ART 1010-1

Department of Art and Art History
University of Utah

ARTH 3250 section 1 : Baroque Art in Europe (3 credits)

Semester:	Spring 2008	Instructor:	Professor Sheila Muller
Class time:	T H 9:10am - 10:30am	Office:	154 ART Bldg
Class location:	ART 158	Office hours:	T/TH 10:45-11:45 AM
Pre- or Co-requisite:	None	Telephone:	581-7010
Fulfills:		Email Address:	sheila.muller@art.utah.edu

Notice: It is the responsibility of the student to enrolled in the class by the add deadline (http://www.sa.utah.edu/regist/pages/Deadlines.html). Late slips will not be signed by the department. It is also the responsibility of the student to make sure that dropping or withdrawing from the class has been officially completed in the Registrar's office.

Course Description

In the seventeenth century, Italy’s unquestioned leadership in the arts began to decline while an impressive array of artistic talent could be found in the other countries in Western Europe. In this course students learn to use the skills of visual analysis in exploring several basic historical problems raised by seventeenth-century art: What conceptions were current about art and its purposes? What subjects were acceptable and what was the nature of artistic imagery? Who were the patrons and what was the relationship between art and society?

Course Fee

$5.00

Course Text and Other Readings

The main text for the course is Ann Sutherland Harris, Seventeenth-Century Art and Architecture (Prentice Hall, 2004; 2d ed., 2007). A useful resource is James A. Hall, Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art (Westview Press, 2d ed., 2007).

Schedule of Class Topics (approximate)
There is reading in Harris (2004) listed for each topic. An asterisk refers to a week in which there is an assignment.

Wk 1            Introduction: Europe in the seventeenth century
            Harris xi-xxi

Wk 2             Annibale Carracci
            Harris 1-34

Wk 3*            Caravaggio
            Harris 34-49

Wk 4 Caravaggio’s followers
Harris 50-56, 315-319, 134-141
Carracci’s successors: Domenichino, Lanfranco, Guido Reni, Guercino
Harris 57-77

Wk 5 Gianlorenzo Bernini; artists and patrons in Rome 1625-1680
Harris 78-133

Wk 6       Spain
Ribera, Zurbarán, Murillo
Harris 195-217, 232-241

Wk 7*            Velázquez
             Harris 217-232

Wk 8             [No class on Tuesday, Feb. 26. Abstracts/Outlines due on                   Thursday of this week]
            France
            Harris 243-272

Wk 9 Nicolas Poussin, Claude Lorrain, Charles Le Brun and the Academy
Harris 273-309

Wk 10*       Flanders: Rubens and Van Dyck
            Harris 143-182, 388-393

Wk 11       [Spring Break]

Wk 12 The Antwerp art market and the rise of artists’ specializations
Harris 182-193

Wk 13 The difference of Dutch art
Harris 311-315, 319-332, 356-365

Wk 14*      Rembrandt and Amsterdam
            Harris 333-356

Wk 15       Vermeer and Delft; Dutch landscape
            Harris 366-377, 378-385

Wk 16 England and after
Harris 387-406

Wk 17 Friday, April 25, final essays due in ART 161 by noon

Attendance Policy

Evaluation Methods and Grading Scale

Assignments for assessment of learning

1) Abstracts/Outlines. There will four topics assigned, one each in the 3rd, 7th, 10th, and 14th weeks of the semester. You have the option of waiving one assignment but you must do at least three of them. For each assigned topic you will be expected to prepare an outline (1-2 typed pages) or an abstract (250 words) for a paper you would write on that topic. Detailed instructions with a style sheet will be handed out, and it is essential that you follow them. Your response is expected to take into account the class lectures/discussions and the reading for the course up to that point, and to demonstrate how you would apply the ideas from both to the analysis of specific works of art. For example, you may be asked to analyze specific seventeenth-century paintings in the UMFA's collection and to connect your observations with the issues that come up in viewing other works of art from the same country or context (such as altarpieces, genre paintings, or landscapes). The topics will be assigned in class on Tuesday and your response will be due in class on the following Tuesday.

2) Final paper. In place of a final examination in this course, you are being asked to choose one of the topics for which you prepared an abstract or outline and, expanding on it, to write a final essay of 8-10 pages (2,000-2,500 words), plus endnotes and a complete bibliography. The essay should address the comments you received on the original abstract/outline as well as demonstrate a broader perspective on the topic, informed by the additional reading and study of works of art that you will have accomplished by the end of the semester. The final paper is due on Friday, April 25, by 12:00 PM. Papers received later than 12:00 PM will be graded down accordingly.

Grading in the course is determined in the following way: 60% for the shorter assignments; 40% for the quality of the final paper. These percentages may be adjusted when there is clear and convincing evidence of improvement from earlier to later assignments.