AHST 1001 Exploring Art History: Technology and Art    3 Credits

Attributes: GDAH Graphic Design: Art History

This course introduces students to art history as a discipline through the theme of technology by examining a series of important artworks from historic cultures within a global context. These works will serve as entry points into varied artistic traditions whose study will develop students' analytic skills. Premodern use of sophisticated technologies such as bronze casting to stained glass will be explored. The use of modern technologies from imaging and digital reconstruction to chemical analysis and artificial intelligence will be examined to understand how analyses and interpretations are formed and changed over time.

AHST 1002 Exploring Art History: Migration and Art: Raids, Trade, Pilgrimage    3 Credits

Attributes: GDAH Graphic Design: Art History

This course introduces students to the discipline of art history through the theme of human movement across physical and political boundaries, and its relationship to visual art. As people in Europe, Africa, and Asia used land and sea routes to wage or flee war, exchange goods, experience the holy, and seek new opportunities, they bring with them materials, artworks, and ideas. Students will examine a series of important artworks, their historical and cultural contexts, and related works that show evidence of the interconnectedness of people and cultures. Monuments studied may vary, depending on expertise of instructor.

AHST 1003 Exploring Art History: Life, Death, and the Afterlife in Art    3 Credits

Attributes: GDAH Graphic Design: Art History

This course will introduce students to the discipline of art history through the study of important works of funerary art from across the globe. We will consider how objects from tombs and other funerary contexts construct and negotiate the relationship between life and the afterlife in diverse cultures and time periods. We will study the funerary monuments of rulers as well as objects created for the burial rites of common people, and works of art used by the living to depict and prepare for an afterlife. We will also discuss contemporary debates around these monuments.

AHST 1004 Exploring Art History: Art, Politics, and Propaganda    3 Credits

Attributes: GDAH Graphic Design: Art History

This course introduces students to the discipline of art history through the theme of propagandizing visual imagery conceived and executed from the earliest world cultures to the present day. Students explore a series of important artworks from a range of historical periods to better understand their aesthetic, political, and cultural contexts. Focusing on masterpieces across media will develop critical visual literacy skills. Historic examples of political art will be compared to imagery from the present day to better understand the embedded nature of propaganda in human societies.

AHST 1005 Exploring Art History: Sex, Sacrilege, Scandals: From Caves to Culture Wars    3 Credits

Attributes: GDAH Graphic Design: Art History

Overviewing the history of art from its prehistoric roots through the present, students will examine a series of paradigm monuments which sparked controversy and scandal in their societal contexts. Focusing on paradigm examples, students will develop critical visual literacy skills. During the semester, students will expand their capacities for critically enhanced looking, analyzing, and translating ideas. Students will learn to deconstruct visual rhetoric and unpack the prevailing conditions for art censorship sparked by sexual, religious, or political controversies.

AHST 1006 Exploring Art History: Destruction, Plunder, and Preservation    3 Credits

Attributes: GDAH Graphic Design: Art History

This course introduces students to the discipline of art history through the themes of art's destruction, looting, and preservation across world cultures. Through important artworks studied within their cultural and historical contexts, we will explore topics including the looting and plunder of objects for political and economic purposes, the willful destruction of material culture as a means of cultural erasure, and evolving ideas of ownership and cultural heritage as a common human right. We will consider ethical implications and obligations, and current cultural heritage debates over contested objects and monuments from around the world.

AHST 1102 Art of East Asia    3 Credits

Attributes: ANMC Asian Studies Elective, DEIE Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion Elective, GDAH Graphic Design: Art History, INEL International Studies Elective

This course surveys the art and architectural history of China, Korea, and Japan, emphasizing cultural and artistic contact between these cultures. Periods of focus include the Shang, Han, Tang, Song, and Qing dynasties in China; the Jōmon, Nara, Heian, Kamakura, Edo, and Meiji periods in Japan; and the Three Kingdoms period, Goryeo, and Joseon dynasties in Korea. The course highlights collections of Asian art at Yale University and in New York City, incorporating special exhibitions of East Asian art relevant to the course.

AHST 1103 Art of Africa, the Caribbean, and the Americas    3 Credits

Attributes: BSCC Black Studies Component Course, DEIE Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion Elective, GDAH Graphic Design: Art History, INEL International Studies Elective, LCEL LACS Minor: Elective

This course is an introduction to art and architecture of Africa, the Caribbean islands, and Central America, South America, and North America. Major works of art and architecture will be examined to understand the respective cultures and traditions of these regions. Cultures designated by their geographical locations will provide a frame of study for African visual culture. Art of Caribbean islands and the influence of the African diaspora will be explored. The Americas will be represented by Pre-Columbian and Native American visual arts. Students will be introduced to different art historical approaches and vocabulary used to study art from each of these areas.

AHST 1104 Art of Asia    3 Credits

Attributes: ANMC Asian Studies Elective, DEIE Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion Elective, GDAH Graphic Design: Art History, INEL International Studies Elective

This course introduces major monuments of the arts of Asia, including architecture, painting, sculpture, ceramics, and prints. Following a roughly chronological progression spanning over three millennia, the course emphasizes contact between Asian civilizations, including South, Southeast, Central, and East Asia, as well as artistic exchanges between Asia and the West. Areas of focus include: ancient funerary arts, the development of Buddhist art throughout the continent, and secular arts associated with imperial courts and the rise of cities. The course highlights collections of Asian art at the Fairfield University Art Museum, Yale University, and in New York City.

AHST 1105 History of Architecture    3 Credits

Attributes: GDAH Graphic Design: Art History

This introductory course surveys the major periods and key monuments in the history of architecture from antiquity to the present. Topics include Greek and Roman temples and civic architecture, medieval mosques and cathedrals, Renaissance and Baroque cities and their monuments, Early Modern factories and gardens, Machine Age museums and houses, and contemporary architectural developments of all sorts. Students will work with actual buildings in writing assignments and learn the skills necessary to critique and interpret the built environment of the past and present in the United States and beyond.

AHST 1109 Jewish Art: Moses to Modernity    3 Credits

Attributes: GDAH Graphic Design: Art History, JST Judaic Studies Minor

The earliest known written description of the Jewish people is a visual record on an ancient victory monument. Dated from the 13th century BCE, a carved stele dedicated to Pharaoh Merneptah presents a hieroglyphic relief inauspiciously boasting: "Israel is laid waste; his seed is no more." Tracing 4000 years of Jewish art, culture, and ritual, this course is a panoramic overview of visual expression of a people wandering through six continents, innumerable styles and artistic identities. How did the ineffable theophany at Sinai spark the complexity of Judaism's struggle with Greco-Roman pagan idolatry versus attempts at capturing the "spirit of God with wisdom and discernment and the knowledge of workmanship to design designs" [Exodus 35] transforming spirituality into a living art?

AHST 1110 Myth in Classical Art    3 Credits

This course surveys the meaning, form, and cultural function of Greek and Roman mythology, particularly as it is expressed in the art and material culture of the ancient Mediterranean. While we may be more familiar with classical mythology as a set of written stories, in antiquity gods, heroes, and monsters were a part of everyday life, adorning temples, public spaces, and everyday objects. This course will introduce students to the seminal poems and plays of the surviving literary tradition, from Homer to Ovid, in dialogue with those myths’ appearance in classical art, emphasizing examples from Connecticut and New York museums. Previously AHST 2210.

AHST 1111 Greek Art and Archelogy: Athens to Alexandria    3 Credits

Attributes: GDAH Graphic Design: Art History

This survey explores the artistic and architectural achievements of ancient Greece from the time of Homer to the collapse of the Hellenistic world. The course considers the formation of the Greek city-state and major panhellenic sanctuaries like Olympia in the Geometric and Archaic Periods, the rise of Athens and the artistic achievements of the High Classical Period, and cosmopolitan kingdoms ushered in by Alexander the Great. The course will consist of lectures and structured discussions of seminal scholarly texts, as well as direct engagement with ancient art and reproductions at Fairfield and world-class museums in our region.

AHST 1112 Roman Art and Archaeology: Colosseum to Catacombs    3 Credits

Attributes: GDAH Graphic Design: Art History, ISIF Italian Studies: Italy-Focused, ITEN Italian Course Taught in English

In this course we will examine art of the Roman Republic and Empire. The major themes of the course are: society as reflected in portraiture; religion as communicated in temple and domestic architecture and decoration; the organization and architecture of urban spaces as expressions of power; the architecture and decoration of houses to show status and culture. These themes will also be related to the art of other places and times, including that of our own society. The course emphasizes objects in area museums and includes trips to world-class museums in our region.

AHST 1113 Art and Archaeology of Ancient Egypt: Images for Eternity    3 Credits

Attributes: GDAH Graphic Design: Art History, INEL International Studies Elective

In this course, students will examine the art of ancient Egypt, from the unification of the pre-historic cultures of the Nile Valley to the Roman conquest. We focus on thematic examinations of various aspects of ancient Egyptian culture, as illustrated through the art, monuments, artifacts, and anthropological evidence that remains in the archaeological record today. Throughout the course, students will analyze and discuss the influence of scholarly biases and issues in cultural heritage management, and museum collecting ethics. By examining the life cycles of these works, from first creation to modern reinterpretation, students will understand that these works not only reflect a society as complex as our own but also serve an important role in contemporary culture. Students will visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

AHST 1120 Medieval Art: Catacombs to Cathedrals    3 Credits

Attributes: CAOT Catholic Studies: Non-Religious Studies, FREN French Course Taught in English, GDAH Graphic Design: Art History, IWHU Islamic World Studies: Humanities

This introduction to medieval art and architecture in Europe and the Middle East, from its Roman, Jewish, Early Christian, and Islamic sources through the Gothic period, explores continuity and change in art and its relationship to society and culture. We will consider the physical and sensory original environments of the artworks, including sound, smell, and touch. Other topics include the relationship of belief and ritual to religious imagery and architecture, patterns in medieval design, and the impact of imperial patronage on art. The class will use material from the Fairfield University Art Museum’s loan collection from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Cloisters, and will take a field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

AHST 1121X Celtic and Early Irish Art    3 Credits

Attributes: CAOT Catholic Studies: Non-Religious Studies, GDAH Graphic Design: Art History, IRSE Irish Studies Elective, MSID Magis Core: Interdisciplinary

Corequisite: ENGL 1420X.

This course traces Celtic art from its sources and history on the European continent (1200 BCE to the first century CE) to its migration to the British Isles and its subsequent transformation as it interacts with native cultures there, particularly the Irish culture. It examines native Irish art from the stone circles and passage graves of 3000-2000 BCE to the introduction of the Celtic style and the golden age of Ireland's conversion to Christianity. Rich new art forms such as illustrated bibles, jeweled chalices and reliquaries, high crosses, and the introduction of monastic and ecclesiastical architecture will be discussed. The course also considers the medieval revivals in the 19th and 20th centuries and includes a first-hand examination of Fairfield University's facsimile of the Book of Kells. This course is linked with ENGL 1420X and fulfills the requirements for the interdisciplinary signature element within the Magis Core.

AHST 1130 Early Renaissance Art in Italy    3 Credits

Attributes: CAOT Catholic Studies: Non-Religious Studies, GDAH Graphic Design: Art History, ISIF Italian Studies: Italy-Focused, ITEN Italian Course Taught in English

In this overview of Italian art, culture, and society between 1300 and 1520, we explore the city of Florence as the "cradle of a new world." From its art workshops and urban planning studios, the monumental Duomo of Brunelleschi rises to symbolize a new era for human creativity. Viewing masterpiece artworks, we discover the exciting shift from medieval formalism to a new aristocratic elegance and classical humanism. In this interdisciplinary humanities course, we contrast and compare aspects of Florentine culture as symbolized and visualized in the arts. Artworks depict banking, science, engineering, diplomacy, women's traditional roles of domesticity in the court, and new clothing fashions. Course includes visits to world-renowned area museums allowing students to study first-hand prime examples of Florentine art.

AHST 1131 High Renaissance and Mannerism in Italy    3 Credits

Attributes: CAOT Catholic Studies: Non-Religious Studies, GDAH Graphic Design: Art History

Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo were all praised by the 16th-century artist and writer Giorgio Vasari for raising the visual arts to a level unrivaled since ancient Greece and Rome. This course, which spans roughly 1480-1570, explores this narrative of artistic progress, and what happened to Italian art after it reached “perfection” during the period we call the High Renaissance. Areas of focus include the rebirth of classical antiquity, the concept of artistic style, the role of class and gender in the production and consumption of visual art, and new technologies for producing visual art.

AHST 1132 Baroque Art and Architecture in Rome    3 Credits

Attributes: CAOT Catholic Studies: Non-Religious Studies, ISIF Italian Studies: Italy-Focused

Baroque art began in Rome, and may of its iconic moments remain today. This class will spend two weeks in Rome to experience these works of painting, sculpture, architecture, and decorative arts in their original – and spectacular! – contexts, rather than isolated in museums or on screens. A key goal of Baroque art (created between the end of the 16th and beginning of the 18th centuries) was to elicit a range of physical and emotional responses in its viewers, from piety and awe to disorientation and desire. Through our site visits, we will attempt to recapture some of the embodied experience intended by these creators.

AHST 1152 Modern Art    3 Credits

Attributes: FREN French Course Taught in English, GDAH Graphic Design: Art History

In this course, students will explore a diverse range of art works and issues, which were central to the practice of Modern Art in Europe and the United States from the mid-nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century. The course focuses on the artists who challenged the institution of Western art, re-interpreted its norms, and used Modernism as both subject and context. Class revolutions, industrialization, urbanization, imperialism, and capitalism are addressed through a close study of various artists and artworks. The enormous impact of European Modern Art on the rest of the world is considered with the examination of orientalism, primitivism, and "colonial" modernisms. A variety of sources such as novels, philosophical and political texts, films, newspapers, and music are used to inform our understanding of these -isms and Modern Art.

AHST 1164 American Art and Media Culture    3 Credits

Attributes: ASGW American Studies: Gateway, ASVP American Studies: Visual and Performing Arts, GDAH Graphic Design: Art History

In tracing the themes and artistic statements of American artists, the course takes special notice of unifying national myths such as the Founding Fathers, Manifest Destiny, America as the new Eden, the frontier from the Rockies to the lunar surface, heroes from Davy Crockett to Superman, and America as utopia. Through the masterpieces of Church, Cole, Homer, Eakins, Sloan, Hopper, Pollock, Rothko, Wyeth, Warhol, and the Downtown art scene, the course answers the question: What is uniquely American about American art?

AHST 1165 African-American Art    3 Credits

Attributes: ASGW American Studies: Gateway, ASVP American Studies: Visual and Performing Arts, BSAH Black Studies: Arts and Humanities, BSFC Black Studies Focus Course, DEIE Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion Elective, GDAH Graphic Design: Art History

This course explores black art and culture in the twentieth century. We will focus on the artworks themselves and, when possible, the artist's dialogue. Events in United States history such as the emancipation from slavery and the Civil War Era, the Harlem Renaissance, Jazz Age, Great Depression, Civil Rights Movements, AIDS crisis of the 1980s, and the Los Angeles race riots of the 1990s are used as context to understand black art and culture. While art works created by African-American artists are the primary focus, Cuban and Haitian art and artists are also considered. Throughout the course there is a focus on thinking critically when looking at art as well as how to articulate ideas in writing.

AHST 1172 History of Photography    3 Credits

Attributes: GDAH Graphic Design: Art History

Students will learn the general historical development of photography from the 1830s to the present day. Concentrating primarily on Europe and the United States, this survey examines some of the themes threaded throughout photography's short history: the interrelationships between photography and other arts, the effect of technology on the medium, identity construction by and through photographs, and the tradition of the popular photograph. Social, cultural, and economic issues are considered as well as important photographers and photographic movements. Throughout the course there is a focus on thinking critically when looking at a photograph as well as how to articulate ideas in writing.

AHST 1191 Art and Mythologies of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Bolshevik Russia: Comparative Systems & Outcomes    3 Credits

Attributes: GDAH Graphic Design: Art History, GMEL German Major or Minor Course, GMEN German Course Taught in English, ISIC Italian Studies: Italy Component, ITEN Italian Course Taught in English, JST Judaic Studies Minor, RECS Russian, Eastern European, and Central Asian Studies, RSVP Russian Studies Minor: VPA

This interdisciplinary approach to the visual Zeitgeist of these major political/national crises in Europe between 1917 and 1945 surveys the visual rhetoric of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Bolshevik Russia through the widest possible definition of the visual arts. The course includes the traditional fine arts of painting, sculpture, and architecture as well as the mass cultural outlets of film, radio, propaganda posters, and the staging of public events. The class eliminates the distinctions between high and utilitarian mediums of expression; all means of persuasion are fair game. This course allows students to better understand the complexities of these political/nationalist issues; the "window" is the lens provided by the visual arts and mass media. In doing so, students recognize how the symbolic languages of mythology were married to political ideologies and shaped public opinion from the national consciousness.

AHST 1192 History, Theory, and Practice of Museums    3 Credits

This course focuses on the history and theory of museums, their operations and roles in society and the practical application of museum theory. Students will put the rapidly evolving field of museum studies into a meaningful context while simultaneously gaining a clearer understanding of contemporary industry standards and modes of best professional practice.

AHST 1193 Inside Museums and Galleries: Taste, Place, Public Space    3 Credits

This course explores the interactive role of the curator and the museum and gallery visitor in the dynamic cultural spaces of museums, galleries, and public historic spaces, parks, monuments, etc. We explore the responsibilities, ethics, and educational goals for the professional staff of not-for-profit museums in terms of serving the common good of the general public. If museums are "temples of culture," then we need to understand the ways these public "faiths" act while open and engaging for all. In contrast, we highlight the similarities and differences when artworks or collectible objects are placed into a commercialized, for profit-gallery/auction house context. This is an introductory course, welcoming students ready to experience and learn about the rich spectrum of museums, galleries, auction houses, and cultural institutions within the Tri-State area. Field trips include visits with top professionals who share their expertise and experiences.

AHST 2209 Historic Plaster Cast Collection at Fairfield University    3 Credits

Prerequisite: One 1000-level art history course.

This seminar introduces students to the study of classical and medieval sculpture through the lens of plaster cast collections in Europe and the U.S. including Fairfield's growing collection. Students will develop a deep understanding of the great works of famed Greek sculptors, the complex history of Roman copying, and how the rediscovery and replication of these works influenced tastes from the Renaissance to the modern day. Students will research casts in the Fairfield collection, learn directly from curators and conservators, and visit other cast collections including the Slater Museum, the Institute for Classical Architecture, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

AHST 2221 Arts of Ireland and the British Isles, 500-1000    3 Credits

Attributes: CAOT Catholic Studies: Non-Religious Studies, IRSE Irish Studies Elective

Prerequisite: One 1000-level art history course.

This course explores the art and architecture produced in Ireland, England, and Scotland during the early medieval period, often called the "Golden Age of Insular Art." It was an era of rich cultural exchange during which Irish and continental monks were instrumental in the spread of Christianity throughout the British Isles; Irish settled in Scotland; the Anglo-Saxon kingdom was established in England; and Vikings invaded Ireland and Britain. Arts in all media combined pre-Christian Celtic and Germanic traditions with new Christian forms. Irish monasteries throughout the British Isles were centers of production for sumptuous manuscripts such as the Book of Kells and liturgical vessels including the Ardagh Chalice. Monastic architecture and high crosses will also be considered, as well as secular objects such as aristocratic jewelry.

AHST 2222 Byzantine Art    3 Credits

Attributes: CAOT Catholic Studies: Non-Religious Studies

Prerequisite: One 1000-level art history course.

This course focuses on the art of the medieval Byzantine Empire, a period of strong imperial patronage that saw the rise of Christianity and its associated new forms of art and architecture. The course is organized chronologically, from Byzantine art's late antique Pagan Roman, Early Christian, and Jewish sources to its relationship to Islamic art and its later impact on the development of the arts of Western Europe and Russia. The major themes of the course are: the relationship of belief and ritual to religious imagery and architecture; cultural exchange and influence on art forms and iconography; and the impact of imperial patronage on art and architecture.

AHST 2250 Fashion Forward: A History of Fashionable Dress in Global Context    3 Credits

Attributes: MSID Magis Core: Interdisciplinary, WSGF Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies: Gender Focused

This course examines how clothes are a tool of identity and power, by exploring fashions of both Europe and the Global South. The history of fashion is the history of humanity. What we choose to wear, how we style our hair, and how we decorate our bodies, has been a factor of our daily lives for millennia. Fashion is never "just clothes." Our clothes tell ourselves and the world who we are, where we see ourselves in our community, and how our fellow humans view us. Through readings, discussions, research and writings, students will discover the incredible power of dress. Crosslisted with THTR 2250.

AHST 2292 Museums, Art, Ethics, and the Law    3 Credits

Prerequisite: One 1000-level art history course.

This course examines the complex legal and ethical issues surrounding the conception, creation, communication, display, reproduction, ownership, transfer, and protection of works of art. The first unit is devoted to defining "art" and discussing artists' rights. The legal and ethical constraints affecting museums, collectors and the art market generally will be covered in the second unit, while the third unit will grapple with the problematic area of cultural property (with particular emphasis on looting, plunder, identity, trade, reparation, restitution and restitution). In each of these three segments, we shall read and discuss relevant case law, as well as a number of commentaries authored by leading experts in the field.

AHST 2296 Museum Exhibition Seminar    3 Credits

Prerequisite: One Art History course or permission of the instructor.

This seminar offers students the opportunity for object-based learning and direct experience of museum practice surrounding the curation, display, and interpretation of works of art for the public.

AHST 2900 Special Topics (Shell)    3 Credits

Prerequisite: One 1000-level art history course.

Students conduct an in-depth study of a specific subject in the history of art.

AHST 3980 Internship    1-3 Credits

Internships allow students to gain hands-on experience in fields related to art history through supervised work for galleries, museums, auction houses, and other venues. Internships give students experience in a professional environment, help them to identify possible career paths, and give them skills that they do not acquire in the classroom. Students may apply for on-campus internships at the Fairfield University Art Museum or pursue placement in local or New York City arts institutions. Internships require permission from the Art History program's internship coordinator before registration.

AHST 3990 Independent Study    1-3 Credits

This in-depth exploration of a specific topic in art history involves students in independent research and field study. Open to students with approval of a faculty member and the director of the Art History program.

AHST 4999 Senior Capstone Seminar    3 Credits

Required of all art history majors in the spring semester of the senior year, this seminar offers rotating topics that reflect the areas of expertise and research among Fairfield's art history faculty members and culminates in an in-depth research project.