-8; Janson, 912-917, 924-7. 7

Shapiro, Meyer, “On a Painting by Van Gogh,” in Modern Art (New York, 1978): 87-99. Gauguin, “Letters on his Paintings,” in Herschel Chipp, ed. Theories of Modern Art, Berkeley, 1968, 67-77. Th: Color, Shape, and Form: Cezanne to Matisse Janson, 905-8, 945-9; Janson, 905-8, 945-9. Cezanne, “Excerpts from his Letters”; Matisse, “Notes of a Painter,” in Herschel Chipp, ed., Theories of Modern Art (Berkeley, 1968), 16-23, 130-137.

Paper II, due Friday, April 17th

On a mutually agreed-upon time, probably Thursday or Friday Evenings, April 19th or 20th, or during the day on Sunday, April 22nd, class meets at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Week of April 20th M: Early Picasso and Demoiselles D’Avignon Janson, 949-52; Janson, 949-52. Steinberg, Leo, “The Philosophical Brothel,” October 44 (1988): 7-74.

W: Cubism and Expressionism Janson, 952-60, 993-5, 1031-34; Janson, 952-61, 993-94, 1030-32. Kahnweihler, Daniel, from “The Rise of Cubism,” in Herschel Chipp, ed., Theories of Modern Art (Berkeley, 1968), 248-59. Th: Modernisms and the Legacy of the Avant-Garde Janson, 968-71, 983-7, 996-98, 1007-8; Janson, 969-72, 983-87, 995-99, 1005-7. Walter Benjamin, from “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Production (1962),” in Charles Harrison and Paul Wood, Art in Theory 1900-2000, Oxford, 2003, 520-27.

Week of April 27th M: Post-War Art in America Janson, 1037-57; Janson, 1035-56. Harold Rosenberg, from “The American Action Painters (1952),” in Charles Harrison and Paul Wood, Art in Theory 1900-2000, Oxford, 2003, 589-92.

FINAL EXAM: Tuesday, May 5th, 9:15am - 12:15pm