Icons of Western Art (WCIV2600)

Week 1. Introduction to Art History

This lecture introduces the concept of 'Art' in western history and discusses the term 'icon' relative to art. Art History as a field of study will be discussed and an outline of the course content, expectations, and assessments will be provided.

Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03, L04, L05, L06, L07, L09

Week 2. Ancient Egypt: Thutmose, Nefertiti Bust, 1

This lecture provides a brief overview of Egyptian art, with an emphasis on the revolutionary religious and artistic developments in the Amarna period (1353-1336 BCE) during the 18th Dynasty (1550-1295 BCE). We will investigate the relationship between art and patronage, politics, socio-cultural and geo-political circumstances, word and image, and naturalism and idealisation.

Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03, L04, L05, L06, L07, L09

Week 2. Ancient Egypt: Thutmose, Nefertiti Bust, 1

In tutorials we will take a closer look at the famous Nefertiti Bust (c.1340 BCE) in Berlin's Neues Museum. What kind of balance does the work strike between naturalism and idealisation? How does this balance relate to the Egyptian understandings of images outlined by Tyldesley, and to earlier traditions of art making in Egypt? In addition, we will discuss the circumstances of the artwork's rediscovery and display in Berlin, as well as debates over its restitution to Egypt. What made this work an icon of Western civilisation for early twentieth-century Europeans, and what are the ethical implications of this identification, both then and now?

Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03, L04, L05, L06, L07, L09

Week 3. Ancient Greece: The Parthenon, 447-432 BC

This lecture explores the transition in artist styles from the Greek, Archaic period (700-480 BCE) to the Classical period (480-323 BCE), ending with a survey of the architectural and sculptural program of the Parthenon in Athens. To conclude, we will consider the afterlife of the Parthenon as a church, mosque, museum, and as an object of debate over restitution.

Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03, L04, L05, L06, L07, L09

Week 3. Ancient Greece: The Parthenon, 447-432 BC

Tutorials will begin with a classroom discussion of the Parthenon and its sculptures, followed by a visit to the RD Milns Antiquities Museum to view ancient Greek artifacts. In the classroom, we will discuss the style of the Parthenon and its sculptures from philosophical, religious, and political perspectives, as well as the legacy of the artistic programme. In the Museum, we will discuss the broader relationship between style and chronology in Greek art from antiquity, and during a hands-on exercise with pottery fragments, we will reflect on the differences between viewing works of art on screens and in-person.

Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03, L04, L05, L06, L07, L09

Week 4. Greek Art in the Roman World: Laocoön

This lecture introduces the reception of Greek art in the Roman world, surveying its diverse political, religious, and aesthetic functions. We will look at the Roman adaptation of Greek art and architectural forms to characteristically Roman forms, as exemplified in the Pantheon, as well as the obsession of Roman elites to have curated, museum-like displays of Greek masterpieces in their private collections. To conclude, we will consider the context and display of the famous Laocoön group at the Vatican as well as debates over the dating and attribution of the work.

Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03, L04, L05, L06, L07, L09

Week 4. Greek Art in the Roman World: Laocoön

In this tutorial, we take a close look at the Laocoön group and the history of its reception. By what stylistic means do the artists express pain and suffering in this work? How is the subject expressed differently in sculpture, painting, and literature? What can subsequent quotations and reuses of the work tell us about its meanings? To conclude, we will consider a variety of contexts that subsequently transformed the work into an icon, from its rediscovery in 1506 to its display in France following Napoleon's incursions into Italy.

Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03, L04, L05, L06, L07, L09

Week 5. Inventing Christian Art: Hagia Sophia

This lecture begins by outlining the Christianisation of the Roman Empire and the transfer of the capital from Rome to Constantinople. We will look at the commissioning of the iconic, Christian church, the Hagia Sophia, by the Byzantine Emperor, Justinian I, in 532 CE. The architectural and decorative programme of the church will be examined and questions concerning the nature of an icon, the role of iconoclasm in crystalising a distinctly Christian concept of the image, and aspects of the building that differentiate a pagan temple from a church will be explored. In addition, we will investigate the significant geo-political and socio-cultural shifts in the region to the present day, which resulted in physical and spiritual changes as the church was converted to a mosque, a museum and more recently, returned to a functioning mosque.

Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03, L04, L05, L06, L07, L09

Week 5. Inventing Christian Art: Hagia Sophia

In this tutorial we will discuss the most iconic church of the Byzantine Empire, Hagia Sophia. How does the design reflect the needs of Christian liturgy? How do light and other environmental effects factor into the design? What roles do images play within the space of the church? How did iconoclasm shape the image program as we see it today, both in the Byzantine period, and later under the Ottomans? In conclusion, we will also discuss current debates over the building, concerning its status as a museum and/or place of worship.

Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03, L04, L05, L06, L07, L09

Week 6. Italian Renaissance: Michelangelo

This lecture situates the Italian Renaissance within previous traditions of artmaking in Latin Christendom, to explore innovations in the patronage, production and display of art, including the development of linear perspective. The impact of the revival of pagan antiquity, and broader contextual developments such as the Protestant Reformation, will be considered as we analyse iconic works of art by Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael.

Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03, L04, L05, L06, L07, L09

Week 6. Italian Renaissance: Michelangelo

This tutorial is devoted to the two phases of Michelangelo's work in the Sistine Chapel: the ceiling frescoes and the Last Judgment on the altar wall. We will start by considering how and why the Creation of Adam has taken on such an iconic status and discuss its meaning in relation to the broader program of the ceiling. We then turn to the Last Judgment, with particular attention given to the religious controversies stirred by the painting, and its relation to contemporary papal legislation on the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03, L04, L05, L06, L07, L09

Week 7. Northern Renaissance: Hieronymus Bosch

This lecture introduces Northern Renaissance painting through a comparison of the divergent approaches to naturalism and realism between Northern artists and their Italian counterparts. In particular, we will focus on the diffusion of oil painting as a medium in the North as we explore the artwork of Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden and Robert Campin, and introduce Hieronymus Bosch's, Garden of Earthly Delights (c.1490-1510). In addition, we will consider the rise of printmaking in the north and images in popular, secular settings, in the era of the Protestant Reformation.

Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03, L04, L05, L06, L07, L09

Week 7. Northern Renaissance: Hieronymus Bosch

In this tutorial we take a close look at the "Garden of Earthly Delights," a painting of many mysteries, down to its very subject matter. What is the relationship between pleasure and horror in Bosch's work? What kind of position does it stake out in relation to previous religious imagery? For example, what are the implications of the triptych format? How can we understand the relationship between realism, fantasy, and everyday life in Bosch s work?

In addition, analysing Han's Holbein the Younger's painting, The Ambassadors (1534), we will reflect on the Renaissance genre of portrait painting and the significant role it played in the art and culture of the period.

Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03, L04, L05, L06, L07, L09

Week 8. Baroque Art: Artemisia Gentileschi

This lecture provides a brief survey of the Baroque style across Europe and the colonial world, and of the social status of the artist in early modernity. We then look more closely at works by several female painters who achieved widespread fame in this period, only to be forgotten by later generations of art historians, concluding with a brief survey of Artemisia Gentileschi's career.

Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03, L04, L05, L06, L07, L09

Week 8. Baroque Art: Artemisia Gentileschi

In this tutorial we will take a close look at Artemisia Gentileschi's engagement with the Biblical figure of Judith and how her treatment of this and other subjects changed over the course of her career. What challenges does Artemisia pose to earlier and contemporary artists, such as Donatello and Caravaggio, and what role should gender play in the interpretation of her work? Drawing on Nochlin and Garrard's articles, we will also discuss broader issues of feminism and canon-formation in art history.

Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03, L04, L05, L06, L07, L09

Week 9. The Art of Revolution: Jacques-Louis David

This lecture introduces French academic painting, Salon exhibitions, and the rise of art criticism in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It then turns to the roles that art and iconoclasm played in the French Revolution, while drawing comparisons to simultaneous developments in the revolutionary art of the Americas. To conclude, we will briefly set up David's career and the circumstances surrounding the Death of Marat (1793).

Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03, L04, L05, L06, L07, L09

Week 9. The Art of Revolution: Jacques-Louis David

In this tutorial we will consider the way David's painting relates to earlier traditions of Christian painting, both at the level of iconography and function. How should we understand the ritual functions of the work in relation to the revolutionary iconoclasm that flourished alongside it? How does this combination of iconoclasm and the making of icons contribute to the formation of a canon of revolutionary art, according to Cohen-Aponte? And how does it relate to the subsequent unfolding of Modernism, according to Clark?

Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03, L04, L05, L06, L07, L09

Week 11. Romanticism and Abolition: J.M. Turner

This lecture situates Turner's career in relation to several major artistic movements of the nineteenth century, from Romanticism to Impressionism. It then turns to the artistic context of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, situating Turner's painting, The Slave Ship, (1840) in relation to both abolitionist discourse and the emergent formalism of the critic, John Ruskin.

Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03, L04, L05, L06, L07, L09

Week 10. Romanticism and Abolition: J.M. Turner

In this tutorial we will consider how Turner's "Slave Ship" (1840) relates to contemporary conceptions of the sublime? What limits of representation does Turner visualize in the work, both perceptually and emotionally? How does his approach differ from that of the slave ship icon discussed in the article by Finley? When comparing these two iconic images, what can we say they capture, and what do they occlude? How have these occlusions been addressed by subsequent generations of artists and writers, according to Finley?

Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03, L04, L05, L06, L07, L09

Week 11. Reading Week

Use this week to make progress with research and writing toward your Research Essay assessment.

During this week I will be available for consultation. Arrange a 10-minute meeting to discuss ideas and sources for your Research Essay. These meetings will fulfill the participation credit for reading week (week 11). You will be able to make an appointment with me on Tuesday or Wednesday (14 or 15 October). If you are unable to meet during one of the times listed on the appointment schedule (available in class), please feel free to email me directly to make alternate arrangements. 

Meetings will be held in my office: Forgan Smith, Level 4, Rm. E310.

Week 12. Indigenous Perspectives on Western Art

This week we welcome our guest lecturer, who will discuss a range of approaches that contemporary Indigenous artists are taking to iconic works of Western art, such as Leonardo's Last Supper and Van Gogh's, Starry Night.

Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03, L04, L05, L06, L07, L09

Week 12. Indigenous Perspectives on Western Art

In this tutorial we will discuss a variety of adaptations of iconic works of Western art by Indigenous artists from Australia, the broader Pacific region, and North America. How do these artists balance critique and admiration, difference and identification, when confronting the heritage of Western art? What light do these works shed on Indigenous traditions, Western traditions, and the relationships between them?

Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03, L04, L05, L06, L07, L09

Week 13. Modernism: Pablo Picasso, Guernica, 1937

This lecture begins with an overview of Modernism before focusing on Picasso's work from the development of Cubism to the increasingly political turn of his art from the 1930s, and onward to the production of his iconic work of art, Guernica (1937). We will look at the divergent directions art was beginning to take under capitalist, communist, and fascist regimes, and explore the afterlife Guernica continues to have in shaping anti-war discourse.

Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03, L04, L05, L06, L07, L09

Week 13. Modernism: Pablo Picasso, Guernica, 1937

To begin the tutorial discussion, we ask what Guernica represents, part by part, figure by figure, on both a literal and figurative level. How does the modern form of the painting relate to the novelties of modern warfare? How does the painting relate to its initial venue of display at the World's Fair in Paris in 1937? We will also consider the afterlife of the painting in New York and its eventual return to Spain, as well as the political functions that its many copies and adaptations continue to play in the world today.

Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03, L04, L05, L06, L07, L09