ARTH 112 Spring 2008
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Prof. J. Saslow Klapper 167 Office Hours: Thurs. 3:30-5:00 james.saslow@qc.cuny.edu 718.997.4803, 4820 or by appointment
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COURSE GOALS AND DESCRIPTION
In this course, students will become familiar with the profound innovations in painting, sculpture, and architecture created in Europe from about 1300 to 1700, which set the course and standards for much of western visual culture down to the past century. From Giotto to Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and
Rembrandt, we will examine what is meant by the term “Renaissance” in the visual arts and European society at large, including its contacts and exchanges with global cultures outside the west. The period was marked by not only a rebirth of the artistic forms of ancient Greece and Rome, but a broader reawakening of curiosity about the natural world and human character, about life here on earth and how it might be shaped and improved by reason and ingenuity, that led to the modern world. Although the Renaissance has often been glorified as the triumph of science, secularism, and reason, we will see how it was energized by a broader tension between the new secular spirit and the ongoing influence of faith and the church -- a situation that is still with us.
Because this is an art history course, part of what we will study is about art: We will come to understand the crucial role of the visual arts in expressing and shaping this and all human cultures, and will learn a set of skills for “reading” the multiple meanings of artworks. These methods range from visual analysis -- learning to “see” and describe such fundamental artistic elements as color, line, composition -- to iconography (the study of meaning) and social history. But the other half of this course is about history, because this semester’s class is a “beta test,” or a pilot course, for the system that will replace LASAR requirements next year [not for you]. The new general education system (called PLAS -- Perspectives on the Liberal Arts and Sciences) will also introduce students to a particular academic subject as a world of values and ideas in its own right, and provide an understanding of what the liberal arts are as a whole, how each of them find out their distinct brand of knowledge, and why they matter to an educated person.
In addition to the major personalities and cultural centers of Europe, we will investigate how artistic developments there were influenced by increasing contacts with Africa, Asia, and the Islamic lands, and how Europeans interacted with cultures around the world as they explored and colonized the globe, particularly Latin America. Special attention will be paid to the birth, goals, and methods of the academic discipline of art history, which was itself a characteristic invention of the Renaissance period, and how it has changed over time since its inception.
Lectures, readings, discussion, and student projects are aimed at developing three interconnected appreciations and competencies:
1. Students will learn the basic terms and concepts of visual and art-historical analysis, and develop an ability to analyze the form and meaning of individual artworks.
2. Students will understand the Renaissance as a historical period and concept, and the correlations between its artistic production and contemporaneous social and cultural values, beliefs, and practic-

ARTH 112 Spring 2008
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“early modern” period (ca. 1400-1750).
3. Students will learn about the discipline of art history itself: how and why it began; what its goals are, and how they have changed over time; how scholarly judgments and generalizations are researched and formulated, including consideration of the “new art history” of the last three decades and its attempts to compensate for former neglect of issues of economics, politics, gender, ethnicity, and crosscultural influences; and the place and role of art history within the broader area of the liberal arts.
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1/29, 1/31 Introduction: scope of course, goals and structure.
Textbook: Gardner’s Art through the Age: The Western Perspective , 12th edn., pp. XXXV-XLVII (introduction):
Readings:
Mark Roskill, What Is Art History? , “Introduction: The origins and growth of art history,” pp. 8-17.
Recommended:
Sylvan Barnet, A Short Guide to Writing About Art , 9th edn. chap. 1, “Writing About Art,” pp. 1-35.
Gardner, XXIII-XXIII (basic reference: Greek myth, Jewish-Christian narratives, architectural terms).
Students unfamiliar with the Jewish and Christian Bible should read the book of Genesis and the Gospel of Matthew.
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2/5 Introduction, continued
Readings:
Sylvan Barnet, A Short Guide to Writing About Art , chap. 10, “Some Critical Approaches,” pp. 220-245.
Recommended:
Guido Ruggiero, A Companion to the Worlds of the Renaissance : chap. 20, Loren Partidge, “Art,” pp. 349-65.
Carlo Ginzburg, “Clues and the Scientific Method: Morelli, Freud, and Sherlock Holmes,” in Umberto Eco and T.
Sebeok, eds., The Sign of Three , pp. 81-118.
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2/07, 2/14 Florence: Cradle of the Renaissance, 1300-1500. I. The Monumental Tradition
Gardner’s
Art through the Ages , 400-411.
Readings:
Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects..
.(1568), transl. George Bull: “Life of
Giotto,” vol. 1, pp. 57-65, 80-81.
Theodor Mommsen, “Petrarch’s Conception of the Dark Ages,” chap. 9 in Paula Findlen, ed.,
The Italian Renaissance , pp. 219-36.
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2/19, 2/21 Florence II: The classical revival and humanism
Gardner’s Art through the Ages , 418-20, 452-480.
Readings:
Leon Battista Alberti, On Painting (1435), transl. John Spencer: Prologue, pp. 39-40; Book 2, pp. 63-81 (on “istoria” = narrative painting)
Erwin Panofsky, Meaning in the Visual Arts (Garden City: Doubleday, 1955): chap. 1, “Iconography and Iconology:
An Introduction,” pp. 26-41 only (including chart on pp. 40-41).
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2/26, 2/28 The Netherlands: New arts for the rising bourgeoisie
Gardner’s Art through the Ages , 424-444.
Readings:
Erwin Panofsky, “Disguised Symbolism.” [pages TBA]
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3/04, 3/06, 3/11 Rome: The High Renaissance and the ideal of “The Classic”
Gardner’s Art through the Ages , 492-512.
Readings:
James Saslow, “Michelangelo: Sculpture, Sex, and Gender,” in S. McHam, ed., Looking at Italian Renaissance
Sculpture, pp. 223-243.
Recommended:
Charles Stinger, The Renaissance in Rome , chap. 5, “The Renovatio Imperii and the Renovation Romae .”
Arnold Hauser, “The Psychological Approach: Psychoanalysis and Art,” in his
The Philosophy of Art History , 43-
71.
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3/13, 3/18 Germany & Italy: The first Information Revolution; printing and birth of mass media
Gardner’s
Art through the Ages , pp. 448-489, 542-564 (for this week and the next)
Readings:
Elizabeth Eisenstein, “The Emergence of Print Culture...,” in Keith Whitlock, ed., The Renaissance in Europe: A
Reader , chap. 4, pp. 55-73.
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3/20, 3/25 Germany, Netherlands, England: The crisis of authority and Protestant revolt , 1520-40
Gardner’s Art through the Ages , pp. 448-9, 542-564 (continue from last week)
Readings:
Carol Richardson et al., eds., Renaissance Art Reconsidered , “The Reform of Images,” pp. 409-28.
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3/27, 4/01 The entry of women into the public sphere of art
Gardner’s Art through the Ages , 526-27 (Isabella d’Este), 531-32 (Anguissola), 560-62 (Hemessen and Teerlinc),
583-4 (Gentileschi), 597 (Peeters), 604-5 (Leyster), 611-2 (Ruysch)
Readings:
Paul H. D. Kaplan, “Isabella d’Este and Black African Women,” in T.F. Earle and K.J.P. Lowe, eds., Black Africans in Renaissance Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2005), chap. 6, pp. 125-154.
Recommended:
Catherine King, “Made in Her Image: Women, Portraiture, and Gender in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries,” in Gill Perry, ed., Gender and Art (Yale UP, 1999), part 1, pp. 33-86.
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4/03, 4/08 Baroque I: The rise of the modern city and the modern state
Gardner’s Art through the Ages : over the next 3 weeks, you should read all of chap. 19, pp. 568-627.
Readings:
Peter Burke, The Fabrication of Louis XIV, chaps. I-III, pp. 1-37.
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4/10, 4/15 Baroque 2: The Counter-Reformation and the art of Catholic expansion

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Gardner’s Art through the Ages , 568-627, continued.
Readings:
Elizabeth Holt, ed., A Documentary History of Art , vol. 2, pp. 62-70: The Council of Trent and Religious Art, and the transcript of Paolo Veronese’s appearance before the Inquisition .
Carolyn Valone, “Women on the Quirinal Hill: Patronage in Rome 1560-1630,” Art Bulletin 76 (1994): 129-146.
[Full text available on JSTOR database in Library]
Recommended:
Anthony Blunt, Artistic Theory in Italy 1450-1600 (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1962, repr.), chap. 8, “The Counter-
Reformation and Religious Art.”
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4/17, 4/29 The Sciences and the visual arts
Gardner’s Art through the Ages , 568-627, continued.
Readings:
Eileen Reeves, Painting the Heavens: Art and Science in the Age of Galileo , Introduction, pp. 3-22, and chap. 4,
“1610-12: In the Shadow of the Moon,” pp. 138-70 only.
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5/01, 5/06 The Renaissance around the globe
Readings:
Rosamond Mack, Bazaar to Piazza: Islamic Trade and Italian Art, 1300-1600 : Introduction, pp. 1-14, and chap. 9,
“The Pictorial Arts,” pp. 149-171.
Gauvin Bailey, Art of Colonial Latin America
, chap. 3, “The Image of Empire: Arts of the Viceroys,” pp. 111-141.
Recommended:
Gauvin Bailey, Art on the Jesuit Missions, 1542-1773 (Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1999). Chapters on European interaction with China, Japan, India.
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5/08, 5/13 From Then to Now: The afterlife of the Renaissance
Readings:
John Jeffries Martin, ed., The Renaissance: Italy and Abroad : “Introduction: The Renaissance Between Myth and
History,” pp. 1-24
Medina Lasansky, The Renaissance Perfected . [chapter TBA]
Recommended:
John E. Law and Lene Ostermark-Johansen, Victorian and Edwardian Responses to the Italian Renaissance.
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COURSE REQUIREMENTS
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1. Weekly readings and class discussion. You are expected to read all assignments prior to the day when they will be discussed in class, and to be able to outline their main ideas and apply those concepts to lecture material.
May include in-class writing. 20% of grade
2. Visual analysis paper, based on two works in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 4-5 pages: description, analysis, and comparison of two works of Renaissance art, both their style and meaning.
DUE DATE: Thursday, March 13 30% of grade
3. Reading review and critique. 2 pages, critical analysis of one of the assigned readings. Students will be expected to address four questions:

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--Summarize main ideas concisely
--Critique the argument and scholarship
--Evaluate the goals and contributions of the essay to our knowledge
--Respond to the study in relation to one’s personal concerns and interests
DUE DATE: Tuesday, April 1 20% of grade
4. Final project: Research essay on cultural issues of the Renaissance and modernity. 5 pages.
DUE DATE: Monday, May 19, 4:00 in art history office (Klapper 167) 30% of grade
There will be no “extra credit” assignments. To do well, concentrate on the required coursework.
PLAGIARISM: Appropriating the words or ideas of others and presenting them as your own is directly contrary to the ethics of the intellectual community and of all professions. All work you submit is expected to be new, original, and produced exclusively for this course. When you quote from a previous writer, enclose the words in quotation marks and provide a footnote giving the exact source. If you are merely paraphrasing someone else’s words, you should not use quotation marks, but you must still provide a source note. Any use of published material, or any material by individuals other than yourself, without proper and adequate acknowledgment will result in a grade of F for that assignment, and may be reported to the appropriate College bodies. Remember that the World
Wide Web is a form of publication.
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Readings on the discipline of art history:
James Elkins, ed. Is Art History Global?
(New York: Routledge, 2006).
Eric Fernie, Art History and Its Methods: A Critical Anthology (London: Phaidon, 1995): a good “dictionary” reference, offering short summaries of each method, major figures in their development, and a glossary section on basic concepts and terms.
Jonathan Harris, ed. Art History: The Key Concepts. New York: Routledge, 2006.
Jonathan Harris, The New Art History: A Critical Introduction . New York: Routledge, 2001.
Catherine King, ed. Views of Difference: Different Views of Art . New Haven and London: Yale UP, 1999.
W. Eugene Kleinbauer, Modern Perspectives in Western Art History (Toronto and Buffalo: U of Toronto P, repr.
1989): Introduction, pp. 1-36. Also “Genres of modern scholarship,” pp. 37-106.
Elizabeth Mansfield, ed., Art History and Its Institutions: Foundations of a Discipline . New York: Routledge, 2002.
Vernon Hyde Minor, Art History’s History , 2nd. ed. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 2001).
Robert Nelson and Richard Shiff, Critical Terms for Art History (Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1996).
Gill Perry, ed. Gender and Art (New Haven and London: Yale UP/Open University, 1999).
Donald Preziosi, The Art of Art History: A Critical Anthology (Oxford: Oxford U P, 1998), Introduction, pp. 13-18, and additional essays on various methods.
Kymberly Pindar, ed., Race-ing Art History: Critical Readings in Race and Art History . New York: Routledge,
2002.
Jeremy Tanner, ed. Sociology of Art: A Reader (New York: Routledge, 2003).
Michael Zimmermann, ed., The Art Historian: National Traditions and Institutional Practices . Williamstown, MA:
Clark Institute, 2003.
Readings on the Renaissance Period, Art and Society:
Michael Cole, ed., Sixteenth-Century Art (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2006) [anthology]
Peter Elmer et al., eds. The Renaissance in Europe: An Anthology (New Haven and London: Yale UP/Open University, 2000) [period primary sources]
Paula Findlen, ed., The Italian Renaissance: The Essential Readings (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2002) [modern scholarly essays].
Kenneth Gouwens, ed., The Italian Renaissance: The Essential Sources (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2004). [primary texts of the period]
History of Italian Art , 2 vols., preface by Peter Burke (Cambridge, MA: Blackwell/Polity, 1996).

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John Jeffries Martin, The Renaissance: Italy and Abroad (London: Routledge, 2003) [Rewriting Histories series]
Carol Richardson et al., eds., Renaissance Art Reconsidered: An Anthology of Primary Sources (Malden, MA:
Blackwell, 2007)
Richard Tarnas, The Passion of the Western Mind: Understanding the Ideas that Have Shaped Our Worldview
(New York: Ballantine, 1991)
Keith Whitlock, ed., The Renaissance in Europe: A Reader (New Haven and London: Yale UP/Open University,
2000) [modern articles]
Readings on the concepts and techniques of visual analysis:
John Berger, Ways of Seeing (Harmondsworth and New York: Penguin, 1972, repr.)
John F.A. Taylor, Design and Expression in the Visual Arts (New York: Dover, 1964, repr.)
Joshua Taylor, Learning to Look (Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1957, repr.)
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