Table of Contents

Mission Statement.......................................................... 1

Why major in art history?................................................ 2

Full-Time Art History Faculty............................................ 3

Adjunct and Affiliated Art History Faculty........................... 3

The Art History Major..................................................... 4

Requirements for Major................................................... 5

Guidelines for the Senior Thesis in Art History.................... 6

Requirements for Minor................................................... 10

Art History Internships and Study Abroad.......................... 11

Siena, Italy Program ...................................................... 12

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Mission Statement of the Art History Program

The Art History Program at Villanova provides students with the tools to understand, interpret, and evaluate art from the perspectives of different societies across time. In doing so, the program encourages students to approach art not only as the production of cultural artifacts that record and reflect particular aspects of the human experience, but also as a dynamic force that has shaped, and continues to shape, the complex interaction of social, political and economic processes both in the past and in the present day. A key strength of the program is its multi-disciplinary focus. Building upon their own expertise in the history of art, our faculty members incorporate the latest theories and ideas from a variety of disciplines, such as literature, gender studies, and philosophy, in order to place art history in a broader scholarly context, and to emphasize the relevance of art history in contemporary academic research. As a result, our students engage a variety of approaches and methodologies, from iconography, formalism, and social history, to deconstruction, feminism, and visual culture. In harmony with the university’s Augustinian mission and unique identity, the Art History Program emphasizes the benefits of a broader, liberal arts education. More particularly, art history students can expect to leave Villanova as “sophisticated viewers,” having obtained vital skills that will help them become critical consumers of the visual imagery that is all around us in today’s world.

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Why Major in Art History?

The art history major at Villanova is an interdisciplinary program that exposes students to works of art and other visual productions, both past and present, and helps to prepare students for future challenges.

Art history fosters a better understanding of how art communicates historically and in the present. Art History faculty members are dedicated to creating an exciting, challenging, and rewarding academic experience, helping to prepare our students for future challenges. Art history courses at Villanova contain a strong theoretical component that emphasizes the philosophical, social, political, and economic contexts that shaped the production of art in different times and places. The major also provides opportunities for travel and study abroad and fosters cross-cultural understanding.

A graduate who has obtained the necessary skills to become a sophisticated viewer of visual culture will have a distinct advantage in today’s world where the relentless proliferation of images has an ever-increasing influence on our cultural, economic, and political lives, from art to advertising, and from film to fashion. By learning how to assess and read images through analysis and interpretation, students will leave Villanova as critical members of contemporary visual society.

Finally, Art history provides students with career opportunities in a wide range of fields and occupations connected to art, including journalism, law, education, and exhibition design. Careers available to

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Art History majors also include museum curator, professor of art history, gallery director, appraiser, auctioneer, conservationist or restoration expert, librarian, archivist, and art critic. Our graduates have gone on to work in auction houses such as Sotheby’s and Christie’s; to work as writers or editors for publications such as Arts Magazine; to continue their art historical studies in graduate programs of repute; and to work for museums as well known as the Renwick Gallery, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine arts.

Full-Time Art History Faculty

Mark Sullivan, Ph.D., 1987, Bryn Mawr College. American Art and Architecture, History of Portraiture. Assistant Professor

Mark.Sullivan@villanova.edu

Timothy McCall, Ph.D., 2005, University of Michigan. Late Medieval and Renaissance Italian Art; European Court Culture. Associate Professor

Timothy.McCall@villanova.edu

Adjunct and Affiliated Art History Faculty

Tina Bizzarro, Ph.D. Jeanne Brody, Ph.D.

Margaret Grubiak, Ph.D. Kim Nastick, Ph.D.

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The Art History Major

The major provides a broad, solid liberal arts education with courses that span the history of art from the temples of antiquity to the latest trends in New York’s Soho. Two particularly important features of the art history major are the cross-cultural sweep of the curriculum, and the opportunity to write a major work of original research and analysis, the Senior Thesis.

Art History majors must complete 30 credits (or 10 courses). Any art history course offered by the Honors Program will be considered as fulfilling requirements toward the B.A in Art History.

Students interested in the Art History major should meet with the chairperson of the History Department.

Dr. Paul Rosier, Chair History Department SAC 403 610-519-4660

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Requirements for Major

Art History majors must complete all seven of the following:

• AAH 1101 History of Western Art: Ancient-Medieval

• AAH 1102 History of Western Art: Renaissance-Contemporary

• AAH 2000 Ancient Art

• AAH 2001 Medieval Art

• AAH 4010 Interpreting Art

• AAH 4000 Senior Thesis

• One Upper Level Art History Elective — from AAH 2000 To AAH 4999

PLUS

One Renaissance/Baroque Art course from the following:

• AAH 2002 Early Renaissance Art in Italy

• AAH 2003 Age of Rembrandt and Bernini

• AAH 2008 The Spirit of the Renaissance

• AAH 2012 High Renaissance Art in Italy

• AAH 4004 Seminar Topics in Renaissance/Baroque

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One Modern Art course from the following:

• AAH 1104 Visual Arts in US 1877-Present

• AAH 2004 Modern Art

• AAH 2005 Modern Architecture

• AAH 2009 Contemporary Art

• AAH 3003 Romanticism to Post Impressionism

One Studio Art course from the following:

• SAR 1000 Introduction to Art

• SAR 2020 Basic Watercolor Techniques

• SAR 2021 Basic Drawing Techniques

• SAR 2022 Basic Oil Painting

• SAR 4007 ICON History and Making

• SAR 5000 Art Restoration

• SAR 5004 Printmaking

Guidelines for the Senior Thesis in Art History (Effective Spring 2007)

The Purpose of the Thesis: The senior thesis is the culmination of a college student’s intellectual development. It is an opportunity to demonstrate mastery of a certain discipline and additionally what she or he has to add to the growth and development of that discipline. The student’s ability to think critically should be honed by contact and engagement

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with the varying opinions and methodological divergences of scholars in his or her field of study. By graduation, the Villanova Art History major should demonstrate the assimilation of a large and comprehensive body of knowledge, and the ability to evaluate that body of knowledge critically. The graduating art history student should be able to situate and to discuss a work of art within its specific cultural context, as well as to understand that work of art from various methodological points of view. The senior thesis differs from any other papers that the student may have written in the past, in that it should be an original contribution to the field of art history. The thesis should break new ground, perhaps by exploring the work of an artist who has never been discussed in the art historical literature, or perhaps by challenging older interpretations of the meaning of a certain work of art. Some specific guidelines:

1. The Senior Thesis course is always preceded by the Senior Seminar in Art History (a course usually entitled “Interpreting Art”), which is taken in the Fall of the senior year.

2. At the beginning of the Spring semester, each student planning to

write a Senior Thesis will be assigned a primary thesis advisor and a second reader. The student should meet immediately with these two faculty members to discuss the topic of his or her thesis, and to set up a schedule of meetings.

3. The student will be given a series of deadlines by his or her

advisors. The following is an example (although actual dates may change from year to year): final bibliography, February 19; first paragraph, March 12; final detailed outline, March 26; rough draft, April 10; conclusion section or outline thereof, April 17; final draft, April 23. The student’s final grade for the thesis will be based on the quality of the final paper, but also on the seriousness that the student has shown about meeting these deadlines.

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4. The thesis will follow the standards laid out in the Chicago Manual

of Style, and (as of 2007-08) must be a minimum of 30 pages of text (not including endnotes, bibliography, and illustrations).

5. The thesis should be typed in a standard font (Arial or Courier

New; 12 point); and it should be paginated. All images and endnotes should be at the end, but clearly referenced in the text, and in the case of images, clearly labeled with the following information: artist, title, date, and location.

6. The second reader will read and comment on the thesis during its

draft stage, and review it before the final version is submitted two weeks before the end of the semester.

7. Each student should prepare his or her own title page and

signature page for the thesis, following the models handed out along with the thesis guidelines.

Note: Students in the “Interpreting Art” course are required to schedule at least one in-depth research session with a reference librarian at Falvey Library. By the time an Art History major has completed the thesis, the he or she should be able to:

- Distinguish between primary and secondary sources, and use the appropriate finding tools for each category of sources

- Identify standard monographs, bibliographies, periodicals,

professional organizations in the field of art history

- Conduct online catalogue searches in databases such as BHA (Bibliography of the History of Art) or WorldCat, employing such strategies as keyword searches and Boolean logic

- Be able to use art history-related online resources critically and

effectively, from the Grove Dictionary of Art and Google Images to ArtStor and JStor.

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- Use citation indexing, and recognize how it reflects the contours of a field such as art history

- Understand that not all research is published, and that personal

contact with researchers in the field of art history may be necessary and rewarding

Below are the titles of some of our most recent senior theses: -“The Genius of Giotto” -“The Unknown Marvel of Frank Lloyd Wright: Florida Southern College” -“The Women of Roy Lichtenstein” -“Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun, l’Artiste extraordinaire: Her Triumph and Reign!” -“Bernard Buffet: Defining a Comeback” -“Water and Stone: Roman Fountains as Public Theater” -“Leonardo Da Vinci’s ‘Battle of Anghiari’: The Political Propaganda and Monetary Motivations behind its Commission, Disappearance, and Possible Recovery”

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Requirements for Minor

Students seeking a minor in Art History are required to earn 18 credits (or 6 courses), with at least 15 credit hours in Art History and 3 credit hours in Studio Art. Six of the Art History credits MUST BE the two survey courses, AAH 1101 and AAH 1102. Note: At least 3 of the 6 required courses must be taken at Villanova University.

Art History minors must complete the following:

• AAH 1101 History of Western Art: Ancient - Medieval

• AAH 1102 History of Western Art: Renaissance-Contemporary

• At least three other upper-level Art History courses (AAH 1104 to AAH 4999)

At least one Studio Art course from the following:

• SAR 1000 Introduction to Art

• SAR 2020 Basic Watercolor Techniques

• SAR 2021 Basic Drawing Techniques

• SAR 2022 Basic Oil Painting

• SAR 4007 ICON History and Making

• SAR 5000 Art Restoration

• SAR 5004 Printmaking

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Art History Internships and Study Abroad

Students majoring or minoring in art history also have the opportunity to do internships at nearby museums, auction houses, or historical sites. Re-cently Art History majors have done internships at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Penn Academy of Fine Arts, Sotheby’s and Christie’s. They are also

encouraged to study abroad; Villanova, for example, offers a summer program in Siena, Italy, which places a strong emphasis on art history.

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Villanova University / Rosemont College Siena, Italy

Program Description

Location: Siena, Italy.

Additional Academic Requirements: No language proficiency required.

Excursions Students will travel by air-conditioned coach to visit Florence, Assisi, San Gimignano, and other places of interest. Students will also spend 2 days in Venice and 2 days in Rome.

Housing & Meals In Siena, students live in a family-style hotel above the hills of Tuscany. In Venice and Rome, they stay in four-star hotels. Three meals are provided daily at the hotel in Siena. On excursions, only continental breakfast will be provided.

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The purpose of this program is to introduce students to Italy's history, art, literature, and Renaissance society. The Italian Studies and Restoration courses are taught by native speakers. Courses are taught by faculty from Villanova University and Rosemont College who accompany the students from orientation until their return to the USA, and by Italian instructors from local academic institutions. The program accepts traditional students as well as a limited number of adults. All courses are designed to complement a variety of majors and can be used to satisfy core requirements.

Faculty Program Coordinator Info

VU Students Contact: Dr. Gustavo Benavides

Department of Theology/Religious Studies St Augustine Center 241 800 Lancaster Avenue Villanova, PA 19085

610/519-6916 gustavo.benavides@villanova.edu

Course Offerings

Students choose 2 of the following courses for a total of 6 credits:

AAH 2008 Spirit of the Renaissance 3 credits Painting, sculpture, architecture, and graphic arts from the rise of the Sienese and Florentine School to the end of the Venetian school.

AAH 2020 Basic Watercolor 3 credits Transparent watercolor painting using the city of Siena as a studio..

HIS 3126 History of Italian Cities 3 credits The political, economic, and cultural growth of the Italian City States.

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ITA 2100 Dante in English Translation 3 credits The major works of Italian literature in translation.

ARS 0365 Landscape 3 credits The medieval city of Siena is used as a studio.

STA 0365 Art Restoration (limited to 12 students) 3 credits Investigation, analysis, technical intervention and actual field experience in restoration of art objects.

AAH 5000 Independent Study 3 credits Course work is completed under the guidance of a faculty member in selected subjects such as: Art, Art History, Italian or Studio Art, and History. Instructor’s permission must be obtained.

THL 6400 Medieval Catholicism 3 credits