Courses
For up to the minute changes, please refer to the Registrar's course page.
ARC 308/ART 328History of Architectural Theory(HA)This course offers a history of architectural theory, criticism, and historiography from the Renaissance to the present, emphasizing the texts, media and institutions that have supported architecture's claim to modernity since the late 17th Century. Architectural thought is examined in its social and cultural context as it relates both to the Western philosophical tradition and to design method and practice.Lucia Allais
ART 100Introduction to the History of Art: Ancient to Medieval(LA)An introduction to art and architecture from Antiquity to the late Middle Ages, including non-Western traditions. The course gives an overview of key monuments and works of art from diverse historical periods, regions, and cultures and introduces students to the basic interpretative tools of art historical research as well as to the history of the discipline.Nino Zchomelidse
ART 203Roman Art(LA)The course provides a general introduction to Roman art. It discusses various artistic media--portraiture, historical relief, etc.--and highlights important works. The goal is an attempt to understand the significance of the imagery that the Romans produced, and which embellished all aspects of their world - that is, to understand the role of artworks in the Romans' lived experience.Michael Koortbojian
ART 206/HLS 206Byzantine Art and Architecture(LA)Art and Architecture of the Eastern Mediterranean and Eastern Europe, from ca. 600 to ca. 1500. The course will focus on the art of the Byzantine empire and its capital, Constantinople, but will also consider its broader sphere of cultural influence (Russia, Armenia, Georgia, Sicily, Venice, Serbia, Bulgaria, Rumania). The course will examine the major factors which shaped the artistic legacy of Eastern Christendom during the Middle Ages.Staff
ART 212Neoclassicism through Impressionism(LA)A broad study of European painting and sculpture from the French revolution to 1900 with special attention to art's relationship to social, economic and cultural changes. Lectures will explore a range of themes including art and revolution, the rise of landscape, shifting conceptions of realism, and the birth of "modernism" and the avant-garde. Emphasis on major figures including David, Canova, Goya, Ingres, Turner, Courbet, Manet, Monet, Degas, Rodin, Van Gogh and Cézanne.Bridget A. Alsdorf
ART 218Arts of China, Prehistory to the 20th Century(LA)This course introduces the history of art in China through focused studies of major media taken in roughly chronological order. First come the chief art forms of ancient China: bronze ritual vessels, jade, lacquer, and silk. A turning point in their slow eclipse by representational art is the famous Qin terracotta army (210 BC). A little later a foreign religion, Indian Buddhism, came to China, bringing new forms of devotional art; we look at sculpture and cave temples from the 6th to the 9th century. The rest of the semester will be devoted mainly to painting and calligraphy, but porcelain, architecture, and gardens will also be mentioned.Robert W. Bagley
ART 248History of Photography(LA)A survey of photography from its multiple inventions in the early nineteenth century to its omnipresence (and possible obsolescence) in the twenty-first. Themes will include photography's power to define the "real;" its emulation and eventual transformation of the traditional fine arts; and its role in the construction of personal and collective memories. Precepts will meet in the Photographic Study Room of the Princeton Art Museum to study original images.Anne McCauley
ART 320/ARC 320Rome, the Eternal City(LA)The main goal of this course is to acquaint students with the major architectural monuments of ancient and post-classical Rome, paying particular attention to creative transformations of form and meaning. The urban development of the city will be stressed and used to provide a contextual reading of individual buildings and public spaces.John A. Pinto
ART 350Chinese Cinema(LA)Thematic studies in Chinese film (Republic, People's Republic, Taiwan, Hong Kong), 1930s to the present with emphasis on recent years, viewed in relation to traditional and modern Chinese visual arts and literature, colonialism and globalism, Communist politics, gender and family values, ethnicity and regionalism, melodrama and the avant-garde, the cinematic market, artistic censorship, and other social issues.Jerome Silbergeld
ART 351/ARC 351Traditional Chinese Architecture(LA)Thematic introduction to traditional Chinese architecture, urban design and garden building, with attention to principles and symbolism of siting and design; building techniques; modularity of structures and interchangeability of palace, temple, tomb, and domestic design; regional variation.Jerome Silbergeld
ART 400Junior Seminar(LA)An introduction to a range of art-historical approaches and to the writings of key figures in the history of the discipline. Attention is also given to research and writing skills specific to the history of art.Christopher P. HeuerBridget A. Alsdorf
ART 416/ANT 418/HLS 416Understanding the "Barbarians": Discovering Ethnicity in Ancient History, Art, and Archaeology(LA)Civilizations of ancient history, like Egypt, Greece, Rome and Mesopotamia, incorporated small ethnic groups who significantly influenced their society, history, and worldview. Yet they are often minimized in the study of the past because they had only a marginal effect on the sources that the large civilizations left behind. In this course we will examine their art, archaeology, and texts to understand the role of the peripheral "barbarians" on the past and how their ethnicity changed history. In a series of case studies we will analyze how ancient peoples created their own ethnicities and how other groups applied ethnic stereotypes to them.Staff
ART 421Ornament Past and Present(LA)This course has three aims: close encounters with some of the world's major traditions of ornament, close examination of issues that arise in the study of ornament and its history, and the cultivation of skills for writing about ornament. One troublesome issue is simply the problem of defining "ornament" (or "decoration"): is this anything more than a catch-all category for arts traditionally excluded from "the fine arts"? Themes for discussion include plant, animal, and geometrical ornament; space constraints as a stimulus to invention; and the relations between ornament and architecture.Robert W. Bagley
ART 425The Japanese Print(LA)This seminar examines Japanese woodblock prints from the 17th through the 19th century. We will consider the formal and technical aspects of prints, the varied subject matter, including the "floating world" of prostitution and theatre, the Japanese landscape and urban centers, and the links between literature and prints, especially the re-working of classical literary themes in popular prints. The seminar will emphasize the study of prints in the Princeton University Art Museum; students will also research Japanese prints at an art gallery in New York and recommend one to be purchased and added to the collection of the Museum.Andrew M. Watsky
ART 436/MED 436Topics in Medieval Art, Architecture, and Theory: Concepts for the Depiction of God(LA)Discusses the conditions of image making and theory in the Middle Ages. The course will focus on how to represent God in the visual arts, introducing iconographic concepts and their reception. Single image-types will be analyzed on the basis of sociological and intellectual history and from different historiographic view points. Discussions of selected readings will raise questions and suggest approaches to the iconographic material. Issues covered in this course are: institutionalizing Christianity in Late Antiquity, the idea of authenticity for various types of icons, iconoclasm, the image of God in Scholasticism, and allegory.Nino Zchomelidse
ART 443/LAS 443Global Exchange in Art and Architecture(LA)Examines the global exchange in art and architecture between and among the continents of Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas in the period 1492-1800. The course focuses on the geographical, historical, religious, anthropological, and aesthetic aspects of issues such as cultural encounters, diffusion, transculturation, regionalism, and related topics.Thomas D. Kaufmann
ART 445/ARC 445Topics in the History and Theory of Architecture in Early-Modern Europe: The Rome of Giovanni Battista Piranesi(LA)The focus of the seminar will be G.B. Piranesi (1720-1778), as architect, antiquarian, polemicist, dealer, and graphic artist. We will endeavor to see Piranesi in context, to understand his accomplishment against the background of his adopted city and the learned culture that flourished there. Piranesi's publications are well represented in Princeton collections, providing opportunities for those who wish to work closely with original sources.John A. Pinto
ART 459/ARC 459Anxious Megalopolis: Shanghai's Urban Cultures (1842-2012)(LA)From a small village and market town, Shanghai grew to become a bustling port, colonialist beachhead, hub of international commerce in the 30s, and a major testing ground for contemporary architecture today. As a crucial interface between East and West, this city was a place where national and transnational cultures fought and flourished, and stereotypes were forged and discarded. This seminar will cover the emergence of Shanghai's vibrant urban culture as it evolved into the complex megalopolis of today. There will be a trip to Shanghai over fall break funded by the department.Cary Y. LiuEsther da Costa Meyer
ART 469/LAS 469Maya Painting(LA)Painting was the ancient Maya expressive mode par excellence. Whether depicting mythology, history, or hieroglyphic writing, painting was for more private acts of visual consumption than architecture or sculpture. This seminar invites students into this private realm of ancient Maya scribes, nobility, and royal patronage. The course explores the 1500-year history of Maya painting, including murals, ceramics and books. We will consider techniques of production, iconography, aesthetics, and social context. Students will gain basic literacy in Maya writing and training in Maya astronomy.Bryan R. Just
GER 372/ART 372/ECS 372Writing About Art (Rilke, Freud, Benjamin)(LA)Seminar addresses significance of works of art, and of practices of writing about visual art, in the work of three great writers of German in the early 20th-century: poet Rainer Maria Rilke; founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud; and philosopher and critic Walter Benjamin. Emphasis on close reading and critical analysis. Readings drawn from variety of fields and genres, including: lyric poetry, experimental prose, psychoanalytic theory, cultural analysis, aesthetic theory, criticism. Topics include: situation of work of art in modernity; art and the unconscious; the work of art and the historical transmission of culture in modern Europe.Brigid Doherty
VIS 392/ART 392Issues in Contemporary Art(LA)A required seminar for Art and Archaeology Program 2 majors and Program in Visual Arts certificate students emphasizing contemporary art practices and ideas. The course addresses current issues in painting, drawing, sculpture, film, video, photography, and performance installation. It includes a visiting artist lecture series, critiques of students' work, and excursions to galleries, museums and/or artists' studios.Martha Friedman