Art History and Art Conservation
Queen's UniversityArt History Courses
The Art History does not offer all of the courses listed in the Calendar every year. For a complete list of courses available, please visit the Academic Calendar.
Current Course Offerings (2012/13)
2012/13 Art History Timetable (51 KB)
Level 100 Courses
Art in the West from Antiquity to Modernity
ARTH-120/6.0
A survey of famous and lesser-known works of painting, sculpture, architecture, and other art forms from Antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Baroque, and the Modern Age. Themes include politics, religion, mythology, gender roles, techniques, conservation and intersections with non-western cultures.
EXCLUSION: When both ARTH 116* and ARTH 117* are taken they exclude ARTH 120.
Instructor: U. D'Elia (fall term)/ S. Dickey (winter term)
Level 200 Courses
PREREQUISITE FOR ALL 200-LEVEL COURSES
Second-year standing or permission of the Department.
Medieval Art
ARTH-212/3.0
An introduction to the arts of the Middle Ages (c.300-1400) from the origins of Christian art under the Emperor Constantine, through the Early Christian, Byzantine, Romanesque and Gothic Periods. The focus will be on major monuments and personalities and will also involve a trip to Toronto to study medieval art in the Royal Ontario Museum.
Instructor: M. Reeve (fall term)
Renaissance Art and Architecture (c.1400-c.1600)
ARTH-213/6.0
A study of Renaissance art and architecture within the context of the social, political and economic history of Western Europe. Key monuments, themes and concepts will be stressed, such as the history of the altarpiece or the arts of the courts of Europe.
Instructor: C. Hoeniger (fall & winter term)
Histories of Modern Art
ARTH-226/3.0
This course will examine the histories, meanings and sites of modern art in the metropolitan West from about the mid nineteenth century to the mid twentieth century. Students will become familiar not only with the works themselves, but with shifts in critical conceptions and key art historical problems surrounding modern art.
Instructor: A. Morehead (fall term)
Histories of Contemporary Art
ARTH-228/3.0
This course will examine the histories, meanings and sites of contemporary art in the metropolitan West from the 1960's to the present. Students will become familiar not only with the works themselves, but with shifts in critical conceptions and popular media that affect both the production and reception of contemporary art.
Instructor: C. Robertson (winter term)
An Introduction to the History of Photography
ARTH-242/3.0
An introduction to the history of photography as technology, art, and social practice. Within the larger historical contexts of society and culture, it surveys key developments and applications in France, England, and the United States, and their spread to other parts of the world, and considers the work of major photographers and their influence.
Instructor: J. Schwartz (winter term)
Art and Architecture in Venice
ARTH-245/6.0
Instruction in Venice based on daily study tours to the city's monuments and galleries. Each week a visit will be organized to an important centre in the Venice region. Costs of travel and accommodation abroad must be paid by the student. The total cost of the course, including program fee, tuition, room and board, airfare
and living expenses was estimated at $8000-$8500 for May, 2012.
Instructor: TBD (May, 2013)
Baroque Art
ARTH-253/3.0
A survey of the visual culture of Europe and its colonies in the Baroque age (ca. 1580-1750). Attention is given to developments in all aspects of the visual arts, with emphasis on painting, sculpture, architecture, and the graphic arts, and on the achievements of artists such as Rembrandt, Rubens, Poussin, Velasquez, and Bernini. PREREQUISITE ARTH 120 is strongly recommended.
RECOMMENDATION: ARTH 120/6.0
Instructor: G. Bailey (winter term)
Latin American Art
ARTH-272/3.0
Surveys the art and architecture of Latin America from the pre-Hispanic period to the present, from Patagonia to California. Particular attention is paid to the contribution of aboriginal artists and traditions to colonial visual culture and the built environment. Considers the rise of the academies, Nationalism, Indigenism, Romanticism, Modernism (Kahlo, Rivera, Tarsila), Madí and Chicano muralism.
Instructor: G. Bailey(fall term)
Architecture 1900 to the Present
ARTH-292/3.0
An examination of modern architecture in the western world, from 1900 to the present.
Instructor: K. Romba (winter term)
Level 300 Courses
PREREQUISITE FOR ALL 300-LEVEL COURSES
Third-year standing or permission of the Department.
Topics in Modern and Contemporary Art History
ARTH-305/3.0
An examination of one aspect of modern and/or contemporary art history. Possible areas of investigation include the study of an issue important to the art of the modern and/or contemporary period, as well as the study of the methods and historiographic positionings of art historians working today.
Winter 2013:
art action(s): intervention, participation, and engagement
All artists are alike. They dream of doing something that’s more social, more collaborative,
and more real than art. Dan Graham
This course examines contemporary art that operates through the social - audience
engagement, public intervention, installation, events, activism, and interactive media. From
community collaboration to D.I.Y. art manuals, locative media to artist services, these
contemporary practices reflect what some describe as an evolution in art and audience, and
what others view as a loss of aesthetic legitimacy. Through readings, discussions, analysis
of artworks and participatory demonstrations, this course will examine the history, operation,
and critical context of this work.
RECOMMENDATION: ARTH 227/6.0
Instructor: Barbara Meneley (winter term)
Schinkel to Speer: German Architecture from 1815 to 1945
ARTH-306/3.0
This survey examines key German buildings and monuments from the beginning of German Confederation to the end of the Third Reich. Emphasis will be placed on situating this architecture in its broader cultural and social context.
Instructor: K. Romba (winter term)
Gothic Art in Europe c.1150-1400
ARTH-308/3.0
This course examines the changes in European art later known as 'Gothic'. With a focus on England, France, Spain, Italy and Germany, this class will consider major monuments across the media, from manuscript painting, to architecture, stained glass, sculpture and ars sacra. Throughout, monuments will be placed in their appropriate social, historical and patronal contexts.
Instructor: M. Reeve (winter term)
Gender and Modernism
ARTH-311/3.0
A study of gender in relation to modern visual culture from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries using theoretical frameworks drawn from feminist art history and gender studies. Topics to be studied include fashion and modernity, consumer culture, gendered and transgendered artistic identities, and the gendering of Modernism.
RECOMMENDATION:ARTH 227/6.0
Instructor: A. Morehead (winter term)
Quattrocento Painting
ARTH-312/3.0
An examination of selected topics in 15th-century Italian Renaissance painting.
Instructor: Cathleen Hoeniger (winter term)
French Art and Its Reception, 1855-1912
ARTH-324/3.0
A study of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century French art in its changing institutional, social, and art historical contexts. Topics may include the institutions of exhibiting and artistic training, the art market, modernity, the new Paris, impressionism and sensation, the decorative, the cult of the self, primitivism and colonialism.
Instructor: Allison Morehead (fall term)
Aspects of Contemporary Art in Canada
ARTH-340/3.0
An examination of a range of historical conditions that have encouraged and challenged the growth of a visual and media arts practice in Canada since the mid-1950s.
Instructor: R. Symko (fall term)
Italian Art of the High Renaissance
ARTH-345/3.0
The sources of High Renaissance art will be examined and special attention will be given to the works of Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo, up to about 1520.
RECOMMENDATION:ARTH 213/6.0
Instructor: D. McTavish (fall term)
Printmaking in Early Modern Europe
ARTH-352/3.0
A chronological survey of the history of printmaking in Western Europe from its beginnings in the 15th century to the Industrial Revolution. Topics include the cultural impact of the reproducible image, the development of woodcut, engraving, etching and lithography, and the achievements of printmakers such as Dürer, Goltzius, Callot, Rembrandt, Hogarth and Goya.
RECOMMENDATION: ARTH 253/3.0
Instructor: Susan McColeman (fall term)
Early Netherlandish Painting
ARTH-375/3.0
A study of Netherlandish painters (c.1410-1500) from the Master of Flémalle and Jan van Eyck to Geertgen tot Sint Jans and Hieronymus Bosch.
RECOMMENDATION: ARTH213/6.0
Instructor: R. Spronk (winter term)
What is Art History?
ARTH-390/3.0
An examination of the history of the discipline and the epistemological assumptions underpinning art historical writing in the past and present.
Instructor: K. Romba (fall term)
ARTH-395/3.0
Students in Art History and Fine Art can apply to take a practical internship in a museum or gallery, where they would undertake research or curatorial activities. All internships must be approved in advance by written application to the Undergraduate Coordinator. Approval will depend on the quality of the proposal and the academic record of the applicant. Students are required to write a report about their experience and are evaluated jointly by the employer and a faculty member from the Department of Art. It is the responsibility of students to arrange internships.
Please review the Internship Guidelines and Internship Application Form
NOTE Depending on location, substantial travel and subsistence costs may be involved.
Instructor: Various
Level 400 Courses
PREREQUISITE FOR ALL 400-LEVEL COURSES
A GPA of 2.60 in ARTH and level 4 and registration in an ARTH major or medial plan or permission of the Department.
Studies in Iconography
ARTH-401/3.0
The study of a selected theme within the subject matter of Western art, concentrating on its changing modes of representation in response to historical and artistic circumstances.
Instructor: C. Hoeniger (fall term)
Studies in Renaissance Painting Technique
ARTH-402/3.0
An in-depth study of Renaissance painting techniques in Italy and/or Northern Europe. Selected issues of technique and conservation will be examined within a broader art-historical framework.
Instructor: Ron Spronk (winter term)
Studies in the History of Textiles and Dress
ARTH-410/3.0
Studies in the textiles and dress of selected periods with a focus upon visual culture and/or material culture.
Instructor: Janice Helland (winter term)
Topics in Medieval Art History
ARTH-415/3.0
A detailed study of one area or topic in the history of medieval European art.
Instructor: Matthew Reeve (winter term)
Performance Art Studies
ARTH-419/3.0
This seminar/practicum course for studio artists focuses on the distinctive intermedia methods found in performance art as developed from the mid-1950s to the present.
Instructor: C. Robertson (fall term)
Art and Activism
ARTH-420/3.0
An examination of both modern and postmodern contemporary art as activism sampled from Western and non-Western practices. The chronological period of study is from the end of the 1960s to the present. Theoretical frameworks to be used include social movement theory, postcolonial theory, and critical museum studies.
Instructor: C. Robertson (winter term)
Topics in Later 20th-Century Art History: Anthropological and Ethnographic Theory
ARTH-422/3.0
A detailed study of one area or topic in the history of later 20th-century art.
Instructor: K. Romba (fall term)
Art, Tourism and Modernity
ARTH-433/3.0
An examination of the relationship of art and tourism in the modern world. Topics of discussion include the role of tourism in the creation of 'tourist', Folk and Primitive art, souvenir and 'craft'; the relationship of museums and cultural tourism to the rise of global capitalism; and the ways in which art in a tourism economy participates in the politics of identity and representation.
Instructor: L. Jessup (fall term)
Critical Writing on Photography: Meaning and Practice
ARTH-442/3.0
This seminar focuses on historical and contemporary critical writing to explore historical and contemporary perspectives on the nature, theory, and practice of photography. It is a course about ideas rather than images - ideas about photographs, about looking at photographs, and about reading photographs - ideas that have governed the way we look at, respond to, and draw meaning from photographs.
EXCLUSION:ARTH 492/3.0 (2003-2005).
Instructor: J. Schwartz (winter term)
Topics in Northern Renaissance and Baroque Art
ARTH-446/3.0
A detailed study of one artist or theme in the visual culture of northern Europe, primarily The Netherlands and/or Germany. Topics may focus on the Renaissance and/or Baroque era (ca. 1400-1750).
RECOMMENDATION:ARTH 213/6.0 or ARTH 353/3.0 or ARTH 354/3.0 or ARTH 375/3.0
Instructor: S. Dickey (winter term)
ARTH-451/3.0
Explores Caravaggio, Artemisia Gentileschi and contemporaries in Baroque Italy. Considers issues such as naturalism/idealism, patronage, populist piety, gender. One of the goals is to look at the ways in which these artists' personalities have been projected onto their work by scholars, essayists, novelists, and filmmakers.
Instructor: G. Bailey (winter term)
The Palladian Villa: Its Antecedents and Tradition
ARTH-457/3.0
The villa or country house for seasonal habitation will be studied with special reference to the villas of Andrea Palladio (1508-1580). Attention will also be paid to the inception of the villa building type in antiquity, and in the Neo-Palladian movement in villa design.
Instructor: Allison Sherman (fall term)
Studies in the Literature of Art
ARTH-492/3.0
The detailed, analytic study of a selected body of texts within the literature of art, directed towards gaining an understanding of the dominant theories, critical attitudes, or historical perspectives on art during a particular period.
Instructor: David McTavish (fall term)