Western Arts II: Survey of Arts Renaissance to Post-Modernism

Beginning with the Renaissance, this course surveys the exciting proliferation of styles, symbolism and techniques in western visual arts during the past five hundred years. Major styles and periods include mannerism and the baroque, neo-classicism, romanticism, realism, impressionism and the many forms of modernism, among them, expressionism, surrealism, abstraction and pop art. Students strengthen their vocabulary and skills for the analysis of painting, sculpture, architecture, and gain enhanced ability to communicate about them in writing and speaking. The course examines style, technique, and iconography in historical and cultural context, considering the religious, political, social and intellectual climates articulated in the arts, including new systems of patronage and attitudes toward the public. We learn criteria for evaluating quality, beauty and accomplishment in the arts, and examine how an object was made, for what purpose and audience. ART230 Western Arts I is useful preparation but is not required.