Department of Art and Archaeology
Faculty
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Chair Acting Chair Director of Graduate Studies Professor Associate Professor Assistant Professor |
Assistant Professor (continued) Lecturer with Rank of Professor Visiting Lecturer with Rank of Professor Lecturer Associated Faculty |
Requirements
The graduate curriculum in the history of art at Princeton University is one of the oldest in the country, and for many decades the department has played a leading role in training teachers and scholars in this area. At Princeton, graduate work in this discipline has certain special advantages. Because the number of graduate students is limited, all graduate courses are small, intimate seminars in which there is maximum opportunity for free and informal discussion. The graduate courses given by members of the department are, from time to time, supplemented by courses or lectures given by members of the Institute for Advanced Study or invited scholars.
Graduate studies in art and archaeology are designed to prepare students to become creative scholars and teachers in the history of art. A student wishing to begin graduate work in the department should have had a sound liberal education as an undergraduate, with courses in history, literature, at least two foreign languages and preferably, although not necessarily, a major in the history of art. Students who have had limited undergraduate preparation in the history of art are expected during the first year of graduate study to remedy any deficiency by doing individual reading and taking pertinent undergraduate courses, which may be adjusted to the graduate level by means of special preceptorials, readings, and reports. A single student or a small group may initiate a reading course on a topic of agreed interest supervised by a member of the faculty.
Applicants who already hold a master’s degree have a distinct advantage in their preparation; however, because Princeton has no course credit system, specific advanced credit for prior work in the field cannot be offered. Applicants for graduate study in the department are admitted only as candidates for the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.); there is no master’s program.
Students have the opportunity to work with objects in the collections of the Princeton University Art Museum and to help organize exhibitions. They also have their own active organization that meets frequently and sponsors a series of lectures by art historians from other colleges and universities.
Most of the listed courses are taught on an alternating or rotating schedule, but normally a minimum of two courses in each of the major fields of art history are offered each year.
Teaching Requirements
Teaching is viewed as an integral part of a distinguished graduate program, and students are encouraged to acquire teaching experience as teaching assistants. Students in their first year of graduate work, however, are not encouraged to teach. In extraordinary cases they may be allowed to do so, although the final determination of eligibility remains with the department chair and the director of graduate studies. Students who do precept are offered a one-time reduction in their course load equivalent to one seminar.
Distribution Requirement
For the purpose of course distribution, the curriculum is divided into six broad fields: (1) ancient, (2) medieval, (3) Renaissance-Baroque, (4) modern, (5) Islamic [fields 2–4], and (6) Asian. Graduate students in the Western art program normally take four full terms of course work, totaling 12 courses. In the classical and East Asian programs, the normal requirement is a total of 15 courses. At least half of these courses are at the 400-level or above. All students in the Western art program must include at least one course in two of the six areas mentioned above. Also, within their particular field of specialization, students are expected to take courses with each faculty member in that particular specialty whenever possible.
Language Requirement
For graduate study in the history of art, a reading knowledge of German and another language appropriate to the student’s special field is required. Students will find it necessary to use foreign languages immediately. Reading proficiency examinations are offered by the French, German, and Italian departments. Other relevant language examinations are arranged through the Department of Art and Archaeology.
General Examinations
Candidates for the Ph.D. in the Western program normally take the general examination at the end of the second or the beginning of the third year of graduate work. For the purpose of the examination, the history of European and American art, including architecture and photography, is divided into four historical periods: ancient, medieval, Renaissance-Baroque, and modern.
The general examination in the Western program consists of one six-hour written examination, and one two-to-three-hour oral session. Emphasis is on both a broad coverage of the general field and a more specific preparation reflecting course work and the tentative subject of the dissertation. When appropriate, the oral session may involve the examination of original works of art.
Students entering the Program in Classical Archaeology are expected to take the general examination at the end of the third year. This examination consists of one eight-hour written examination covering topics in the general field. An additional four-hour written examination based on the student’s special field is also required. An oral examination is not required.
Students entering the Program in East Asian Art and Archaeology are required to take two eight-hour written examinations, and one four-hour written history examination. The first written examination covers the general field; the second focuses on the student’s special area of study.
M.A. Requirements
Students qualify for the Master of Arts (M.A.) by successfully completing all course and language requirements and passing a portion of the general examination: for students in Western art, the written portion of generals; for East Asian art, the general and East Asian studies fields; and for classical archaeology, the eight-hour written general field.
Ph.D. Requirements
The Ph.D. is awarded after the candidate’s doctoral dissertation has been accepted and the final public oral examination sustained.
Program in East Asian Art and Archaeology
In cooperation with the Department of East Asian Studies, the department offers a special program of study leading to a Ph.D. in Chinese or Japanese art and archaeology. For a full description, please see the Program in East Asian Art and Archaeology.
Programs in Classical Art and Archaeology
The department offers two programs in the study of Greek and Roman antiquity: classical art and classical archaeology.
Program in Classical Art. Offered through the Department of Art and Archaeology, this program has a course of study and language requirements that are the same as for the Western program of the department, except that students must also demonstrate basic competence in either Greek or Latin and must complete at least one course in ancient history. The normal course of study lasts four years, including the dissertation, although one or more years of study and research abroad may be added. Upon completion of the program, a Ph.D. in art and archaeology is awarded.
Program in Classical Archaeology. This program functions as part of the interdepartmental Program in the History, Archaeology, and Religions of the Ancient World, and students apply to both the Department of Art and Archaeology and the interdepartmental program. This can be done upon application to the Graduate School or after no more than one year in the Program in Classical Art. The normal period for completion of the course of study, including the dissertation, is five years, although one or more years of study and research abroad may be added.
The program requires (1) proficiency in Greek and Latin as demonstrated by passing translation tests in Greek and Latin prose and poetry, normally in the first year of study, and successful completion of an examination on a reading list of classical authors; (2) a reading knowledge of German and French, as demonstrated by passing translation tests; (3) participation in an excavation, normally one associated with the program, although in certain cases alternative archaeological or museum training may be substituted; and (4) successfully passing the general examination, which consists of the following sections: (a) Greek and Roman history, (b) a special author in Greek and in Latin, and (c) general archaeology, including the major fields of archaeology, such as Aegean prehistory, Greek epigraphy, medieval art, mythology, or numismatics.
The Ph.D. of classical archaeology is awarded upon completion of a dissertation and a final public oral examination supervised by the interdepartmental program.
Courses
Art and Archaeology
ART 500 Proseminar in the History of Art
Hal Foster
Introduction to a broad range of art-historical methods from the modern founders of the discipline (e.g., Alois Riegl, Aby Waburg, Heinrich Wolfflin, and Erwin Panofsky) to contemporary theorists. Topics include Hegelian narratives; the notions of Kunstwollen, Pathosformel, and Symbolic Form; iconography; formalism; theories of the gaze; and social, feminist, and postcolonial art histories. The course is required for incoming students in the Western program. One three-hour seminar.
ART 501 Introduction to Historiography
Thomas D. Kaufmann
Selected topics in the literature of art and architecture in Europe and the Americas from antiquity to the present.
ART 518 Greek Sculpture, Roman Copies
Michael Koortbojian
Seminar on the long-standing problems concerning the tradition of Greek sculpture, most of which survives in later Roman copies. Emphasis on stylistic comparison of the surviving copies (Kopienkritik); critical engagement with the ancient written sources that attest the most famous works (Opera Nobilia); the historiographic and critical tradition in modern scholarship devoted to these works; and, in particular, those works in the PAM and the MMA that may serve as prime examples of the phenomenon.
ART 519 Seminar in Mycenaean Archaeology
T. L. Shear
A study of the culture of the Aegean as reflected in architecture, pottery, and other arts during the second millennium B.C., with chief emphasis on the Late Bronze Age.
ART 520 Greek Art of the Iron Age and the Orientalizing Periods
William A. Childs
Problems in the relationship of Greek and Near Eastern art in the early centuries of the first millennium B.C.
ART 521 Archaic Greek Sculpture and Painting
William A. Childs
Selected problems in Greek art between 650 and 480 B.C.
ART 522 Architectural Sculpture and Sacred Space in Greece
Nathan Arrington
Course evaluates how and when (if ever) sculpture assumes an allegorical character and addresses the issues of space and landscape, religious ritual, votive dedications, temple decoration and ornamentation, and agency. Several case studies from the late Archaic and Classical periods are discussed.
ART 523 Classical Greek Sculpture and Painting
William A. Childs
Selected problems in Greek art from 480 to 300 B.C.
ART 524/ARC 525 Mapping the City
M. C. Boyer
A seminar focusing on city imagery and architectural entertainments by examining different methods of framing the city through travel, in the theater, through the invention of traditions, at the museum, from the cinema, or through its architectural composition and spatial configuration.
ART 525 Architecture of Periclean Athens
T. L. Shear
Considers in detail the Athenian buildings of the mid-fifth century B.C. In addition to architectural problems, emphasis is placed on epigraphical and historical sources bearing on the building program.
ART 526 Regional Schools of Greek Sculpture and Painting
William A. Childs
Problems in archaic and classical art in regions outside Athens, principally in Asia Minor.
ART 527 Topography and Monuments of Athens
T. L. Shear
A study of the city's growth from its prehistoric beginnings to the Roman period. Some of the questions considered are the relation of documentary to excavational evidence in topography, restoration, and relative chronology of specific buildings.
ART 528 Problems in Ancient Architecture
T. L. Shear
The seminar studies problems for research in a selected period of ancient architecture, with emphasis on the development of architectural forms and style of decoration.
ART 529 Space and Time in Greek and Roman Art
William A. Childs
A study of principles of representation, concentrating sometimes on narrative and sometimes on specific problems, such as Pompeian painting.
ART 530 Problems in Roman Art
Staff
Selected topics such as classicism, iconography, historical representation, narration, Roman copies of Greek sculpture and painting, luxury arts, Roman provincial art, and town planning and urban art.
ART 531 Roman Painting and Mosaic
Hugo Meyer
Painting and mosaic from the late Republic to the late Empire, with emphasis on the history of types, fashions in the provinces, and problems in style and iconography.
ART 532 Roman Relief
Hugo Meyer
Roman relief art from the late Republic to the late Empire. Technical, stylistic, iconographical and chronological aspects to be explored in conjunction with innovation in imperial propaganda, narration, historical representation, and more.
ART 534 Topography and Monuments of Ancient Rome
Hanns T. Lorenz
Aspects of the growth and urbanization of Rome from the early Republic to the late Empire, with special emphasis on major programs of public buildings and the imperial residences.
ART 535/HLS 535 Problems in Late Antique and Byzantine Art and Architecture
Slobodan Curcic
Problems in art and architecture of the Eastern Roman Empire and culturally related areas from 300 to 1453.
ART 536 Art in Late Mediaeval Italy
Staff
Investigates sculpture in Italy between about 1250 and 1400, with reference to styles of representation, artistic techniques, religious iconography, workshop practice, patronage and the economics of artistic production, and the relationship of the visual arts to other modes of cultural expression.
ART 537/MED 500 Seminar in Medieval Art
Nino Zchomelidse
Intensive seminar on selective topics in Medieval art and theory from 400 to 1400.
ART 538 Medieval Manuscript Illumination
Staff
A seminar on illuminated manuscripts, their types, history, and methods of study.
ART 539 Seminar in Iconography
Anne-Marie Bouché
Problems in the interpretation of religious and secular themes in medieval art, with specific topics changing yearly. Extensive use is made of the Index of Christian Art.
ART 540 Art & Culture/Middle Ages & Renaissance
Sarah B. Benson
Reading and research on selected problems in European art, ca. 1000-1600, with emphasis on the influence on the visual arts of such factors as religious movements, social change, and the elaboration of a vernacular literary tradition.
ART 541 Seminar in Renaissance Devotional Art
Patricia F. Brown
The seminar examines in detail selected thematic topics in Italian painting and sculpture.
ART 542 Art and Society in Renaissance Italy
Staff
Seminar on selected topics in Italian art from 1300 to 1600, with special emphasis given to its social, religious, and cultural context. Problems of method in dealing with the contextual study of works of art are considered.
ART 543 Replication and Movement in the Renaissance
Christopher P. Heuer
Examination of the ideas of time and temporality in the Renaissance image, via the lens of two early modern obsessions and their history: the representation of movement and the idea of the copy. Focus will be on artists and works from the Netherlands, Germany, and Italy. Topics include: procession, print technology, replicas, pilgrimage, archaeology, the workshop, and more. Course includes at least one trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
ART 544 Seminar in Northern Renaissance
Christopher P. Heuer
Topics in Netherlandish, German, or French art ca. 1350-1550. Emphasis on close analysis of works--painting, sculpture, graphic arts--and comparative dimensions of interpretation.
ART 545 The Geography of Art
Thomas D. Kaufmann
Art has a place as well as a time. This course examines the geography of art, primarily in the early modern era. Examples are chosen from Europe and the Americas. A theoretical, historiographic, and historical investigation of issues, including ethnic and national identity, metropoles, regionalism, provincialism, peripheries, and artistic interchange, is explored.
ART 547 Studies in Renaissance and Baroque Architecture
John A. Pinto
Advanced research in the history of architecture from 1400 to 1750. Topics vary, with the focus each year placed on important European centers and architects and on issues related to architectural theory and practice.
ART 548/ARC 548 History and Theories of Architecture: 18th and 19th Centuries
Edward A. Eigen
Acquaints students with the best that has been known and built, to paraphrase Pater, between 1690 and 1870. Course focuses on a series of eleven designs and/or buildings in relation to distinct cultural and critical texts, defining ¿best¿ as their ability to sustain historical and theoretical debate and to enact conceptual migrations across diverse fields of inquiry. Special emphasis is given to the role architecture played in the emergence of new institutional forms and the reconfiguration of urban, industrial, and pastoral landscapes.
ART 552 Northern Baroque Art
Christopher P. Heuer
Topics in the art and culture of the Netherlands or France ca. 1580 to 1750.
ART 553 Seminar in Central European Art
Thomas D. Kaufmann
Topics in the art and culture of the central European region from 1500 to 1800.
ART 554 Seminar in 17th-and l8th-Century Art
Thomas D. Kaufmann
Selected topics on artists, images, genres, institutions, or issues in European art and architecture in the 17th and 18th centuries. One three-hour seminar.
ART 560 Renaissance and Post-Renaissance Architecture and Landscape Architecture
David R. Coffin
An introduction to the methods of architectural and landscape architectural history, including the use of documents, drawings, literary descriptions, pictorial evidence, and stylistic analysis. Topics are selected from the history of architecture and gardening or landscape in Italy or England from the 15th to the 18th century.
ART 562 Seminar in American Art
Rachael Z. DeLue
Study of a particular artist, subject, medium, or movement in American art, primarily in the 19th century and ordinarily organized around significant holdings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Possible topics include landscape and still-life painting, Homer and Eakins, and American drawings and watercolors.
ART 563 Seminar in Modern Architecture
Esther da Costa Meyer
A seminar examining the work of an important European or American architect or architectural movement in the period from the late 18th century to the present.
ART 564 19th-Century Art
Bridget A. Alsdorf
Seminar will focus on a specific aspect of art, history, theory, and criticism in Europe between 1789 and 1913. Possible topics include art and revolution, nationalism and the arts, orientalism and primitivism, and theories of modernism.
ART 565/GER 520 Seminar in Modernist Art and Theory
Brigid Doherty
The seminar focuses on the study of a particular problem in modernism. Possible topics include the advent of modernist abstraction, the different uses of advant-garde devices of collage and photomontage, the readymade and the construction, art and technology, art and the unconscious, art and political revolution, and antimodernism.
ART 566 Seminar in Contemporary Art and Theory
Hal Foster
The seminar focuses on the study of a particular problem in contemporary art and theory. Possible topics include the definition of postwar painting, the rise of neo-avant-gardes in the 1950s, the expanded field of art in the 1960s, the advent of new mediums (e.g., performance and video) in the 1970s, and the question of postmodernism in the 1980s.
ART 567 Seminar in 20th-Century Photography
Anne McCauley
The seminar is concerned with the work of a single European or American photographer or with a significant movement in the 20th century.
ART 568 Seminar in 19th-Century Photography
Anne McCauley
The study of a single photographer or the research in problems of 19th-century photography. Possible topics include the relation of painting and its aesthetics to photography, problems in style or iconography, critical theory, the illustrated book, landscape, or portraiture.
ART 569/ARC 565 History and Theory of Landscape Design
Edward A. Eigen
A study of the principles of landscape architecture and an investigation of human response to land form, water, plant materials, and other materials of landscape design and studies the effect of these materials upon planned landscapes.
ART 570 History and Criticism in Chinese Calligraphy
Wen C. Fong
A seminar dealing with three aspects of the subject: changing forms and techniques, critical literature, and the relation between calligraphy and painting.
ART 571 Seminar in Special Problems in Chinese Painting
Jerome Silbergeld
Problems offered include studies of single periods, sites, or phases of painting. This course is adjusted to the needs of the students.
ART 572 Museum Seminar in the Chinese Field
Wen C. Fong
An examination of the methods used in the connoisseurship of paintings, sculptures, and other objects of art, together with a study of the materials and techniques of painting.
ART 573 Topics in Early Chinese Art and Archaeology
Robert W. Bagley
Focusing on a few specific problems in Chinese Neolithic and Bronze Age archaeology, the course explores a variety of approaches to the interpretation of archaeological finds. Topics vary from year to year.
ART 574 Seminar in Japanese Art and Archaeology
Andrew M. Watsky
Museum seminar in the Japanese field, including problems in the connoisseurship of paintings, calligraphies, sculptures, and other categories of art objects.
ART 576 Special Problems in Japanese Art
Yoshiaki Shimizu
Focused studies of various artistic epochs, schools, and themes in Japanese art. The seminar is adjusted to the needs of the students.
ART 580/NES 580 Great Cities of the Islamic World
Thomas F. Leisten
A study of major Islamic capitals (including Baghdad, Cordoba, Isfahan, Samarqand, and others). Discussion will focus on problems of their history, town-planning, and their importance as centers of Islamic art and influential workshops.
ART 581/ARC 571 Research in Architecture
Beatriz Colomina
A research seminar in selected areas of aesthetics, art criticism, and architectural theory from the 18th to the 20th centuries on the notion of representation in art and architecture. This seminar is given to students in the doctoral program at the School of Architecture and to doctoral candidates in other departments.
ART 582/ARC 572 Research in Architecture
M. C. Boyer
A research seminar in selected areas of aesthetics, art criticism, and architectural theory from the 18th to the 20th centuries on the notion of representation in art and architecture. This seminar is given to students in the doctoral program at the School of Architecture and to doctoral candidates in other departments.
ART 585 Problems in Islamic Art and Archaeology
Thomas F. Leisten
Seminar on specific monuments and sites of the early Islamic period. Please see instructor for topics and reading list.
ART 586/ARC 549 History and Theories of Architecture: 20th Century
Spyridon Papapetros
An overview of the major themes running through modern architecture in the twentieth century. The seminar is based on a close reading of selected buildings and texts both by prominent and less prominent figures of the modern movement and its aftermath. Special emphasis is given to the historiography and the history of reception of modern architecture, as well as the cultural, aesthetic and scientific theories that have informed modern architectural debates, including organicism, vitalism, functionalism, structuralism, historicism and their opposites.
ART 587 French Architecture: Visual Culture in 1920's Paris
Esther da Costa Meyer
Object, Building, Body: Visual Culture in 1920s Paris -This seminar will explore a particular moment in the French visual arts, when architects, painters, photographers and film-makers articulated new and often conflicting concepts of the object, architecture, and the body. It will range from Le Corbusier and Ozenfant to Léger and Man Ray, the machine aesthetic, the Ballets Russes, and the avant-garde appropriation of film. How did these artists respond - or not - to sweeping social and political changes, such as transformations in gender roles, the colonization of Algeria, and the emergence of negritude?
ART 590/GER 520 Topics in Literary and Cultural Theory
Brigid Doherty, Michael W. Jennings
Course treats a wide range of theoretical and historical issues concerning the interpretation of literary and cultural materials. Topics include psychoanalytic approaches to literature, the Frankfurt School and its legacy, feminist theory, German-Jewish Acculturation, relations between literature and the other arts, theories of literary reception, and fascism and culture.
ART 598/ARC 576 Advanced Topics in Modern Architecture
Beatriz Colomina, Esther da Costa Meyer
Explores the critical transformation in the relationship between interior and exterior space in modern architecture, which is most evident in domestic space. Domestic space ceases to be simply bounded space in opposition to the outside, whether physical or social. An analysis of modern houses is used as a frame to register contemporary displacements of the relationship between public and private space, instigated by the emerging reality of the technologies of communicaton, including newspaper, telephone, radio, film, and television.