AR186 (EX17) OA - Art History I

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About This Course

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Textbook

Fred S. Kleiner, Gardner's Art through the Ages: A Concise Global History , 4th Edition, Wadsworth Cengage Learning, Boston, 2017, with MindTap Access Card.

Online Mindtap Access is required for this course. There is course content and quizzes on that Access. There are two purchasing options with this textbook:

  1. Mindtap Access with an ebook, ISBN 978-1-305-65952-0
  2. Mindtap Access with a looseleaf edition of the book, ISBN 978-1-30593362-0

Mindtap is required. However, you can choose to use only the ebook version of the text through Mindtap. You can purchase Mindtap access directly from the publisher by following the instructor's class address. Occasionally, publisher pricing is less than bookstore pricing.

This course has an assignment that is due by 11:55 pm Central Standard Time on Wednesday night of the first week of class. Failure to complete this assignment will result in your removal from the course for non-participation.

Course Special Requirements

Microsoft PowerPoint will be necessary to view and listen to the required lectures for the course.  You will also need a computer with speakers or headphones to hear the audio which accompanies the PowerPoint lectures.  Non-Microsoft versions of PowerPoint are not able to access the audio attached to each lecture, and so are not acceptable.  Seeing and hearing lectures on a mobile device requires the MS PowerPoint app.  The most reliable way to access lectures is on a computer with MS PowerPoint.

 

Course Description

This course will focus on the pivotal role of art in the expression of human consciousness and culture in its cultural contexts. Covers prehistoric art to the end of the Medieval Period.  Fulfills "Fine Arts" requirement.

This course will focus on the pivotal role of art in the development of human consciousness and culture from the earliest times. The course will begin in the prehistoric period and make its way through the wonders of the ancient world in the Near East, Egypt, Greece, and Rome to the marvels of the Middle Ages from early Christian, Byzantine, Islamic, Romanesque, and Gothic to the coming of the early Renaissance in fourteenth century Europe. While some works from Asia and Africa will be included, the main focus will be on the Western (or European) tradition.

 
 

Course Objectives

The objectives for students in this course are the following (which will be demonstrated through forum discussion, examinations, slide/fact quizzes, and written work):

  1. To develop cultural perspective on our own times by mastering the flow and change of major works and movements in the arts through history and how they illumine, express, and sometimes shape the concerns and consciousness of their times.
  2. To master and learn to use the specific vocabulary of the arts and their history in order to examine both the style of art works through their formal analysis, and their content and meaning through exploring their contemporary cultural contexts.
  3. To develop awareness of the many levels of meaning and richness of content communicated by artists in some works of art. 
  4. To discuss, intelligently and perceptively, art works, styles, content, and meaning, in their histori cal contexts.