Art History 112 Renaissance to Modern Art
Professor Daniel Zolli MW 12:20 – 1:10 PM (Forum) Office Hours: 202 Borland, We 2-4pm and by appointment Email: [email protected]
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Course Overview: Art History 112U provides a critical introduction to the history of Western art from the Renaissance to Modern Periods. It is an introduction to the process of looking at art and as a preliminary exploration of the methods of art historical interpretation. Although stylistic and formal developments will be explored, our principal focus will be devoted to the function of the arts in the social, political, and religious life of people. Each week, a series of artworks (e.g., painting, sculpture, printmaking, and the decorative arts) will be introduced and discussed from a variety of historical and interpretive perspectives. Although this is not an architecture course we will occasionally discuss buildings because they are often integral to the desired effects and audience of artworks.
Art History 112 presumes no prior knowledge of the subject, and will introduce basic and traditional concepts of chronology, classification, and analysis, along with more contemporary approaches to the material.
Requirements
Readings & Online Material: There is no assigned textbook for this course, for reasons of cost and utility. Rather, the principal readings and videos each week are drawn from two online resources: “Smarthistory” (smarthistory.org) and the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Timeline of Art History (metmuseum.org/toah). Hyperlinks for all reading and viewing assignments are embedded directly into this syllabus. It is my belief that these materials, taken together, offer a far more accessible, and ultimately enriching, introduction to art in the Western tradition. And in tandem with lectures and section, they contain everything you need to master the course and its content. Reading and viewing assignments can be completed in advance of the classes to which they are related, or after, depending on your learning preferences. Do note, as well, that lectures will address artworks not covered in the assignments, yet for which you are responsible in the exams. For this reason, it is imperative that you attend the lectures regularly.
In instances where you want ideas about particular artworks, artists, or concepts reinforced, or simply for a more comprehensive understanding of the subject, you may consult Janson’s History of Art (8th ed., Volume II), which holds closely to the chronology of our course. PDFs of that book, and a list of the page numbers corresponding to each week in our course, may be found on Canvas (under “Janson”), though—again—this is not required reading. Note also that there is a PDF of common art-historical terms on Canvas.
Lecture Slide Sheets: Will be uploaded to Canvas at the beginning of each week (on Monday morning). You may print them out or follow them on your screen.
Three Exams: To occur in section in Weeks 6 and 12, and during Final Exam Week. The exams are non-cumulative, and have a set format:
I. Slide IDs: Identify the artist, title, date, and medium/media of five artworks drawn from the “Lecture Slide Sheets” (the works for which you are responsible appear in bold). 5 minutes / 20 points
II. Short Essay: Presented with two works, you must (i) ID them (as above); and (ii) write a short essay comparing some essential quality that they share (or do not share). 15 minutes / 30 points
III. Longer Essay: Two weeks before each exam, you will receive a list of four questions that address broad themes covered in the course, one of which will appear on the exam. While you may take as much time to prepare as you would like, you may not use notes during the exam. 30 minutes / 50 points
Short Paper: On an artwork of your choosing in the Palmer Museum of Art, which you will study closely in person for at least four hours. The essay will be developed and written in three stages: (i) by Week 3, you will submit a bullet- pointed list of formal observations based on one hour with your artwork; (ii) by Week 8, a 2-3 page formal analysis, having studied it for two more hours; (iii) and by Week 14, a polished piece of writing (5 pages) in which you discuss your artwork in an analytically convincing and rhetorically persuasive manner.
Grading
60% Three Exams (20% each) 20% Short Paper (Phase One = 5%; Phase 2 = 5%; Phase 3 = 10%) 20% Attendance and Participation
Letter Grade Range
100–92.5 = A 89.5–92.5 = A- 86.5–89.5 = B+ 82.5–86.5 = B 79.5–82.5 = B- 76.5–79.5 = C+ 70–76.5 = C 60–70 = D 0–60 = F
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Course Guidelines and Policies
Attendance and Participation: Regular attendance will be taken. If you miss class, it is your responsibility to obtain notes of the day’s material. 3 unexcused absences = reduction of final grade; more than 5 = failure.
Late assignments: will be deducted a half-grade per day (weekends do count).
Email Etiquette: While convenient, email does not substitute for class attendance or office hours. The TAs and I will occasionally communicate with the class via Canvas, but we request that you not abuse email to ask us routine information about the class. If you have a question about a reading or assignment please consult the syllabus first.
Academic Integrity Statement: Academic integrity is a fundamental principle underlying all scholarly work, and a necessity for the creation of an honest and positive learning environment. Accordingly, adherence to the basic precepts of academic integrity is expected in all student work. The dishonest representation of someone else’s work as your own (i.e. cheating, plagiarism) will not be tolerated, nor will acts of deception or falsification. Acknowledgment in your written work of information, points of view, and quotes taken from other sources should always be made through appropriate references (i.e. footnotes, bibliography). Violations of academic integrity will be dealt with in accordance with the policies of the University.
Students with Disabilities: Penn State welcomes students with disabilities into the University’s educational programs. If you have a disability-related need for reasonable academic adjustments in this course, contact the Office for Disability Services (ODS), located in room 116 Boucke Building at 814-863-1807. For further information regarding ODS, please visit their web site at www.equity.psu.edu/ods/ Instructors should be notified as early in the semester as possible regarding the need for reasonable academic adjustments.
Counseling and Psychological Services: Many students at Penn State face personal challenges or have psychological needs that may interfere with their academic progress, social development, or emotional wellbeing. The university offers a variety of confidential services to help you through difficult times, including individual and group counseling, crisis intervention, consultations, online chats, and mental health screenings. These services are provided by staff who welcome all students and embrace a philosophy respectful of clients’ cultural and religious backgrounds, and sensitive to differences in race, ability, gender identity and sexual orientation: Counseling and Psychological Services at University Park (CAPS) (http://studentaffairs.psu.edu/counseling/); Counseling and Psychological Services (http://senate.psu.edu/faculty/counseling-services-at-commonwealth-campuses/); Penn State Crisis Line (24 hours/7 days/week: 877-229-6400); Crisis Text Line (24 hours/7 days/week; Text LIONS to 741741).
Student Resources for Writing About Art
Andrei Pop, How to Do Things with Pictures: A Guide to Writing in Art History (PDF here) David Kim, “Visual Analysis Guidelines” (PDF here)
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COURSE SCHEDULE
WEEK 1 INTRODUCTION AND ‘ TRECENTO’ ITALY ( c. 1300- 1400)
Jan 8 Introduction: Course Themes, Issues and Technical matters
Jan 10 Trecento Italy
Read: Smarthistory (S): “Late Gothic Florence”; “Late Gothic Siena”; “Giotto, Arena Chapel”
Timeline of Art History (T): “Sienese Painting”
Watch: S: “Cimabue, Santa Trinita Madonna”; “Giotto, Ognissanti Madonna”; “Gold-ground panel painting”; “Simone Martini, Annunciation”; optional: “Giotto, Arena (Scrovegni) Chapel” (parts one, two, three, four)
WEEK 2 15TH CENTURY ITALY ( c. 1400– 1450)
Jan 15 No Class — MLK Day
Jan 17 Religious and Corporate Patronage in Italy
Read: S: “Florence in the Early Renaissance”; “Early applications of linear perspective”
Watch: S: “How to recognize Italian Renaissance art”; “Brunelleschi and Ghiberti, Sacrifice of Isaac”; “Orsanmichele and Donatello’s St Mark, Florence”; “Contrapposto”; “Ghiberti, Gates of Paradise”; “Masaccio, Holy Trinity”; “How one-point linear perspective works”
WEEK 3 15TH CENTURY ITALY & NORTHERN EUROPE ( c. 1400- 1500)
Jan 22 Art at the Italian Courts
Jan 24 Fifteenth-Century Northern Europe (guest lecture by Andee Middleton)
☞ Due in Section: Bullet-pointed observations on artwork in Palmer (1 page, hard copy); and read Jennifer Roberts, “The Power of Patience” (optional – link here)
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Read: S: “An Introduction to the Northern Renaissance in the fifteenth century”; “Limbourg brothers, Très Riches Heures”; “Introduction to Fifteenth-century Flanders”; “Introduction to Burgundy in the Fifteenth Century”; “Jan van Eyck, The Ghent Altarpiece”
T: “Jan van Eyck”; optional: “The Ghent Altarpiece”
Watch: S: “Botticelli, La Primavera”; “Donatello, David”; “Piero della Francesca, The Duke & Duchess of Urbino”; “Mantegna, Camera Picta”; “van Eyck, Portrait of a Man in a Red Turban”; “Rogier van der Weyden, Deposition”
WEEK 4 THE HIGH RENAISSANCE IN ITALY I ( c. 1490- 1520)
Jan 29 Leonardo (guest lecture by Kenta Tokushige)
Jan 31 Michelangelo
☞ Distributed in Section: Questions for First Exam, Discussion of Exam Format to Follow
Read: S: “Toward the High Renaissance, an introduction”; “About Leonardo”; “Michelangelo: Sculptor, painter, architect, and poet”; “Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel”
T: “Leonardo da Vinci”
Watch: S: “Leonardo, Virgin of the Rocks”; “Leonardo, Last Supper”; “Michelangelo, Pietà”; “Michelangelo, David”; “Quarrying and carving marble”
WEEK 5 THE HIGH RENAISSANCE IN ITALY II ( c. 1500- 1520)
Feb 5 Giorgione & Early Titian
Feb 7 Raphael
Read: S: “Titian, Pastoral Concert”; “Raphael, Leo X”
T: “Venetian Color and Florentine Design”; “Engraving”
Watch: S: “Oil paint in Venice”; “Giorgione, The Tempest”; “Titian, Assumption of the Virgin”; “Titian, Madonna of the Pesaro Family”; “Raphael, School of Athens”
WEEK 6 16TH CENTURY NORTHERN EUROPE ( c. 1500– 1600)
Feb 12 Albrecht Dürer
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Feb 14 The Reformation and its Impact on Art
☞ First Exam in Section: Covering Weeks 1-5
Read: S: “Introduction to the Northern Renaissance in the 16th century”; “The Protestant Reformation”; optional: “Pieter Aetsen, Meat Stall”
T: “Albrecht Dürer”; “Woodcut”; “Pieter Bruegel the Elder”; optional: “The Reformation”
Watch: S: “Dürer, Self-Portrait (1498)”; “Dürer, Self-Portrait (1500)“; “Dürer’s Woodcuts & Engravings”; “Bruegel, Hunters in the Snow”; “Bruegel, Peasant Wedding”
WEEK 7 LATE RENAISSANCE ITALY (c. 1520– 90)
Feb 19 Mannerism
Feb 21 Art of the Counter-Reformation
Read: S: “Introduction to Mannerism”; “Sofonisba Anguissola, Self-portraits”; “Giambologna, Sabine” “Michelangelo, Last Judgment”; “El Greco, Burial of Count Orgaz”; optional: “Veronese’s trial”
T: “Mannerism: Bronzino and his Contemporaries”
Watch: S: “Pontormo, Deposition from the Cross”; “Bronzino, Allegory with Venus and Cupid”; “Bronzino, Portrait of Eleonora di Toledo and son”; “The Counter-Reformation”; “Veronese, Feast in the House of Levi”; “Tintoretto, Last Supper”
WEEK 8 THE BAROQUE I (c. 1600– 1700)
Feb 26 Italy
Feb 28 Spain
☞ Due in Section: 2-3 page formal analysis of artwork in Palmer (hard copy, stapled)
Read: S: “Baroque art, an introduction”; “Artemesia Gentileschi, Judith Slaying Holofernes”; “Diego Velázquez, The Waterseller of Seville”; “Zurbarán, The Martyrdom of St. Serapion”
T: “Caravaggio and His Followers”; “Gian Lorenzo Bernini”; “Velázquez”
Watch: S: “How to recognize Baroque art”; “Caravaggio, Calling of St. Matthew”; “Bernini, Apollo and Daphne”; “Bernini, Ecstasy of St. Teresa”; “Velázquez, Juan de Pareja and “Las Meninas”
WEEK 9 **SPRING BREAK**
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WEEK 10 THE BAROQUE II (c. 1600– 1700)
Mar 12 Flanders and Dutch Republic I
Mar 14 Dutch Republic II and France
☞ Distributed in Section: Questions for Second Exam
Read: S: “Peter Paul Rubens, Elevation of the Cross”; “Rembrandt van Rijn, The Night Watch”
T: “Rubens and Anthony van Dyck: Paintings”; “Rembrandt: Prints”; “Frans Hals”; “Etching”
Watch: S: “Rubens, Arrival of Marie de Medici at Marseilles”; “Rembrandt, Bathsheba at Her Bath”; “Vermeer, Woman Holding a Balance”; “Poussin, Landscape with St. John”
WEEK 11 ROCOCO & NEOCLASSICISM (c.1700– 1800)
Mar 19 The Rococo in France and England
Mar 21 Neoclassicism
Read: S: “A beginner’s guide to Rococo art”; “Neoclassicism, an introduction”; “Benjamin West, The Death of General Wolfe”; “Jacques Louis David, Oath of the Horatii” and “The Death of Marat”
T: “Watteau”; “Boucher”
Watch: S: “Watteau, Pilgrimage to Cythera”; “Boucher, Madame de Pompadour”; “Fragonard, The Swing”; “Hogarth, A Rake’s Progress”
WEEK 12 ROMANTICISM & REALISM (c. 1800– 1870)
Mar 26 Romanticism
Mar 28 Realism
☞ Second Exam in Section: Covering Weeks 6-11
Read: S: “A beginner’s guide to Romanticism”; “Orientalism”; “Ingres, Odalisque” (parts one and two); “Goya, The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters”; “Goya, The Third of May, 1808”; “Realism, an introduction”; “Courbet, The Stonebreakers”; “Manet, Olympia”
T: “Manet”; optional: “The Legacy of J-L David” and “Goya and the Spanish Enlightenment”
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Watch: S: “J.M.W. Turner, The Slave Ship”; “Géricault, Raft of the Medusa”; “Courbet, A Burial at Ornans”; “Manet, Luncheon on the Grass”
WEEK 13 PHOTOGRAPHY & THE BEGINNING OF MODERNISM (c. 1830–1900)
Apr 2 Early Photography and Impressionism
Apr 4 Post Impressionism, Symbolism, Expressionism (guest lecture by Theresa Cunningham)
Read: S: “Becoming Modern, an introduction”; “Impressionism, an introduction”; “Daguerre, Paris Boulevard”; “Monet, The Gare Saint-Lazare”; “Van Gogh, The Starry Night”; “Cézanne, The Basket of Apples”
T: “Daguerre (1787-1851) and the Invention of Photography”; “Photography and the Civil War”; “Symbolism”; optional: “Cézanne” and “Gauguin”
Watch: S: “Manet, A Bar at the Folies-Bergère”; “Renoir, Luncheon at the Boating Party”; “Seurat, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte”; “Toulouse-Lautrec, At the Moulin Rouge”; “Gaugin, Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?”
WEEK 14 THE EARLY AVANT- GARDES (c. 1900– 1945)
Apr 9 Fauvism, Cubism, Futurism (guest lecture by Laurin Goad)
Apr 11 Dada, Surrealism
☞ Due in Section: Final formal analysis (5-7 pages) of artwork in Palmer (hard copy, stapled)
Read: S: “Fauvism, an introduction”; “Picasso’s Early Work”; “Inventing Cubism”; “Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon”; “Braque, The Portugese”; “ Introduction to Italian Futurism”; “Introduction to Dada”; “Surrealism introduction”
Watch: S: “Matisse, Bonheur de Vivre”; “Brancusi, Bird in Space”; “Duchamp, Fountain”; “Dalí, The Persistence of Memory”; “Meret Oppenheim, Object”
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WEEK 15 POST- WAR ART (c. 1945– 1970)
Apr 16 Political Murals and Abstract Expressionism
Apr 18 Neo-Dada and Pop Art
☞ Distributed in Section: Questions for Third Exam
Read: S: “Rivera, Man at the Crossroads”; “Picasso, Guernica”; “Abstract Expressionism, an introduction”; “The Impact of Abstract Expressionism”; “Pop Art”; optional: “Dubuffet, Child Birth” and “Richter, Uncle Rudi”
Watch: S: “Willem de Kooning, Woman I”; “Why is that important? Looking at Jackson Pollock”; “Rothko, No. 3/No. 13”; “Jasper Johns, Flag”; “Warhol, Marilyn Diptych”
WEEK 16 ART OF THE 1970s
Apr 23 Minimalism, Conceptual Art, Performance Art
Apr 25 Earthworks & Conclusions
Read: “An introduction to Minimalism”; “Donald Judd, Untitled”; “Baldessari, I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art”; “Vito Acconci, Following Piece”; “Beuys, Feet Washing and Conceptual Performance”; “Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty”; “Walter de Maria, The Lightning Field”
Watch: “Haacke, Seurat’s ‘Les Poseuses’”
☞ Third Exam: During Finals Week [date, time, and location TBA]
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