Critical Social Inquiry 0133 - The Global Renaissance

We will analyze early modern art in its global context and local specificities. Field trips to local private collections and college art museums as well as the Metropolitan Museum in N.Y. (and/or the MFA in Boston) will be an important component of the course. We will use textbooks, museum catalogues, and research articles to learn about and discuss connectivities, mutual influences and global exchange as well as specific indigenous and local visual traditions, media, and techniques. Topics will include: pre- and post-Columbian feather art; Michelangelo's drawings; bronze plaques from Benin; Congo power figures; the syncretism of Mexican religious art; Byzantine and Ethiopian icons; Mughal book art; Renaissance representation of Africans and Native Americans; curatorial practices; the aesthetics of ornamentation; Islamic maiolica and architecture; Chinese scrolls. The final research paper should be about an object or a cluster of artworks that is examined through direct observation.

Culture, Humanities, and Languages Writing and Research Independent Work Multiple Cultural Perspectives Students are expected to spend 6-8 hours weekly on work and preparation outside of class time.