Art History 103 - Western Art: 1400-2000

Art has the power to drive as well as reflect history. This course explores artists, images, objects, and buildings that have defined identity, sparked revolution, and changed how people think and act over the last seven centuries. Case studies include works that define the western tradition and others that interrogate its complicated legacy. We will see the rise of the very concept of Art along with the heightened status of the artist in society, the origins of the art museum and of the commercial art market. Students gain art-historical skills and learn to analyze the mechanisms by which creative expression shapes history, politics, and beliefs.