Graduate Course Descriptions

ARTH 601 Theories and Practices of Art Historical Interpretation 3 credits

Critical analysis of selected writings influential in art history and the humanities. Designed to help students hone their interpretive skills through close examination of assumptions, standards of argument and evidence, core concepts, procedures, boundaries, and objectives that have shaped art historical writings past and present.

ARTH 602 Theories and Methodologies In Architectural History 3 credits

Introduction to issues and methodologies in architecture and urbanism history. Readings in philosophy and sociology and in recent works of architectural and urbanism history they have inspired. Organized thematically (capitalism; colonialism; print culture; etc.

ARTH 605 Studies in Greek and Roman Art 3 credits

The art of antiquity from the origins of Greek civilization to the fall of Rome. Recent topics include Roman Architecture; Religion, Religiosity and Ritual in the Lives of Romans; Visual Culture in Pompeii.

RESTRICTIONS: May be repeated for credit when topics vary.

ARTH 606 Studies in Medieval Art 3 credits

The art of Europe from the fall of Rome to the late Gothic period. Recent topics include the Court of Charlemagne, Early Irish and Anglo-Saxon Art, and Medieval Ivories.

RESTRICTIONS: May be repeated for credit when topics vary.

ARTH 611 Studies in Italian Renaissance Art 3 credits

Italian art from 1300 to 1600.

RESTRICTIONS: May be repeated for credit when topics vary.

ARTH 614 Studies in Italian Renaissance Architecture 3 credits

Italian architecture from 1300 to 1600. Recent topics include Renaissance Villas and Gardens, Brunelleschi and Alberti, Roman Architecture in the Age of Michelangelo, and Palladio.

RESTRICTIONS: May be repeated for credit when topics vary.

ARTH 616 Studies in Italian Baroque Art 3 credits

Italian art in the 17th century. Recent topics include Bernini and Roman Baroque Sculpture, Seicento Poetics and Imagery, Caravaggio.

RESTRICTIONS: May be repeated for credit when topics vary.

ARTH 617 Studies in Northern Baroque Art 3 credits

Seventeenth century art in northern Europe. Recent topics include Vermeer and Dutch Genre Painting, Art and Money; 17th Century Netherlands; and Prints in the Age of Rembrandt.

RESTRICTIONS: May be repeated for credit when topics vary.

ARTH618 18th Century Paris: Architecture, Town Planning and Theory 3 credits

Examines how architectural practice, patronage, and thought were transformed by the radically new ways of understanding the public and public opinion that developed in eighteenth century Paris. Analysis of public debates, their relation to contemporary politics, and their impact on practice.

ARTH 619 Spanish Art of the Golden Age 3 Credits

Art in Spain and its colonies from 1500-1700. Topics vary. Seminars may focus on particular artists, or on broader historical and/or methodological issues dealing with artistic production, reception and circulation within the Spanish culture.

RESTRICTIONS: May be repeated for credit when topics vary.

ARTH 620 Seminar in African Art 3 credits

Topics vary from pre-Dagaman art (pre-European 'discovery') to 20th-century painting and contemporary African cinema and may include representations of Africa in Enlightenment art and philosophy, reviews of the literature on the arts of Fulani peoples and its related archive of documentary film.

ARTH 621 Studies in Nineteenth-Century Art 3 credits

Art from David to Impressionism. Recent topics include Géricault, Delacroix, Cézanne, Art and Politics (1780-1880), The Theory and Practice of Romanticism; and Center and Periphery: the French Avante-Garde.

RESTRICTIONS: May be repeated for credit when topics vary.

ARTH 622 Research Topics in Historic Preservation 3 credits

Seminar that addresses a specific research issue within historic preservation including hypothesis construction, design of research methodology and evaluation of results. Emphasis on the use of primary sources and application of database techniques. Cross-listed with UAPP 636.

ARTH 623 Studies in Twentieth-Century Art 3 credits

Art in Europe, with some reference to later American art, from 1900 to the present. Recent topics include Symbolism, Picasso, Dada and Surrealism, and Cubism and French Art.

RESTRICTIONS: May be repeated for credit when topics vary.

ARTH 624 Folk and Outsider Art 3 credits

Focuses on the traditional and popular arts of North America. Topics covered include colonial Pennsylvania-German decorative arts, Victorian-Welsh gravestones, African-American textile and basketry crafts and contemporary Inuit graphic arts. Discussions and research focus on the relationship of folk arts to questions of ethnicity, class, popular culture and community aesthetics.

ARTH 625 Silent Cinema 3 credits

Examination of the invention, emergence, and development of silent cinema in Europe, the former USSR, and the United States. Includes study of significant films and filmmakers; the social, cultural and artistic contexts; and the critical literature.

ARTH 626 Studies in Modern Art and Theory 3 credits

Studies in Modern Art, exploring diverse themes, media, theoretical and interdisciplinary perspectives. Possible topics include Art and Nationalism; Classicism and Modernity; Allegory; Regimes of Visuality; Modern Art and Literature; Modern Portraiture; Freud, Psychoanalysis, and Colonialism.

ARTH 627 Studies in the History of Photography 3 credits

Aspects of the history and aesthetics of photography. Recent topics include 19th-Century Documentary Photography, 19th-Century “ Art” Photography, 20th-Century Photography and Criticism, and 20th-Century Photography and Art.

RESTRICTIONS: May be repeated for credit when topics vary.

ARTH 628 Seminar in Historic Preservation 3 credits

Survey of historic preservation and management of cultural resources examining cultural contexts and public policy. Covers techniques of preservation, legal and legislative basis of preservation programs, with particular attention to National Register of Historic Places. Cross-listed with UAPP 629.

3 credits

Architecture in Europe and/or America from 1750 to the present. Recent topics include the Architecture of Neoclassicism and Sullivan, Wright and the Prairie School.

RESTRICTIONS: May be repeated for credit when topics vary.

ARTH 630 History of Theories in Material Culture 3 credits

Landmark works and recent theoretical approaches to the understanding and interpretation of the man-made environment. Readings draw from a variety of disciplinary frameworks including art history, anthropology, historical archeology, cultural geography, sociology and history. Cross-listed with MSST 606.

ARTH 631 Studies in American Architecture of the Colonial and Federal Periods 3 credits

Architecture in the American Colonies from the anonymous buildings of the 17th century to the designs of Thomas Jefferson and B. H. Latrobe in the early 19th century.

RESTRICTIONS: May be repeated for credit when topics vary.

ARTH 632 Making the American City 3 credits

Advanced research and reading seminar on the material organization of early American cities. Examination of historical and cultural issues related to housing, consumerism, gender, ethnicity, craft, poverty and wealth as a means to interpreting the city as artifact and symbolic setting. Includes field trips to cities in the region. Students will work with primary sources including archaeological materials, architecture and documentary evidence. Cross-listed with UAPP 632 and/or HIST 632.

ARTH 633 Studies in Nineteenth-Century American Architecture 3 credits

The Greek, Gothic, Egyptian and Oriental Revivals; High Victorian Style and its culmination in the Age of Elegance; and Late Nineteenth-Century American Architecture.

RESTRICTIONS: May be repeated for credit when topics vary.

ARTH 635 American Art to 1865 3 credits

Topics change with each offering. Recent topics include Visual Culture in Antebellum America, Common Ground; Dialectis of High and Low in 19th Century American Visual Arts.

RESTRICTIONS: May be repeated for credit when topics vary.

ARTH 636 Studies in American Art 1875-Present 3 credits

Painting, sculpture and related media from Eakins to the present. Recent topics include Eakins and American Modernism, and American Painting and Sculpture after World War II.

RESTRICTIONS: May be repeated for credit when topics vary.

ARTH 637 Studies in English Art and Architecture 3 credits

The art of England, emphasizing the period from the 16th century through the end of the 19th century. Recent topics include the English Country House, British Painting, English Architecture, and Collecting in England. RESTRICTIONS: May be repeated for credit when topics vary.

ARTH 640 Seminar in Latin American Art

The arts of Latin America from pre-Hispanic times to the 21st century. Recent topics include Art and Conquest in the New World, and Art and Religion in the New World.

ARTH 654 Vernacular Architecture 3 credits

The study of traditional American folk architecture from the 17th century to the present. Examination of changes in construction, house types and decoration in vernacular buildings, as well as issues of regional differences and individual craftsmanship.

ARTH 657 Survey of African Art 3 credits

Major African art styles, their interrelationships, the context of usage and the meanings of African artworks. Cross-listed with ANTH657.

ARTH 680 Studio Materials and Techniques of Drawing in the West 3 credits

Lecture-studio presentation on materials and tools, supports and techniques of wet and dry media drawing in the West from about the year 1400 to the present. Topics include: the development and manufacture of paper, pens, brushes, inks. Cross-listed with MSST 680.

ARTH 681 Materials and Techniques of the Contemporary Painter and Draftsman 3 credits

Twentieth-century artists’ materials. Topics: acrylic emulsion and acrylic solution alkyd resin, PVA paints: collage-assemblage; solvent-photo transfer; synthetic fiber canvas, spray gun; and non-art materials. Potential health hazards. Conservation topics: pH, light-fastness, adhesion and storage environments.

Cross-listed with MSST 681.

ARTH 685 Culture Theory and Criticism 3 credits

A topical introduction to cultural theory, emphasizing such varied topics as semiotics, deconstructionism, feminism, post-colonial and third-world studies, and problems of representation and signification in literary and non-literary texts. Cross-listed with ENGL 685

ARTH 688 Studio Materials and Techniques of Painting I 3 credits

Major materials, including tools, supports and techniques of architectural painting, manuscript illumination and panel painting in encaustic, watercolor, and egg tempera from about 1500 BC to AD 1500. Major topics include true fresco and egg tempera painting, Studio reconstructions, lectures and library research.

Cross-listed with MSST 688.

ARTH 689 Studio Materials and Techniques of Painting II 3 credits

Major masters and the materials, tools and techniques of indirect and direct oil and tempura painting. Time frame: 1500 to the present. Major topics include the development of canvas, brushes. Oil paint, mediums, varnishes, solvents and the complex relationship between indirect and direct techniques. Includes studio reconstruction of masterworks, lectures and library research. Cross-listed with MSST 689.

ARTH 690 Studio in the Materials and Techniques of Printmaking I 3 credits

Major masters and the materials, tools, and techniques of relief, planographic and intaglio printmaking. Time frame: ca. 1400-1920. Major topics include woodcut, copperplate engraving, etching, drypoint, aquatint, mezzotint, lithograph and wood engraving. Studio reconstructions, lectures and library research.

Cross-listed with MSST 690.

ARTH 801 Introduction to Decorative Arts in America to 1860 3 credits

Development of decorative arts, painting and architecture in America. Principles of connoisseurship and studies of American and imported objects of art. Collections of the Winterthur Museum.

Cross-listed with EAMC 801.

ARTH 850 Resources in Art History Pass/Fail

An introduction to the art historical resources of the University of Delaware and to the techniques of scholarly research and bibliographical materials in the historical study of the visual arts.

RESTRICTIONS: Offered every Fall semester.

ARTH 851 Seminar in Art Historical Pedagogy 3 credits Pass/Fail

Discussion of all aspects of teachin in the field of art history (lectures, discussions, materials, examinations, grading), especially in the context of the teaching of a large introductory survey course.

RESTRICTIONS: Open only to teaching assistants in ARTH153 or ARTH154. May be taken for credit only once.

ARTH 860 Reading and Research 1 -9 credits Pass/Fail

Readings and conferences on an approved subject under faculty direction.

RESTRICTIONS: Requires permission of Department Chair. Open to Art History Ph.D. students only.

ARTH 869 Master's Thesis 1-6 credits

ARTH 964 Pre-Candidacy Study 3-12 credits Pass/Fail

Research and readings in preparation of dissertation topic and/or qualifying examinations for doctoral students before admission to candidacy but after completion of all required course work.

RESTRICTIONS: Not open to students who have been admitted to candidacy.

ARTH 969 Doctoral Dissertation 1-12 credits Pass/Fail

 

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