History of Art
56 High, 432.2668
www.yale.edu/arthistory/
M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.
Chair
David Joselit (102A OAG, 432.2670, david.joselit@yale.edu)
Director of Graduate Studies
Timothy Barringer (161 ST, 432.8162, timothy.barringer@yale.edu)
Professors
Brian Allen (Adjunct), Carol Armstrong, Timothy Barringer, Edward Cooke, Jr., David Joselit, Diana Kleiner, Amy Meyers (Adjunct), Mary Miller, Robert Nelson, Alexander Nemerov, Jock Reynolds (Adjunct), Vincent Scully (Emeritus), Robert Thompson, Christopher Wood, Mimi Hall Yiengpruksawan
Associate Professors
Anne Dunlop, Noa Steimatsky
Assistant Professors
Milette Gaifman, Sandy Isenstadt, Jacqueline Jung, Christine Mehring, Kishwar Rizvi, Lillian Tseng
Lecturers
Cassandra Albinson, Scott Bukatman, Mario Carpo, Theresa Fairbanks, Karen Foster, Patricia Garland, Katherine Haskins, Laurence Kanter, Seth Kim-Cohen, Susan Matheson, Youngsook Pak, Roderick Whitfield
Fields of Study
Fields include Greek and Roman; Medieval and Byzantine; Renaissance; Baroque; eighteenth-, nineteenth-, and twentieth-century European; Modern Architecture; African; African American; American; British; Pre-Columbian; Chinese; Japanese; and film.
Special Requirements for the Ph.D. Degree
Students in the history of Western art must pass examinations in German and one other language pertinent to their field of study. One examination must be passed during the first year of study, the other not later than the beginning of the third term. Students of non-Western art must qualify in two languages selected by agreement with the adviser and the DGS. They have an extra year in which to do so. During the first two years of study, students normally take thirteen term courses. Normally by January 20 of the second year, students submit a qualifying paper that should demonstrate the candidate’s ability successfully to complete a Ph.D. dissertation in art history. During the fall term of the third year, students are expected to take the qualifying examination. Candidates must demonstrate knowledge of their field and related areas, as well as a good grounding in method and bibliography. By the end of the second term of the third year, students are expected to have established a dissertation topic. A prospectus outlining the topic must be approved by a committee at a colloquium by the end of the third year. Students are admitted to candidacy for the Ph.D. upon completion of all predissertation requirements, including the prospectus and qualifying examination. Admission to candidacy must take place by the end of the third year.
The faculty considers teaching to be an important part of the professional preparation of graduate students. Students are required to do four terms of teaching. This requirement is fulfilled in the second and third year. They receive a total of one course credit as teaching fellows when they lead a discussion section. Students may also serve as a research assistant at either the Yale University Art Gallery or the Center for British Art. This can be accepted in lieu of one or two terms of teaching. Application for these R.A. positions is competitive.
Combined Ph.D. Programs
History of Art and African American Studies
The History of Art department offers, in conjunction with the Program in African American Studies, a combined Ph.D. in History of Art and African American Studies. Students in the combined-degree program will take three core courses in African American Studies as part of the required twelve courses and are subject to the language requirement for the Ph.D. in History of Art. The dissertation prospectus and the dissertation itself must be approved by both History of Art and African American Studies. For further details, see African American Studies.
History of Art and Film Studies
The Department of History of Art offers, in conjunction with Film Studies, a combined Ph.D. in the History of Art and Film Studies. Students are required to meet all departmental requirements, but many courses may count toward completing both degrees at the discretion of the directors of graduate studies in History of Art and Film Studies. For further details see Film Studies.
History of Art and Renaissance Studies
The Department of History of Art also offers, in conjunction with the Renaissance Studies Program, a combined Ph.D. in the History of Art and Renaissance Studies. For further details, see Renaissance Studies.
The Center for the Study of American Art and Material Culture
The Center for the Study of American Art and Material Culture provides a programmatic link among the Yale faculty, museum professionals, and graduate students who maintain a scholarly interest in the study, analysis, and interpretation of American art and material culture. It brings together colleagues from a variety of disciplines—from History of Art and American Studies to Anthropology, Archaeological Studies, and Geology and Geophysics—and from some of Yale’s remarkable museum collections from the Art Gallery and Peabody Museum to Beinecke Library. Center activities will focus upon one particular theme each year and will include hosting one or more visiting American Art and Material Culture Fellows to teach a course each term and interact with Yale colleagues; weekly lunch meetings in which a member makes a short presentation centered on an artifact or group of artifacts followed by lively discussion about methodology, interpretation, and context, and an annual three-day Yale–Smithsonian Seminar on Material Culture.
Master’s Degrees
M.Phil. See Degree Requirements. Additionally, students in the History of Art are eligible to pursue a supplemental M.Phil. degree in Medieval Studies. For further details, see Medieval Studies.
M.A. (en route to the PH.D.). This degree is awarded after the satisfactory completion of one year of course work (six term courses) and after evidence of proficiency in one required foreign language. The student normally petitions for the degree at the time of registration in the fall of the second year.
Program materials are available upon request to the Director of Graduate Studies, Department of the History of Art, Yale University, 56 High Street, PO Box 208272, New Haven CT 06520-8272.
Courses
HSAR 500a, Introduction to Art History. Christopher Wood.
M 3.30–5.20
How have cultures figured the historicity of art to themselves? How are ideas about representation, virtuality, visuality, ritual, and performance registered in art historical paradigms? How has art writing interacted with art making? What is the genealogy of the modern academic discipline of art history? How are art history, art criticism, and philosophy of art differentiated? What are the affinities and tensions between art history and other fields of thought and research? These questions are approached through readings and discussion. This is a foundational course for all graduate students in History of Art.
HSAR 506a or b, The Teaching of the History of Art.
By arrangement with faculty. History of Art graduate students only.
HSAR 512a or b, Directed Research.
By arrangement with faculty.
HSAR 514a or b, Curatorial Training.
By arrangement with faculty.
HSAR 563b, Art and Ritual in Greek Antiquity. Milette Gaifman.
W 2.30–4.20
Much of what is known today as ancient Archaic and Classical Greek art and architecture was originally related to Greek religious ritual; artifacts and architectural monuments such as painted sculptural reliefs and temples served as settings for rituals, were used in cult, and featured representations of activities such as libations and sacrifices. The seminar explores the relationship between Greek visual culture and ancient Greek rituals. In particular, it focuses on the ways in which works of art and architecture accommodated and shaped cult practice, as well as the manner in which they visually conveyed religious ideologies and the nature of rituals. In addition to the analysis of ancient monuments and texts, the class considers modern theories on art and their usefulness for the understanding of the subject in the context of Greek antiquity.
HSAR 579a, Modernism in the Middle East. Kishwar Rizvi.
T 1.30–3.20
This course studies the concepts that inform the making and reception of modern architecture in the Middle East. In the Islamic world, new fundamentalisms and shifting religious trends have created an environment in which each country must renegotiate its past and reconsider its collective future. Whether by suppressing their Islamic roots, as in the case of republican Turkey, or through reinventing them, as in the case of post-Revolution Iran, such countries must constantly transform their national image. It is through public works, such as architecture and city planning, that they convey their political and religious ideology. This course examines the debates and theories of modern architectural production that have informed the discourse on Islamic architecture by situating cases of colonial and nationalist architecture in the context of their particular social and religious history.
HSAR 580a, Everyday Romans in Extraordinary Times: The Art and Culture of the Non-Elite in Ancient Rome. Diana Kleiner.
T 1.30–3.20
Art and everyday Romans in Rome and Pompeii. A study of a half-century of scholarly discourse and its focus on non-elite Romans and their role as unique patrons and viewers. Case study analysis of the interaction between high and low art, the viability of the “trickle-down” phenomenon, and the distinction between the portrayal of non-elites in imperialistic state-sponsored monuments and their own privately commissioned portraits and narrative scenes. Qualified undergraduates who have taken Roman Art: Empire, Identity, and Society and/or Roman Architecture may be admitted with permission of the instructor. Also CLSS 878a.
HSAR 589b, Visions and Art in Medieval Europe. Jacqueline Jung.
T 1.30–3.20
From the Book of Revelation to the Showings of Julian of Norwich (d. 1423), accounts of visions in the Christian tradition were inextricably intertwined with the visual arts. This seminar examines medieval visionary texts in conjunction with contemporaneous images, aiming to understand the range of representational practices that helped people externalize and communicate unusual interior perceptions. We address such questions as the changes in visionary experiences over time, the role of language and literacy in the communication of such experiences, the impact of gender on visions, the varieties and functions of other senses (especially touch and taste) in medieval visions, and the impact of visionary reports on the development of art. We begin by addressing the theoretical, cognitive, and anthropological facets of visionary experience before turning to medieval primary sources such as saints’ lives, accounts of otherworld journeys, miracle books, sermons, monastic chronicles, and individually composed vision-books (e.g., by Hildegard of Bingen, Bridget of Sweden, Henry Suso, and Julian of Norwich), as well as historical interpretations by Caroline Bynum, William Christian, Peter Dinzelbacher, Jeffrey Hamburger, Herbert Kessler, Barbara Newman, Giselle de Nie, Jean-Claude Schmitt, and others. The visual material includes both depictions of visions (such as Apocalypse manuscripts, paintings of the Temptation of St. Anthony, and renderings of Hildegard’s visions) and images that played a role in sparking visionary experience (such as Marian statues, crucifixes, Man of Sorrows images, and Baby Jesus dolls). Reading knowledge of German, French, and Latin is strongly recommended.
HSAR 597a, Word and Image in Byzantium. Robert Nelson.
M 7–8.50 p.m.
Word and image studies are a burgeoning field of art history and now have their own journal. This course looks generally at that literature and focuses on the Middle Ages and the Byzantine Empire to consider the nature of words combined with images. Topics of interest are ekphrasis or the description of a work of art, inscriptions around works of art, and especially manuscript illumination, an area of sustained interest of Anglo-American scholars and historically the most popular subject of scholarship. More attention has been paid lately to the image or icon, and this work needs to be integrated with a reconsideration of the nature of written and oral discourse.
HSAR 635a, The Origins of Florentine Painting: 1270–1370. Laurence Kanter.
T 2.30–4.20
An investigation of special problems in the development of painting in late medieval Florence, from roughly the birth of Giotto through the death of Orcagna. Topics include the migration of Roman pictorial style; Giotto and Assisi; Florentine manuscript illumination; the Giotteschi and Taddeo Gaddi; connoisseurship and the problem of Bernardo Daddi; Maso di Banco and the “realist” school of post-Giottesque painters; the interrelationship of sculpture and painting; and the emergence of the Cione brothers’ workshop. Reading knowledge of Italian is required.
HSAR 652b, Documenting the World: Issues in the History of the Visual Catalog. Kishwar Rizvi.
w 3.30–5.20
This seminar explores the significance of the documentary survey in Europe and the Middle East. Writing the history of the world can only be undertaken from a particular ideological point of view; for example, although medieval illustrated manuscripts, such as the Compendium of History of Rashid al-din (1304) and the Travels of John Mandeville (c. 1371), were concerned with situating the reader within the context of religious and political authority, during the eighteenth century the attempt was made to document the world through scientific explorations of race, religion, and geography, as exemplified by the magnum opus, Ceremonies and Customs of the World Religions, by Bernard and Picart (1727–31). This seminar studies original and facsimile copies of manuscripts at Yale libraries, culminating in an analysis and critique of the spring 2008 traveling exhibition of British Orientalist art at the Yale Center of British Art.
HSAR 702a, Markets and Networks. David Joselit.
M 1.30–3.20
This class explores the enormous impact of the art market in twentieth-century art by seeking to treat the market as a form or medium. Marcel Duchamp, for instance, “leveraged” the market by limiting his production of art, strategically reissuing certain works and shaping the institutions that would ultimately present it to a public. The mid-century international art network Fluxus created an alternate market of inexpensive “functional” works of art as Andy Warhol created entirely new markets for the artist. Feminist collectives of the 1970s eschewed the market altogether in favor of building new social networks. This seminar explores theories of the market alongside artists’ material efforts to remake it.
HSAR 709b, Architectural Theory, Cultural Technologies, and Digital Media. Mario Carpo.
Th 3.30–5.20
Variability is widely seen as a defining feature of digital technologies and of most new media objects. This seminar discusses the theoretical implications of digital variability for architectural design and production. These implications are assessed in the “longue durée” of the history of architectural theory; related to the history of the cultural technologies that are or were used in the processes of architectural design; and compared with similar critical categories that pertain to the history of the transmission of texts and of images.
HSAR 710b, Cinematic Spectacle. Scott Bukatman.
T 9.25–11.15, screenings Su 7 p.m.
From the first projection of moving pictures on a screen through the digitally animated legions of Orcs in The Lord of the Rings, cinema has always been associated with spectacle as an impressive, unusual, or disturbing phenomenon or event that is seen or witnessed. This course explores the concept of “spectacle” by examining the very different ways that cinema has depended on sensationalist display throughout its history. New technologies have been mediated through cinematic spectacle; spectacle has been marshalled in the service of pedagogy and propaganda; the image of women in American film has been theorized as a form of spectacular excess. The course also explores the function of spectacle in experimental cinema, as well as the deconstructions of spectacle by Godard and others in the wake of Guy Debord’s writing. Also FILM 805b.
HSAR 734a, American Art in the Democratic Age, 1830–1860. Alexander Nemerov.
W 1.30–3.20
How did democracy and capitalism affect American visual culture of the mid-nineteenth century? How did artists portray the market revolution and the place of art within it? What was the relation between American art of that period and kitsch? Is there a poetic complexity to kitsch, or is it truly a nullity? Considering questions like these, we reassess the cultural significance of painters such as William Sidney Mount and sculptors such as Hiram Powers. Period writers such as Hawthorne, Melville, Douglass, and Poe provide some guidance. Also AMST 734a.
HSAR 737a, Craft and Design in Post-World War II America. Edward Cooke, Jr.
W 3.30–5.20
In the two decades following World War II, economic prosperity and cultural optimism led to the golden age of American industrial design and the expansion of craft education programs in the universities. The term “designer/craftsman” was a respected label. Yet, by the 1970s, crafts, design, and art were three separate spheres. This seminar draws on period writings and artifactual examination to explore the interconnections of craft and design in the 1950s, their subsequent fragmentation, and recent attempts to build connections. Also AMST 737a.
HSAR 748b, Maya Painting. Mary Miller.
M 1.30–3.20
A consideration of Maya painting traditions in both wall painting and minor arts of the first millennium A.D., with attention to painters, potters, schools, regional styles, and archaeological context. Iconography and texts are also analyzed, alongside use of color and function of the completed work. Also ARCG 703bu.
HSAR 778bu,From West Africa to the Black Americas: The Black Atlantic Visual Tradition. Robert Thompson.
TTh 11.35–12.50
Art, music, and dance in the history of key classical civilizations south of the Sahara—Mali, Asante, Dahomey, Yoruba, Ejagham, Kongon—and their impact on the rise of New World art and music. Also AFAM 728bu,AFST 778bu.
HSAR 779au,New York Mambo: Microcosm of Black Creativity. Robert Thompson.
TTh 11.35–12.50
Art, music, and dance in the history of key classical civilizations of the world of New York mambo and salsa. Emphasis on Palmieri, Cortijo, Roena, Harlow, and Colon. Examination of parallel traditions, such as New York Haitian art, Dominican meringue, reggae and rastas of Jamaican Brooklyn, and the New York school of Brazilian Capoeira. Also AFAM 729au.
HSAR 781a, Problem and Theory in Afro-Atlantic Architecture I: Africa. Robert Thompson.
Th 3.30–5.20
The seminar addresses a new frontier—rebuilding the inner cities. This refers to Latino and mainland black cities within the cities of America. Accordingly, the course focuses on major roots of Latino and black traditional architecture. Topics include the architecture of Djenne, Berber art and architecture, Mauritanian sites, the monumental stone architecture of Zimbabwe, the sacred architecture of Ethiopia, and Muslim-influenced architecture from Rabat to Zanzibar. Then comes a case-by-case examination of some of the sites of African influence on the architecture of the Americas—the Puerto Rican casita; the southern verandah; the round-houses of New York, Virginia, North Carolina, Mexico, Panama, and Columbia; Ganvie, the Venice of West Africa, and its mirror image among the tidal stilt architectures of blacks of the Choco area in Pacific Columbia. Also AFAM 739a, AFST 781a.
HSAR 781b, Problem and Theory in Afro-Atlantic Architecture II: The Black Americas. Robert Thompson.
Th 3.30–5.20
A continuation of HSAR 781a. Also AFAM 739b, AFST 781b.
HSAR 784a, Slavery and Visual Culture in Jamaica. Timothy Barringer.
W 3.30–5.20
This traveling seminar examines the visual culture of Jamaica from the late seventeenth century to today, with particular focus on the representation of slavery and its legacies. Timed to coincide with a major exhibition at the Yale Center for British Art, Art and Emancipation in Jamaica, the seminar examines both British colonial and Afro-Jamaican cultural traditions. A particular focus is the masquerade form Jonkonnu or John Canoe, whose multiple origins, manifestations, and representations are explored in the exhibition. The development of Jamaican art in the twentieth century, and the work of contemporary Jamaican artists of the diaspora in the United Kingdom and the United States are explored. Members of the seminar participate in a major international conference to be held at Yale in conjunction with the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition and the seminar visits Jamaica, examining key public and private art collections, archives, key historical urban and plantation sites, galleries, and artists’s studios.
HSAR 791a, History, Memory, and Media in Chinese Art. Lillian Tseng.
T 9.25–11.15
The seminar explores how art objects shape memory and intervene in history in China. It first focuses on bronze vessels and stone steles, investigating how media, intention, and reception influence the operation of commemorative art. It then tackles painting and calligraphy, discussing how the fusion of personal and collective memory transforms the tangle of the past and the present. Chinese is not required.
HSAR 805b, Picturing the Death of the Buddha: Yale’s Parinirvana in Critical Context. Mimi Yiengpruksawan.
W 1.30–3.20
Yale University Art Gallery recently acquired a magnificent fourteenth-century painting of the death of the Buddha. The seminar aims to study the painting in depth, using as its methodological purchase the work of David Summers in Real Spaces. This means that the painting is analyzed from a variety of perspectives encompassing its many possible interpretations as form, as object, and as cultural production.
HSAR 810a, Aristocracy and Buddhist Art in the Koryo Period (918–1392). Youngsook Pak.
Th 3.30–5.20
Medieval Korea is characterized by its elegant courtly tradition and fine artistic production of Buddhist images in painting, illuminated manuscripts, sculpture, and ceramic wares. This seminar discusses the patronage of the court and aristocracy Buddhist iconography and ideas. A related international conference on Buddhist art in East Asia is being held in the fall.
HSAR 819a, Buddhist Imagery at the Mogao Caves, Dunhuang, in the Context of the Silk Road. Roderick Whitfield.
W 3.30–5.20
The Buddhist cave shrines near Dunhuang in Gansu province contain the most extensive sequence of murals and stucco sculptures in China. The course studies this unique record of cultural exchange between East and West along the Silk Road.
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