Art history is a branch of humanistic learning concerned with the study of the visual arts in their historical context. Individual works are analyzed for the styles, materials, and techniques of their design and manufacture; for their meanings; and for their makers, periods, and places of creation. An informed appreciation of each work is developed, and the proper historical position of each piece is established. From the study of single works, the art historian moves to the analysis and interpretation of artistic careers, group movements and schools, currents of artistic theory, significant patrons, and cultural contexts. The study of our heritage in the visual arts thus provides a singular perspective for the study of social, cultural, and intellectual history.

Courses for Nonconcentrators. Introduction to Art (Art History 10100) develops basic skills in the analysis and critical enjoyment of the visual arts. Issues and problems in the history of art are explored through classroom discussion of key works, critical reading of fundamental texts, and through writing. Art of the West (Art History 15000-15100-15200) surveys the history of Western art from ancient Greece to the modern world. The Western survey furthers the student's appreciation both for major monuments of art and architecture, and for the place of art in the broad development of Western culture. Art of the East (Art History 16100) provides an equivalent introduction to Eastern art. Art in Context (Art History 17000 through 18900) introduces students to a well-defined issue, topic, or period of art in depth. Any of these 10000-level courses is an appropriate choice to meet the general education requirement in the dramatic, musical, and visual arts. None presupposes prior training in art.

Students who have taken at least one course in art history or studio art, or who have equivalent nonacademic experience, may elect to take an advanced lecture course, numbered from 20100 to 28900. The prerequisites for these courses are any 10000-level art history or visual arts course, or the consent of the instructor. The 20000-level art history courses investigate the arts of specific periods and places from a variety of perspectives. Some courses embrace large bodies of material defined by national culture; others follow developments in style, iconography, and patronage as they affect works in selected media. The role of the individual artist in the creation and development of major movements is frequently examined, as is its complement, the growth of cultural systems and their expression in the visual arts.

The Bachelor of Arts concentration in art history is intended to furnish students with a broad knowledge of Western and non-Western art and to provide an opportunity for the complementary, intensive study of an area of special interest. It is recommended for students who wish to develop their abilities of visual analysis and criticism; to acquire some sense of the major developments in the arts from ancient times to the present; and to understand the visual arts as aspects of social, cultural, and intellectual history. So conceived, the study of art is an element of a general, liberal arts education; the skills of analytical thinking, logical argument, and clear verbal expression necessary to the program are basic to most fields. Although the program in art history has no explicit preprofessional orientation, it does prepare interested students for advanced study at the graduate level and, eventually, for work in academic, museum, and gallery settings.

1. Concentrators are required to take Art History 15000-15100-15200. They should do so as early as possible in their program, ideally by their sophomore year.

2. They must write at least two research papers of intermediate length (fifteen to twenty pages) before starting their senior year, ordinarily in conjunction with 20000-level courses taken in art history. It is the student's responsibility to make the appropriate arrangements with the instructor.

3. They should develop a special field of interest (see following section).

4. Within the special field, they should write a senior paper (see following section). They should also participate in the senior seminar.

5. They must use an approved course in drama, music, or visual arts to meet the general education requirement in the dramatic, musical, and visual arts; art history courses may not be used to satisfy general education requirements.

6. Concentrators are encouraged to take graduate seminars after obtaining the permission of the instructor first. (Such seminars are also open to nonconcentrators with the same proviso.)

7. They are urged to pursue upper-level language courses. If such a course is relevant to the student's special field, he or she may petition the director of undergraduate studies to have it count toward their electives for the art history program.

8. Those planning to continue their study of art history at the graduate level are advised to meet the general education language requirement in French or German, or in Italian for those with primary interest in the art of Italy. The prospective graduate student should achieve language competency equal to at least two years of college study.

Two Tracks. In structuring their programs, concentrators may choose one of two orientations (tracks): one offering a broad coverage of the history of art, the other a close study of a specific area or topic.

Track I. In addition to Art History 15000-15100-15200 and Art History 29800 (Senior Seminar), Track I students take eight upper-level courses within the department. Students are encouraged to distribute the eight courses widely throughout Western and non-Western art and are specifically required to take at least one course in Western art before 1400, one course in Western art after 1400, and one course in non-Western art. Within the eight departmental courses, students must develop a special field consisting of three courses whose relevance to one another must be clearly established. The field may be defined by chronological period, medium, national culture, genre, methodological concerns, or a suitable combination. Because they reflect the interests of individual concentrators, such fields range widely in topic, approach, and scope. Reading courses with art history faculty may be used to pursue specific questions within a field. The topic for the senior paper normally develops from the special field and allows for further study of the area through independent research and writing.

Track II. In addition to Art History 15000-15100-15200 and Art History 29800 (Senior Seminar), Track II students take eight courses: three courses inside and two courses outside the art history department make up the special field; three additional courses in art history are taken at the student's discretion. Because the last three courses are intended to give an overall sense of the discipline, each Track II student is encouraged to select them from widely differing periods and approaches in the history of art.

The special field may take many different forms. It may be civilization defined by chronological period, nation-state, cultural institution, or a suitable combination. Extra-departmental courses in history and literature would be particularly relevant to such a program. Another special field might be conceptual in character (e.g., art and the history of science, urban history, and geography) and draw upon a variety of extra-departmental courses in the Humanities and Social Sciences Collegiate Divisions. A field could combine historical, critical, and theoretical perspectives (e.g., visual arts in the twentieth century) and involve courses in art history, drama, music, film, and popular culture. Finally, art history and studio courses (e.g., Committee on the Visual Arts) may be combined in special fields exploring their interrelations (e.g., abstraction and conceptualism in modern art). As with Track I, the senior paper normally develops within the special field.

Special Field. Whether a student is following Track I or Track II, the proposal for the special field, in the form of a written petition, must be received by the director of undergraduate studies and approved by a faculty committee no later than the end of a student's junior year. Students should consult the director for guidelines on the organization and preparation of the proposal. It is strongly recommended that students complete at least two courses in their special field by the end of their junior year.

Senior Paper. It is the student's responsibility, by the end of the junior year, to have found a member of the faculty who agrees to act as the faculty research adviser. Together, they agree on a topic for the student's senior paper, preferably before the start of the autumn quarter of the senior year. The topic must be registered no later than the fourth week of that quarter on a departmental form available from the director of undergraduate studies.

The senior paper is developed during the course of the senior seminar (Art History 29800). This is offered during autumn quarter and is required of all concentrators. Most commonly, students take the seminar in the autumn quarter before graduating in spring quarter; those graduating in the autumn or winter quarters should take the course in the previous academic year. In the closing sessions of the seminar, students discuss their plans and initial research for the senior paper. They continue their research on the paper during the following quarters, meeting at intervals with their faculty research adviser. Students may elect to take Preparation for the Senior Paper (Art History 29900) in autumn or winter quarter to afford additional time for research or writing. The first draft of the paper is due by the first week of the quarter of graduation; the final version is due the sixth week of that quarter. Both are to be submitted in duplicate: one copy to the research adviser and the second to the director of undergraduate studies. Because individual projects vary from student to student, no specific requirements for the senior paper have been set. Essays tend to range in length from twenty to forty pages, but there is no minimum or maximum requirement.

Advising. Art history concentrators should see the director of undergraduate studies in art history no less than once a year for consultation and guidance in planning a special field, in selecting courses, in choosing a topic for the senior paper, and for any academic problems within the concentration.

Grading. Art history concentrators must receive letter grades in art history courses taken for the concentration, with one exception: for Preparation for the Senior Paper (Art History 29900), they may receive a Pass grade. Art history courses elected beyond concentration requirements may be taken for Pass grades with consent of instructor. Students taking art history courses to meet the general education requirement in dramatic, musical, and visual arts must receive letter grades. Nonconcentrators may receive a Pass grade with consent of instructor if they are taking an art history class that is not satisfying a general education requirement. A Pass grade is given only for work of C- quality or higher.

Honors. Students who complete their course work and their senior papers with great distinction are considered for graduation with special honors. Candidates must have a grade point average of at least 3.0 overall and 3.3 in art history. Nominations for honors are made by the faculty in the concentration through the Office of the Director of Undergraduate Studies to the master of the Humanities Collegiate Division.

10100. Introduction to Art. For nonconcentrators, this course meets the general education requirement in the dramatic, musical, and visual arts. Students must attend the first class to confirm enrollment. This course seeks to develop skills in perception, comprehension, and appreciation when dealing with a variety of visual art forms. It encourages the close analysis of visual materials, explores the range of questions and methods appropriate to the explication of a given work of art, and examines the intellectual structures basic to the systematic study of art. Most important, the course encourages the understanding of art as a visual language and aims to foster in students the ability to translate this understanding into verbal expression, both oral and written. Staff. Autumn, Winter, Spring.

15000-15100-15200. Art of the West. For nonconcentrators, any course in this sequence meets the general education requirement in the dramatic, musical, and visual arts. May be taken in sequence or individually. Students must attend the first class to confirm enrollment. The major monuments and masterpieces of painting, sculpture, and architecture are studied as examples of humankind's creative impulses in the visual arts. Individual objects are analyzed in detail and interpreted in light of society's varied needs. While changes in form, style, and function are emphasized, an attempt is also made to trace the development of a unique and continuous tradition of visual imagery throughout Western civilization.

15000. The Ancient and Medieval World. This course examines the nature of artistic production from the prehistoric animal images in the caves of southern Europe to the handmade, gilded books that circulated at French and English courts some fifteen thousand years later. Particular attention is given to the transformation of the natural landscape into imposing built environments around the Mediterranean, including Africa and the Near East, and to the role art played as image-maker for political and religious institutions. At the conclusion of the class we consider the ways every age reworks its past, selecting from an available array of visual production the material that gives shape to its sense of itself. M. Camille. Autumn.

15100. Renaissance to Rococo. The major achievements of European artists in painting, sculpture, and architecture from about 1400 to 1775 are discussed chronologically. While broad style groupings (e.g., Renaissance, Mannerism, Baroque, and Rococo) are an important organizing principle, an effort is made to concentrate on fewer artists and masterpieces rather than a uniform survey. Attention is also given to the invention and development of distinctive artistic types and their association with particular moments in history. Where possible, study of the imagery is supplemented with contemporary written documents (e.g., contracts, letters, and theoretical texts). C. Cohen. Winter.

15200. The Modern Age. This course considers selected works of painting, sculpture, and architecture from 1750 to the present, concentrating on how they can be understood in relation to development of the modern art world and changing conceptions of what the experience of art should be. Developments considered are the roles of subjectivity and nationalism in the rise of nineteenth-century landscape painting, the early twentieth-century conception of an artistic avant-garde, and the notion of functionalism in architectural design. Emphasis is placed on the close examination of works in the area. R. Heller. Spring.

16100. Art of Asia: China (=ARTH 16100, CHIN 16100, EALC 16100). For nonconcentrators, this course meets the general education requirement in the dramatic, musical, and visual arts. This course is an introduction to the arts of China focusing on the bronze vessels of the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the Chinese appropriation of the Buddha image, and the evolution of landscape and figure painting traditions. This course considers objects in contexts (from the archaeological sites from which they were unearthed to the material culture that surrounded them) to reconstruct the functions and the meanings of objects, and to better understand Chinese culture through the objects it produced. H. Wu. Winter.

17000-18900. Art in Context. For nonconcentrators, this course meets the general education requirement in the dramatic, musical, and visual arts. Students must attend the first class to confirm enrollment. Courses in this series investigate basic methods of art historical analysis and apply them to significant works of art studied within definite contexts. Works of art are placed in their intellectual, historical, cultural, or more purely artistic settings in an effort to indicate the origins of their specific achievements. An informed appreciation of the particular solutions offered by single works and the careers of individual artists emerges from the detailed study of classic problems within Western and non-Western art.

17200. Gargoyles at the University of Chicago. This course examines the history of medieval gargoyles as stone sculptures in Europe and their rebirth in the nineteenth century. We then turn our focus to their use in the unique architecture found on the University of Chicago campus. M. Camille. Winter.

17500. Hellenistic and Early Roman Art 323-331 B.C.E. PQ: Knowledge of Greek and Latin not required. The conquests of Alexander the Great transformed the ancient world forever, inaugurating a period of fertile contact and exchange between various cultures. Meanwhile in the Western Mediterranean, the expansion of the Roman Republic and the ensuing wars with Carthage inaugurated changes no less far reaching. We discuss the new uses of public and private art in this period, devoting special attention to the negotiation of political and social ideologies. Topics include the development of portraiture, the articulation of sexuality, the iconography of royal power, the construction and use of "alien" imageries and styles, the rise of classicizing and archaizing styles, and the use of Greek art in India and Rome. R. Neer. Autumn.

17600. Vermeer of Delft. The seventeenth century Dutch "sphinx of Delft" has attracted and puzzled his many admirers in almost equal part. Focusing upon the discrete group of 35 paintings in his accepted oeuvre, this course addresses why his works still function as a battlefield for some of the fundamental questions in art history. Topics covered include the question of egionalism, the concept of genius, the impact of science, the evolution of taste, and the popularization of art. M. Mochizuki. Winter.

17900. Twentieth-Century Art in the Art Institute. This course introduces students to the methods and issues of art history through close consideration of selected works at the Art Institute of Chicago. Museum visits required. M. Ward. Spring.

18200. Montage and Collage: Modern Form in Film. This course discusses the idea of montage as a basic stylistic choice and device in the twentieth century in film (primarily) and the other arts (secondarily). Montage is first approached as a theory of artistic form that arose in cinema, primarily in the work of Sergei Eisenstein. Eisenstein's writings and his film are primary texts. But ideas about montage in other filmmakers (e.g., Griffith, Epstein, Dulac, Vertov, Pudovkin, Kubelka, Resnais, Anger, and Godard) are also considered. The idea of montage as a basic form of modernism in other arts is also discussed, drawing on photo-montagists such as Hoch and Heartfield, constructivist aesthetics in Tatlin and Rodchenko, and the dream-like radical juxtaposition of surrealist collage work. Screenings required. T. Gunning. Spring.

18300. Visual Style in Still and Moving Images (=ARTH 18300, COVA 26000). This course surveys elements of styles and techniques common to the visual arts. We examine light and color, framing and editing, and action and narration, as well as blocking, interior design, and mise-en-scène as used by artists, photographers, and filmmakers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Y. Tsivian. Autumn.

18500. Electric Shadows: Introduction to Chinese Film. This course surveys the development of Chinese film (its audiences and purposes). We examine its silent film era with elite tea house audiences and continue through its propagandistic uses in the middle of the twentieth century for more popular audiences. We also discuss the development of Chinese film in the 1980s and 1990s as a technically accomplished and often stunningly beautiful medium capable of speaking meaningfully to both popular and elite audiences. J. Purtle. Spring.

19000. Introduction to Film I (=ARTH 19000, CMST 10100, COVA 25400, ENGL 10800, GSHU 20000). This course introduces basic concepts of film analysis, which are discussed through examples from different national cinemas, genres, and directorial oeuvres. Along with questions of film technique and style, we consider the notion of the cinema as an institution that comprises an industrial system of production, social and aesthetic norms and codes, and particular modes of reception. Films discussed include works by Hitchcock, Porter, Griffith, Eisenstein, Lang, Renoir, Sternberg, and Welles. J. Sewart. Autumn.

20200/30200. The Greek Revolution Revisited: Rethinking Naturalism (=ARTH 20200/30200, CLAS 28900/38900). PQ: Any 10000-level ARTH or COVA course, or consent of instructor. This seminar explores one of the most influential phenomena in the history of Western art: the development of naturalistic representation in the painting and sculpture of Classical Greece. Despite the undeniable importance of Greek naturalism as (for good or ill) a stylistic paradigm, it has been the subject of little critical investigation in recent decades. This seminar interrogates (but not necessarily rejects) the concept of naturalistic depiction, and it examines the possibility that Greek naturalism was a local, historical phenomenon and not a miraculous, empiricist discovery. Texts in English. R. Neer. Winter.

21400/31400. Byzantine Manuscript Illumination. PQ: Any 10000-level ARTH or COVA course, or consent of instructor. In the Eastern Middle Ages, like the Western, the embellishment of manuscripts was a major endeavor and, as such, can inform us about diverse issues (i.e., the relation of words and images, the nature of narrative, the social and religious value of images, reading and seeing, speaking and hearing, craft production and patronage, and monastic and secular values). This course considers illumination from late antiquity to the late Middle Ages. R. Nelson. Autumn.

21800/31800. Monstrosity in Medieval Art. PQ: Any 10000-level ARTH or COVA course, or consent of instructor. This course explores all aspects of monstrosity, deformity, and fantastic creaturely combination that is typical of medieval representational art from the eighth through the fifteenth centuries. From Celtic sculpture and book painting, through its obvious manifestations in Romanesque sculpture (as well as folklore themes in gothic art of the cathedrals and altarpieces), another emphasis is that of magic. The Christian theology of monstrosity in the form of demons and the devil is that of magic. The Christian ideology of monstrosity in the form of demons and the devil is also discussed, as well as the whole problem of the ugly as an aesthetic category. M. Camille. Winter.

22100/32100 The Medieval Monastery: Architecture, Art, and Activity. PQ: Any 10000-level ARTH or COVA course, or consent of instructor. This course studies select sites, varied forms of artistic production, and diverse issues. Topics include the creation of an ideal architectural plan for the abbey at St. Gall in Switzerland around 820, the liturgical innovations of Cluniac and Cistercian church planning, the animation of the cloister with programs of devotional and distracting imagery, the function of the scriptorium and school, the emergence of female houses, and the late flowering and private patronage of Dominican and Carthusian communities with their frescoes and altartables around 1400. L. Seidel. Spring.

22700/32700. High Renaissance Painting in Florence and Rome. PQ: Any 10000-level ARTH or COVA course, or consent of instructor. This course concentrates on the artists who have been considered the culminating figures of the culminating moment of the Renaissance in Florence and Rome: Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael. The accomplishments of these three artists and the parameters of the artistic culture of the High Renaissance are explored and contextualized by briefly discussing other major artists (e.g., Fra Bartolommeo and Andea del Sarto). We also introduce the complex question of the critical change of style and cultural direction in Florence and Rome around 1520 (which we usually call Mannerism). Special attention is given to the writings and drawings of the major artists as a means of interpreting their creative intentions. C. Cohen. Autumn.

22900/32900. Colloquium: The Body in Renaissance Art. PQ: One prior art history class. This discussion course addresses the visual arts (i.e., painting, drawing, prints, and sculpture) of renaissance Europe as a site for meditation on the uneasy relationship between the bodies and souls of both artists and viewers. We focus our discussion on primary texts and images, supplemented by the work of art historians and contemporary theorists. Topics include Renaissance psychology and art criticism; Neoplatonic and Aristotelian theories of the soul, vision, and desire; style and "imagination"; portraiture; the passions; witchcraft and demonology; humoral psychology, particularly in relation to theories of melancholy; allegory and idolatry; anatomy and physiology; and the role of prints and drawings in expressing intention. Artists considered in detail include Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rosso Fiorentino, Durer, and Titian. Students may choose to write a research paper or a series of shorter written and oral assignments. R. Zorach. Autumn.

23100/33100. Gardens in Italy, France, and England, 1600-1800. PQ: Any 10000-level ARTH or COVA course, or consent of instructor. This course examines the role of gardens and landscape architecture in relation to painting, sculpture, and architecture during the early modern period. Cultural, political, and economic considerations also inform our consideration of these particularly privileged sites, the patrons and artists who created them, and the functions they served for their audiences. K. Rorschach. Winter.

24700/34700. Dutch Art of the Golden Age. PQ: One prior art history class. The glorious art of the seventeenth century Netherlands is a bridge between the art of the ancient world and the art of the modern era. It includes the work of artists (e.g., Rembrandt, Vermeer, and Hals) who produced masterpieces for a new Republic that still continue to astonish, amuse, and instruct today. This course provides an overview of the artistic production of this period, focusing on the leading artists, the cities where they worked, and the new types of painting they created. M. Mochizuki. Autumn

25000/35000. European Romanticism. PQ: Any 10000-level ARTH or COVA course, or consent of instructor. This course examines major artistic and theoretical trends in European art from ca. 1780-1830. B. Stafford. Winter.

25800/35800. Visual Culture (=ARTH 25800/35800, CMST 27800/37800, COVA 25400, ENGL 12600/32600, MAPH 34300). PQ: Any 10000-level ARTH or COVA course, or consent of instructor. This course explores the fundamental questions in the interdisciplinary study of visual culture: What are the cultural (and, by the same token, natural) components in the structure of visual experience? What is seeing? What is a spectator? What is the difference between visual and verbal representation? How do visual media exert power, elicit desire and pleasure, and construct the boundaries of subjective and social experience in the private and public sphere? How do questions of politics, gender, sexuality, and ethnicity inflect the construction of visual semiosis? W. J. T. Mitchell. Winter.

26000/36000. Art and Film in the Weimar Republic (=ARTH 26000/36000, CMST 22100/32100, COVA 26300, GRMN 23100/33100). This course explores the visual culture of Weimar, Germany, with particular focus on the fine arts and more popular imagery, the intersections with Weimar Cinema, and their interactions with the contemporary social and political milieus. We consider such art and film movements as expressionism, dada, and neo-objectivity; artists' groups encompassing the Bauhaus, the November Group, and the Association of Revolutionary Visual Artists of Germany; artists ranging from George Grosz and Otto Dix to Kurt Schwitters and Wassily Kandinsky; and films including The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Metropolis, M, and Kuhle Wampe. Screenings required. R. Heller. Autumn.

26200/36200. Cinema and Magic (=ARTH 26200/36200, CMST 25600/35600, COVA 25800). PQ: CMST 10100 or equivalent. This course traces relations between motion pictures and traditions of magic, both as a theatrical entertainment and as a belief system. The invention of cinema's roots in the magic lantern and other "philosophical toys" that trick the senses into seeing visual illusions are explored. The early trick films of Melies and others are discussed. The relation between cinema and hypnosis is also explored. We consider the appeal of magic systems of thought (i.e., spiritualism, theosophy, and ritual magic) for avant-garde movement and their relation to experimental films by Epstein, Artaud, Deren, Anger, Smith, Fischinger, and others. T. Gunning. Spring.

26500/36500. The Sites of Twentieth-Century Art (=ARTH 26500/36500, COVA 26400). PQ: Any 10000-level ARTH or COVA course. This course examines how the modes of distribution and the destinations (both real and imaginary) of twentieth-century art have affected the production and reception of cultural objects. We examine in detail a series of examples drawn from both European and American art to address such concerns as the following: the interdependence of modernism and the museum, the decorative painting and the domestic interior, the fears of and hopes for the mechanical reproduction of art, the archive as a site of radical resistence (the situationalists), public space and performance gesture, and "site-specificity" in contemporary sculpture. M. Ward. Winter.

27300. Indecent Exposure: Defamation and the Propriety of Exhibiting in the Twentieth Century. PQ: Any 100-level ARTH or COVA course. This course considers the problematics of public display by examining a series of exhibitions that have been decried as defamatory. By contrasting controversial exhibitions in recent American history with more explicit examples of public defamation in pre-World War II Europe, we aim to critically evaluate the changing ethics of the museum in the last century. Our survey begins with the most infamous episodes of State-sponsored defamation in modern Europe‹including the "Degenerate Art" exhibitions in Nazi Germany (1933-39) and the antireligious museums of the former Soviet Union (1924-36). We then turn to more recent debates concerning such exhibitions as "Harlem on My Mind" (1969) at the Met and the proposed display of the Enola Gay at the Smithsonian (1994). Among the questions we seek to address: How has the evolving communal role of the museum helped spur these debates, and how do these debates in turn continue to shape contemporary museum policy? What do such controversial episodes in our history tell us about the limits of free speech and representation in our country today? What do they tell us about our capacity to represent others? What is, and what has been, the responsibility of the museum to its public in the last century? We close by asking what power, if any, American museums might have today in both encouraging tolerance and facilitating inquiry by displaying the history of defamation. A. Jolles. Winter.

27900. The Architectural Profession: Present, Past, and Future. This course examines architecture from the vantage point of the work-life of architects and how it has changed over time. We focus on the modern period, from the formation of a modern profession in the nineteenth century to the challenges architects face in the twenty-first century, especially electronic ones. Through case studies of particular architects and building projects, we discuss the history of such topics as: office work-life; how architects have managed their compound status as technical experts, artists, and businessmen; architectural education; architectural publishing and photography; patronage; and popular understandings of architecture, including images circulated through films. K. Taylor. Autumn.

28000. Materiality, Objecthood, Connoisseurship, and Collecting: Museum Seminar in Chinese Art (=ARTH 2800, CHIN 27900). PQ: Any 10000-level ARTH or COVA course or consent of instructor. This course presents a history of Chinese art through hands-on study of a series of so-called prime objects that follow the development of visual and material production in China from the neolithic to the present. First-hand study of objects in the collections of the Smart Museum, the Field Museum of Natural History, and the Art Institute of Chicago are combined with theoretical examinations of issues of materiality, objecthood, connoisseurship, and collecting, as based on Chinese primary sources and contemporary theoretical writings on these subjects. Texts in English. Visits to local collections required. J. Purtle. Spring.

28300/38300. Chinese Scroll Painting: Medium and Representation (=ARTH 23100, EALC 23100). PQ: COVA 10100 or 10200, or 10000-level ARTH course, or consent of instructor. This course studies the development of traditional Chinese painting from the tenth to the nineteenth centuries, with a special emphasis on how different painting formats (e.g., handscroll, screen, and album) affect image-making, the viewing experience, and the social roles of painting. H. Wu. Spring.

28500/38500. History of International Cinema I: Silent Era (=ARTH 28500/38500, CMST 28500/48500, COVA 26500, ENGL 29300/48700, MAPH 33600). This is the first part of a two-quarter course. The two parts may be taken individually, but taking them in sequence is helpful. The aim of this course is to introduce students to what was singular about the art and craft of silent film. Its general outline is chronological. We also discuss main national schools and international trends of filmmaking. Y. Tsivian. Autumn.

28600/38600. History of International Cinema II: Sound Era to 1960 (=ARTH 28600/38600, CMST 28600/48600, COVA 26600, ENGL 29600/48900, MAPH 33700). PQ: ARTH 28500/38500 or consent of instructor. This is the second part of the international survey history for film covering the sound era up to 1960. The crystallization of the classical Hollywood film in terms of style and genre, as well as industry organization, is a key issue. But international alternatives to Hollywood are also discussed, from the unique forms of Japanese cinema to movements such as Italian Neo-Realism and the beginnings of the New Wave in France. Texts include Thompson Bordwell, Film History and Introduction, and works by Bazin, Belton, Sitney, Godard, and others. Screenings include films by Hitchcock, Welles, Rossellini, Bresson, Ozu, Antonioni, and Renoir. T. Gunning. Winter.

28700/38700. The Art of Confrontation: Chinese Visual Culture in the Twentieth Century (=ARTH 28700/38700, CHIN 28700/38700). PQ: Any 10000-level ARTH or COVA course, or consent of instructor. This course is a survey of Chinese visual culture of the twentieth century that is focused on the theme of confrontation. In the twentieth century, traditional modes of Chinese visual culture confronted Western styles and techniques of visual expression, ideas of Modernism and modernity, competing political economic ideologies, developments in China's distant and recent history, colonialism, disparate regional Chinese identities (i.e., China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan), technological change, and the globalization of the art market. This course explores these confrontations through a variety of media and methodological approaches. J. Purtle. Autumn.

28900/38900. Charlie Chaplin: The Man, the Artist, and the Cultural Hero (=ARTH 28900/38900, CMST 26400/36400, COVA 25900). Three aspects stressed in the course title define the approach to (and explain the significance of) this key figure in the history of film and twentieth-century culture. As a man, Chaplin was a frequent target of large-scale political and sexual scandals. As an actor-director, he was responsible not only for the Tramp figure but also for such genres as social comedy and comedy melodrama. As a myth, Chaplin's figure was key to a number of twentieth-century art movements (e.g., Expressionist poetry, Cubist painting, and Soviet Constructivist art). Y. Tsivian. Winter.

29700. Reading Course. PQ: Consent of instructor and director of undergraduate studies. Students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Form. Must be taken for a letter grade. With adviser's approval, concentrators may use this course to satisfy requirements for the concentration, a special field, or electives. This course is designed for students in art history or advanced students in other concentrations whose program requirements are best met by study under a faculty member's individual supervision. The subject, course of study, and requirements are arranged with the instructor. Staff. Autumn, Winter, Spring.

29800. Senior Seminar: Problems and Methods in Art History. PQ: Required of fourth-year art history concentrators, who present aspects of their senior papers in oral reports; open to nonconcentrators with consent of instructor. This seminar prepares senior concentrators to write their senior papers. Each week, students read one or two articles by a particular critic or historian, and appraise the reading in short papers. Class discussion addresses the merits and faults of the weekly texts, and students read from their appraisals. Topics include analytic philosophy, iconology, semiotics, queer theory, anthropological models, critical theory, feminism, and (naturally) the students' own particular interests. Throughout, we focus on the practical value of the readings: on their usefulness as models for thinking and writing about art. R. Neer. Autumn.

29900. Preparation for the Senior Paper. PQ: Consent of instructor and director of undergraduate studies. Students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Form. May be taken for a Pass grade with consent of instructor. This course provides guided research on the topic of the senior paper. The program of study and schedule of meetings are to be arranged with the student's senior paper adviser. Staff. Autumn, Winter, Spring.