This lecture course will focus on Western European figural art from the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, especially on Italian, Flemish, and Dutch examples. Roughly half of the classes will be thematically oriented, including such subjects as "the Baroque," naturalism and
allegory, the continuing impact of the classical theory of humors, miracles and witchcraft, poses and gestures, and art about art. The rest of the classes will concentrate on selected works by individual artists, especially by Caravaggio, Annibale Carracci, Bernini, Poussin, Rubens, Van Dyck, Frans Hals, Rembrandt, Vermeer, and Velazquez.