ART  HISTORY 202, Spring 2008

History of Art II, Renaissance to Impressionism
Tuesday/Thursday 5:30-6:45, FAC 1020

 

 

Instructor:  Dr. Suzanne Newman Fricke (suznews@unm.edu)

 

Office Hours:  FAC 323, Fridays, 10:00-12:00

Note:  Office hours are canceled Friday, Feb. 1st. 

 

Objectives:  This course covers the art and architecture from the end of the Gothic period about 1200 through Post-Impressionism, about 1900.   The changes during this time, including scientific innovations, new philosophies, and explorations to the Americas, were matched by changes in the culture.  Before this time, few artists’ names were recorded, their identities not considered worth noting.  With the arrival of the Renaissance, written histories, notably by Giorgio Vasari, recorded the names and stories of individual painters, sculptors and architects.  Artists were no longer mere craftsmen but could aspire to a higher social status.  With the end of feudalism and the rise of the bourgeoisie, new types of art were in demand.  Rather than creating cathedrals and public sculptures for the church or the nobility, artists filled a new demand for privately owned art works that reflected a new interest in this corporeal world rather than the afterlife.  This new emphasis on the timely over the timeless and the personal over the spiritual led the creation of art that continues to excite and interest today.

 

Required Texts: 

Laurie Schneider Adams, Art Across Time Volume II,

Linnea Wren and David Wren, Perspectives on Western Art

 

Accommodation Statement:  Accessibility Services (Mesa Vista Hall 2021, 277-3506) provides academic support to students who have disabilities.  If you need alternative formats for undertaking and completing the work for this course, you should contact this service right away to assure your needs are met in a timely manner.  If you need local assistance in contacting Accessibility Services, see the Bachelor and Graduate Programs office.  The professor is willing to make whatever accommodations are necessary.

 

Academic Integrity:  The University of New Mexico believes that academic honesty is a foundation principle for personal and academic development.  All University policies regarding academic honesty apply to this course. Academic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to, cheating or copying, plagiarism (claiming credit for the words or works of another from any type of source such as print, Internet or electronic database, or failing to cite the source), fabricating information or citations, facilitating acts of academic dishonesty by others, having unauthorized possession of examinations, submitting work of another person or work previously used without informing the instructor, or tampering with the academic work of other students. The University's full statement on academic honesty and the consequences for failure to comply is available in the college catalog and in the Pathfinder.

 

Class Attendance:  As in any university course, regular attendance is necessary for you to fully grasp the material.  An attendance sheet will be passed around every class since professors are now required by the university to know the last date a student attended in order to receive a “withdraw pass.”  It is your responsibility to sign the list every class.  Since this class is full, it is important for everyone to observe classroom etiquette.  Please try to be on time and ready to begin when class starts, and stay in your seat until class time is over.  If you must leave early, please let the professor know ahead of time and sit near the back of the class.  If you are unable to come to class on a particular day, please inform the professor as soon as possible and obtain lecture notes from at least two students in the class.  Three missed classes will result in a “withdraw fail” from the course.

 

Class Readings:  Reading the text is extremely important to your understanding of the material in this class.  Assigned readings are listed on the course syllabus by class.  It is important to keep up with the reading and to review the material before each exam.   

 

Dropping the Course:  If you choose to drop the course, you are responsible for reporting the change to the registrar's office.  Be sure to drop as early as possible to maintain a good scholarship status since the university notes when changes to your schedule occur.  If you stop coming to class and do not contact the registrar, you will receive a failing grade.  

 

Grading:

          Two exams, 25% each

          First paper, 15%

Second paper, 25%

          Class participation:  10%

There will be no make-ups on the tests.  Papers are due at the beginning of class.  If late, they will be marked down 5% per day (i.e., a paper that would have earned an 85% if on time would be worth 75% if two days late).  No incompletes will be given.

 

Exams:   There will be two equally weighted exams in this class.  The exams will cover information presented in class and the text.  Each will last 75 minutes and will cover material and from the classroom lectures and the assigned readings.  The final will be given May 15th, 5:30-7:30, and it will follow the same format as the other exam; it will not be cumulative. 

          The content of the exams may change to accommodate the specific nature of the class, but in general the exams will consist of:

          5 Slide Identifications:  You will be expected to know the artist, title, date, stylistic period, and location for each piece. 

          5 Short Answer Questions:  These include a discussion of styles and historical information. 

          5 Term Definitions:   These cover terms used to describe the art and the society from which it came.

          1 Compare/Contrast Essay:  Compare/Contrast essays are perhaps the most widely used and poorly understood aspect of an art history class.  We will discuss the proper format for a compare/cont rast essay before the first exam.

          Before each exam, a slide list will be posted on my web page which will contain approximately 60 images.  Each piece is identified by:  artist’s name, title, date, stylistic period, and location for buildings or other site specific objects (i.e., Giotto di Bondone, Lamentation from the Arena Chapel, c.1305-10, Padua, Italy).  These examples will appear on the test in various forms: as identifications, in the compare/contrast essays, or as part of the short answer questions.  Learning these examples in vital to passing the exam.  The best way to learn these works is to create a set of flash cards with the image on one side (a Xerox copy, downloaded image, or a drawing) and the pertinent information on the back.  If the class is cancelled on the exam date, the exam will take place on the next class day.  Otherwise the exams will occur on the days indicated on the syllabus whether or not we have covered all the information listed; exams will only cover topics covered in class.  There are no makeup examinations.  If you have a compelling reason for missing an exam, you must discuss it with me as soon as possible and we will discuss options. 

 


 

SCHEDULE OF LECTURES

 

Please note that this is a tentative schedule of lectures to be presented and is subject to change.  However, the dates of the exams are fixed; you will be responsible only for the material covered in class.

 

Week 1:

Tuesday, January 22:  Introduction to the class

Reading: 

          Adams, Introduction, “Why Do We Study Art?”

 

Thursday, January 24:  Trecento art from Sienna and Pisa and Early Quattrocento art from Florence

Reading

          Adams, Chapter 13, “Precursors of the Renaissance:  Thirteenth-Century Italy and Fourteenth-Century Italy

         

Week 2:

Tuesday, January 29:  Early Quattrocento art from Sienna and the International Gothic Style

Reading: 

          Adams, Chapter 13, “Precursors of the Renaissance:  The International Gothic Style

 

Thursday, January 31:  Early Quattrocento art from Florence

Reading: 

          Adams, Chapter 14, “The Early Renaissance:  Italy in the Fifteenth Century and Early Fifteenth-Century Painting”

          Wren, Section I, “Italian Renaissance Art of the Early Fifteenth Century”

 

Week 3:

Tuesday, February 5:  Renaissance in Florence, continued

Reading: 

          Adams, Chapter 14, “The Early Renaissance:  Early Fifteenth-Century Sculpture”

 

Thursday, February 7:  Early Renaissance painting in Northern Europe

Reading: 

          Adams, Chapter 14, “The Early Renaissance:  Fifteenth-Century Painting in Flanders

          Wren, Section III, “Fifteenth-Century Northern European Art”

 

Week 4:

Tuesday, February 12:  The High Renaissance in Italy

Reading: 

          Adams, Chapter 15, “The High Renaissance in Italy:  Architecture and Painting and Sculpture”

          Wren, Section II, “Sixteenth-Century Italian Art”

 

Thursday, February 14:  Video:  “Saving the Sistine Chapel”

First Paper Assigned

 

Week 5:

Tuesday, February 19:  High Renaissance in Venice

Reading:

Adams, Chapter 15, “The High Renaissance in Italy:  Developments in Venice

 

Thursday, February 21:  Mannerism

Reading: 

          Adams, Chapter 16, “Mannerism and the Later Sixteenth Century in Italy

 

Week 6:

Tuesday, February 26:  Art of the Reformation from the Netherlands and Germany

Reading:

          Adams, Chapter 17:  “Sixteenth-Century Painting in Northern Europe

          Wren, Section IV, “Sixteenth-Century Northern European Art”

 

Thursday, February 28:  Baroque Art and Architecture in France

Reading: 

          Adams, Chapter 18, “The Baroque Style in Western Europe:  Developments in Politics and Science, Baroque Style, Architecture, Sculpture, and Italian Baroque Painting”

          Wren, Section V, “Baroque Art in Italy, France, and England

First Paper Due

 

Week 7:

Tuesday, March 4:  Baroque Art in Northern Europe

Reading:

          Adams, Chapter 18, “The Baroque Style in Western Europe:  Baroque Painting in Northern Europe

          Wren, Section VI, “Baroque Art in the Netherlands and Spain

 

Thursday, March 6:  Baroque Art in Spain and France

Reading:

          Adams, Chapter 18, “The Baroque Style in Western Europe:  Spanish Baroque Painting and French Baroque Painting

 

Week 8:

Tuesday, March 11:  Review for Exam

 

Thursday, March 13:  MIDTERM EXAM

 
Week 9:  SPRING BREAK

 

Week 10: 

Tuesday, March 25:  Art of the Americas after 1300 of the Aztec and Incan cultures

SECOND PAPER ASSIGNED

 

Thursday, March 27:  Rococo Art in France

Reading: 

          Adams, Chapter 19, “Rococo and the Eighteenth Century:  Political and Cultural Background and The Age of Enlightenment”

          Wren, Section VII, 1-8, “Eighteenth-Century Art”

 

Week 11:

Tuesday, April 1:  Rococo Art in German, Austria, and England

Reading:

          Adams, Chapter 19, “Rococo and the Eighteenth Century:  Rococo Architecture, Architectural Revivals, European Painting, and American Painting”

 

Thursday, April 3:  Neoclassicism in France

Reading: 

Adams, Chapter 20 “Neoclassicism:  The Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries: The Neoclassical Style in France

          Wren, Section VII, 11, “Eighteenth-Century Art”

 

Week 12

Tuesday, April 8:  Neoclassicism in America and England

Reading:

          Adams, Chapter 20, “Neoclassicism:  The Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries:  Developments in America

          Wren, Section VII, 9-10, 12-14, “Eighteenth-Century Art”

 

Thursday, April 10:  Romanticism in France and Spain

Reading: 

          Adams, Chapter 21, “Romanticism:  The Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries:  The Romantic Movement, Architecture, Sculpture, and Figural Painting”

          Wren, Section VIII, 1-4, 6-7, “Nineteenth-Century Art”

 

Week 13:

Tuesday, April 15:  Realism in France

Reading:

          Adams, Chapter 22, “Nineteenth-Century Realism:  Cultural and political Context, French Realism, French Realism in the 1860s, and Architecture and Sculpture”

          Wren, Section VIII, 5, 8-10, “Nineteenth-Century Art”

 

Thursday, April 17:  The Development of Photography

SECOND PAPER DUE

Reading: 

          Adams, Chapter 22, “Nineteenth-Century Realism:  Photography”

 

Week 14:

Tuesday, April 20:  American Realism

Reading:

Adams, Chapter 22, “Nineteenth-Century Realism:  American Realism”

          Wren, Section VIII, 16 and 18, “Nineteenth-Century Art”

 

 

Thursday, April 22:  Impressionism in France

Reading: 

          Adams, Chapter 23, “Nineteenth-Century Impressionism:  Urban Renewal during the Second Empire, Painting, and Sculpture”

          Wren, Section VIII, 11-13, 17, “Nineteenth-Century Art”

 

Week 15:

Tuesday, April 27:  Impressionism in England and the United States

Reading: 

          Adams, Chapter 23, “Nineteenth-Century Impressionism:  American Painting at the Turn of the Century and ‘Art for Art’s Sake’”

 

Thursday, April 29:  Post-Impressionist Painting in France

Reading: 

          Adams, Chapter 24, “Post-Impressionism and the Late Nineteenth Century:  Post Impressionist Painting and Gauguin and Oceania

          Wren, Section VIII, 14-15, “Nineteenth-Century Art”

 

Week 16:

Tuesday, May 3:  Fin-de-Siecle Art across Europe

Reading: 

          Adams, Chapter 24, “Post-Impressionism and the Late Nineteenth Century:  Symbolism and Fin-de-Siecle Developments”

          Wren, Section VIII, 19, “Nineteenth-Century Art”

 

Thursday, May 5:  Review for Final

 

FINAL EXAM:  Thursday, May 15th, 5:30-7:30 p.m.