Department of Art and Archaeology

Chair

Hal Foster

Director of Graduate Studies

John A. Pinto

Professor

Carol M. Armstrong, also Women and Gender

Robert W. Bagley

Patricia Fortini Brown

William A. P. Childs

Slobodan ´Curˇci´c

Hal Foster

Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann

Thomas F. Leisten

Elizabeth Anne McCauley

Hugo Meyer

John A. Pinto

T. Leslie Shear Jr.

Yoshiaki Shimizu

Jerome Silbergeld

John Wilmerding

Associate Professor

Esther da Costa Meyer

Brigid Doherty, also German

Assistant Professor

Rachael Ziady DeLue

Alastair I. Wright

Nino Zchomelidse

Visiting Lecturer with Rank of Professor

Yve-Alain Bois

Associated Faculty

Leonard Barkan, Comparative Literature

Art Museum

Director

Susan M. Taylor

Associate Director

Rebecca E. Sender

Curator of Education and Academic Programs

Caroline Cassells Harris

Research Curator

Betsy J. Rosasco

Curator

Laura M. Giles

Cary Y. Liu

J. Michael Padgett

John M.D. Pohl

Joel M. Smith

Assistant Curator

Calvin D. Brown

Sinead R. Kehoe

Karl E. Kusserow

Registrar

Maureen A. McCormick

Managing Editor

Jill E. Guthrie

Conservator

Norman E. Muller

Index of Christian Art

Director

Colum P. Hourihane

Reader

Lois Drewer

Giovanno Freni

Judith K. Golden

Adelaide Bennett Hagens

Libby Escobedo Karlinger

Adoracion M. Garcia Lechner

 

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.) degree; there is no master’s program.

Students have the opportunity to work with objects in the collections of the 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 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.

Examinations

Candidates for the Ph.D. degree 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.

Students qualify for the Master of Arts (M.A.) degree 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.

The Ph.D. degree 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 the Ph.D. degree 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, the Ph.D. degree 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. degree of classical archaeology is awarded upon completion of a dissertation and a final public oral examination supervised by the interdepartmental program.

Equipment and Facilities

The department is housed in McCormick Hall, which includes the Marquand Library and the Index of Christian Art. The Marquand Library, one of the finest art libraries in the world, is accessible to graduate students on extended hours seven days a week and contains their study and seminar rooms. The section of slides and photographs has some 185,000 mounted photographs and 215,000 slides. In the research collection are the Platt Collection of 420,000 photographs of art works, the Netherlandish Index, the Illustrated Bartsch, an illustrated index of Pre-Columbian art, and copies of the photographic archives of I Tatti as well as numerous small, specialized collections. The principal collections of the Art Museum, which is connected to McCormick Hall, are described elsewhere in this catalog.

Courses

ART 500 Proseminar in the History of Art

Hal Foster

This course provides an introduction to a range of art-historical methods from the modern founders of the discipline (e.g., Erwin Panofsky, Alois Riegl, Aby Waburg, and Heinrich Wolfflin) 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 DaCosta Kaufmann

Selected topics in the literature of art and architecture in Europe and the Americas from antiquity to the present.

ART 519 Seminar in Mycenaean Archaeology

T. Leslie Shear Jr.

A study of the culture of the Aegean as reflected in architecture, pottery, and other arts during the second millennium B.C., with a chief emphasis on the Late Bronze Age.

ART 520 Greek Art of the Iron Age and the Orientalizing Periods

William A. P. 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. P. Childs

Selected problems in Greek art between 650 and 480 B.C.

ART 523 Classical Greek Sculpture and Painting

William A. P. Childs

Selected problems in Greek art from 480 to 300 B.C.

ART 524 Mapping the City (see ARC 525)

ART 525 Architecture of Periclean Athens

T. Leslie Shear Jr.

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. P. Childs

Problems in archaic and classical art in regions outside Athens, principally in Asia Minor.

ART 527 Topography and Monuments of Athens

T. Leslie Shear Jr.

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. Leslie Shear Jr.

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. P. Childs

A study of the principles of representation, concentrating sometimes on narrative and sometimes on specific problems, such as Pompeian painting.

ART 530 Problems in Roman Art

Hugo Meyer

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 an 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 are to be explored in conjunction with innovation in imperial propaganda, narration, historical representation, and more.

ART 533 Roman Portraiture

Hugo Meyer

An investigation of the origins, development, function, and significance of portrait sculpture in the Roman world.

ART 534 Topography and Monuments of Ancient Rome

Hugo Meyer

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 Problems in Late Antique and Byzantine Art and Architecture (also HLS 535)

Slobodan ´Curˇci´c

Problems in art and architecture of the Eastern Roman Empire and culturally related areas from 300 to 1453.

ART 536 Art in Late Medieval 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 Seminar in Medieval Art

Staff

Intensive study of a period, genre, or theme in medieval art. Possible topics include Romanesque painting and sculpture, art of the church treasures, and imperial patronage and the arts.

ART 538 Medieval Manuscript Illumination

Staff

A seminar on illuminated manuscripts, their types, history, and methods of study.

ART 539 Seminar in Iconography

Staff

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 and Culture in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance

Patricia Fortini Brown

Reading and research on selected problems in European art, ca. 1000–1600, with an emphasis on the influence on the visual arts of factors such as religious movements, social change, and the elaboration of a vernacular literary tradition.

ART 541 Problems in Renaissance Devotional Art

Patricia Fortini Brown

The seminar examines in detail selected thematic topics in Italian painting and sculpture.

ART 542 Art and Society in Renaissance Italy

Patricia Fortini Brown

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 The Domestication of Space: From Incorporation to Disembodiment

Staff

A seminar on aspects of architecture during the 19th and 20th centuries, illustrating a number of historical trends in relation to modernity and postmodernity, regarding the body in its cultural space. Emphasis is placed on domestic conditions, considered through the categories of the disembodiment of place and the displacement of the body. Topics include the normal and the pathological; bodies and machines; organ and function; luxury and comfort; well-being and welfare; control and transparency; and the prosthetic technobody.

ART 544 Seminar in the Northern Renaissance

Alfred J. Acres

Topics in Netherlandish, German, or French art ca. 1350-1550. Emphasis is on close analysis of works (painting, sculpture, graphic arts) and comparative dimensions of interpretation.

ART 545 The Geography of Art

Thomas DaCosta 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 is explored, including ethnic and national identity, metropoles, regionalism, provincialism, peripheries, and artistic interchange.

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 History and Theories of Architecture: 18th and 19th Centuries

ART 552 Northern Baroque Art

Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann

Topics in the art and culture of the Netherlands or France ca. 1580 to 1750.

ART 553 Seminar in Central European Art

Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann

Topics in the art and culture of the central European region from 1500 to 1800.

ART 554 Seminar in 17th- and 18th-Century Art

Thomas DaCosta 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

John A. Pinto

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 centuries.

ART 561 Topics in Contemporary Architectural Theory (see ARC 577)

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

Carol M. Armstrong

Study of an individual painter or movement from the late 18th through the 19th century. Possible topics include problems in style, iconography and theory, and relationships to the history of ideas.

ART 565 Seminar in Modernist Art and Theory

Hal Foster

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

Elizabeth Anne McCauley

The seminar is concerned with the work of a single European or American photographer, or with a significant movement of the 20th century.

ART 568 Seminar in 19th-Century Photography

Elizabeth Anne McCauley

The study of a single photographer, or 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, and portraiture.

ART 569 History and Theory of Landscape Design (see ARC 565)

ART 570 History and Criticism of Chinese Calligraphy

Jerome Silbergeld

A seminar dealing with three aspects of Chinese calligraphy: 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. The course is adjusted to the needs of the students.

ART 572 Museum Seminar in the Chinese Field

Jerome Silbergeld

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

Yoshiaki Shimizu

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 Cities of Caliphs and Sultans: Capitals of the Islamic World

Thomas F. Leisten

A study of major Islamic capitals (including Baghdad, Cordoba, Isfahan, Samarqand, and others). Discussion focuses on problems of their history, town planning, and importance as centers of Islamic art and influential workshops.

ART 581, 582 Research in Architecture (see ARC 571, 572)

ART 585 Problems in Islamic Art and Archaeology

Thomas F. Leisten

Palace of Mshatta in Jordan, historiography, and art and archaeology of a Late Antique monument. The seminar deals with the interpretation of the architecture and the façade of Mshatta and ways to reconstruct it and interpret its original meaning. The seminar deals with the original material (photographs, diaries, and plans) originating from the earliest research on that site, which is preserved in the Rare Books Collection at Firestone Library and in the Visual Resource Collection in the Department of Art and Archaeology.

ART 593 European Architecture: Theory and Criticism 1830–1930

Staff

The principal theories, manifestos, critical writings, and debates in European architecture, from the period following the industrial revolution to the use of totalitarianism in the 1930s. The course aims to help the student develop, by means of close readings of primary and secondary texts, a critical understanding of architecture discourse in the context of parallel social and artistic discourse.