Art History 385 - Great Themes in Art
Spring
2017
01
3.00
Walter Denny
TU TH 11:30AM 12:45PM
UMass Amherst
20537
20538
Changing treatment of central themes, issues, and problems in art history. Topics change; offerings usually available in Modern and Islamic. Prerequisite: upper-level survey course on theme to be examined, or consent of instructor.
Course Topic: The History of the Oriental Carpet
No formal prerequisite: a basic grounding in art history is highly desirable; see or e-mail the instructor if you are uncertain about whether or not to enroll.
Course Description: The knotted-pile carpet is perhaps the most iconic Islamic art form, an important part of several Islamic art traditions, from the Spain to China, with significant surviving examples from the thirteenth century onward. This course explores the history of Islamic (and some non-Islamic) carpets from their dimly-understood origins down to the 19th century CE. It covers carpets woven for a wide variety of uses, in all social and economic levels of society, in a variety of techniques, in four venues: court atelier, commercial workshop, village hearth, and nomadic tent. The course also deals extensively with the Islamic carpet as an aspect of non-Islamic, and particularly European, material culture from the 14th century CE onward, with particular attention to the depiction of carpets in European painting.
No formal prerequisite: a basic grounding in art history is highly desirable; see or e-mail the instructor if you are uncertain about whether or not to enroll.
Course Description: The knotted-pile carpet is perhaps the most iconic Islamic art form, an important part of several Islamic art traditions, from the Spain to China, with significant surviving examples from the thirteenth century onward. This course explores the history of Islamic (and some non-Islamic) carpets from their dimly-understood origins down to the 19th century CE. It covers carpets woven for a wide variety of uses, in all social and economic levels of society, in a variety of techniques, in four venues: court atelier, commercial workshop, village hearth, and nomadic tent. The course also deals extensively with the Islamic carpet as an aspect of non-Islamic, and particularly European, material culture from the 14th century CE onward, with particular attention to the depiction of carpets in European painting.