Important stuff:

• ARTH 344 fulfills upper division credit and the Fine Arts component of the University General Education requirement. 
• GMU requires you to activate your GMU e-mail account to receive official campus communications.  If you prefer to use another address, you must engage the e-mail forwarder (www.gmu.edu/email) and maintain that account.  I shall use .gmu addresses exclusively and it is your responsibility to deal with all materials I send.
• GMU operates with an Honor Code.  It is clearly defined in the catalogue (http://www.gmu.edu/facstaff/handbook/aD.html) Plagiarism (the unacknowledged use of someone else’s work as your own) violates the Honor Code.  Writing tips has more information on how to avoid plagiarism.  It is everyone’s responsibility (students and teachers) to notify the Honor Committee concerning possible infractions.
• The classroom experience is the core of the course.  Tests derive from what we all do in class.    
  • Class sessions comprise lecture/discussions on selected topics.  The assigned reading complements rather than duplicates what goes on in class.  Come to class having read the assigned reading and be prepared to discuss it.
  • You are expected to get the materials delivered in class by paying attention to all speakers and taking notes.  Stay engaged. 
• Class time is for class matters.  Phones, pagers, ipods with earphones etc. must be turned off and put away in class.  Computers may be used for note taking only.
• You are responsible for everything that goes on during the entire class period (whether you are there or not), both the material covered and any announcements made that might have a bearing on assignments.  If you miss class, it remains your responsibility to make arrangements with a fellow student to obtain information about what you’ve missed.
• Assignments are due in person in hard copy at the start of the class period on the day they are assigned.  E-mailed assignments are NOT accepted.  Late work will be graded down unless you have spoken with me in advance about difficulties you are having in completing assignments and have demonstrated some progress.   
• Arrive promptly, pay attention and participate in class, and do not engage in discourteous behavior (i.e. talking to your neighbor, doing other work, leaving early)

 I.      COURSE CONTENT    This course treats selected aspects of Italian, French, and Spanish painting, sculpture, and architecture (henceforth ‘art’ refers to all these forms) from ca. 1590-1700; with emphasis on the earlier period and Italy (another course, ARTH 345, covers the Dutch, Flemish, and English Baroque).  In this case“

Italy really means Rome (where the Pope was temporal as well as spiritual ruler), the artistic center and magnet for artists from throughout Europe.  While Italy became a unified nation only in the 19th century, France and Spain were already highly centralized nation-states, with long reigning absolute monarchs.  Significantly, all three centers remained Catholic after the Protestant Reformation, with power centered on their respective courts. 

Art played a key role in re-asserting Catholic culture in the wake of the Reformation (in concert with the growth of new religious orders like the Jesuits) and in helping bolster Absolutist authority.  Although the art market will change somewhat during this period (with the rise of the new bourgeois client), we’ll focus primarily on the patronage system that provided the principal means of employment for architects to build public (the church or the square) and private (the palace) spaces and for artists to make paintings and sculptures to decorate them.

Bernini, Caravaggio, Annibale Carracci, and Velázquez figure in some detail; Borromini, Pietro da Cortona, Artemisia Gentileschi, Claude Lorrain, Poussin, and other artists will appear.  We shall examine individual artists’ careers (within the workshop model of artistic production), but we’ll do so within overarching themes that link their works to larger cultural movements. 

Themes and issues.  Like all artists, those of the 17^th century engaged in dialogue with the past: in particular with the High Renaissance and ancient Rome.  Much of their art was narrative, based upon religious or mythological texts.  Artists occupied themselves with the idea of “nature” (both in terms of the subject matter of their work, e.g. landscape, as well as the manner in which they worked).  Some artists radically reoriented the relationship between the viewer and the work.  Court artists created powerful images of individuals.  Artists engaged in the glorification of God.  As part of the imperative to emphasize those things that made Catholicism distinctive, Baroque art stressed the physical and emotional aspects of religious practice.  Finally, artists also concerned themselves with their own professional status and formed academies to discuss and institutionalize artistic practice and articulating art theory. 

If one artist’s work can be seen to span the entire course, it is that of Gianlorenzo Bernini (1598-1680).  We’ll begin in late 16^th-century Rome and move to the completion and decoration of St. Peter’s (in which the young Bernini was central) and end the term with the much older Bernini’s trip to France in the later part of the century (and with it the symbolic shift of the artistic center to France).  Finally, we’ll consider the implications of the word “Baroque” and its place within the discipline of art history.

II. OFFICE HOURS  Tuesdays, 10:30-noon  and by appt.

III. OURSE GOALS :

A. Learning Objectives

• To gain an understanding of works of art from the period in their historical contexts—both as products of artists and as participants in the formation of the larger culture.        
• To improve analytical skills appropriate to works of art, both of their form and of their subject matter.  This course requires you to synthesize material from different sources—required reading, class, and assignments—and present it in oral and written form (class participation and tests). 

B. Methods of instruction.

Class meetings—consisting of lecture-discussions on specific topics, informed by the assigned reading—provide the core for this course.  Taking good notes and engaging in class participation will help you master what is required.  There is no “textbook” and the required readings do not replicate or replace what goes on in the classroom.  Art history is a humanities discipline requiring the marshalling of evidence in support of an argument.  Emphasis is placed, therefore, on the ability to speak and write effectively.  Exams and writing assignments pose questions that ask for facts and challenge you to place those facts into the context of the history of 17^th-century art.  Because of the direct visual and intellectual engagement demanded by the material, attendance is essential to the learning process. 

The primary images for study, together with basic identifying information, will be available on the course website  http://chnm.gmu.edu/courses/ffolliott/arth344/

 

V.        COURSE REQUIREMENTS

A.  Class attendance and note taking.  You are responsible for everything that goes on in class (whether you are there or not), both the material covered and any announcements made.  The GMU catalogue states: “Students are expected to attend the class periods of the courses for which they register. …instructors may use absence, tardiness, or early departure as de facto evidence of non-participation.”  Students cutting more than the equivalent of one week’s classes for reasons other than illness will be deemed to have unsatisfactory attendance.  If your priorities preclude making this kind of commitment to your studies, PLEASE choose a different course.

B.  Assignments.  (1) required reading; (2) exams—a quiz, a midterm, and a final examination;  (3) an exhibition review; and (4) a museum label project.               

1. READING:   You can access the required readings from two different sources.  The “ Readings” section of the course website, which requires a password that I shall provide in class and via email, and the University libraries Databases, specifically The Grove Dictionary of Art.  Use the “On Reading Critically” suggestions and the directed questions on the “ Readings” section of the course website to help you get the most from your reading.  As indicated in the Schedule (Section VII below), on the days for which a reading is assigned, come to class prepared to discuss it.  You may be asked to write about it.   There is no textbook for this course, but if you want some general surveys, I’d recommend Ann Harris, Seventeenth-century art & architecture. It is on reserve in the JCL and you can probably find yourself a copy if you search.  John Rupert Martin’s Baroque, is also on reserve.  It is organized thematically. 

Also available in the Libraries are two useful books on analyzing and writing about art. Henry M. Sayre, Writing about Art and Sylvan Barnet, A Short Guide to Writing about Art. Consult (or arrange to buy) these books immediately if you have not had a previous course in Art History or if you want to work on your analytical and writing skills for papers and for essay exams.  This is a 300-level course and, although it is open to sophomores and above, there will be some analytical vocabulary that may not be familiar to you if you have not had some previous training in art history.  Feel free to use the resources on my course website for ARTH 201  http://chnm.gmu.edu/courses/ffolliott/arth201

2..  EXAMS:  There will a quiz (30 min.), a midterm examination (75 min.), and a final exam (120 min.) during the exam period.  All exams will take place as scheduled except if the University declares an official snow emergency.

a.  Format.  All tests have a similar format; knowing what to expect will help you take notes and prepare for class NOW.  Do not leave all this work to do until the night before the exam!  Exams test for the forest as well as the trees.  Expect questions that ask for specific information as well as those that challenge you to place that information into the context of the history of 17^th-century art.  This requires a combination of knowledge (from class notes AND reading) and analytical skills (developed in class).  The types of questions that you will find on exams are:

(1). Definition of terms.  Technical terms discussed in class and in the reading will be listed and you will be asked to (a) define them clearly, (b) give an example of their use in an appropriate work, and (c) state the significance of the term (not the example) to the history of 17th-C. art.  Quiz, midterm, and final.

(2). Identification/significance.  Single slides will be shown for 4 minutes each.  In each case, you must identify the work shown by naming the artist and providing the title, date, location (if still in its original place), and medium (what it is made of, i.e. fresco or marble) of the work shown.  Then, in a single sentence, or as succinctly and unequivocally as possible, state the significance of the work to the history of art.  Do not describe it or explain its subject matter, but state WHY this work is important to the history of 17th-C. art.  Answer the question: how is this work demonstrative of important issues in 17^th-century art?  Quiz, midterm, and final.

(3)  Unknown.  A slide that we have not covered in class is shown for 5 minutes and you must attribute it to a period and geographical location (a specific artist, if you can), providing reasons for your choice. Midterm and final.

(4). Comparison:  A pair of slides will be shown for 15-20 minutes.  After identifying them completely [as in (2) above], in essay form discuss important similarities and differences in the two works, keeping in mind their historical contexts.  Finally, draw a CONCLUSION stating what this particular comparison teaches us about the history of art of the period.  The Barnet and Sayre books are helpful here, if you have not had experience with this kind of question.  Midterm and final.

(5) Brief essay. Questions focusing on the assigned readings: Midterm and final.

(6). Long Essay.  You will choose from questions formulated to allow you to discuss material from the entire semester.  The questions will derive from discussion in the final class period of the major themes and issues of the semester.  You might be asked to trace the history of a particular art form or genre (e.g. the portrait), to comment upon a statement from one of the assigned readings, or to discuss the social function of art (e.g. art at court).  You must refer to specific examples of works of art in formulating your answer.  Final examination only; one hour.

 3.  MUSEUM EXHIBITION REVIEW.  Complete directions for this review will be provided shortly.  Choose either the Poussin and Nature: Arcadian Visions (Feb. 12- May 11, 2008) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (take the Artsbus on  February 23 or March 29) or the The Baroque Woodcut (through March 30, 2008) at the National Gallery in Washington.  Note that 50 minute exhibition gallery talks on The Baroque Woodcut led by Dr. J. Russell Sale will take place on January  31, AMFebruary 7, 19, 29 at 11:00.  A. Meet at the West Building Main Floor, Rotunda. 

4.  MUSEUM LABEL PROJECT.  Complete directions for this review will be provided shortly.  You will write text for two labels for one of the individual  rooms at the National Gallery containing works from the period and locations we shall study, # 29, 33, 34, 36, or 37.  One is an individual object label.  You will need to choose an object and do some additional research in authoritative sources to get the information you want to provide.  There is no set formula for what you might wish to include here.  Information about the materials and their handling, about debates regarding the authorship of the work or its patronage, its condition, its subject matter, or the social context of its use or display are all relevant topics to pursue.  The other label is a “wall label:” something that provides a context for the entire room.  This too requires authoritative research and could address a broader contextual issue that interests you and that you thought was insufficiently explained. 

VI.              METHODS OF EVALUATION/GRADING

Grade inflation has caused some students to have unrealistic expectations about how their performance is evaluated.  In my experience, a basic rule is the best grades are earned though effort.

A. Please read the following Standards carefully. 

C- (70-72) and D (60-69) is minimally passing; less than satisfactory understanding and presentation of factual and conceptual material and poorly written and organized papers.  Please consult with me ASAP if you do not understand what is required.  Causes include frequent absence from class; sitting in the back rows; doing other work/not paying attention; not keeping up with assignments; not reading assignments carefully and critically; not following directions; not taking initiative. 

C (72-76 is a C; 77-79 is a C+) is adequate: the average expected performance of COLLEGE students: e.g., you demonstrate a basic grasp of factual and conceptual material and competent written presentation (e.g. grammar and spelling are correct).  Assignments prepared outside of class are word-processed (showing evidence of revision through several drafts), proofread, and corrected.

B work (80-82 is a B-; 83-86 is a B; 87-89 is a B+) is substantially better: above average mastery of the material (details are correct, analysis is appropriate); clear and well-produced written and oral presentation on all assignments; helpful class participation.

A work (90-92 is an A-; 93-97 is an A; 98-100 is A+) is truly remarkable: awarded for superior understanding of all concepts and factual material; for excellent presentation in written work; for imaginative work that goes beyond the assignment and regular class participation.  It requires demonstrated commitment and personal initiative and is never earned by going through the motions.The Numbers game.  All work earns a numerical grade from 0-100.  Each numerical grade bears a percentage weighting relting in a corresponding number of points for each assignment.  Monitor your own performance by entering the numbers that appear on your returned assignments in the chart provided on the course website.    

VII  SCHEDULE OF CLASS TOPICS AND ASSIGNMENTS

If we don’t finish a topic, it will spillover to the next class.  Due dates and test dates will not change.