COURSE DESCRIPTION. The Silk Road was the world's first great superhighway, linking China and Japan to the Mediterranean World across Central Asia from ancient times, via caravans and bazaars. The peoples along the way not only traded luxury goods, but also ideas, religions, art, culinary and musical traditions. This course offers an entirely new way to look at the ancient and medieval art of Eurasia, as we travel with Marco Polo. Through lectures, reading, site visits and films, we will explore the trade links between East and West, and the art associated with those routes. Primary-source literature will help us understand the great ideas and movements of the times-Buddhism, Islam, the Indian royal epics, Christian crusading and Mongol expansion. We will try to see monuments of the great trading regions through the eyes of travelers who were seeing these things for the first time-as we will be. This course requires no previous experience, but is intended those who like interdisciplinary approaches to art and travel. No previous coursework is required.

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

• To introduce students to the art of ancient and medieval Eurasia in a way that stresses the links, as well as the differences, between traditions.
• To examine the history of cultural interactions between East Asia and the Mediterranean world, from Roman times until the present day, through the evidence of art and architecture.
• To expose students to some of the great classics of travel literature and fiction, and to use them as primary sources for art history.
• To offer students a historical perspective on travel, trade, and geography, and their impact on human culture.
• To provide practice in thinking, reading, and writing about historical art and architecture.

METHODS OF EVALUATION, slightly revised:

Class participation:	10%
Two tests, 15% each	30%
Fieldwork assignments:	30%
Researched essay	15%
Final exam	15%

REQUIRED TEXTS:

• Marilyn Stokstad, Art History, vol. I. Prentice-Hall, rev. ed.
• Xinru Liu, The Silk Road, American Historical Association Essays on Global & Comp. Hist. Series.
• A photocopied course packet

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE OF LECTURES AND READING ASSIGNMENTS:

A1: Intro to the Silk Road across Eurasia
Reading:: Xinru Liu, The Silk Road

A2: Han China
Stokstad, Chapter 10: "Chinese Art before 1280"

A3: The spread of Buddhism and Buddhist Art
Course reader: excerpts from Wriggins, Xuanzang

A4: Xian and the Tang Dynasty
Course reader: Hayashi, "Introduction of Continental Culture," from Silk Road and Shoso-in.
Film: "China's Cosmopolitan Age: The Tang"

A5 : Japan and the Silk Road
Stokstad, Chapter 11: "Japanese Art before 1392"

ARRIVAL IN KOBE, JAPAN

A6: Beijing and the Mongol Yuan Dynasty.
Course reader: Sullivan, "The Yuan Dynasty," from The Arts of China.

ARRIVAL IN HONG KONG

A7: Buddhist and Hindu arts in Southeast Asia
Course reader: Mannika, "Introduction," from Angkor Wat
On reserve: Asian Art and Culture, on contemporary Vietnam.

ARRIVAL IN HO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM

A8: Test on the eastern Silk Road

A9: International traders in Southeast Asia
Course reader: Boxer, "Shipping and Spices in Asian Seas," from The Portuguese Seaborne Empire.

ARRIVAL IN PENANG, MALAYSIA

A10: The Ramayana and Hindu imagery in the arts
Stokstad, Chapter 9: "Art of India before 1100"
Film: "Great Tales in Asian Art"

A11: Indian silks and luxury arts
Course reader: Brend, "Emperors in Hindustan," from Islamic Art.

ARRIVAL IN CHENNAI, INDIA

A12: Discussion: India, research papers

A13: Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic/Gandhara tradition
Stokstad, Chapter 5: "Art of Ancient Greece"
Film: "In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great: Across the Khyber Pass"

A14: Iranian and Central Asian art
Stokstad, Chapter 2: "Art of the Ancient Near East," on Iran.
On reserve: look at Silk Roads, China Ships, and The Bazaar, on Iran.

A15: Test: on South and Central Asian art

A16: The great bazaar cities of the Middle East.
Stokstad, Chapter 8: "Islamic Art"

ARRIVAL AT PORT SUEZ, EGYPT

ARRIVAL IN ISTANBUL, TURKEY

A17: Rome: the extreme end of the Silk Road in antiquity
Stokstad, Chapter 6: "Etruscan and Roman Art"

ARRIVAL IN DUBROVNIK, CROATIA

A18: Marco Polo and medieval Mediterranean trading city
Course reader: selections from The Travels of Marco Polo.
Stokstad, Italian sections of Chapter 15: "Romanesque Art" and Chapter 16: "Gothic Art"
Film: "Siena: Chronicles of a Medieval Commune"

ARRIVAL IN CIVITAVECCHIA, ITALY

A19: Muslims and Christians in the medieval Mediterranean
Stokstad, Chapter 7: Early Christian, Jewish and Byzantine Art"

A20: Morocco and the markets of Africa
Stokstad, Chapter 13: "Art of Ancient Africa"
Film: "Africa: Empires of Gold"

ARRIVAL IN CASABLANCA, MOROCCO

A21: The China Trade and "Orientalism"
On reserve: look at Silk Roads, China Ships.

A22: Review

Final exam.

TENTATIVE FIELD REQUIREMENTS. At each port, students will visit significant monuments of art and architecture, museum collections, ethnographic museums, historic sites, and, wherever possible, neighborhoods of working artisans. Students will be given specific field assignments in port that will involve looking, recording, and analysis in comparison to material in the assigned readings. Students are required to participate in a minimum of three practica, from the list below or devised with the consent of the instructor. Since this is an art and architecture course, a major feature of the course will be your own observations of buildings and art in the places we visit. At least one of the practica must be a visit to an architectural monument, either independently or with a group. At least one of the practica must be a visit to a museum collection of Asian or Greco-Roman art in one of the cities you visit. At least one must to be a major pre-modern commercial trade facility.Three of the practica will be written up for 10% of the course grade. A fourth may be part of your research project. Individualized field requirements may be proposed and substituted for these, upon my approval.

• Japan: Buddhist temple complexes of Heian or Nara; esp. the Horyu-ji or Todai-ji. Palace complexes of Kyoto. Museum collections, such as the National Museum in Kyoto or Nara.
• China: Walking Tour of Hong Kong (FDP); Man Ho or Tin Hau temples in Hong Kong; Fung Ping Shan Museum, University of Hong Kong; Hong Kong Museum of Art; old villages in the New Territories. Other cities in China: Major museums, palace complexes, historic manufacturing and market neighborhoods; Hui and other minority neighborhoods; Tibetan (Lamaist) Buddhist temple complexes.
• Vietnam: Ho Chi Minh City: History Museum, the major Buddhist temple complexes. Other cities: Art and ethnographic museums. In Cambodia: The monuments of Angkor; National Museum in Phnomh Penh. Silk dealers.
• Malaysia: Penang walking tour of religious monuments, esp. Kek Lok Si, Wat Chayamangkalaram, Kuan Yin Temple, and the mosques; spice markets; colonial architecture. In Kuala Lumpur: National Museum, and Museum of Asian Arts.
• India: In Chennai: the Government Museum's collection of Pallava bronzes and other Indian sculpture; Roman archeological material. Elsewhere: Major Buddhist, Hindu or Mughal-period Islamic monuments; art, archeology and ethnographic museums. Silk FDP.
• Egypt: Craft and textile manufacturing around the Khan al-Khalili; Egyptian Museum.
• Turkey: Walking tour of Istanbul's market neighborhoods (FDP); Porcelain collection in Topkapi Palace; Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art; Archeological Museum. Bursa: Silk bazaars (Koza Han). Sufi evening.
• Croatia: Dubrovnik: Port facilities and commercial structures. Split: Palace of Diocletian. Korcula: Marco Polo Museum.
• Italy: In Rome: Greco-Roman, Early Christian and Asian art in the Vatican Museums collection; Terme Museum and associated National Museum; Capitoline Museum; luxury arts in the Palazzo Venezia. Outside Rome: Silks and luxury arts in the Bargello, Florence. Venice: just about everything.
• Morocco: Bazaars-the textile trade.

RESERVE LIBRARY LIST. A selection from these, or similar books, will be put on reserve for this course. The final reserve list will be available shortly after the course begins.

• Fisher, Robert E., Buddhist Art and Architecture. Thames & Hudson, 1993.
• Hayashi, Ryoichi, The Silk Road & the Shoso-In. Weatherhill/Heibonsha ser., 6. 1975.
• Wriggins, Sally H., Xuanzang, A Buddhist Pilgrim on the Silk Road, Westview, 1997.
• Lukonin, Vladimir, Central Asian Art. Parkstone, 1996.
• Wood, Michael, In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great. California, 1997.
• Hopkirk, Peter, Foreign Devils on the Silk Road. U. Massachusetts, 1980.
• Riley-Smith, J., The Atlas of the Crusades. Times Books, 1991.
• Lewis, Archibald, Nomads & Crusaders, AD 1000-1368. Indiana, 1991.
• Kherdian, David, Monkey: Journey to the West. Shambala, 1992.
• The Ramayana
• The Travels of Marco Polo