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CS92PROD
When Europe Met Africa: Portugal, Spain, West Africa, 1440-1650
ARHA 268
Spring 2016
Section: 01  
Crosslisting: AFAM 278

This course looks at Iberian overseas expansion, from the early fifteenth to the late seventeenth century. The Portuguese and Spanish sea-borne empires may be termed the first globalization. This course, which focuses on West Africa, is interdisciplinary. It combines art history and history in order to integrate both images and written documents. African artists depicted Europeans, just as European painters and sculptors represented Africans. These images tell us much about how members of one culture viewed the distant peoples with whom they were just coming into contact. The earliest European Renaissance paintings of Africans show them as dignitaries and often as rulers (e.g. "The Adoration of the Magi"). This reflects the presence in Europe of African dignitaries, both secular and religious. At the same time, African sculptors represented Portuguese soldiers and missionaries in ivory carvings, so it is possible for us, 500 years later, to compare these representations.
Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: HA ART
Course Format: LectureGrading Mode: Graded
Level: UGRD Prerequisites: None
Fulfills a Major Requirement for: (ARHA-MN)(ARHA)(ARST)
Past Enrollment Probability: 75% - 89%

Last Updated on APR-20-2024
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