ARTH 102 - Syllabus
European Art & Civilization
from 1400

Spring 1999 - Meyerson Hall B1

History of Art 102 studies achievements in European painting, sculpture, and architecture from 1400 to the present. The course requires that students learn 1) to analyze the formal qualities of particular paintings, sculptures, and buildings, 2) to place them in a cultural context, 3) to recognize selected major works, and 4) to become familiar with recent issues of interpretation. These issues include questioning the definition of "art" for its makers, patrons, and audiences; studying the significance of museum collections and exhibitions; and considering the cultural meanings of depictions of political events, of religious figures, of gender and class in "ordinary" people, and of nature.

 I. Texts

1. Hugh Honour and John Fleming, The Visual Arts: A History, 4th ed., Englewood Cliffs, Prentice-Hall, 1995 (Purchase at Penn Book Center, corner of 34th and Samson Streets) [H&F]
2. ARTH 102 Readings Packet (Purchase at Campus Copy Center, 3907 Walnut Street ) [P]
3. James Hall, Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art. N7560.H34. 1979b in the reference collection at the Fisher Fine Arts Library

II. Lectures

 Meetings for lectures and exams will take place on Mondays and Wednesdays and on three Fridays in B-1 Meyerson Hall. See the course calendar below (note also the exceptions from this general rule). You should read the text assignments before the lectures. Not all text assignments will be alluded to in lecture or discussed in section, but they are fundamental to understanding the material.

III. Sections

 Section meetings, held in Meyerson Hall and the Jaffe Building (room numbers will be listed), comprise the third regular hour of the course and are a fundamental part of ARTH 102. Taught by a Teaching Assistant (TA) under the supervision of the professor, sections are devoted to discussion of the issues raised in the lectures, detailed analysis of significant images, and consideration of the readings . The section schedule includes two visits to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, one visit to the Rodin Museum, and a campus tour. YOU MUST REGISTER FOR THE COURSE THROUGH A SECTION (See the attached list of section times), AND YOU MUST BE REGISTERED IN THE SECTION YOU ARE ACTUALLY ATTENDING OR YOU WILL NOT RECEIVE A GRADE OR COURSE CREDIT.

IV. Papers

 Students will write three response papers 2 pages in length (see course calendar for due dates and precise descriptions) and one essay of 5 to 7 pages ( see course calendar for precise description). All papers must be printed (typed) and double-spaced. We assume in ARTH 102 that you can write well, and thus the TA will not identify grammatical problems, but will urge you to consult the Writing Center, 414 Bennett Hall.

V. Midterms and Final Examination

 Midterms will call for two kinds of responses: 1), short answers that identify objects (by artist or architect, title, date, and location if architecture) and state their significance, and 2), brief comparative essays. The final examination will consist of longer essays as well as short-answer questions. Absence from hour tests will be excused only by a medical excuse from Student Health or by a note from an academic advisor in your School Office attesting other circumstances, and there will be no make-up examinations for hour tests.

 VI. Grades

 The final grade will be based on: participation in section, both oral and in the response papers, 30%; hour tests, 15% each; long paper, 20%; final examination, 20%. Credit will be given for improvement over the semester. A final grade of "Incomplete" must be negotiated with your Teaching Assistant, including arrangements for make-up of any outstanding work.

Students taking the course Pass/Fail must complete all tests and assignments.

VII. Study and review arrangements

Visual materials based on the lectures will be available on the website within one week after each lecture. 

COURSE SCHEDULE

Week of Jan 11

L 1 Mon Jan 11: Introduction to the course
L 2 Wed Jan 13: Renaissance Art in Early 15th-c. Italy

Reading: H&F 388-396, 402-405

N.B.: On preparing your readings for section and lectures, see Reading Critically on the syllabus.

Section Meetings begin the week of January 18, in Meyerson B-5 and Jaffe

Week of Jan 18

Section 1: Learning to Look I

Readings: H&F xiii-xxxiii

L 3 Mon Jan 18: Renaissance Art in Later 15-c. Italy

Reading: H&F 405-421

L 4 Wed Jan 20: Renaissance Art in Northern Europe in the 15th and early 16th c.

Reading: H&F 396-401, 427-439

ADD PERIOD ENDS JAN. 22, FRIDAY

  Week of Jan 25

Section 2: Learning to Look II

L 5 Mon Jan 25: High Renaissance in Florence and Rome, 16th c.

Reading: H&F 439-456.

L 6 Wed Jan. 27: Early High Renaissance in 16th c. Venice

Reading: H&F 421-426, 456-465.

Week of Feb 1

Section 3: How do art historians use documents?

Reading: Bellori, "Life of Caravaggio" (1672), P.: As you prepare for discussion, identify the most interesting, surprising, or disturbing aspects of this biography. Suggest how you would use this biography to interpret Caravaggio's work as a painter.

First response paper due: a formal analysis of a painting illustrated in H&F. Consider composition, light, color, space, and other elements that contribute to the effect of the image.

N.B.: For advice on writing, see Guidelines for a well-written paper on the syllabus.

L 7 Mon Feb 1: Michelangelo as heroic artist; style and "Mannerism"

Reading: H&F 466-470

L 8 Wed Feb 3: Art of Spain and North of the Alps, 16th c.

Reading: H&F 471-475

Week of Feb 8

Section 4: Museums: what are the major issues?

Readings: Baxandall, "Exhibiting Intention", and Greenblatt, "Resonance and Wonder," in P. Come to section prepared to discuss the relationship between these authors' major ideas and your own experience in an exhibit you have seen recently.

(No response paper.)

L 9 Mon Feb 8: Grand Schemes: Patronage in Renaissance and Baroque Rome

Wednesday, Feb 10 FIRST MIDTERM, COVERING LECTURES 1 THROUGH 8

L 10 Fri Feb 12: Roman Baroque Painting and Sculpture, 17th c.

Reading: H&F 530-551

DROP PERIOD ENDS FEB. 12 FRIDAY

Week of February 15

Section 5: Visit to Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA): Early Renaissance Galleries. SIGN UP to meet at an appointed afternoon time in the foyer of the West Entrance of the PMA. (No response paper)

L 11 Mon Feb 15: Baroque Art in 17th c. Flanders and Spain

Reading: H&F 535-541 (reread), 551-554

L 12 Wed Feb 17: Dutch (Protestant) Baroque

Reading: H&F 554-566

Week of February 22

Section 6: What are the sources of art's power?

Reading: David Freedberg, "The Power of Images: Response and Repression," P.

Second response paper due. Analyze Freedberg's arguments in relation to your experience of contemporary visual culture.

L 13 Mon Feb 22: Baroque Art and Architecture in England and France

Reading: H&F 566-569.

L 14 Wed Feb 24: The Eighteenth Century: Rococo

Reading: H&F 570-585

Week of March 1

Section 7: Conservation: its general principles.

Reading: Oddy, "Introduction" to The Art of the Conservator, P.

Be prepared to discuss the important terms, assumptions, and procedures that Oddy finds important. (No response paper)

L 15 Mon Mar 1: The Eighteenth Century: Reform and Neoclassicism

Reading: H&F 585-595.

L 16 Wed Mar 3: The Nineteenth Century: Early Romanticism

Reading: H&F 598-611.

********************* SPRING BREAK MARCH 6 THROUGH MARCH 15

Week of March 15

Section 8: Making a "history" painting.

Reading: Barnes, "Shipwreck," in P.

Third response paper due.

Barnes' essay is one chapter in a book of fiction. Analyze the contribution of his "story" to your understanding of how an artist goes about planning and making an image.

L 17 Mon Mar 15: The Nineteenth Century: Later Romanticism

          Reading: H&F 611-623

Week of March 22

Section 9: Visit to the Rodin Museum. SIGN UP to meet at an appointed afternoon time at the Museum (located at 22nd and the Parkway). (No response paper.)

MON, MAR 22: 2ND MIDTERM, COVERING LECTURES 9 THROUGH 17

  L 19 Wed Mar 23: The Late Nineteenth Century: Impressionism

Reading: H&F 656-670

Week of March 29

Section 10: Collecting.

Reading: Neil Harris, "Collective Possession: J. Pierpont Morgan and the American Imagination," P.

Be prepared to discuss Harris's essay in relation to attitudes toward private and institutional collecting in the late twentieth century. (No response paper--you should be working on your long paper).

L 20 Mon Mar 29: The Late Nineteenth Century: Post Impressionism

Reading: H&F 671-678, 684-688

Week of April 5

Section 11: The "avant garde" and the public.

Reading: Steinberg, "Contemporary Art and the Plight of Its Public," in P.

Prepare for this section by assessing Steinberg's major points against your own experience. (No response paper.)

L22 Mon Apr 5: Early Twentieth Century: Modernism; `Primitivism'

Reading: H&F 716-730, 689-713

LONG PAPER DUE Wed. April 7.
Write a five- to seven-page essay on a single work of architecture [see choices below] or on a single painting or sculpture in the Museum of American Art at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (Broad and Cherry Streets) or the PMA. (not covered in class work).  The essay should include formal analysis of the object, a consideration of its placement in the museum (using the criteria of both Baxandall and Greenblatt; in addition see "Guidelines for assessing Museum Displays" in the syllabus), attention to antecedents of its theme (use as your sources your texts and notes from the lectures).  Finally, devote at least one page of the essay to an analysis of the questions that you would ask about this work were you to undertake a full-scale art historical analysis of its meaning.  Document your references to the readings by parentheses in your text, such as (Johns, lecture Friday 24).

Your choices of a work of architecture are:
Second Bank of the United States (on Chestnut between 3rd & 4th)
City Hall The PSFS Building (13th and Market)
Hill House (Penn campus)
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (Broad and Cherry)
Furness Library (Penn campus)

 If you analyze a building, consider its external forms, its plan and interior spaces, its materials, its ornamentation, its historical references (allusions to earlier styles), and its environment. Show how all these elements contribute to its effect. Allude to specific buildings discussed in the course. Use as your sources for vocabulary and points of view your text and notes from the lectures. Document your references to the readings or lectures by parentheses in your text, such as: (Honour and Fleming, p. 404; or Johns, lecture February 26). Finally, devote at least one page of the essay to an analysis of the questions that you would ask about this building were you to undertake a full-scale art historical analysis of its meaning.

If you choose a painting or sculpture, analyze it formally (consider composition, light, color, etc.) and indicate how its visual qualities shape the meaning of its subject. Discuss its placement in the museum (using the criteria of Baxandall and Greenblatt as well as those in "Guidelines for Assessing Museum Displays" in the syllabus). Explain the historical antecedents of its theme (use as your sources your texts and notes from the lectures), citing specific paintings or sculptures discussed in the course. If appropriate, discuss the painting's or sculpture's relationship to the arguments of Freedberg in your readings on the power of repression in art. Finally, devote at least one page of the essay to any analysis of the questions that you would ask about this work were you to undertake a full-scale art historical analysis of its meaning.

 Your choices of paintings and sculptures in the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts are:

• in gallery 2: West, Penn's Treaty with the Indians, 1771-72.
• in gallery 4: Clonney, Militia Training, 1841
  Krimmel, Fourth of July in Centre Square, 1812
• in gallery 6: Lewis, Lake Willoughby, 1867
• in gallery 7: Beaux, Les Derniers Jours d'Enfance
• central back hall: Saint Gaudens, Mr. and Mrs. Wayne Mac Veagh,
  1902 (relief sculpture)
• in gallery 9: Homer, Fox Hunt, 1893
  Peto, The Fish House Door, 1880
  Tarbell, The Breakfast Room, 1903
  Paxton, Girl Sweeping, 1912
  Weir, Midday Rest in New England, 1897

Week of April 12

Section 12: Visit to the Philadelphia Museum of Art--20th century collections. SIGN UP to meet at an appointment afternoon time at the West Entrance.

L 24 Mon Apr 12: Dada and Surrealism.

Reading: HF 745-765

Week of April 19

Section 13: Campus Tour. Meet in front of Meyerson Hall at the time of your regular section meeting.

L 26 Mon Apr 19: Architecture since 1945

Reading: H&F 798-802.

FINAL EXAMINATION, EMPHASIZING LECTURES 18 THROUGH 28, BUT COMPREHENSIVE: (Wednesday, May 5: 8:30-10:30) 

Reading Critically

1. What are the author's major points?
2. How does the author support these points?
3. What kinds of sources does the author use? (published or unpublished writings contemporary with the making of the art, such as correspondence or records of the artist, critical reviews in periodicals or newspapers, diaries or correspondence of those who saw the work; other visual images, including prints; recent art-historical or cultural-historical scholarship about the era of the artist)
4. What are the author's underlying assumptions about art history?
5. What is the author's tone? (gently persuasive, bullying, self-focused, third-person authoritative, etc.)
6. What alternative analyses would you suggest?
7. How would you take these ideas forward (either those of the author, or your own in reaction)?
8. How do the ideas inform other material you are studying? experiences that you have had? How does the essay compare to at least one other essay that you have read for the course?

Guidelines for a well-written paper

Writing clearly is thinking clearly; ideally what you mean cannot be separated from what you write.

1. Make sure that your paper eventually reflects an overall organizational plan. Some writers begin here; others finish here through revision.
2. Use clear topic sentences for each paragraph. Check your overall pattern of organization for logical flow.
3. Aim for clarity. Use short sentences, developing one idea in each sentence, but vary the sentence structure.
4. Aim for precision: choose one subject for your sentence instead of two, one adjective or adverb instead of two. Rely on nouns and verbs.
5. Carry out your analysis with specific examples.
6. Use a rich vocabulary. An apt metaphor causes an idea to spring to life.
7. Avoid: the passive voice; too many linking verbs; gerunds or "ing"-words.
8. Suggestions for the writing process:
• Don't put it off.
• Write everything on the computer. Save frequently, and make back-ups. Resist the temptation to read what you've written; rather, keep writing. You can edit later.
• Combine writing with researching. When you return from the library, write on any part of the project with which you are comfortable, gradually clarifying your thesis and your outline.
• When you have written as much as you can (some days or weeks into the project), print everything you have. Then clarify your thesis and check your development for completeness and coherence. Add or subtract where you need to. Edit now, not earlier.
• Write your introduction last.
• Plan to finish the paper several days before your deadline. Let the work get "cold," and edit it rigorously. Ask a colleague to read and comment on it. Then prepare your final version.
• Remember to treat published material as respectfully as you treat any other property--and as you want others to treat yours. Learn from scholarship, celebrate it, disagree with it, cite it in footnotes and bibliography, and digest it in order to write an argument that flows from your unique intellectual capability and experience.

Guidelines for Assessing Museum Displays

• Judge the effects of the museum architecture, both exterior and interior, especially in the approach to the museum and in the museum lobby.
• In exhibits, pay attention to the directions in which you seem to be pointed. Judge the effects of the lighting and the spacing between objects.
• Assess the placement of the individual objects in relation to the viewer, the information on the labels identifying the individual work, and the wall texts that give more general and historical context (if indeed there are such labels).
• Ask yourself: What does the curator want me to see? What does the curator want me to know about what I am seeing? What is the meaning--artistic, cultural, historical--about the groupings within rooms? Why are these images or objects placed adjacent to each other? Why are these groupings placed in adjacent rooms?
• Would there be a more satisfying installation of these objects?
• Would there be a more satisfying or enlightening interpretation of these objects?