Course Listings

HISTORY OF ART and ARCHITECTURE COURSE OFFERINGS

 

SUMMER SESSION 2

HART 2325: Great Masters of the Italian Renaissance.
A roughly chronological introductory survey of the major developments in Italian Art from the late Gothic to the High Renaissance, ca. 1300-1520. Landmarks in painting, sculpture, and architecture in central Italy, focusing on Siena, Florence, and Rome. Trecento Sienese masters Duccio and the Lorenzetti; Giotto, Masaccio, Donatello, Botticelli, and Leonardo in Florence; and Michelangelo and Raphael in Rome. Tempera and fresco technique; civic, ecclesiastic, and domestic buildings; stylistic progression, context and meaning. This course will count toward the "Renaissance and Baroque" area requirement for the HART Major; counts toward HART Minor, ARCH Major, ARCH Minor as an elective. [3] Sheri Shaneyfelt (AXLE: INT).

 

FALL 2024

Note that courses are arranged by Subject Area :   Introductory survey courses, 1000W courses, then courses in Global, Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque, and Modern Art, followed by Elective courses and Advanced Seminars.

  

HART 1105: History of Western Art: Renaissance to Modern Art. 
An introductory survey of Western art history from the Renaissance to the Modern period, considering primarily painting, sculpture, and architecture. Please note that the chronological and thematic range of material covered will vary somewhat depending on the instructor. HART 1105 is intended to provide a historical understanding of the major artistic movements within the Western visual tradition, and to encourage students to develop a literate and critical eye. Attention is given to works of specific artists, as well as cultural factors that affect the visual arts from production to reception. Counts toward HART Major, Minor, and ARCH Major, Minor as a 1000-level course. [3] Jack Crawford. (AXLE: HCA). 

 

HART 1200: Arts of East Asia.
An exploration of the cultural traditions of East Asia--China, Japan, and Korea--including sculpture, painting, and architecture with a focus on historical, religious, philosophical, and cultural background. Early funerary and Buddhist art in East Asia; the early modern – Ming/Qing (China), Choson (Korea), and Edo (Japan) – from the 14^th century onward; modern and contemporary eras from the mid-19^th to the 21st century. Counts toward HART Major, Minor, and ARCH Major, Minor as a 1000-level course. [3] Tracy Miller. (AXLE: INT).

 

HART 1210W: Art and Ritual in Asia. 
This course explores the arts of Asia through the lens of their ritual function across time. We will ask the questions: How has art-making developed in response to social and religious rituals over the course of centuries? In what ways have diverse social formations and religious traditions shaped rituals to suit their needs, and what are the different roles that the arts have played in them? What characteristics unite, as well as distinguish, the arts of the different Asian sub-regions? Finally, in the age of globalization, how have various cultures preserved their artistic traditions and rituals? Class time will be divided between lecture and discussions of both Asian art—in China, Japan, Korea, India, and elsewhere—and the craft of writing itself. The collections of the Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery will provide prompts for some writing activities. Will count toward the HART Major or Minor as an elective with departmental permission. (Note: the “Global” requirement for the HART major requires a 2000-level course or above, see below in course listings). [3] Susan Dine. (AXLE: INT). 

 

HART 1500W: Impressionism. 
Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Cassatt, Morisot, and the other members of the French Impressionist group pioneered a painting style that emphasized changing atmospheric effects. They focused much of their efforts on capturing the transformation of Paris in the 1860s and '70s under the influence of the Emperor Napoleon III, as well as on the suburbs and rural landscapes.  Impressionists stressed the qualities of "modernity"--especially its fleetingness and ephemerality--as defined by poet Charles Baudelaire in the 1860s. This seminar will examine the work of the French Impressionists from formal, social, political, and intellectual perspectives and in doing so will make use of the collections of the Vanderbilt Library and Fine Arts Gallery. In addition, the seminar will consider the international impact of French Impressionism elsewhere in Europe and in North America. Writing assignments will address descriptive, analytic, critical, and historical modes. Will count toward the HART Major or Minor as an elective with departmental permission. [3] Kevin Murphy. (AXLE: HCA).

 

HART 1740W: Introduction to Design Studies.
Design encompasses us. From the typeface in which these words are printed to the buildings that keep our classrooms comfortable to the forester-managed national parks that we visit in order to escape the artificial city, we inhabit an age in which everything on our planet is a product of human design. And designers, born into a thoroughly designed world, continue to revise and recreate that world. Indeed, the relationship between design and society are profoundly reciprocal. This class critically examines the exchange between the designed world of objects, images, and experiences, and the culture that creates, manipulates, and absorbs these designs. Our work together will lead to new questions and innovative ways of thinking about our material and immaterial worlds. Will count toward the HART Major or Minor as an elective with departmental permission; counts toward ARCH Major, Minor as a 1000-level course. [3] Matthew Worsnick. (AXLE: HCA).

 

HART 2130: Arts of Japan.
Artistic production from the Neolithic through Meiji periods in relation to religious and cultural contexts. This course will count toward the “Global” area requirement for the HART Major, HART Minor; and ARCH Major, ARCH Minor. [3] Susan Dine. (AXLE: HCA).

 

HART 2192: Modern and Contemporary African Art.
1940 to present. Painting, sculpture, photography, performance and film examined in relationship to political, cultural, historical, and aesthetic contexts on and off the African continent. Tradition, colonialism and post-colonialism, diaspora, nationalism, and gender. Issues regarding collecting, exhibiting, and selling contemporary African art. This course will count toward the “Global” or the “Modern” area requirement for the HART Major, HART Minor. [3] Amanda Hellman. (AXLE: INT).

 

HART 2815W: Digital Heritage, Methods and Practice: The Chinese Temple.
This class will focus on digital approaches to artwork, architecture and built assemblages (monasteries and temple complexes) and spiritual landscapes of premodern China. Class time will be divided between substance and practice: 1) We will study the architecture, setting, and decoration of temple buildings in China; and 2) We will learn about the underlying theory of heritage studies, international translation practices for technical terminology, and gain practical experience in data curation for cultural heritage sites. Students will gain experience in research methods relating to the technical terminology used to describe individual buildings and temple sites, including structural and stylistic concepts and their translation and interpretation for different cultural environments--highly desirable skills in current art and architectural history, museum work, and heritage studies. Final projects will focus on studies of form, subject, iconography, and the cultural and religious contexts of timber frame architecture, architectural ceramics, and the materiality of temples in the Chinese context. Pre-requisite: 1 year of Chinese language (or the equivalent). This course will count toward the “Global” area requirement for the HART Major; HART Minor; ARCH Major, ARCH Minor. [3] Tracy Miller. (AXLE: HCA).

 

ANTH 2231: Ancient Andean Civilizations.
Introduction to the archaeology and peoples of ancient South America. Early hunters and gatherers, origins of agriculture and urbanism, and the rise and fall of the Huari and Inca empires. This course will count toward the “Ancient” area requirement for the HART Major; HART Minor in the Fall 2024 semester; ARCH Major, ARCH Minor. [3] Michelle Young, Anthropology. (AXLE: INT).

 

HART 2270: Early Christian and Byzantine Art.
The development of architecture, sculpture, painting, and the minor arts from the third through eleventh centuries. This course will count toward the “Medieval” area requirement for the HART Major, HART Minor; and ARCH Major, ARCH Minor. [3] Jelena Bogdanovic. (AXLE: HCA).

 

HART 2320W: The Italian Renaissance Workshop.
A consideration of Italian Renaissance artists' workshops and the collaborative artistic process, covering material from the 14th into the 16th century, but with a focus on the fifteenth century in Florence. We will study the organization, structure, and production of shops, painting and sculpture techniques, and the role of artists in society. Case studies will include artists such as Lorenzo Ghiberti, Donatello, Fra Angelico, Andrea del Verrocchio and the young Leonardo da Vinci, and Sandro Botticelli. This course will count toward the "Renaissance and Baroque" area requirement for the HART Major; HART Minor. [3] Sheri Shaneyfelt. (AXLE: HCA).

 

HART 2330: Italian Renaissance Art after 1500.
High Renaissance and Mannerist art in sixteenth-century Italy, considering Florentine masters such as Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Pontormo, the Roman school of Raphael, and the Venetians from Giorgione and Titian to Tintoretto and Veronese. This course will count toward the "Renaissance and Baroque" area requirement for the HART Major; HART Minor. [3] Sheri Shaneyfelt. (AXLE: HCA). 

 

HART 2710: Twentieth-Century European Art. 

A survey of major movements and artists, with examples from painting, architecture, prints, sculpture, performance and conceptual art, music, and cinema. Emphasis is placed on a close examination of the stylistic elements of the artworks, with that analysis contextualized within the social, political, and economic dynamics of the time in which they were made. Instruction places a heavy emphasis on the ideological nature of art and on its role as a major indicator of its time and place. This course will count toward the "Modern" area requirement for the HART Major; HART Minor. [3] Jack Crawford. (AXLE: HCA).

 

HART 2720: Modern Architecture.
 
What is modernity, and how can and should it manifest in built form? Can the built environment change society? Politics? Can it be inherently just or unjust? What is encompassed by architecture?...Buildings? Drawings? Cities? Vehicles? Manifestoes? Networks? These are among the questions addressed by the architects and intellectuals who collectively created and advanced architectural Modernism. The same body of questions faces contemporary scholars and practitioners, who today appraise these questions and the debates over them for clues to understanding history, theory, society, and practice. We will consider the history of architecture from the mid 19th century to the near-present. The course will focus on, but will not be limited to, architectural Modernism as ideological system and body of production, setting a critical, retrospective eye on its self-definition, its evolution, and its divergent and heretical currents. The course will engage the canon of modernism on its own terms and in light of its lesser-known and repressed alternatives, highlighting in particular its failures with regard to gender and race. Indeed, the course will examine and question the validity of the category of Modernism itself. The relationships among historical events, philosophical currents, and the production of the built world will feature prominently, with an emphasis on architecture’s dual character as cultural output and usable product. This course will count toward the “Modern” area requirement for the HART Major; HART Minor, and ARCH Major, Minor. [3] Matthew Worsnick. (AXLE: HCA).

 

HART 2760: Early American Modernism, 1865-1945.
Painting and sculpture of the United States between the Civil War and the Second World War with emphasis on iconography, social history, class, and gender. Works of artists such as Homer, Duchamp, O’Keeffe, Douglas, Hopper, Obata, and Pollock. This course will count toward the "Modern" area requirement for the HART Major; HART Minor. [3] Lee Ann Custer. (AXLE: US).

 

HART 2775: History of Prints.
Woodcut, engraving, etching, and lithography from the fifteenth to the twentieth century. Scientific, devotional, ornamental, and documentary functions. Dürer, Piranesi, Hogarth, Daumier, and Kollwitz. Advances in technique and marketing, relationship to fine art, and place in popular culture. This course will count as an Elective for the HART Major; HART Minor. [3] Kevin Murphy. (AXLE: HCA).

 

HART 2780: History of Western Urbanism.
Urban form and planning from antiquity to the present. The integration of architecture and landscape. Diachronic surveys. Case studies, including Los Angeles and Nashville. This course will count as an Elective for the HART Major; HART Minor, and ARCH Major, ARCH Minor. [3] Peter Chesney. (AXLE: P).

 

HART 2805: Introduction to Museum Studies.
Fundamentals of museum history; diversity, theory, current practices, and ethics related to collecting and collection management, interpretation, and display. Global perspectives with emphasis on Euro-American museums. Museums of Art, Anthropology, History, and Science. Includes site visits to local museums. This course will count as an Elective for the HART Major; HART Minor. [3] Susan Dine. (AXLE: P).

 

HART 2810W: Museum Exhibition: History of Portraiture.
Culture of museums and exhibition. Object handling, storage, and display. Ethics of exhibition including of objects from various cultures. Contextual presentation of art. May be repeated for credit once if there is no duplication in topic and not twice from the same instructor. In the Fall 2024 semester iteration of this course, the topic is History of Portraiture, and taught in association with the Americans Who Tell the Truth exhibition project at the Curb Center. This course will count as an Elective for the HART Major; HART Minor. [3] Jack Crawford. (AXLE: P).

 

HART 3810W: Advanced Seminar-Exhibiting Historical Art: The Stieglitz Collection.
In this seminar course, students learn research methods and principles of object organization and display. In the Fall 2024 semester iteration of this course, students will work with the Stieglitz Collection of artworks by Georgia O’Keeffe at Fisk University. This course will count as an Advanced Seminar or as a “Modern” course for the HART Major, or as an Elective for the HART Minor. [3] Rebecca VanDiver. (AXLE: HCA).

 

HART 3825W: Advanced Seminar-Meaning and Form in Architecture.
Critical study of meaning and form in architecture and human-made environments in various cultural contexts examined from historical and theoretical perspectives. Diverse approaches and methodologies for addressing formalism in architecture and the visual arts. This course will count as an Advanced Seminar for the ARCH Major, or for ARCH Minor; it will also count as an Advanced Seminar for the HART Major, or as an Elective for the HART Minor. [3] Jelena Bogdanovic. (AXLE: HCA).

 

 

SPRING 2025 Tentative course offerings (check back for updates)

 

CLAS 1020: Introduction to Mediterranean Archaeology.
 
Iron Age through Middle Ages (ca. 1000 BCE-1500 CE). Remains of Greeks, Romans, and related peoples of southern Europe, north Africa, and the Near East. Society, economy, religion, urbanism. Human settlement and natural environment. Classical and Renaissance paradigms. Modern theory of material and visual culture. Techniques of data collection, analysis, and curation. Counts toward HART Major, Minor, and ARCH Major, Minor as a 1000-level course. [3] Jelena Bogdanovic. (AXLE: (SBS).

 

HART 1300: Monuments and Masterpieces.
The Athenian Parthenon, the Pantheon in Rome, Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel Ceiling, the Hall of Gold in Japan; and the U.S. Capitol are among the major Global monuments and masterpieces through which we will explore the ways in which objects of all kinds both contribute to the shaping of the human experience and provide evidence of political, social, religious, economic, and other transformations throughout history. The instructor, as well as many guest lecturers from the Dept. of History of Art and Architecture, will unravel the multiple meanings that these objects possess, in the process demonstrating how historians analyze works for their immediate qualities, but also use them to answer questions that go far beyond the things themselves. Although the course will not be a comprehensive survey, we will see how and why many cultures made and used works of art, and gain new insights on how material objects were the medium through which social and personal relationships were negotiated, and historical change was navigated. Counts toward HART Major, Minor, and ARCH Major, Minor as a 1000-level course. [3] Matthew Worsnick with HART department faculty as weekly guest lecturers, each in their field of specialty. (AXLE: INT). 

 

HART 1600: Global Modern Art.
Selective, chronological survey of transnational art ca. 1700–1960. Cultural cross-pollination among Europe and Americas, Asia, and Africa as well as global modernisms. Art of New Spain, Orientalism, Realisms, Global Surrealism, and Geometric Abstraction in South America. Counts toward HART Major, Minor as a 1000-level course. [3] Jack Crawford. (AXLE: INT). Pending final administrative approval. 

 

HART 1740W: Introduction to Design Studies.
Design encompasses us. From the typeface in which these words are printed to the buildings that keep our classrooms comfortable to the forester-managed national parks that we visit in order to escape the artificial city, we inhabit an age in which everything on our planet is a product of human design. And designers, born into a thoroughly designed world, continue to revise and recreate that world. Indeed, the relationship between design and society are profoundly reciprocal. This class critically examines the exchange between the designed world of objects, images, and experiences, and the culture that creates, manipulates, and absorbs these designs. Our work together will lead to new questions and innovative ways of thinking about our material and immaterial worlds. Will count toward the HART Major or Minor as an elective with departmental permission; counts toward ARCH Major, Minor as a 1000-level course. [3] Matthew Worsnick. (AXLE: HCA).

 

HART 2160: Art and Architecture of Buddhist Asia.
Appearance, creation, and function of Buddhist art works from South to East Asia. Iconographic and stylistic analysis of architecture, sculpture, painting, and other arts; relationship between ideology, text, and image; Buddhism and state formation. This course will count toward the “Global” area requirement for the HART Major; HART Minor; ARCH Major, ARCH Minor. [3] Susan Dine. (AXLE: INT).

 

HART 2815W: Digital Heritage, Methods and Practice: The Ainu Peoples of Japan.
Case-based introduction to digital applications in history of art and archaeology. Theory, research design, current methods of photogrammetry, 2D and 3D modeling, and immersive environments. Mapping and spatial analysis. Data management, digital publishing, writing formats. May be repeated for credit with permission of the faculty. This course will count toward the “Global” area requirement for the HART Major; HART Minor; ARCH Major, ARCH Minor. Serves as repeat credit for students who have completed ANTH 3867. [3] Susan Dine. (AXLE: HCA).

 

HART 2260: The Art of Pagans, Christians, and Jews. 
A study of the religious art of the Roman Empire in Late Antiquity that reflects the beliefs and practices of different groups of polytheists, Christians, and Jews, ca. 100-500 CE.  Lectures will begin by surveying the images of the Roman gods and continue with the emergence of Christian and Jewish art in the third and fourth centuries. Special topics include the philosophical and theological critique of images, the emperor cult, ritual use of visual images, the art of pilgrimage, and illuminated sacred books. This course will count toward the “Ancient” area requirement for the HART Major; HART Minor. [3] Jelena Bogdanovic (AXLE: HCA).

 

HART 2290: Gothic Paris.
The area around Paris, the Île de France, sponsored some of the chief examples of Gothic architecture.  But as the largest city in the West, the seat of power for the Church, the University, and the Capetian and Valois dynasties (987-1529), Paris also excelled in the so-called minor arts—ivories, manuscripts, textiles, and precious metalwork.  We will examine some of the outstanding achievements of the city’s artists and artisans, considering the social and political background to the efflorescence of artistic patronage in later medieval Paris.  Lectures, readings, and discussions will consider the construction of a mythical past, traditions of gift-giving and patronage, building the churches of Saint-Denis, Notre Dame, Chartres Cathedral, and the Sainte Chapelle, the conventions of heraldry and portraiture, models for male and female behavior, trends in fashion, and a newly literate middle class anxious about appearances and hungry for their own books. This course will count toward the “Medieval” area requirement for the HART Major; HART Minor, ARCH Major, ARCH Minor. [3] Elizabeth Moodey. (AXLE: INT).

 

HART 2390: Seventeenth-Century Art.
This lecture course provides a survey of the major developments in Western Art, including painting, sculpture, and architecture, from the later sixteenth through the seventeenth century, circa 1580-1700. Our focus this semester will be "Baroque" painting and sculpture, with the inclusion of several key architectural monuments. Our study will be organized geographically by artistic school and will begin in Italy, followed by Spain, France, Flanders, and Holland. The goal of this course is to introduce the pivotal movements and masters, and to enable students to analyse and understand a variety of works and monuments, considering their subject and meaning, style, patronage and audience, as well as relate works of art to their respective cultural and historical contexts, including their connection with certain religious, social, and political issues. This course will count toward the "Renaissance and Baroque" area requirement for the HART Major; HART Minor. [3] Sheri Shaneyfelt. (AXLE: HCA). 

 

HART 2662: Art and the Environment in the United States.
How are images used to convey environmental concerns, historically and today? In this course, we will discuss how art and the environment impacted each other in the United States from roughly 1800 to the present. While not a survey, we will thematically and chronologically chart movements including nature and the formation of US national identity and empire; the tradition of landscape painting; materials and ecology; the city and nature; land art/environment as medium; and photography and the visualization of disaster. We will study the ways in which art historians have interpreted these topics in recent scholarship, including eco-criticism and new materialism. Discussions will be situated with respect to concepts shaping the broader field of the environmental humanities, such as the Anthropocene (and its derivatives, like the Capitalocene, etc.), political ecology, traditional ecological knowledge/Indigenous approaches to the natural world, and multi-species ethnography. Guest speakers will share current interdisciplinary research in the field. Encounter with art objects and environmental settings will be prioritized, including visits to Nashville’s Parthenon museum collection, the Tennessee State Museum, and the Vanderbilt campus arboretum. This course will count toward the “Modern” area requirement for the HART Major; HART Minor, ARCH Major, ARCH Minor. [3] Lee Ann Custer. (AXLE: US).

 

HART 2737: History of Performance Art.
History and theory of performance art in the twentieth century. Interdisciplinary approach covering dance, theater, film/video, and cabaret with focus on performance activities of artists trained in visual arts. Futurism, Dada, Ballet Russes, Bauhaus, Modern Dance, Drag, and Feminist Body Art. This course will count toward the “Modern” area requirement for the HART Major; HART Minor. [3] Jack Crawford. (AXLE: P). Pending final administrative approval. 

 

HART 2755: Women in Art since 1850.  
Historical survey of European and American women artists and their artistic contributions from 1850 to the present. Arranged chronologically and thematically, we will consider how gender identity influenced the circumstances under which women artists work and examine the forms their art took. We will begin by learning about second-wave feminism in the 1970s and the concurrent development of feminist art history. Building on this theoretical foundation we will examine how employing a feminist lens alters the way we look at art produced throughout history and even challenges dominant notions of art itself. A priority is placed upon the visual analysis of specific art objects and an attentive, critical engagement with key texts. This course will count toward the “Modern” area requirement for the HART Major; HART Minor. [3] Rebecca VanDiver. (AXLE: P). 

 

HART 2765: Art Since 1945.
Survey of art produced in the United States and Europe since 1945 with an emphasis upon theory and the social and intellectual factors.This course will count toward the "Modern" area requirement for the HART Major; HART Minor. [3] Jack Crawford. (AXLE: US).

 

HART 2781: Los Angeles Architecture and Urbanism.
1920s to present. Urban planning, everyday people, and analysis of multicultural life in the 100-year history of a contemporary city and its suburbs. Popular culture, high technology, and histories of art, music, and architecture under late capitalism. This course will count as an Elective for the HART Major; HART Minor, and for ARCH Major, ARCH Minor. [3] Peter Chesney. (AXLE: SBS). Pending final administrative approval. 

 

HART 2808W: Contemporary Issues in Museums.
This course is a dive into contemporary controversies and challenges in museum work via three units. We will examine the shifting place of museums in societies today in light of their histories, practice, and the scholarly and public responses to them. We will look at a set of local Nashville institutions through a lens of the course content, which will address a series of core issues within each of the unit topics and some representative case studies in each. Discussion and writing will be core to working through the (often controversial) material in this class. Topics include: collecting and display, human remains in collections, restitution and repatriation, accessibility, colonial histories, DEI/EDI concerns and efforts, economics of cultural heritage, and more.The course will include guest speakers and visits to local museums. This course will count as an Elective for the HART Major, HART Minor. [3] Susan Dine. (AXLE: P). 

 

HART 3164W: Advanced Seminar-Art of Buddhist Relic and Reliquary.
This course analyzes the veneration of Buddhist relics and the construction of reliquaries from a visual perspective. The overarching focus of the course will be on the art, ritual, and devotion to relics and reliquaries as manifested in the material and visual cultures of Asia. Connections will be drawn between the varying forms and functions of relic worship and reliquary construction across India, China, Korea, Japan, and Southeast Asia. This course will count as an Advanced Seminar or toward the “Non-Western” area requirement for the HART Major; HART Minor; will count as an Advanced Seminar for the ARCH Major or elective for the ARCH Minor. [3] Tracy Miller. (AXLE: INT).

 

HART 3364W: Advanced Seminar-Art of the Court of Burgundy. 

The Valois dukes of Burgundy (1364-1477) ruled an increasing collection of lucrative territories beginning with one duchy in eastern France and expanding into the southern Netherlands. Along the way they developed a reputation for luxury and display that eclipsed the rest of Europe's courts, commissioning architecture, sculpture, precious metalwork, painting, tapestries, and manuscripts from artists such as Claus Sluter, Jan van Eyck, and Rogier van der Weyden. The visual arts are our primary focus, but we will also consider the religious, political, and social forces that shaped the arts at court. This course will count as an Advanced Seminar or toward the “Medieval” area requirement for the HART Major; HART Minor. [3] Elizabeth Moodey. (AXLE: HCA).

 

3/21/2024