An Introduction to Art History · 2/1/2010 · This class is an introduction to the history of art...

An Introduction to Art History

Intructor: Raffaele Bedarida

Phone: 718.951.5181 (Art

Department)

Email: [email protected]

Office Hours: Rm 5307, M. 1:15-

2:15

Class material is available online

at:

www.ccintrotoart.wordpress.com

This class is an introduction to the

history of art from the origins

until today.

You will be expected to:

1. U n d e r s t a n d b r o a d

historical changes that affected

the history of art: the diverse

functions, languages, and ways of

production-consumption of art in

different societies, periods, and

geographical areas.

2. Use art as a tool for

learning about history: the

artwork as a document/witness of a

culture, but also as an expression

of specific viewpoints or agendas

within a society.

3. Identify major works of

art: images, objects or

architectures that have entered the

art historical canon as

masterpieces for highly diverse

reasons (beauty, size, symbolic

value, location, etc.).

4. Analyze works both in

writing and in discussion by the

end of this course.

requirements

•Mid-term Exam- April 7

•Final Exam - May 24, 1-3pm

Both exams will include a multiple-choice and an

essay section.

The multiple-choice section will consist of two

parts:

1) you will be asked to identify works that will

have been discussed in class (author, title, date,

and style/cultural context) and recognize their

formal qualities and historical relevance;

2) you will need to identify the main formal

qualities of works that have not been

discussed in class, relate them to studied works,

and therefore recognize their style/cultural

context, approximate date, and author.

In the essay section you will analyze

one or more studied artworks, relate

them to the assigned readings, and

develop your own independent thought

on the pieces and their cultural context

Due date: May 5

You will visit a museum (either theMetropolitan Museum of Art, the BrooklynMuseum of Art or the Museum of ModernArt), make some research,

and write 3 pages about a chosen artwork

a detailed paper assignment is availableonline at:


Museum paper

Method quiz

multiple-choice quiz (20 min)

It will test your comprehension of

major art-historical methods

and specific terms discussed in

class

Important:

1) the first two classes;

2) textbook at pp. 3-15

3) Definitions of art-historical

terms discussed in class

(textbook’s Glossary at pp.

553-566)

4) Talking About Art, posted

online.

Attendance is required for class andwill be worth 10% of your grade;

you will be granted either a 100% or a

30% for this grade.

More than three unexcused absenceswill result in a failing grade forattendance.

Please notify me IN ADVANCE byemail if you need to miss class.

Participation and attendance

Attendance: 10%

Surprise exam: 15%

Paper: 20%

Mid-term exam: 25%

Final exam: 30%

Grading:

You will be graded in the following areas:

•If it is too costly, used copies can bepurchased

•Both the BC Library and the Meier

Bernstein Art Library 5(300 Boylan Hall)

have copies for you to read.

(order at Shakespeare & Co. Booksellers)

Text:Gardner's Art through the Ages:A Concise History

These readings will be the starting point

for our discussion

In order to prepare for the exams, you

will need to study both book and notes

Source readings and images discussed in

class will be downloadable online at:


You will be asked to read the relative

chapter and source materials before

each class

In the syllabus you will findweekly assignments

FUNCTION

STYLE: Subject matter and

Formal analysis

SYSTEM OF PRODUCTION-

CONSUMPTION

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

MUSEUMS AND MASTERPIECES

Intro: problems of method

CHANGING OF TASTE

How to approach a work of art?

Different ways of seeing (textbook, pp. 14-15)

We would be surprised today to find thisimage in a Playboy cover

However when Rubens painted it in the17th century, these were considered

the most beautiful and

sensual of the women

This exemplifies the changing

of taste/aesthetic sensibility

Which correspond to wider and

deeper metamorphoses in

culture, values, and

historical circumstances

How to approach a work of art?

Due to the fact that the artwork is part andexpression of this ever changing system,

we need to consider it from at least 3vantage points:

1) FUNCTION

3) SYSTEM OF PRODUCTION-

CONSUMPTION

2) STYLE: Subject matter and

Formal analysis

What is the FUNCTION of a work of art?

(Textbook, pp. 3-4)

The concept of ART that we have today is a recent notion

some examples:

Probably as a magical image

embodying the wishes of a pre-

historical hunter

This image was painted in a

cave in Spain 14,000 years

ago

Altamira cave, Spain, ca. 12,000-11,000 B.C.

We call “ART” things that were originally conceived with different functions thanmuseums

to find, kill, and eat a huge

bison

Function: how an image, object or building was

practically USED by the people that created it


this is a mural painting

With the aim to communicate not tohuman beings

But rather to divinities

Which was painted in Egypt almost4,000 years ago inside a tomb

Fowling scene from the tomb of Nebaum, Egypt,

ca. 1400-1350


these FRESCOES

With the goal of telling the story ofJesus Christ

To illiterate people who were

not able to read the Gospel

Were painted in Italy 700 years ago

Giotto,

Scrovegni

Chapel, Padua

(Italy), ca. 1305,

fresco


this PHOTOGRAPH

To be published in afashion magazine

With the aim of exploiting

a beautiful female nude

was done in Paris 28years ago

Photograph by

Helmut Newton,

Self-Portrait with

Wife and Models,

Paris 1981.

and the theories of Freud

on desire and sexuality

In order to better sell the

magazine and its fashion

products


Or, finally, this ALTARPIECE

In order to be placed in achurch

In a dark chapel, illuminated

only by a few candles that

would make its gold sparkling:

Which was painted680 years ago inSiena

It was supposed to appear as

a mystical vision to the

faithful,

Who would kneel and pray

before this image

Simone Martini, altarpiece, Florence, Uffizi,

ca. 1329-33

Rather than to be displayed in

the white room of the Uffizi

Museum, for thousands of

tourists

They’re all labeled “art” and reproduced in

art history textbooks

But we should study what their original

purpose and use were in order to get a

better sense of their meaning

FUNCTION

What is the STYLE of a work of art?

(textbook: pp.5-6; reading: “Form, Content, Style)

The style is the “what’’ plusthe “HOW” things are shown:

If the history of art is a historyof DIFFERENT WAYS OFSEEING,

It is interesting to consider twothings together:

-the SUBJECT MATTER: thecontent, what is depicted in awork of art

(what is consideredinteresting or worth attentionin different cultures and fordifferent individuals), pp.6-7

-the FORMAL QUALITIES:the FORMAL ANALYSIS ofan artwork is the visualanalysis of its artistic form

(how differently the samesubject matter can beshown/interpretetd by differentartists)

Villa of Livia:

main salon with

mural fresco of

garden & birds,

Primaporta,

c.10 BC-10 CE



Dome of the Rock

Interior, Jerusalem, 691










Van

Gogh,

Olive

Yard,

det.

1889








P. Mondrian, The Red Tree.

1908

1st stage

P. Mondrian, The Grey Tree. 1912 2nd stage

P. Mondrian, The Apple Tree. 19123nd stage

4th stage:P. Mondrian, Composition (Blue, Red, and

Yellow), 1930

The formal analysis defines

an artwork through 6 basic

visual aspects (pp. 8-9):

1) Form and composition

2) Medium and technique

3) Line

4) Color

5) Texture

6) Space




1) Form is an object’s shape

either in two or three

dimensions (Mondrian’s

tree and squares);

composition is the way

an artist organizes forms in

an artwork


3) Line

4) Color

5) Texture

6) Space





2) Medium: to create the

artwork, an artist shapes

materials (pigment,

marble…) with tools

(brush, chisel…). Part of

an artist’s activity is to

select the materials

(medium)most suitable to

the artist’s purposes;

the process employed

(applying paint to a canvas

with a brush) is the

technique

• Line

• Color

• Texture

• Space

Medium:

Oil on

canvas

Technique:

Dripping






3) A fundamental element to

define an artwork’s form,

line can be more or less

visible (thick/thin,

sharp/blurred), regular,

irregular, continuous,

broken. Contour line is

when a continuous line

defines an object’s outer

shape

4) Color

5) Texture

6) Space

Haronubu, Evening Bell at

the Clock, from Eight views

of the Parlor series, ca.

1765. Woodblock print






3) Line

4) Color is the way a material

or pigment absorb/reflect

light. Red, yellow, blue,

and red are the primary

colors. Colors can vary in

saturation (dull/bright)

and in tonality (light/dark)

5) Texture

6) Space






3) Line

4) Color

5) Texture is the quality of a

surface (rough/shiny).

We’ll distinguish between

actual texture (tactile

quality of the surface) and

represented texture

(when a painter depicts an

object as having a certain

texture)

6) Space

Brancusi,

Bird in

Space, c.

1924,

polished

bronze

and

marble

versions

Brancusi,

The Kiss,

marble,

1916

In two-dimensional

works, artists can create a

sense of texture that our

eyes perceive -

we “read” the imaginary

surface of the object

represented by the artist

Represented Texture

But also the painter can

emphasize the actual texture of

the pictorial surface for

expressive purposes

Actual texture of

painting






3) Line

4) Color

5) Texture

6) Space is both the literal

space occupied by a

statue or a painting (size

and location), and

illusionistic three-

dimensional space that a

painter represents on a

two-dimensional surfaceMagritte, The

human

condition,

1933

This is a wrongconcept: the historyof art is NOT theresult of a growingability

Different styles

correspond to

different values and

interests of specific

cultures and artists

Problem:

We would naturally tend tounderstand these changesthrough time as anevolution from a childishstage to a more mature andsophisticated one

Why each culture and period has a different STYLE?

Similarly, one needs to study the“grammar” and “vocabulary” ofdifferent visual languages inorder to “read” works of art fromdifferent cultures

With their roles and conventions

As one needs to study Latin orJapanese to understand a text in theselanguages (without knowing thempreviously)

How to “read” a work of art?

The medieval Europeanpublic would immediatelyunderstand that this is asacred scene (goldbackground) representing theVirgin (blue mantle, red dressand shining halo)

Who has just “landed” from awindow, to announce to Marythat she would give birth toJesusEverybody would also

understand that these are not

decorative flowers, but lilies,

which symbolize that Maria is

virgin

and the Archangel Gabriel

How could they know all this?


Just as we would understandimmediately that thesesilhouettes represent

And that there is a restroombehind that door

Maybe in 2000 years

somebody will wonder if these

were symbols of decapitation

A woman and a man (which isnot obvious)


The same way, everybody inthis room probably knows

But not everybody, maybeknows that a Japanese Manga

Should be read in the opposite

direction (from right to left)

Which one is the first scene inthe story represented here,and the order of the followingepisodes


This scene, where space correspondsto a convention of time

Would be inverted in Japan

What is the system of PRODUCTION-CONSUMPTION

of an artwork? (pp. 7-8)

Not only do we need to understand the function ofa work of art, as we have seen

Let’s take the example of music:

Every culture, since the ancient of days, has

had music

We must also consider the way people used to“consume” it

For thousands of years, the experience of

music meant having someone playing an

instrument or singing, and someone else

listening

It was necessarily an unrepeatable moment

made of music but also noises, gazes, and

psychological dynamics between performer and

audience


of an artwork?

Today the same piece can be repeated infinitely andeverywhere

Maybe Beethoven wouldhave composed hissymphonies differently,

Without the presence of the musician

had he known that people would play them with their I-pods in the subway


of an artwork?

With images we have something similar

How many of you have actually seen it in Paris?

When Leonardo painted the Mona Lisa, he would

have never imagined

How many of you know this image?

That this image would be reproduced

everywhere and in many ways

Leonardo Da

Vinci, Mona

Lisa, 1503-06


of an artwork?

When the Mona Lisa was painted, theonly way to see how a painting lookedlike

The German philosopher Walter Benjamin,described the phenomenon of

Technical reproducibility as one of the most

revolutionary and peculiar phenomena of the Modern

Age

Was to physically reach it

Highly recommended

reading: John Berger, Ways

of Seeing, esp. chapter 1


of an artwork?

In today’s idea of art

But of the 30,000 years ofart history that we willconsider during thissemester

Museums have existed only

in the last 200 years

The “natural” place for anartwork is for us themuseum

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Gagosian Gallery,

Chelsea, New

York


of an artwork?

When Leonardo painted this portraitit was intended to be seen privatelyon a wall, in an apartment

He would have never imaginedthe experience of looking at thispainting

An Introduction to Art History · 2/1/2010 · This class is an introduction to the history of art...

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