Viewing an exhibit in Ebert
The art history curriculum develops student capacity to consider visual culture critically within a particular historic context. These courses analyze the production and reception of the visual arts within distinct social, religious, cultural, and political circumstances. Some courses allow students to take part in object-based learning activities and even student-curated exhibitions.
Art History courses at Wooster cover non-Western practices as well as the major periods of the Western canon. Majors complete 12 courses toward art history degrees: eight in art history, one course in studio art, one course in art historical theory & application, and two semesters of Independent Study (I.S.). These courses must be selected from a variety of periods and histories. All students at Wooster complete an I.S. thesis with a faculty advisor.
Student Handbook
Review the Requirements for Senior IS in Art History Additional writing assistance is available through the Writing Center.
Art History Courses
A full listing of available courses and requirements for the major is in the Course Catalog.
An introduction to the art and architecture of the Western world from prehistory through the medieval period. The course will provide foundational skills (tools of analysis and interpretation) as well as general, historical understanding. It focuses on a select number of major developments in a range of media and cultures, emphasizing the ways that works of art function both as aesthetic and material objects and as cultural artifacts and forces. Issues include, for example, sacred spaces, images of the gods, imperial portraiture, and domestic decorations. Annually. [AH]
An introduction to the visual culture of the Western world from the fifteenth century to the present. The course provides tools of analysis and interpretation as well as general, historical understanding. It focuses on a select number of major developments in a range of media and cultures, emphasizing the ways that works of art function both as aesthetic and material objects and as cultural artifacts and forces. Issues include, for example, redefinitions of art in the Italian and Northern Renaissance; realism, modernity and tradition; the tension between self-expression and the art market; and the use of art for political purposes. Annually. [AH]
Explores the artistic and architectural achievements of the early civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Aegean prior to the rise of Greco-Roman culture (3500-500 BCE). Particular focus will be given to the role of intercultural exchange in the region. Students will be introduced to a variety of art historical and archaeological methods including traditional formal (stylistic, iconographic, structural) analysis of monuments as well as contextual (social, economic, gendered) approaches to material culture. Recommended: ARTH-10100 [AH]
A study of the major archaeological sites and monuments in Greece from the prehistoric, archaic, classical and Hellenistic periods. Emphasis on the interrelationship between artistic creativity, material culture, and their social, historical, and intellectual context. [AH]
A study of Roman art, architecture, and archaeology from the Early Empire through Constantine. Emphasis on the interrelationship between artistic creativity, material culture, and their social, historical, and intellectual context. Recommended: ARTH 10100. [AH]
This course will trace the development of art and architecture in the Mediterranean basin and on the European continent, 200-1000 CE – a period that saw the fragmentation of the late Roman Empire, the rise of Christianity, and the migration and settlement of the Germanic peoples. Frequently characterized by the so-called “demise” of Greco-Roman visual culture, the period is best understood in terms of the dynamic intermingling of artistic styles and religious beliefs. Monuments such as the catacombs of early Christian Rome, the ship burials of the North Sea littoral, and the Celtic manuscripts of Ireland will be explored in depth. Recommended: ARTH-10100 [AH, R]
This course introduces students to art and architecture of c.1000-1400 CE in western Europe and the Byzantine Empire and considers a variety of art historical approaches toward the study of objects (style, iconography, technique, etc.) and their cultural contexts. Key socio-historical themes and their impact on the arts will be addressed including pilgrimage,the Crusades, monasticism, feudalism, the role of women as artists and patrons, and cross-cultural artistic exchange. The course will cover a wide range of monuments(monasteries, cathedrals, castles and palaces)and a variety of artistic media (manuscripts,textiles, mosaics, frescoes, ivory, and metalwork). Recommended: ARTH-10100 [AH, R, W]
This course aims at an understanding of Renaissance art by seeing it in relation to broader shifts in the culture of Italy over the course of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. We will study diverse genres of visual representation and the different social spaces where art was displayed. We will follow the careers of major masters like Michelangelo, Raphael and Titian while also exploring the urban centers-Florence, Rome, Venice-where these artists and many others not as well known, produced their works in response to the demands of patrons and institutions (in particular, the Catholic Church). Transformations in artistic practices and representational forms will be related to specific religious, social, political, economic and cultural conditions. Recommended: ARTH-10100 or ARTH-10200 [AH, R]
This course examines the art and architecture produced north of the Alps between the late fourteenth century through the sixteenth century. We will pay particular attention to the connections between art and religious life, including the visualization of the spiritual and the otherworldly and the viewer’s interaction with the devotional image. We will also study court culture, the effect of the Protestant Reformation on artistic production, the problem of “realism,” regional differences in patronage of the arts, exchanges with Italian culture, and the shifting status of the artist. Artists considered include Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden, Matthias Gr newald, Hieronymous Bosch, and Pieter Brueghel. Recommended: ARTH-10100 or ARTH-10200 [AH, R]
The course will explore the art and architecture of the Baroque era, primarily in Italy, Spain, Flanders, and Hollandfrom 1600-1700. This includes such masters as Caravaggio, Bernini, Velázquez, Rubens, Rembrandt, and Vermeer. The works will be studied in the context of the social, political, and religious milieu of the Baroque period, an era of dynamic change and violent conflicts. Recommended: ARTH-10100 or ARTH-10200 [AH, W]
“Whose Renaissance?” This class is an introduction to visual and material cultures in the early era of global expansion and colonization (1450-1600). Through a series of transcultural case studies, we will interrogate conventional approaches to global networks of encounter, exchange, and conflict. Themes include: immigration, commerce, religion, and secience, and as well as definitions of center/periphery, native/foreign, and self/other. Our investigation demands consideration of a broader spectrum of objects; in addition to media like painting, sculpture, and architecture, our purview will include objects like ceramics, gemstones, textiles, and maps.
Surveys major movements and figures in painting, approximately 1789-1885, focusing primarily on France. Changing social and political conditions provide the context for investigating themes such as art’s engagement with history, nature, and urban experience; the place of -gender and class in the formulation of artistic subjects; institutions of art exhibition and criticism; and the relationship between painting and other media such as sculpture, printmaking, and photography. [AH, W]
Examines developments in European painting and sculpture between approximately 1885 and 1950, including selected moments in American art after the turn of the twentieth century. The course will consider major modernist artists and movements that sought to revolutionize and renew vision and experience from FAUVISM to Abstract Expressionism. Issues include modernism’s interest in primitivism and mass culture, theoretical rationales for abstraction, and the impact of industrial production and two world wars on the production and reception of art. Annually. [AH]
(ARTS, FILM)Examines experimental creative strategies in global visual culture since World War II. Topics include the critique of modernism and representation; the emergence of new media and multimedia art forms; and the questioning of agency, identity, and audience in the contemporary art world. Readings range from artists’ statments and critical reviews to historical interpretation and analysis from a variety of perspectives, including formalist, feminsit, multicultural, and post-colonial. [AH]
This course will introduce by region the art and architecture of the African continent from the prehistoric to early modern periods. Representative groups will be explored in depth by considering the impact of historical, geopolitical and social development on traditional art forms/visual culture. Emphasis will be placed on ubiquitous themes such as rulership/social status, gender, performance/ritual, and belief systems. Recommended: ARTH-10100, ARTH-10200, AFST-10000 or HIST-23100 [AH, C, GE, W]
This course will introduce students to the art and architecture of historical Islam from its rise following the death of Mohammed to the imperial age of the Ottomans, Persians, and Mughals, c. 650-1650. Particular attention will be given to the evolution of a distinctive Islamic material culture (calligraphy, textiles, mosques, and palaces), and the development of regional styles that resulted from artistic exchange with indigenous European, African, and Asian traditions. Recommended: ARTH-10100 or ARTH-10200 [AH, C, GE, R]
Explores artistic production by and about peoples of African descent living in the United States, from emancipation to the present. Emphasis on the Harlem Renaissance, expatriate black experience in Paris, art and the New Deal, the civil rights movement and black nationalism, and recent identity politics. The course also considers the idea of a black aesthetic and its impact on American art. Recommended: ARTH-10200 or AFST-10000 [AH, C]
This course examines social, ideological, and economic forces that shaped American painting, sculpture, and architecture from the colonial period to around 1940. Issues considered include representing “nation” in portrait, landscape, and genre painting; constructions of race in ante- and post-bellum America; the expatriation of American artists after the Civil War; the identification of an abstract style with political ascendance in the U.S.; and tensions between the ideal and the real in American cultural expression. [AH]
(ARTS, WGSS)Explores the ideologies and implications of significant gender issues in art and visual culture since the early twentieth century. The goal of the course is to examine social, historical and visual constructions – femininity and masculinity, sexuality and the body, domesticity and the family – by focusing on the place of artistic representation in the modern and current debates about such theoretical and material categories. [AH]
(ARCH) A chronological and contextual study of world architecture and urbanism from the late-medieval period through the end of the eighteenth century. Themes addressed include: the definition of sacred space and the structure of worship in various traditions of religious architecture; the classical tradition and its permutations through Renaissance and Baroque architecture; the development of cities in comparative perspective. [AH, R]
Chicago School to Postmodernism A survey of developments in European and American architecture from the late nineteenth century to the present. The course will examine structural innovations, the impact of the machine on theory and practice, the death and rebirth of ornament, the challenge of urban problems, and the responses of particular architects to the challenges facing designers in the twentieth century. Prerequisite(s): ARTH-10100, ARTH-10200, or ARTH-22300; or permission of the instructor. ARTH-22300 is the preferred prerequisite for students interested in graduate training in architecture.
From their inception around 1400 in Europe, the graphic media have established social functions and aesthetic criteria that differ considerably from those of painting, sculpture, and architecture. This course surveys the techniques and development of printmaking, explores the various implications of the multiplied image on paper, and makes use of the College’s print collection to give students firsthand experience in viewing and interpreting prints. The course culminates with a student-curated exhibition held at The College of Wooster Art Museum. Recommended: ARTH-10100 or ARTH-10200 [AH, W]
A seminar on a specific artist or a limited number of artists, on a theme, problem, or methodological approach offered periodically for students who have taken at least one ARTH 200-level course in the history of art and who wish to concentrate on a defined issue in a collaborative effort by students and faculty. Prerequisite(s): At least 1 ARTH 200-level course
The process of writing about art has played a vital role in forming the conceptual frameworks that art historians draw upon to make sense of past and present cultures. Centering on examples from antiquity through the present day, including Western and nonwestern traditions, this seminar examines approaches to artistic inquiry and material production; it assesses theoretical strategies for understanding the nature and meaning of art. Interdisciplinary in perspectives and scope, we will exercise these lenses to interrogate themes of artistic facture, status and reception, as well as art’s role in shaping social identity, religious expression, political ideology, and cultural experience.
INDEPENDENT STUDY THESIS The first semester of the Senior Independent Study project, in which each student engages in creative and independent research guided by a faculty mentor and which culminates in a thesis and an oral examination in the second semester. Prerequisite(s): ARTH-39800 Annually.
The second semester of the Senior Independent Study project, which culminates in the presentation of a one- or two-person exhibition, the thesis, and an oral examination. Prerequisite(s): ARTH-45100 Annually.
TUTORIAL Independent research and writing under the direction of a faculty member of the department. For advanced students. May be repeated.
Supervised participation for art majors at an art museum or gallery, or with organizations providing pragmatic experience in architectural history, urban planning, or historic preservation. This experience may be student designed, with the consultation of an art history faculty member and a site supervisor, or arranged in the context of an existing program, such as the Harvard Graduate School of Design Summer Career Discovery Program or Habitat for Humanity. Coursework includes a journal and regular communication with the supervising faculty member, and may culminate with a written analysis of the student’s experience. Prerequisite(s): ARTH-10100, and 2 200-level courses in ARTH. Prior consultation with the supervising faculty memeber or the pre-architecture adviser is required.
Course offerings vary per semester.