Art History 535
Proseminar: Rembrandt in Context

Ideally a student electing this course should successfully have completed a Renaissance to Modern survey, such as AH 202, and one advanced course in arts of the Netherlands 331, 332 , 333 (17th century Netherlandish Painting & Graphics)-or 334 (Prints and Master Printmakers of the Western World.)

The first six class meetings will be devoted to a review of Rembrandt's major paintings, drawings and etchings; an overview of living conditions in the artist's birthplace, Leiden, with its Calvinist university, and Amsterdam, with its large Jewish community, where he spent most of his working life; and an introduction to important aspects of recent Rembrandt scholarship, including the publications of the Rembrandt Research Project.

Students will be given brief reading assignments for class discussion.

Each member of the seminar will choose a topic from an approved list, and will prepare a research paper, which will be presented orally to the class, with a written version submitted to Prof. Hutchison, properly documented with footnotes and bibliography, using University of Chicago Manual of Style format.

Grades for the seminar will be based largely on the research paper and its presentation, but will also include credit for participation in class discussion.

P: Instructor consent only; preference will be given to Art History undergraduate majors.