Introduction to the Practice of Art History: Mughal India
ARHA 181
Spring 2007
| Section:
01
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| Course Cluster: Southern Asia Studies |
This course introduces the practice of art history, through a sequence of six thematic units exploring and applying various methods that are central to the discipline. Each unit begins with critical reading of one or two key theoretical or methodological statements, and then continues through application to case studies drawn from the art of India's Mughal empire. Units include 1) techniques of visual description, 2) the concept of style and stylistic analysis, 3) the analysis of meaning in visual images (iconography and iconology), 4) models of time and the historical explanation of change, 5) architectural and historical analysis of buildings and their sites, and 6) historiographic assessment of debates and changing interpretations within art history. Each unit culminates in a writing exercise designed to give students structured experience in some of the various modes of art historical writing. No prior knowledge either of art history or of Mughal India is assumed; the course is appropriate both as an introduction to art history and to Mughal India, through its art. Founded in northern India in the early 1500s, the Mughal empire was one of the largest centralized states in the history of the pre-modern world. During the two centuries of their effective rule over much of the Indian subcontinent, the Mughal emperors and their subordinates were prolific patrons of painting and the arts of the book - which provide the primary focus and case studies for the first four thematic units - as well as of such architectural masterpieces as the Taj Mahal and related monuments - which are the focus of the last two units. |
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Essential Capabilities:
Writing |
| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA ART |
| Course Format: Lecture/Discussion | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Major Requirement for: (ARHA-MN)(ARHA)(ARST)(GSAS-MN)(GSAS)(MUST-MN) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: Not Available |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Mark, Peter, "Is there such a thing as African Art?"
Baxandall, Michael, PATTERNS OF INTENTION (excerpts)
Panofsky, Erwin, STUDIES IN ICONOLOGY (excerpts)
Wolfflin, Heinrich, PRINCIPLES OF ART HISTORY (excerpts)
Kubler, George, THE SHAPE OF TIME
Krautheimer, Richard, "Introduction to an `Iconography of Medieval Architecture'"
Grabar, Oleg, "The Iconography of Islamic Architecture"
Kleinbauer, W. Eugene, "The Determinants of Art Historical Investigation"
Jenkins, Keith, RE-THINKING HISTORY (excerpts)
Baxandall, Michael, "Masterpiece"
Brilliant, Richard, "Decadence and Decline"
Readings on Mughal India:
Richards, John F., THE MUGHAL EMPIRE
Beach, Milo, THE IMPERIAL IMAGE: PAINTINGS FOR THE MUGHAL COURT (excerpts)
Ettinghausen, Richard, "The Emperor's Choice"
Asher, Catherine, "A Ray from the Sun: Mughal Ideology and the Visual Construction of the Divine"
Koch, Ebba, "Shah Jahan and Orpheus" (excerpts)
Thackston, Wheeler M., THE JAHANGIRNAMA: MEMOIRS OF JAHANGIR, EMPEROR OF INDIA (excerpts)
Stronge, Susan, PAINTING FOR THE MUGHAL EMPEROR
Begley, Wayne, "The Myth of the Taj Mahal and a New Theory of its Symbolic Meaning"
Koch, Ebba, "The Mughal Waterfront Garden"
Brown, Percy, "The Mughal Period: Aurangzebe and After"
Parodi, Laura, "The Bibi-ka Maqbara in Aurangabad: A Landmark of Mughal Power in the Deccan?"
Edensor, Tim, TOURISTS AT THE TAJ: PERFORMANCE AND MEANING AT A SYMBOLIC SITE (excerpts)
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Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
Four short written assignments, two web-based or graphic assignments; mid-term. |
| Instructor(s): Wagoner,Phillip B. Times: .M.W.F. 09:00AM-09:50AM; Location: DAC300; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 19 | | SR major: X | JR major: X | | |
| Seats Available: 9 | GRAD: 0 | SR non-major: X | JR non-major: X | SO: 0 | FR: 19 |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 0 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 0 |
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