Courses
Fall 2026 Course Offerings
Please note that courses are arranged by Subject Area: Introductory survey courses, 1000W courses, then courses in Global, Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance/Baroque, and Modern Art, followed by Elective and Museum Studies courses and Advanced Seminars.
HART 1100: History of Western Art: Ancient to Medieval Art
An introduction, through lectures and readings, to the extraordinary range of works of art and architecture produced in the first 30,000 years of Western civilization up to about 1400–from the Prehistoric through Ancient Near Eastern, Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and Medieval cultures. The first goal of this course is to enable students to apply the methods and vocabulary of art history in their thinking and writing, so that they will be able to analyze and compare the formal qualities of works of art. The second will be to deepen our understanding of the works we study by reading selected primary sources contemporary with the works of art, to learn something of their social, religious, and cultural circumstances. Counts toward HART Major, Minor, and ARCH Major, Minor as a 1000-level course. [3] Elizabeth Moodey. (AXLE: HCA; CORE: C).
HART 1122: History of Western Architecture II
From 1700 to the present; Piranesi, Wren, Viollet-le-Duc, Wright, and Venturi. Buildings, urban schemes, and landscapes in relation to aesthetic, cultural, social, and political contexts. Later reappraisals by historians and designers; relevance to contemporary practice and discourse. Counts toward HART Major, Minor, and ARCH Major, Minor as a 1000-level course.[3] Matthew Worsnick. (AXLE: INT; CORE: A, C).
CORE 2500 (equiv to 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 works and monuments 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 architecture, and gain new insights on how material objects and buildings 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] Betsey Robinson with HART department faculty as weekly guest lecturers, each in their field of specialty. (AXLE: INT; CORE 2500, ).
HART 1210W: Art and Ritual of 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 Museum of Art will provide prompts for some writing activities. Will count toward the HART major or minor as an elective with departmental permission or toward the ARCH major or minor as a 1000-level course. (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; CORE: A, C).
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 or as an Elective for the HART major; as a 2000-level course for the HART minor; as an “Architectural, Design, Landscape, or Urban History” or Elective course for the ARCH Major, ARCH Minor. [3] Susan Dine. (AXLE: HCA; CORE A, C).
HART 2155W: Healing and Art in China
In this course we examine the interconnection of “human” and “natural” environments in premodern China, with a focus on early healing practices and the development of the arts. Topics to be examined include the materiality and technology of individual craft traditions, especially as they relate to the human body; magical healing texts, talismans, and dharanis; the art of the Buddha of Medicine; the growing of transformative herbs and the development of the aesthetic garden; and tea consumption as medicine and art. This course will count toward the “Global” area requirement or as an Elective for the HART major; as a 2000-level course for the HART minor; as an “Architectural, Design, Landscape, or Urban History” or Elective course for the ARCH Major, ARCH Minor. [3] Tracy Miller. (AXLE: HCA; CORE A, C).
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. This course will count toward the “Global” area requirement or as an Elective for the HART major; as a 2000-level course for the HART minor; as an “Architectural, Design, Landscape, or Urban History” or Elective course for the ARCH Major, ARCH Minor; counts as an Elective for the new Museum and Market Studies Minor MZEM. Serves as repeat credit for students who have completed ANTH 3867. [3] Tracy Miller. (AXLE: HCA; CORE: A, D).
HART 2270 (also CLAS 2270): Early Christian and Byzantine Art
In this course, we will study art and architecture of the Byzantine Empire in the Eastern Mediterranean basin and its capital Constantinople, Istanbul in modern-day Turkey. We will consider the arts that had marked the legacy of Eastern Christendom for more than a millennium, ca. 300-1500 A.D., from various vantage points, attempting to better understand their role in the Western civilization and global world. Thus, we will also learn about Byzantine art legacies beyond the Byzantine Empire (may include Armenia, Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Sicily and Venice, Turkey, Western Europe, and the United States). Particular questions will deal with cultural and artistic exchanges between the Byzantine and other societies. This course will count toward the “Medieval” area requirement or as an Elective for the HART Major; as a 2000-level course for the HART Minor; as an “Architectural, Design, Landscape, or Urban History” or Elective course for the ARCH Major, ARCH Minor. [3] Jelena Bogdanovic. (AXLE: HCA; CORE: A, C).
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 or as an Elective for the HART Major; as a 2000-level course for the HART Minor; as an “Architectural, Design, Landscape, or Urban History” or Elective course for the ARCH Major, ARCH Minor. [3] Elizabeth Moodey. (AXLE: INT; CORE: C).
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 or as an Elective for the HART major and as a 2000-level course for the HART Minor. [3] Sheri Shaneyfelt. (AXLE: HCA; CORE: A, D).
HART 2302: Art and the Market in Europe, 1400-1700
Intersection of artistic production and economics in early modern Europe from the Renaissance through the Baroque eras. Focus on Italy and the Netherlands: Florence, Bruges, Antwerp, Amsterdam. Cultural and societal contexts; valuation, supply and demand, patronage, collection practices, role of masters’ workshops. Artists such as Botticelli, Leonardo, Rubens, Rembrandt, Vermeer. This course will count toward the “Renaissance and Baroque” area requirement or as an Elective for the HART major, as a 2000-level course for the HART Minor, and toward the new minor in Museum and Market Studies MZEM. [3] Sheri Shaneyfelt. (AXLE: INT, CORE A, C).
HART 2765: Art Since 1945
Painting, sculpture, assemblage, collage, performance, and conceptual art produced primarily in the United States from end of WWII to present with an emphasis on theory and social, political context. Abstract Expressionism, the New York School, Minimalism, Video Art, Postmodernism. Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, Yoko Ono, Robert Morris, Cindy Sherman. This course will count toward the “Modern” area requirement or as an Elective for the HART major and as a 2000-level course for the HART Minor. [3] Jack Crawford. (AXLE: US; CORE: C).
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 and HART minor and is a required course for the new Museum and Market Studies Minor MZEM. [3] Susan Dine. (AXLE: P; CORE: B, E).
HART 2812: Museum Practice-Collection Management
In this course, we will explore the policies, practices, and techniques involved in managing museum collections. The course covers key aspects such as acquisition, documentation, preservation, conservation, deaccessioning, cataloging, and access, all within the context of ethical considerations and professional standards. We will engage with the history of collection management over the last few centuries, case studies, practical exercises, and real-world examples to develop the skills necessary for effective collections management for different museum settings. In the Fall 2026 semester, students will work in tandem with an exhibition project at the Curb Center on campus; full description forthcoming. This course will count as an Elective for the HART major, the HART minor, and the new Museum and Market Studies minor MZEM. [3] Jack Crawford. (AXLE: P; CORE: B, C).
HART 3256W: Roman Architecture and Power
Prestige building projects and architectural expressions of social, political, religious, and technological power in Rome and across its Empire. Public and private architecture; state institutions, infrastructure, and city dwellers; Romanization and resistance. Late antique transformations, modern legacies. This course will count as an Advanced Seminar or as an “Ancient” area requirement, or as an Elective for the HART Major, HART Minor; it will also count as an Advanced Seminar, or an “Architectural, Design, Landscape, or Urban History” or Elective course for the ARCH Major, ARCH Minor. [3] Betsey Robinson. (AXLE: HCA).
HART 3753W: Imaging the “Other” in Art
Constructions and displays of difference and “otherness” in American and European art from the 19th to the 21st centuries. How has art and the display of art shaped ideas of racial difference? In this class we will consider the role and display of visual art in inscribing and at times challenging racial hierarchies. Focusing on representations of bodies, we will examine prints, paintings, performances, films, and photographs that contributed to the construction of Black, Native American, Latino/a identities, and interwoven issues of class, gender, and sexuality. As a discussion-based seminar, we will examine the relationship of art and “otherness” through topics including Orientalism, colonialism, primitivism, anthropology, the use of racial and ethnic stereotypes in art, as well as the politics of display and censorship. This course will count as an Advanced Seminar or as a “Modern” area requirement or as an Elective for the HART Major; HART Minor. [3] Rebecca VanDiver. (AXLE: P).
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 as an “Architectural, Design, Landscape, or Urban History” or Elective course for the ARCH Major; counts as an Elective for the ARCH Minor; it will also count as an Advanced Seminar or Elective for the HART major, or as an Elective for the HART minor. [3] Jelena Bogdanovic. (AXLE: HCA).
Spring 2027 Course Offerings
The below courses are tentatively planned for Spring 2027. Please refer to the final class list in YES when arranging your course schedule.
Please note that courses are arranged by Subject Area: Introductory 1000-level survey courses, 1000W courses, then courses in Global, Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance/Baroque, and Modern Art, followed by Elective and Museum Studies 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] Rebecca VanDiver. (AXLE: HCA; CORE: C).
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; CORE: C, E).
HART 2100: Architecture, Urbanism, and Empire in Asia
Use of architecture to express and delimit empire in Asia from the 3rd century BCE through the 20th century CE. Cosmology in the construction of walled cities, temples, and tombs. Physical manifestations of the concept of divine kingship and their legacy in the built environment. This course will count toward the “Global” area requirement or as an Elective for the HART Major; as a 2000-level Elective course for the HART Minor; as an “Architectural, Design, Landscape, or Urban History” or Elective course for the ARCH Major, ARCH Minor. [3] Tracy Miller. (AXLE: P; CORE: A, C).
HART 2254W: Pompeii: Life and Death of a Roman City
Destroyed in the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 CE, the city of Pompeii is a unique time-capsule, preserving physical evidence for all aspects of public and private life, social structures, and religion. This seminar will study Pompeii’s evolution from origins through final days. We will consider urban form and monuments, analyzing art, inscriptions, gardens, and waterworks. We will explore city amenities, from theaters and amphitheater to baths and brothels, and we will reconstruct domestic and public ritual practices. We will witness Pompeii’s destruction in contemporary literature and track its afterlife since eighteenth-century rediscovery. This course will count toward the “Ancient” area requirement or as an Elective for the HART Major; as a 2000-level course for the HART Minor; as an “Architectural, Design, Landscape, or Urban History” or Elective course for the ARCH Major, ARCH Minor. [3] Betsey Robinson. (AXLE: HCA; CORE: A, C).
HART 2260 (also CLAS 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 or as an Elective for the HART Major; as a 2000-level course for the HART Minor; as an “Architectural, Design, Landscape, or Urban History” or Elective course for the ARCH Major, ARCH Minor.[3] Jelena Bogdanovic. (AXLE: HCA; CORE: A, C).
HART 2288W: Art of the Book
Illuminated manuscript (literally “hand written”) books are arguably the most characteristic objects of the European middle ages, but contemporary artists have also responded to the challenge of making a book by hand. This course will consider the changing material and visual make-up of medieval illuminated manuscripts, and through them questions of literacy and audience, the mutation and popularity of certain texts and illustrations, the various contributions of script and picture, and the concerns of patron and artist. We will explore how much the impact of a work depends on the arrangement of words on the page, looking at examples from medieval grid-poems and pictorial initials, the Arts and Crafts revival of the book arts, Dada and Futurist publications, and contemporary artists’ books. Exemplary works include the “Book of Kells,” “Luttrell Psalter,” and “Les Tres Riches Heures.” The class will work with medieval and modern material in Vanderbilt Library’s Special Collections. This course will count toward the “Medieval” area requirement or as an Elective for the HART Major; HART Minor. [3] Elizabeth Moodey (AXLE: HCA; CORE: TBD).
HART 2390: Seventeenth-Century Art.
This course provides a survey of the major developments in Western European 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. Major artists to be considered include Caravaggio, Artemisia Gentileschi, Bernini, Velázquez, Poussin, Rubens, Rembrandt, Vermeer. 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 or as a 2000-level Elective for the HART Major; HART Minor. [3] Sheri Shaneyfelt. (AXLE: HCA; CORE: A, C).
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 or as an Elective for the HART Major; as a 2000-level course for the HART Minor; as an “Architectural, Design, Landscape, or Urban History” or Elective course for the ARCH Major, ARCH Minor. [3] Matthew Worsnick. (AXLE: HCA; CORE: C, E).
HART 2735: History of Photography
Uses and meanings of photography from its invention in ca.1839 to the present. Ways of thinking about the medium and its status as a separate discipline in relation to the history of art. This course will count toward the “Modern” area requirement or as an Elective for the HART Major; as a 2000-level course for the HART Minor. [3] (AXLE: HCA; CORE: TBD.)
CORE 2500: Climate and Society–Drowning Cities
Climate change, sea-level fluctuations, and floods from antiquity to the present. Science of climate, coasts, and rivers. Interdisciplinary analysis of urban form and history. Physical, social, technological, and aesthetic influences. Past, present, and future cities in Near East, Europe, Asia, and North America, including Nashville, New Orleans, and New York. This course will count as an Elective for the HART Major and Minor, and as an “Architectural, Design, Landscape, or Urban History” or Elective course for the ARCH Major, ARCH Minor. [3] Betsey Robinson. (AXLE: P; CORE: )
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 and HART minor and is a required course for the new Museum Studies Minor MZEM. [3] Susan Dine. (AXLE: P; CORE: A, E).
HART 2810W: Museum Exhibition: Japanese Woodblock Prints
Culture of museums and exhibition. Object handling, storage, and display. Ethics of exhibition including of objects from various cultures. Contextual presentation of art. Culminates in plan for online or physical exhibition. Focus for Spring 27 is on Japanese Woodblock Prints. This course will count toward the “Global” area requirement for the HART Major, or as an Elective for the HART major or HART minor, and will also count as an Elective for the new Museum and Market Studies minor MZEM. [3] Susan Dine. (AXLE: P; CORE: A, C).
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 “Global” area requirement for the HART Major; HART Minor; it will also count as an Advanced Seminar, or an “Architectural, Design, Landscape, or Urban History” or Elective course for the ARCH Major, 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).
2/25/2026