[ Wesleyan Home Page ] [ WesMaps Home Page ] [ WesMaps Archive ] [ Course Search ] [ Course Search by CID ]
Academic Year 2000/2001


European Architecture to 1750
ARHA 151 SP

Clusters:
HA Courses
Primary Focus

This course is an introduction to architecture as a prime representative expression of pre-modern European civilizations, from ancient Greece through the early 18th century. The course focuses on developing the ability to analyze architectural form. Emphasis is on canonical, monumental buildings, their urban and historical situations, and related works of visual art in other media (sculpture and painting). In each era, how does architecture help to constitute its society's identity? What is the relationship between style and ideology? How do architects respond to the works of earlier architects, either innovatively or imitatively? How do patrons respond to the works of their predecessors, either locally or distantly? How are works of archite cture positioned within those structures of power that the works in turn help to define? How do monuments celebrate selected aspects of history and suppress others? Lectures, readings, and discussions address these and related questions, with each class focused on specific periods and sites, emphasizing visual culture at different scales (urban form, architecture, object, and image). Emphasis will be on exploring continuities and distinctions between works across time, seeing Western traditions as a tot ality over centuries. Lectures and readings convey different historiographic approaches to these issues.

MAJOR READINGS

Marvin Trachtenberg and Isabel Hyman, ARCHITECTURE, FROM PREHISTORY TO POSTMODERNIS.
R.F. Rhodes, ARCHITECTURE AND MEANING ON THE ATHENIAN ACROPOLIS
William MacDonald, THE PANTHEON
Whitney S. Stoddard, ART AND ARCHITECTURE OF MEDIEVAL FRANCE
Peter Murray, ARCHITECTURE OF THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE
Henry Millon, BAROQUE AND ROCOCO ARCHITECTURE

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Two papers, two in-class exams and a final.

Unless preregistered students attend the first class meeting or communicate directly with the instructor prior to the first class, they will be dropped from the class list. NOTE: Students must still submit a completed Drop/Add form to the Registrar's Office.

COURSE FORMAT: Lecture/Discussion

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UGRD    Credit: 1    Gen Ed Area Dept: HA ART    Grading Mode: Graded   

Prerequisites: NONE Links to Web Resources For This Course.

Last Updated on MAR-26-2001


Contact wesmaps@wesleyan.edu to submit comments or suggestions. Please include a url, course title, faculty name or other page reference in your email

Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459