Western Art from the Renaissance to the Present

4 credits · Undergraduate

This course is an introduction to the visual arts of Europe and the USA from the 14th century to the present day. This course will attempt to situate works of art into long, general trends in art practice of the Western tradition, though it will prioritize sustained focus on single case-studies which punctuate the five centuries of art for which this course offers a historical account; attention will also gather around particular representative artists’ careers. We’ll explore how the fine arts can be considered as part of wider visual culture(s) in the Western tradition, and the ways art within such a broad tradition can function both as a stabilizing and as a transformative force within social/political/religious/racial/etc contexts.