History of Art 101
Fall 2001
ART of WORLD CIVILIZATIONS BEFORE 1400
Meyerson Hall B3
Professor Holly Pittman
hpittman@mail.sas.upenn.edu
Jaffe History of Art Building
3405 Woodland Walk
Office hours by appointment on Wednesday 3:30-5pm
Preliminary Course Description:
Distributed September 7, 2001
This course is an historical and thematic introduction to the major artistic monuments of world civilizations prior to 1400 C.E. It is designed for students who seek an introduction to the history and the analysis of art as well as for those who desire a foundation for more specialized study in the field. The course begins with the earliest recorded artistic monuments and continues through the High Middle Ages in Europe ending around 1400 A.D. The class attempts a global approach to the presentation of the material, organized around social complexity and cultural evolution.
The class is structured as lectures during which the major monuments are presented, illustrated through 35 mm. slide projection. The lectures and readings are augmented thematically in smaller weekly sections lead by Teaching Assistants. Registration for this course is through sections only. Please be sure that you have registered for an appropriate section, otherwise you will not be registered for the course. Attendance in your scheduled section is mandatory and failure to attend will have a significant effect on your grade. Sections will be held weekly at their appointed hours Monday through Friday in their assigned university space except when they are held at the University of Pennyslvania Museum or the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The first week of sections begins with Monday, September 10th, 2001
Teaching Assistants:
Susie Helft
Required Textbooks:
Laurie Schneider Adams Art Across Time: volume I: Prehistory to the Fourteenth Century, Second Edition
McGraw Hill
This volume is available at the PENN BOOK CENTER. It will also be on reserve in the Fine Arts Library and in the Rosengarten Reading Room of Van Pelt Library.
Additional Sources of Recommended Reading:
The following books will be on reserve in Rosengarten and in the Fisher Fine Arts Library. While these readings are not mandatory, they are highly recommended in order enrich and augment your understanding of the material.
Hugh Honour and John Fleming. The Visual Arts: A History. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J. 1994. Fourth edition
Linnea H. Wren and David J. Wren, Perspectives on Western Art: Source Documents and Readings from the Ancient Near East through the Middle Ages. Harper and Row. 1987
Marvin Trachtenberg, Isabelle Hyman, Architecture from Prehistory to Post Modernism The Western Tradition. Abrams 1986.
Spiro Kostoff, A History of Architecture. Settings and Rituals. 2nd edition. Oxford University Press 1995.
Review materials for both the lectures and the sections will be available through Blackboard.
Course Requirements
1. Attendance at lectures and sections
2. Readings in the textbooks completed at the assigned time.
3. All visual materials introduced in the lectures and sections that is available for review.
4. Two papers. The first paper will be between 3 and 5 pages. It will be a formal analysis of one of a selection of pieces on view in the University Museum. The second paper will be a research paper on one of a selection of topics that will be distributed. Your section leader will discuss the format of each paper with you. The due date for each paper is listed on the weekly schedule. One half letter grade will be deduced for each day of lateness. Extensions will not be granted.
5. One identification quiz early in the semester.
6. A mid-term exam which will consist of slide identifications and short comparison essays.
7. The final examination will consist of slide identifications as well as a small number of unknown slides. A set of comparison essays and a longer essay. The final exam will cover material from the entire course.
8. The final grade will be determined according to the following formula:
lecture attendance and section participation 15%;
term tests 20%; papers 35%; final exam 30%
9. ALL assignments must be turned in or NO grade will be given for the entire class.
10. Plagiarism and cheating of any kind will automatically result in failure of the class
11. Only a doctor’s excuse will be accepted for a missed exam. Make-up exams can be more difficult.
General Schedule presentation of course materials:
Lectures are always held in Meyerson B-3. Normally they are on Mondays, Wednesdays, and some Fridays from 1-1:50 PM. Refer to the detailed syllabus for precise days and subjects of the lectures
September 7, 10:
Introduction to Art History: Goals, Methods, Material
Adams--preface; 1-24.
September 12, 14:
The Prehistoric Beginnings
Adams 26-46
49-50
205
September 17, 19, 24, 26:
Bronze Age Urbanism: Mesopotamia, Egypt, Aegean, South Asia, China
Adams 52-56
79-98
116-126
September 28, October 1,3,5:
Iron Age Empires: Egypt, Assyria, Mediterranean Basin, South Asia, China, New World
Adams 98-113
67-72
72-77
127-130;
143-146; 152
193-204;
October 8, 10. 15, 17:
Axial Age Developments: Greece, Iran, India, China
Adams 146-152/152-161/162-185
72-77
263-270
205-213
Mid term: October 22th
Sections:
I: September 10-14
Fundamentals of Art History
II: September 17-21
visit to University Museum. Royal Cemetery material
III: September 24-28
Construction of Program: The Assyrian Palace
Winter; Pittman
IV: October 1-5
Art and Beauty in the Axial Age
What Primary Sources Tell Us
V: October 15-19
Review for Midterm
Second half of course:
Art of World Religions
October 29, 31, November 2, 5, 7, 9:
Roman, Early Christian, Early Buddhist Architecture and Sculpture,
November 12, 14, 16, 19:
Byzantine, Early Islamic, Early Europe
November 26, 28, 30:
Romanesque, Buddhist and Hindu
December 3, 5, 7, 10
Gothic, Early Renaissance