Art

Opening with the global present, ART 105 now uses today’s digital universe as a contemporary point of reference to earlier forms of visual communication.Faculty presentations explore the original functions and creative expressions of art and architecture,shaped through varied materials, tools andtechnologies. Within this visual legacy fundamental experiences and aspirations emerge: forms of religious devotion, attitudes toward nature and the human body, and the perpetual need for individual and social definition. Moving through painting, sculpture and architecture of pre-history through great monuments of the Middle East, Egypt, Greece, Rome and Asian Antiquity, we examine the  flowering of medieval art and architecture through current research in computer imaging. The print revolution and the Protestant Reformation’s redirection of the role of images then lead us to connections between Renaissance art and science in works by Leonardo da Vinci and Albrecht Dürer. Weekly discussion sections help students develop essential tools of visual analysis through study of original works in the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center.

From humble beginnings to its conquest of most of the known world, Rome dominated the Mediterranean with the power of its empire. Art and architecture gave monumental expression to its political ideology, especially in the building of cities that spread Roman civilization across most of Europe and parts of the Middle East and Africa. Roman art also featured adornment, luxury, and collecting in both public and private spheres. Given the diversity of the people included in the Roman empire and its artistic forms, what is particularly Roman about Roman art?