Courses

Introduction to aesthetic practices performed in a ritual context by tribal groups in India. Focus on ways in which paintings, sculptures, songs, and dances function as mediums through which the divine is materialized. The influence of patrimonialization and commoditization on the production and meaning of ritual objects and images.

The visual culture of the British Empire on four continents, with reference to themes such as exploration, conquest, slavery, orientalism, commerce, and settlement. Focus on questions of race and representation. Study of original paintings, works on paper, and photographs in the Yale Center for British Art.

Introduction to the art and architectural history of the Indian subcontinent from the rise of the Mauryan Empire to the building of the Taj Mahal. The development of early Buddhist and Jain art and of Hindu temples and icons; the efflorescence of Islamic visual culture under the Mughal Empire.

The major figures of the French surrealist movement, c. 1924–25, including all visual media—painting, sculpture, photography, collage, frottage, the “exquisite corpse,” and the “found object.” Topics include surrealism and psychoanalysis; primitivism; eroticism and the construction of gender; and the art-theoretical schism between Breton and Bataille, the movement’s preeminent thinkers.

Investigation of how architecture and monumental sculpture are expressions of power in Italy, c. 1220–1660. Focus on works built by civil and religious authorities. Ways in which buildings create or solidify power; strategies available to rulers and authorities; relations between patron and architect; demonstrations of changes in power through the use of both traditional and innovative architectural idioms; contemporary interpretations, understandings, and rejections of monumental statements of power.

Classical Hollywood studios as factories of aesthetic achievement and cultural dominance. Challenges to studios, including technical (the coming of sound, color, and widescreen), industrial (the production code, antitrust litigation, and the blacklist), and cultural (the Depression, World War II, and the rise of television). Landmark films from The Jazz Singer and Citizen Kane to Casablanca and Rebel without a Cause.

The world in the year 1000, when the different regions of the world participated in complex networks. Archaeological excavations reveal that the Vikings reached L’Anse aux Meadows, Canada, at roughly the same time that the Kitan people defeated China’s Song dynasty and established a powerful empire stretching across the grasslands of Eurasia. Viking chieftains donned Chinese silks while Chinese princesses treasured Baltic amber among their jewelry. In what is now the American Southwest, the people of Chaco Canyon feasted on tropical chocolate, while the lords of Chichen Itza wore New Mexican turquoise—yet never knew the Huari lords of the central Andes. Islamic armies conquered territory in western China (modern Xinjiang) and northern India (around Delhi) for the first time. In this seminar, students read interpretative texts based on archaeology and primary sources, work with material culture, and develop skills of cross-cultural analysis.

By arrangement with faculty.