4.601 | Fall 2018 | Undergraduate

Introduction to Art History

Course Description

This course investigates the power of art in historical perspective, focusing on Euro-American traditions of art from the fourteenth to the twenty-first century. It examines changing conceptions of the artist, the work of art, and the discipline of art history, exploring the roles images and objects have played over …
This course investigates the power of art in historical perspective, focusing on Euro-American traditions of art from the fourteenth to the twenty-first century. It examines changing conceptions of the artist, the work of art, and the discipline of art history, exploring the roles images and objects have played over time, how they functioned in various social, economic, and cultural contexts, and whose interests they served or sought to disrupt.

Course Info

A person stands alone in a museum gallery, looking at paintings.
A visitor to Berlin’s Gemäldegalerie looks at an exhibition of paintings from the Renaissance. Photo by Joan Brebo on Flickr. License: CC BY-NC.