Art, Science and the Practice of Art History

Harvard FAS

How was a particular work of art made, and why does it look the way it does now? To what extent do the availability of materials and development of material technology influence artistic choice and innovation? How can science help us understand the making and alteration of artworks and cultural artifacts? The course will explore these and other questions of materiality through a combination of hands-on experimentation with artists’ materials and techniques, close looking at objects in…