Art history

Faculty lecture# unit 1

Natural pigment 天然颜料
Dwell on 详述，细想
Premise n. 前提;上述各项
Aesthetic 审美的；悦目的；美学的 attention
Miniature painting 微型画
Essences n.本质；精华；香精
Encapsulate v.t. 装入胶囊；总结；扼要概括；囊括
Embed in 印入，嵌入
Cobalt blue 艳蓝色
Oba plaque
 What is art?
 A particular set of visual objects that:
 Move beyond everyday appearance
 Reach beyond ordinary experience
 Intend to provoke a response (ideas, thoughts or feelings) through visual appearance
 What is Art History?
 The study of human expression through history
 The translation of visual ideas through analysis and interpretation.
 Goals: to understand art’s meaning within the cultural moment and time period in which it
was produced (its historical context).
 Assumptions or “Big Ideas”
 Art is:
 An essential human activity:
one way we explore and understand our world and our relationship to it.
 A fundamental form of human communication:
represents a message or a meaning in visual form.
 A discipline and a language:
It has rules, skills, vocabulary, and methods of translation and communication that are
related to context.
 Art as:
 Bearer of meaning in itself
 Social documents
 Works of art produce and are shaped by belief systems and cultural practices.
 Cultural interaction and exchanges across cultures deeply inform the form and meaning of
an artwork.
 Historical conditions of possibility matter.
 What was possible? What did they know? What did they understand? What did they value?
 Type of analysis
What does a work of art look like it does?
 Physical:
material: brass
Process: lost wax technique
 Formal (visual):
Symmetry
Stylization
Strong geometry
Hierarchic scale
Texture/patterns
 Contextual: historical placement
Portrait: Oba (ruler) of Benin Empire
Placement: royal palace; one of almost 900 plaques
Purpose: dynastic lineage 血统；家系
What does art history matter?
Process, organize and understand the world of images
Build global connection and understanding
Think critically about history
Think critically about cultural values.
Why does art history matter?
 The ultimate interdisciplinary discipline
History literature sociology anthropology perception/optics chemistry physics
 History is dynamic
What does new evidence mean?
What questions are asked?
Whose historians get written?
 Final tips/takeaways for success
8 essential skills in APAH
 Visual analysis:
your ability to accurately and thoroughly read the object
 Contextual analysis--specificity
Your ability to build and apply an appropriate historical framework for the object.
Faculty lecture##unit 2
understanding the Pantheon in Rome
Abbreviation 缩略词