The Mountains in the History of Art
ARHA 296
Spring 2017
| Section:
01
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| Crosslisting:
ENVS 296 |
This course is a comparative study of mountains as artistic inspiration, focusing on the Alps and the Black Forest in Europe and the Appalachians. We begin with Moses, the first mountain climber. We then turn to the first historical mountain climber: Oetzi, the 5,200 year-old man found frozen in the ice high in the Tyrolian Alps. We then turn to medieval Europe. There, passes through the Alps and the Black Forest were conduits for the transit of men, goods, and cultural forms. Mountains were not barriers but passageways that linked cultures. In 16th- and 17th-century Europe, Netherlandish artists--Breughel, Seghers, Ruisdael, Jos de Mompers--first gave full expression to the grandeur, far beyond a human scale, of Alpine scenery. Gradually, mountains came to be viewed as places of aesthetic beauty and as manifestation of the sublime.
Romanticism, in the visual arts, poetry, and music, captures the experience of the Alps as both symbol and physical manifestation of the transcendent. In the paintings of C. D. Friedrich, Constable, and Turner, mountains become the means to express the concept of the sublime. A deeper understanding of the sublime may be found in the poetry of Wordsworth and Coleridge. In America, too, mid-19th century painters focused on the mountains. We will study Hudson River School artists represented in Connecticut collections (Church, Cole).
The mid-19th century saw the birth of mountaineering as a sport. We will read selections from narratives of climbing expeditions--Leslie Stephen, Mark Twain. After World War I, mountaineering took on a heightened spiritual dimension for men who had survived the horrors of trench warfare. In Austria and Germany, climbing was identified with the cult of physical prowess and, sadly, with National Socialism and anti-Semitism. In fact, however, the development of climbing and skiing in the Alps owes much to Austrian and German Jews. In art, too, during the first decades of the 20th century, mountains were an important source of spiritual inspiration for painters whose work is central to the evolution of modern art. |
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| 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 Requirement for: None |
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Past Enrollment Probability: 90% or above |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Davis, Wade. INTO THE SILENCE; THE GREAT WAR, MALLORY, AND THE CONQUEST OF EVEREST. Knopf, 2011.
Twain, Mark. A TRAMP ABROAD. Harper, 1879 et. seq.
Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain.
Adalbert Stifter, Bergkrystal [in English translation]
Text pack of essays edited and published by former students in ARHA 296.
For German-speaking students:
Alperverein-Museum and Hofburg Innsbruck. Berge, eine unverständliche Leidenschaft. [exhibition catalogue] Folio Verlag. Wien-Bozen. [Vienna, Bolzano] 2009.
Deutscher Alpenverin, Oesterreichischer Alpenverien, Alpenverein Südtirol, eds., Berg Heil, Alpenverein und Bergsteigen 1918-1945. Böhlau Verlag, Vienna and Cologne, 2011.
Messner. Mein Leben am Limit.
Angelika Overath, Alle Farben des Schnees, Senter Tagebuch.btb Verlag, 2013..
In Italian:
Rigoni Stern, Mario. IL BOSCO DEGLI UROGALLI. Torino. Einaudi, rpt: 2000.
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Examinations and Assignments:
MID-TERM EXAM, THREE ESSAYS OF 5 pp; 5 pp; 12 pp; |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
There will be a mandatory class trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, on a Saturday. |
| Instructor(s): Mark,Peter A. Times: ..T.R.. 08:50AM-10:10AM; Location: BOGH112; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 19 | | SR major: 3 | JR major: 3 | | |
| Seats Available: 7 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 3 | JR non-major: 3 | SO: 4 | FR: 3 |
| 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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