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Academic Year 2003/2004


European Architecture to 1750
ARHA 151 SP

Clusters:

Urban Studies

This course is an introduction to architecture as a prime representative expression of premodern 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 architecture 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? How do certain premodern monuments come to be revalued and reevaluated in modern times? 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 totality 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
Kenneth Conant, CAROLINGIAN AND ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE
Hans Jantzen, HIGH GOTHIC
Peter Murray, ARCHITECTURE OF THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE
Rudolf Wittkower, ART AND ARCHITECTURE IN ITALY 1600-1750
Robert W. Berger, A ROYAL PASSION: LOUIS XIV AS PATRON OF ARCHITECTURE
Francoise Choay, THE INVENTION OF THE HISTORIC MONUMENT

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Three short papers, two in-class exams and a final.

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-19-2004


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