Art History 202/History 204

We hope that during your studies in Art History 202/ History 204 you will achieve the following broad objectives:

• improve the critical tools and communication skills acquired in Art History 201/History 203: Survey of Western Art I
• learn how to look at, analyse, and describe works of visual art, using such elements as form, line, colour, mass and volume, light, and texture
• examine, understand, and enjoy reproductions of significant works of visual art
• within the historical parameters of the course, achieve a general overview of the history and development of western visual art, its major periods, movements, concepts, and artists, and its historical, social, cultural, religious, and political contexts
• understand the functions of visual art in the periods covered in the course
• develop an understanding and appreciation of the art forms, media, iconography, styles, and techniques of western visual art as expressed in painting, sculpture, ceramics, and architecture
• develop an appreciation of each work as an individual work with its own formal integrity
• increase your knowledge and understanding of yourself and others through your experience with western visual art.

To achieve these broad objectives, you will be expected to read the Student Manual and the assignments in the texts very carefully and to work through the Study Guide diligently so that you will be able to accomplish the following specific objectives:

• develop an understanding and working knowledge of the common terminology/vocabulary of art history and analysis
• identify and discuss periods, geographical centres, and styles of major art movements from the Sixteenth century to the present, and name artists associated with these movements
• discuss the work of major artists from the perspective of their artistic concerns, styles, media, principal influences
• identify and discuss specific art forms, techniques, styles, periods or movements as they are expressed in individual works of art
• identify and/or describe and analyse specific works, artists, periods, and movements through such elements as media, form, technique, and iconography
• identify important religious concepts, philosophical movements, and historical and cultural events, and discuss their relation to the art history of the period
• compare and contrast the works, periods, and movements studied
• assign unfamiliar art works to a period, and movement, style, geographic centre, or artist
• develop the skills necessary to write about art in the form of essays with correct grammar and a lucid style.

Above all, because the course will not analyse all the works in the same way nor with the same amount of detail, it is important that you be able to transfer the skills and critical tools acquired in the study of one work, artist, or period to the study of others.