History of Architecture and Art 111
World Art from the Renaissance to the Present
12-12:50, Lecture Center A-1
Professor Peter Hales
208-A Henry Hall, 413-2461
Office hours: M 1-3 W 1-2 [except when I have meetings] and by appointment
email: pbhales@uic.edu
website: http://www.uic.edu/~pbhales
Note: A downloadable version of this syllabus, in Microsoft WORD and in Wordperfect, is available here:
This is the second half of the survey of world art history, beginning with the Renaissance in Europe, and ending in the shopping malls of Africa sometime in May, 2005. If you're attentive and interested, you will leave this class with a mastery of the broad sweep of human culture-- the way the human world has changed over time, the way different times and places deal with similar ideas, questions, doubts and desires [death, God, love and sex, friendship, aloneness]. You'll look at beautiful paintings of religious subjects, scenes of steamy lust, masks used to call the gods from the forests [or keep them in the forest], airports, shopping malls, cathedrals, country homes, cities glowing and in decay, landscapes transformed by human ambition and human greed. If you're bored in this class, you'll make a good xerox repair-person or food service representative.
This course is what college is supposed to be about: confronting difficult and thrilling issues; seeing and reading of matters you've never seen or thought of before; thinking deeply on difficult subjects; struggling to put into words ideas that you have discovered for yourself, that you believe in, that you are afraid, perhaps, to show to others. I have high ambitions of this course: of myself, my fellow lecturers, my discussion leaders-- and of you.
This is a world survey of art; you will learn not only about Europe and North America, but about Apache, Navajo, and Pueblo arts of native America; about African art, about Japan.. Some will be confusing and new to you. But it may be the artistic and cultural heritage of the person sitting next to you, for whom your everyday life is a strange amalgam of the exotic, the immoral, and the offensive.
The course has four interrelated elements. The readings provide the broad overview and the general context for understanding history, culture, and art since 1400. The lectures look deeply and carefully at individual artists, artworks, buildings, cities, movements, institutions, or moments, to show the way the broad sweep of history is played out in the details and specifics of a time and place. The discussion sections give you close contact with me and with the section teachers, and with each other, and the chance to think about, to discuss, and to question, the arts we study. All three are essential to understanding the subject and all are required. If you enter the lectures without having done the reading, you will probably find yourself completely at a loss as to what is being shown you, and what is being said. You won't last long in the class if you haven't done the reading before the lectures. Similarly, the discussion sections depend upon your understanding of the lectures, and they make it possible for you to get a real understanding of the ideas the lectures and readings convey. But the discussion sections are discussion sections. The lectures are amazingly huge. That's because they're more like theatre than seminars-- you're supposed to sit back and drink it in, actively in your mind and in your notebook, but without a real chance to talk back to the issues. That's why the discussions are set in small rooms with small groups. It's hard to figure out whether it's safe to speak at moments when you don't know other people and are afraid you'll say something-- something wrong! But one of the core experiences of college is learning to take that risk, to say wrong things, flunk papers, be off base, argue, fight, all on the way to figuring out what you understand. That's part of the role of those discussion classes. They're also the places where you can ask questions, of me or the section teachers, review for exams, and get a better sense of the material of the week before.
Let me warn you about two matters sometimes confusing to the student entering this, the second half of the survey. First: the lectures do not reiterate the reading. You will not get a seamless narrative that’s repeated to reemphasize the “major themes” of the reading. The lectures look closely at an issue, applying and questioning the standard explanations found in the book.
Second, the discussion sections are not review sessions. They are the places where you can ask questions or clarify what’s confusing to you.
Questions not acceptable in any portion of this course: “Is this going to be on the test?” “What do you want me to say?” “What do I have to do to get an A?”
Finally, though, there is the work you yourself do: exercises, museum critiques, short papers, exams, and a longer paper involving research. You will not simply talk back to the works of art: you will write about them, in a variety of circumstances. These will engage you in a more solitary way with the materials and with an imaginary audience you will be speaking to, through your words, seeking with those words to convince your reader(s) of the justice and reason in your ideas.
This course has no single teacher. Instead, it is taught by the department as a whole, with one faculty member supervising the course, providing continuity, and directing its outcome. I am the conductor; the orchestra is composed of all the lecturers and the discussion leaders. You will be exposed to a wide variety of subjects, and a wide variety of teaching styles. Some will enthrall you; some will bore you stiff. While you are bored, the person behind you will be full of excitement. Do not think that any lecture or lecturer is more or less important than any other.
I will give about half the lectures. I will also be in many of the discussion sections. And I will be available in my office during office hours and, if you have a problem about meeting during those hours, you can call and make an appointment for another time. This course is my responsibility; don't hesitate to come to me if you have a problem or complaint. If you don't raise these issues, everyone will continue to suffer. I can't promise I'll fix things, but I will do my best.
Readings: You will be reading in a large and fairly expensive textbook: Marilyn Stokstad, Art History. It is large and expensive because it has many large and excellent illustrations. It is available at the bookstore in the basement of Circle Center, or, if they are out, at the Bookstore of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, or, at a discount, on the web at Amazon.com. You will be depending on that book, along with a self-help book for art historians: Sylvan Barnet's A Short Guide to Writing About Art. Finally, we are arranging a packet of special readings– original work on the history of art that is perhaps more difficult, but certainly more rewarding and adventurous than the text. This packet will be available by about the third week, and we’ll tell you where to go to buy it.
None of this is easy reading. I just spent the month of December carrying the fullsize hardback around the country, reading up on the new edition. This is difficult stuff. Plan to read it more than once. It’s chock-full of terms you’ve never heard of, and won’t remember without prodding unless you use them. I was turning to the back glossary regularly. Pilaster. Entablature. Architrave. Be prepared to do the same. Keep a small notebook in which you write down the terms you looked up, divided alphabetically. Go back to it regularly. Work out your own time lines. Most of all, stare, truly stare, at the pictures. Stare at them until they grow in your field of vision and you begin to be transported into them. Don’t try to find analogues in your everyday life. A Jackson Pollock isn’t a childish accident. A De Kooning Woman isn’t like some kid’s fingerpainting exercise from kindergarten. Van Eyck’s Arnolfini Wedding Portrait isn’t what you think it is. That man’s gesture means something. So do his shoes. The world you enter is stranger than the one you live in every day. Use the illustrations as doorways into that marvelous strangeness of the past or the other.
If only the words lived up to the illustrations! Stockstad is not the most visionary of art historians, and the text’s been written by 3 dozen art history Ph.D.s who were too mediocre to get real jobs and ended up editors of the textbook division of Prentice Hall. They pride themselves on sucking the life out of the words and making sure that everything adventurous is “thoroughly grounded in pedagogical necessity. By contrast, Stokstad’s not so bad. She’s a plodder. She doesn’t necessarily organize things in ways you or I would (like: why divide Renaissance painting by the type of paint the artists used?). One of the gifts of university life is realizing that your textbook authors and your professors are limited, biased, petty– in short, human– and to draw from their contributions the best that you can. Stokstad’s your fussy aunt. Barnet’s your fastidious next-door neighbor.
Discussion Sections: Attendance at the discussion sections is not optional. It is required. We will take attendance, and your attendance will have a marked effect on your final grade. If you sign someone else up on the attendance sheet, both you and the student in question will be flunked-- not dropped, flunked-- from the course. Attendance is essential for two reasons. First, the discussion sections give you the chance to have a true seminar on the materials-- to discuss, argue, and come to terms with the paintings, statues, buildings, cities and civilizations, to voice your opinions and to hear those of others, including my graduate student assistants and myself. All of the discussion leaders have studied (or are studying!) with me, and I will vouch for their intelligence, love of the material, and ability to communicate clearly and well. I will spend a good deal of time in these sections as well, so that all of you have real contact with me. Do not let the discussion sections turn into rehashes of the lectures or reviews for the exams. You will be short-shrifting yourself if you do.
Assignments: The study of art involves every part of the intellect-- your ability to remember, to develop and test ideas against hard evidence, intuition, emotion. All of these will be demanded of you in various assignments. Quizzes, both prearranged and surprise, are designed to make sure you are reading, listening and understanding. The midterms test your mastery of the readings and your ability to synthesize the in-depth material of the lectures with the more general material in the readings. Short writing exercises help you confront and put into concrete form your understanding of specific works at the Art Institute. A longer paper enables you to study a subject in greater depth, by reading and studying library materials.
Papers and exercises are due in your discussion section the week listed on this syllabus. LATE PAPERS ARE DOCKED 10% FOR EACH 24 HOURS OR PORTION THEREOF. Still, hand in the papers as soon as you can-- a 40% averages better than a 0%!
Makeup quizzes aren't given. Midterm and final makeups are only given if you have a legitimate written medical excuse, on printed letterhead stationary, with a phone number I can call for confirmation. I mean this seriously. Do not call me or your discussion leader with some lame-ass excuse about the car accident or the train breakdown-- even if it's true.
Grading: Your final grade will be based upon your scores on all the assignments. Each part counts as follows:
Classroom writings, quizzes, and class participation: 10% TOTAL
Exercises: 10% TOTAL
Midterms: 20%` TOTAL
Research Paper: 20%
Final Exam: 30%. You will notice this doesn’t add up to 100%. That 10% is our “fudge factor.” At the end of the semester, we talk about every student, and raise or lower the grade based upon our overall impression of your commitment, interest, ability and performance. In addition, your grade may be raised or lowered based upon your participation in the discussion sections, and upon your attendance at lectures and discussion sections. Outstanding work in one area may compensate for subpar work in other areas, but don’t count on it! These factors account for the “missing” 10%. Your final grade will be a letter grade; all other grades will be number grades.
A=89-100
B=79-88
C=69-78
D=59-68
Below 59= E-- a failing grade.
There is no curve.
But please remember something. The function of this course is not to enable you to get a good grade easily and without stretching. Its function is to open up to you intellectual, emotional and aesthetic skills that you will use for the rest of your lives. All of us, myself included, have taken courses that were FAR from our areas of expertise (for me, 2-variable Calculus, Medieval Philosophy [!], Logic, and French), in which we did dreadfully grade-wise (don’t ask!). But these were vital courses later and in unexpected way (in my case, moving to France, learning about Gothic cathedrals, and writing a book about the Manhattan Project). No employer ever punished us for bad grades in adventurous courses.
That’s why you take courses like this. God forbid you should become an art historian– highly unlikely, and I will try to talk you out of it, even though it is the most fun I have (without waiting in line at Great America for hours, throwing Taylor and Molly up into the air, and a few other unmentionable activities). You take courses like this to be richer in the important ways.
Plagiarism and Cheating: These are not fooling-around offences with me. Your writing assignments and your research papers are to be the product of your own thinking, of the research you've done in multiple books and other sources (encyclopedias and general or unprofessional websites don't count), and of your writing, even if you've read it to people or had them read it and suggest corrections and improvements. In the end, every word must be yours, or it must be quoted or cited in footnotes. If you have any questions about this, consult Sylvan Barnett's book on writing about art. For matters of style and so forth, The Chicago Manual of Style has a shortish paperback version that tells you how to do everything. Remember: we are equipped with state-of-the-art anti-plagiarism software that enables us to scan the following: websites and pages; the standard books and articles on the subject; a database of the “for-sale” papers, essays and materials and, of course, our own databases of scanned materials. We pay good money for these and we use them. If you’re in doubt about what to do, you can always ask for advice. The function of the class is to teach original, disciplined thinking, clear, persuasive writing, and mastery of both a set of concepts and the examples that make those concepts possible. If you don’t do the work, you won’t gain the benefits. Ditto with tests. Don't bring readings or study materials in, and don't leave anything around your desk. Be warned: if you cheat, you will flunk the course-- no excuses, no tears, no "I didn't understand about footnotes" stories. And if it angers me enough, I'll start proceedings to have you dismissed from the university. If you aren't clear about the consequences, read the University Student Discipline Manual-- I'll be glad to lend you mine.
Every year, students go to the Internet and begin to cut-and-paste as if that’s research or writing. It’s not. It’s plagiarism. You may, and should, consult webpages– they’re like books (though often more unreliable); but you’ve got to use quotation marks, and cite the source in standard footnote style, as Barnet shows you.
Every year I write this and still two or three students think they can get away with buying Internet papers or “borrowing” from various pages. Forget it. As I’ve said, the University and the department subscribe to anti-plagiarism search software that is impeccable. You do it: you get tossed from the University.
Starting and Finishing Times: Lectures and discussion sections start promptly at the hour. Please be in your seats with your materials out before the bell rings. If there is steady tardiness, I will station the Tas at the doors to the lecture center at 12:05. I don't like to be so tough about this, but with over 300 students in the class, noise and disruption really makes everyone's concentration hard to keep.
This course vs. Robert Munman’s AH 110:
Yeah: it’s true. Bob’s syllabus is 51 pages long and includes everything you need to know. That was then. This is now. He provided the water wings, the training wheels. This time, we take them off and head out into the surf, down Mount Tam, and off into the great beyond. Don’t complain because you finally get your wish: to be treated like fully autonomous grownups.
Schedule of Lectures
I. Conceiving the Renaissance in Europe: the 15th Century
Reading: Stokstad, Chapter 17
Monday, January 10
What is (the) Renaissance?
Wednesday, January 12
Brunelleschi, Alberti, and Renaissance Architecture
Friday, January 14
Early Renaissance Painting in Florence: The Brancacci Chapel Program
II. Renaissance Italy
Reading: Stokstad, Chapter 18
Monday January 17
MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY: NO CLASS
Wednesday, January 19
Renaissance Monuments and their Sculptural Programs; Nanni di Banco, Ghiberti,
Donatello
Guest Lecturer: Robert Munman
Friday, January 21
Austerity and Profligacy in Renaissance Painting: Piero della Francesca and Sandro Botticelli
III. Heroes of the High Renaissance
Monday January 24
The High Renaissance Genius: Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael
Guest Lecturer: Robert Munman
Wednesday, January 26
Sculpture, Painting and Architecture for the Aristocracy: Patronage and Production
Friday January 28
Northern Renaissance Art: Grunewald, Dürer, Brueghel
IV. Baroque
Reading: Stokstad, Chapter 19
Monday, January 31
Baroque Cities and their Monuments
Wednesday, February 2
Baroque Painting: Caracci, Caravaggio, Gentilleschi, Gaudi, Pietra da Cortona
Friday, February 4
Two Baroque Practices: Rubens and Rembrandt
V. Sites of Power: West and East
Reading: Stokstad, chapters 20,22
Monday, February 7
Comparison: France’s Versailles, Japan’s Katsura Palace
Wednesday, February 9
Japanese Arts of the Morumachi, Momoyama, and Edo periods
Friday, February 11
Arts and Architecture of India after 1200
VI. Africa and America
Readings: Stokstad, Chapter 25, 23
Monday February 14
Architecture of the Dogon and Igbo: Granaries, the World Egg, Togu Na, and the
strange case of the Mbari
Wednesday February 16
Native America and the Arts of Cultural Contact: Navajo, Pueblo, Spaniard, Anglo-American
Friday February 18
Arts of Push-Back: Resistance and Appropriation in Africa and Native America
VII. Rococo, Enlightenment, Neoclassicism and Romanticism: European Arts of
the 19th Century
Reading: Stokstad, Chapter 26
Monday, February 21
Rococo: Architecture of the Drawing Room, Painting of the Social Landscape: Watteau,
Clodion and Fragonard
Wednesday, February 23
Enlightenment, Rationalism and Revolution in Europe and America
Friday, February 25
VIII. Romanticism, Realism and Impressionism in Europe and America
Reading: Stokstad, Chapter 27
Monday, February 28
Mesoamerican Art and Architecture: The Aztec Templo Mayor: Guest Lecturer: Catherine Burdick
Wednesday, March 2
The Tyranny of the Academy and the Generation of 1848: Ingres’ Exoticism, Courbet’s Realism, Daumier and Manet
Friday, March 4
Test Case: Landscapes in America and Europe– Real and Ideal
IX. Industrialism, Urbanism and the End of Romance
Paper Topic choices due in section this week
Monday March 7
Crystal Palaces, White Cities, and the Rising Skyscraper: Architecture in Europe and America
Wednesday March 9
Friday March 11
MIDTERM EXAM
X: Struggling Toward Modernism
Wednesday, March 16
Cezanne and the Struggle toward Modernism
Friday, March 18
Picasso, Braque and the Achievement of the New
XI Spring Break March 21-25.
XII Modernism
Paper: List of sources is due this week in section
Reading: Stokstad, Chapter 28
Monday March 28
Modernity and the Modern City: Architectural Modernism is Born
Wednesday, March 30
A Year: 1913
Friday, April 1
Rational and anti-Rational Modernism(s) dada, Surrealism, Futurism – all appropriate to
April Fools’ Day!
XII.Modernisms
Paper topic sentence and topic paragraph ("abstract") due this week in section
Reading: Stokstad, Chapter 29
Monday April 4
Designing Radical Art: The Bauhaus
Wednesday, April 6
Art and Propaganda: The 1930s in America and Europe
Friday, April 8
Cedar Bar, New York City, 1948: The Triumph of American Painting
XIII. After the War is Over: Architecture and the Arts in America and the Globe
read the following web pages:http://www.moma.org/mies/
and all subpages
http://tigger.uic.edu/~pbhales/Levittown.html
and all subpages
Monday, April 11
1952+: Heroic Prosperity– Architecture and the Postwar American City
Wednesday, April 13
Life, Robert Frank’s The Americans: arts of consensus and alienation
Friday, April 15
Legacies of Dynamism: Black Mountain College, Fluxus, and the Art of Indeterminacy
Guest Lecturer: Hannah Higgins
XIV. Fin de Siecle– When You Were Born vs. Where We Are Now: Millennium’s End
Final, Perfect, Proofread, Coherent, Persuasive, Elegant Version of Paper is Due on Monday in Lecture!
Monday, April 18
After the Heroics: Responses to Abstract Expressionism, 1952-1970
Wednesday, April 20
Popular Arts: Television’s Rise, 1950-2000
Friday, April 22
Global Architecture, 1950-2005
Guest Lecturer: Robert Bruegmann
XV. Contemporary Global Arts: Contests, Intersections, and Negotiations
Monday, April 25
Guest Lecturer: Hannah Higgins
Wednesday, April 27
Friday, April 29: Sky City, Acoma Pueblo and Millennium Park, Chicago: Art as Environment Right Now
FINAL FRIDAY MAY 6, 8-10AM: DO NOT MISS THIS EXAM: THERE WILL BE NO TIME FOR MAKEUPS