Art, Society, & Culture

This online course is an introduction to the social conditions and cultural movements that shaped nineteenth-century European visual arts in their global context. Two main themes will be stressed:  1) the tension between modernity and anti-modernism and 2) competing views on the very nature of the visual arts.  The dramatic social and political developments of the period were reflected in diverse cultural movements, some of which embraced change while others rejected it and looked to the past for artistic models.  Closely related to these cultural movements was the fundamental question of what comprised the visual arts.  For example, increased exposure to non-Western visual culture through colonization challenged European assumptions about art.

Although the course material is organized chronologically, it does not present a comprehensive survey of nineteenth-century European art.  Rather, emphasis will be placed on the social, political and cultural context of specific aspects of the visual arts of the period.  The course will be divided into eight units, most of which will be covered in either one or two week blocks.  Within each unit, material is subdivided into two or more topics of varying length. Topics to be discussed include, but are not limited to, the following:  Revolutionary and Napoleonic Propaganda, Industrialization and the English Countryside, The Harem and the Mosque, and the Arts and Crafts Movement.