History of Art & Architecture
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CAS AH 111: Introduction to Art History I: Antiquity to the Middle Ages
An introduction to art history and the analysis of painting, sculpture, and architecture. Study of masterpieces from prehistoric to medieval times. Focus on monuments of Greece, Rome, and the Middle Ages, with a survey of Egyptian and Near Eastern art. Carries humanities divisional credit in CAS. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness. -
CAS AH 112: Introduction to Art History II: Renaissance to Today
Major monuments and artists. Sequential development, from the Renaissance to the modern period, of major styles in architecture, sculpture, painting, graphic arts, and photography. Relationship of visual art to social and cultural trends. Carries humanities divisional credit in CAS. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness. -
CAS AH 201: Understanding Architecture
Introduces a range of approaches to understanding architecture in an historical perspective. Learn how architects and others have interpreted meaning through rubrics of art, nature, and culture, focused upon European and American architecture from 1400 to the present. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness, Research and Information Literacy. -
CAS AH 205: History of World Architecture
An examination of patterns in world architecture and urbanism from pre-history to the twentieth century. Lectures and discussions address questions of program, spatial composition, structure, technology, iconography, and cultural context for the examples considered Carries humanities divisional credit in CAS. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Research and Information Literacy. -
CAS AH 210: Learning to See
Strengthens your ability to describe and analyze the visual world. From fundamentals such as color and composition to the design of advertisements, propaganda, and appliances. A lab component with frequent visits to the MFA and other Boston sites provides opportunities for direct engagement with objects, images, and the built environment. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness, Critical Thinking. -
CAS AH 215: Arts of Africa and Its Diaspora
Exploration of a diversity of visual and performing arts from Africa, including royal regalia, masquerades, and contemporary painting. Examines how the dispersal of Africans, due to the transatlantic slave trade and immigration, contributed to the cultural richness of the Americas. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Critical Thinking. Carries humanities divisional credit in CAS. -
CAS AH 220: Islamic Art and Architecture
Examines key monuments of Islamic art and architecture within their historical and cultural context, and emphasizes the diversity within the visual cultures of the Islamic world. Carries humanities divisional credit in CAS. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Research and Information Literacy. -
CAS AH 225: The Arts of Asia
Surveys of the major artistic traditions of Asia. Important monuments are examined analytically in order to explain why certain forms and styles are characteristic of specific times and places, and how these monuments functioned in their cultural contexts. Carries humanities divisional credit in CAS. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness, Research and Information Literacy. -
CAS AH 232: Archaeology of Ancient Egypt
The technology, economy, social life, political organization, religions, art, and architecture of Egypt from Predynastic times through the Hellenistic period, based on archaeological and historical sources. Emphasis on the period of the pharaohs (ca. 3000-323 BCE). Carries humanities divisional credit in CAS. Also offered as CAS AR 232. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness. -
CAS AH 233: The Arts of Greece
Greek architecture, painting, sculpture, and other arts. Topics include: Greek perceptions of the world, the rise of monumental art and architecture, uses of color, period and individual styles. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness. -
CAS AH 234: The Art of Rome
Roman architecture, painting, sculpture, and minor arts. Emphasis on developments in Rome, Pompeii, and Central Italy and on the political and social role of Roman art and architecture. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness. -
CAS AH 240: Medieval Art in Europe
Focuses on architecture, manuscript illumination, metalwork and ivory carving, wall-painting, textiles and monumental architectural sculpture. Topics include iconoclasm, monasticism, women in medieval art, patronage, materials and techniques, iconography, representation and model books and regional and international styles and trends. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness. -
CAS AH 242: Latin American Art Since Contact
Course surveys Latin American art from the colonial period to present and relates it to imperial, state, institutional, and private agendas. Course interrogates both notions of art within colonial / neo-colonial contexts and changing roles of artists over past half-millennia. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness. -
CAS AH 257: Renaissance Art
Survey of the arts in the Renaissance in Italy from the communes of the early fifteenth century to the courts of the sixteenth century. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness, Critical Thinking. -
CAS AH 284: Arts in America
A survey of art and visual culture made in North America between the early colonial period and World War I, exploring the ways that painters, sculptors, photographers, and graphic artists navigated major aesthetic debates, political conflicts, and economic crises. Carries humanities divisional credit in CAS. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness. -
CAS AH 313: Imperial Reflections: Early Modern Islamic Art and Architecture
Architecture, manuscripts, textiles, metalwork, and ceramics of the Mughal, Ottoman, and Safavid Empires. Focus on the formation of imperial styles, intersections between art and politics, and the importance of the arts in dynastic legitimization. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Research and Information Literacy. -
CAS AH 314: After Genghis Khan: Art and Architecture in Central Asia and Iran
Examines the art and architecture in Iran and Central Asia of the Ilkhanids and Timurids (thirteenth-sixteenth centuries), two of the most innovative and dynamic artistic traditions of the Islamic world, and heirs to the traditions of Genghis Khan's Mongol Empire. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Research and Information Literacy. -
CAS AH 316: African Diaspora Arts in the Americas
Study of the transmission of African artistry in the Caribbean, South America, and the United States from the period of slavery to the present. Topics include Kongo and Yoruba arts and their influence on the arts of Santeria, Vodun, and carnival. Also offered as CAS AA 316. -
CAS AH 317: From Morocco to Timbuktu: Art and Architecture at the Saharan Crossroads
Cultural exchange between North and West Africa, and its impact on art and architecture from the medieval period to the present; the interaction between Islam and other modes of African religious practice and how this interaction influenced African aesthetic expression. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Digital/Multimedia Expression, Creativity/Innovation. -
CAS AH 323: Topics in Latin American Art
Study of a region, theme, or period in Latin America art and architecture. May be repeated for credit as topics change. Topic for Spring 2020: Art of Cuba. Explores issues of race, gender, class, nationalism, internationalism, exile, and revolution in Cuban arts. How images function in the construction of official and avant-garde culture, including instances of dissent and censorship.
