Ph.D. Student Abby Armstrong-Check will be teaching AH 201: History of Western Art I, From Pyramids to Cathedrals online during Summer 2021! Make sure to enroll now!
Pyramids to Cathedrals serves as an introduction to the history of human visual expression, from the some of the earliest evidence of image making before the common era to the end of the Medieval period. We will discuss the context and visual aesthetic of these cultures to understand the historic, social, political, religious and other meanings behind the creation of works of art. We look at well-known artworks such as the Pyramids at Giza and the mummy of Tutankhamun, the Parthenon in Athens, Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, the Book of Kells, the Great Mosque at Cordoba, Chartres cathedral. But we also explore the artefacts of everyday life, including books, jewelry, ceramics, clothing, and textiles. Besides considering the social, religious and historical contexts of artistic production, we address basic human concerns: death and the afterlife, the body and portraiture, power and propaganda, monstrosity and the supernatural, the divine and the sacred.
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