ARH 160 Art Ancient and Modern: The Question of Beauty

This course surveys the history of Western Art from the Greek world to the present day, using the question of beauty as a unifying theme. The first class each week will introduce the art or architecture of the period; the second will use readings from period sources to understand how beauty was perceived and defined in that period. The course will have a particular emphasis on theories of beauty that recur in successive historical periods: beauty and mathematics, beauty and function, beauty and color, beauty and mimesis, beauty and effect. This class fulfills the Core requirement for a Fine Art class in Culture and Expression. It also serves as a gateway to the Fortin and Gonthier Core Texts and Enduring Questions Program and/or to a minor in Art History.