Art History 290AM - Issues in Art History: 'Miniature Representations of Architecture in Asia'

The course is organized around small material objects that allude to monumental architecture in different periods and regions of Asia: real and imaginary buildings unfolding into reliquary shrines in Buddhist Central Asia, portable liturgical objects in Islamic West Asia, funerary lanterns and architectural models in Chinese tombs, and Persian and Indian miniature paintings that are themselves compartmentalized as architectural enclosures. We will read scholarly articles critically, research and write collaboratively, and experience the wonders of scale-shift from architecture to hand-held things by visiting the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum and making "archimorphic" objects in the Fimbel Maker and Innovation Lab.

Course limited to sophomores, juniors and seniors