ART 402 DESIGN AFTER MODERNISM
This course examines critical theories of art, architecture, and design since the 1950s. Students explore the relation of structuralist and post-structuralist theories to architecture. In addition, students examine how these ideas and issues resonate within the whole of modern society, including such fields as art, music, literature, film politics, economics, science, and philosophy. (Mathews, Spring, offered occasionally)
Typical readings: Ferdinand de Saussure, Course in General Linguistics; Terry Eagleton, Literary Theory: an introduction; Roland Barthes, Mythologies; Martin Heidegger, The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays; Derrida, Jacques, Structure, Sign and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences

ART 403 GENDER AND PAINTING IN CHINA
How are the feminine and masculine represented in art? This course considers the role of gender in Chinese painting, focusing on the Song and Yuan dynasties (spanning the 10th to 14th centuries). Topics include the setting of figure paintings in gendered space, the coding of landscapes and bird-and-flower paintings as masculine or feminine, and ways images of women (an often marginalized genre of Chinese art) help to construct ideas of both femininity and masculinity. Throughout, students examine the differing roles of men and women as patrons, collectors, and painters. Prerequisite: permission of the instructor. (Blanchard, Fall, offered occasionally)

ART 440 THE ART MUSEUM: Its History, Philosophy and Practice
This course provides an overview of the origin and history of the art museum, its various philosophies, and its contemporary operation. Current issues and controversies surrounding the museum are discussed. Field trips to local museums are an integral part of the course. The course culminates in the class selection, planning, and installation of a small didactic art exhibition in the Houghton House gallery. Enrollment is limited to upperclass art majors. Note: Since some field trips require an extended class meeting, students should not enroll in any class scheduled for the preceding class period. Prerequisite: permission of the instructor. (Staff, offered alternate years)

ART 451 SENIOR SEMINAR: ART & ECOLOGY
Ecology and the arts is an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural study of art and nature. In this course students investigate the work of artists and writers who have dedicated themselves to creating problem-solving works that address specific environmental situations, whose work is part of a recuperative project for ecologically degraded environments, or whose works have broadened public concern for environmental issues. Students explore a wide variety of discourses about the personal and public dimensions of environmental issues. The course is to be taken in the junior or senior year of the major. Permission of the instructor required. (Isaak, offered alternate years)

ART 467 SEMINAR: ARTEMISIA GENTILESCHI
Artemisia Gentileschi was one of the most striking painters of the Italian Baroque style. Her powerful art and unconventional life were controversial, since both violated prevailing late Renaissance expectations about women and their capacities. This examination of Gentileschi addresses such issues as the unfolding of her style and its roots in the work of Caravaggio, the situations of women artists in the 17th century, the iconography of female heroism she pioneered, and Gentileschi’s influence upon her contemporaries. Prerequisite: permission of instructor. (Ciletti, offered occasionally)
Typical reading: Garrard, Gentileschi

ART 472 SEMINAR: THE ENIGMA OF CARAVAGGIO
However considered, this greatest of Italian painters since the Renaissance is a puzzle. His brief life was violent, rebellious, haunted, yet his art reached heights (and depths) of religious truth shared only, perhaps, by Rembrandt. His dark, menacing paintings created a revolution in our understanding of light. His humble, proletarian style was constructed on rigorous, classical principles. The painter of dirty peasants was championed by cultivated prelates and princes. And so it goes. This seminar is dedicated to the luxury of studying Caravaggio’s elusive art slowly, in as much depth as possible. Prerequisite: permission of the instructor. (Ciletti, offered occasionally)
Typical readings: Langdon, Caravaggio; Puglisi, Caravaggio

ART 480 SEMINAR: PILGRIMMAGE ROADS
This seminar explores the art and architecture surrounding one of the most important medieval journeys: the pilgrimage. Theories of pilgrimage are discussed. as well as the physical journey which medieval pilgrims took to Santiago de Compostela, Rome and Jerusalem. The bulk of the course focuses on the reliquary arts, architecture, and sculpture which the pilgrim experienced on his/her journey to these sacred places. (Tinkler, offered occasionally)
Typical readings: William Melczer, The Pilgrim’s Guide to Santiago de Compostela; Thomas F. Coffey, The Miracle of St. James: Translations from the L.S.J.; Aubrey Stewart, Theodorich Guide to the Holy Land