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Pre-Major Advising >  Courses and Courses of Study > 

Art History

Basic Structure of the Department and Important Information about Choosing Courses

  • The Art History department offers one major and one minor.
  • Courses in Art History fall into one of six broad categories: Ancient; Medieval; Renaissance; Baroque, Rocco and Neo-Classical; Modern; and Asian.
  • The numbering system for Art History courses does not represent sequencing, but rather subfields (e.g., all numbers in the 30s cover Medieval art; all numbers in the 60s cover Asian art).
  • Preference in ARTH 2 (Introduction to the History of Art II – 1500 to the present, offered winter 2008) is given to first and second-year students.
  • Students interested in exploring Art History are encouraged to enroll in a course whose subject area intrigues them. The department recommends beginning with an introductory/survey course (1, 2, or 4). There are no prerequisites for any topics course (16-79), though a student should be aware that the reading and writing demands for a topics course will be heavier than for one of the introductory courses.
  • The Art History department conducts a Foreign Study Program in the spring term based in Rome, Italy. The program is open to all students, and the prerequisites are Italian 1 (or its equivalent) and ARTH 1, plus one of ARTH 2, 21, 22, 25, 30, 31, 36, 40, 41, 42, or 45. The program consists of two Art History courses (10 and 11), which may be counted toward the major, and a course in the Language and Culture of Rome (ARTH 12). Interested students should contact the department as soon as possible in their academic careers.

Fall courses for the interested first-year student

  • ARTH 1: Introduction to the History of Art I (prior to 1500)
  • ARTH 16: European Art and Colonialism 1680 - 1830
  • ARTH 20: The Art of Ancient Egypt and the Ancient Near East
  • ARTH 22: Late Classical and Hellenistic Art in the Greek World
  • ARTH 53: Classic Modernism: Painting and Sculpture 1900 - 1914
  • ARTH 55: Late and Post-Modernism: Art from 1945 to the Present

Winter courses for the interested first-year student

  • ARTH 2: Introduction to the History of Art II (1500-Present)
  • ARTH 4: History of Architecture
  • ARTH 45: Southern Baroque Art
  • ARTH 54: The First Crisis of Modernism: Art from 1945 to the Present
  • ARTH 67: Contemporary Arts of Asia

Spring courses for the interested first-year student

  • ARTH 16 (1): History of Museums and Collecting
  • ARTH 16 (2): Romanticism
  • ARTH 17 (1): Abstract Expressionism
  • ARTH 17 (2): “The Villa Life”: Andrea Palladio and His Architectural Legacy
  • ARTH 17 (3): South and Southeast Asian Art and Ritual Culture (2500 BCE-Present)
  • ARTH 33: Gothic Art and Architecture
  • ARTH 46: Northern Baroque Art
  • ARTH 52: Building America: An Architectural and Social History (=HIST 34)
  • ARTH 75: Twentieth Century Art from Latin America (=LACS 78)

Advice for the first-year student who plans on pursuing studies in Art History

  • Since a prerequisite for the major is any two of the following THREE introductory courses, it is advised to be aware of their scheduling:
    • ARTH 1: Introduction to the History of Art – to 1500 is offered in fall 2007.
    • ARTH 2: Introduction to the History of Art – 1500 to the present, is offered in winter 2008.
    • ARTH 4: Introduction to the History of Architecture, is offered in winter 2008.

Current Enrollments, Class Size, and Distributives

The ORC

The Art History Homepage

Last Updated: 9/17/07