In the fall term, HAA 99 includes several group tutorial meetings with the senior honors adviser, where assignments are aimed at facilitating the writing of a senior honors thesis; spring term consists of independent writing, under the direction of the individual thesis adviser. Part one of a two part series.
Required of juniors concentrating in History of Art and Architecture. A group tutorial consisting of weekly meetings with a graduate student, with regular reading and writing assignments. HAA 98ar offers concentrators the choice of several study groups investigating a particular field or topic in art history, including each year: museums and collections; race and aesthetics; the art of looking and writing, and; architectural methods. Concentrators select two of the group tutorial topics.
For AY 22-23, the following topics will be offered:...
Required of all History of Art and Architecture concentrators in their sophomore year. An introduction to the practice of art and architectural history through object-based teaching led by faculty members in HAA.
Seminar offered under special arrangements consisting of weekly meetings with designated faculty, where regular reading and writing assignments are focused on a topic of mutual interest.
This seminar will serve as a design platform for inquiry, documentation and analysis in relation either to the thesis topic or capstone project of interest to each student. Thesis students will be responsible for selecting a Thesis Advisor (or Advisors) with whom they will meet regularly to develop specific intention, substance and methodology of the thesis research and paper. This seminar is a support of independent thesis and/or independent project research, extending methodological inquiry of the project topic to design where students may...
Limited to juniors and seniors. Students wishing to enroll must petition the Head Tutor for approval, stating the proposed project, and must have the permission of the proposed instructor.
The study of Peru’s Colonial Art presents challenging semantic and interpretative problems derived from the “hybrid” nature of its Christian iconography. Even though inspired in European visual models, religious Viceregal art developed new marginal readings of the Holy Scriptures serving a specific political and prophetic agenda. In this seminar we will address how baroque political theology was utilized by criollos, mestizos and native Indians to create a symbolic vocabulary that legitimized their...
This graduate seminar examines the remarkable array of objects preserved in the eighth-century Shōsō-in Imperial Treasury in Nara, Japan. Each session will be centered around in-depth analysis of case studies drawn from different categories of objects (painting, calligraphy, textiles, lacquerware, ceramics, glass, and metalwork among others) created in different cultural regions along the Silk Road, spanning Persia and Japan, from the sixth through eighth century. The goal will be to work outwards from specific objects to larger themes including the interregional...
Arts in early China have a distinct disposition. They are also highly integrated. Subsumed under the governing notion of yue, they typically cohere into tightly choreographed mise-en-scenes, encompassing music, dance, props, and ritual paraphernalia in a variety of media, and often arranged in complex physical structures. A syncretic imperative governs the orchestration of material media. Focusing on early tombs that yield a variety of artifacts–including figurines playing the roles of...
This is a seminar for advanced graduate students in East Asian art (and adjacent fields) focusing on reading secondary and primary sources in Japanese, as well as recent scholarship and theoretical texts in English. The topic will change each semester to accommodate the research projects, general exam fields, and interests of the participants. In addition to examining the state of the field of East Asian art history, the goal is to provide instruction in practical areas such as deciphering calligraphic texts (kuzushiji), improving bibliographic...
In a networked age, diagrams are everywhere. From philosophy, semiotics and computer science to the burgeoning field of graphics, diagrams visualize knowledge in critical ways. This seminar will look at diagrams and the diagrammatic mode in medieval art — and beyond — as tools for thinking and for creating knowledge.
The role and function of the image in medieval and early modern art has long formed the subject of scholarly discussion. But few such discussions recognize the striking and rich corpus of Armenian-language texts on art. Armenian primary sources, many of which are published in English or French translation, offer a wealth of information about medieval art-making, the lives and working condition of artists, attitudes towards images, the role of images in worship, and the relative value of images versus texts. We will explore a range of literary genres,...
This is a general introduction to and survey of the arts of Ancient America. We will look at both Mesoamerica and the Andean art and architecture beginning with some of the earliest cultures and ending with Aztec, Maya, Muisca and Inca. Questions about the materials, urban planning,meaning and aesthetics will be addressed. The course will also take advantage of the great collections at the Peabody Museum as well as the MFA. There are no prerequisites.
This class explores key forms of African architecture historically and into the present, with an emphasis on comparative issues of materials and technology, rural dwelling compounds (form, use, and adaptation), nomadic architecture, West African state architecture, Central African migrating capitals, architectures of colonial encounter, and contemporary architectural form and practice.
