- Art History/Humanities
(Part-time, no diploma)

A chronological survey of the great painters and sculptors of the Western tradition from the Ancient Greeks to the present with special emphasis on composition, dramatization of subject matter and the material process of picture making. The core texts are Leonardo's Notebooks, Reynolds' Discourses on Art and Stephenson's Velazquez. In addition, the visual arts are placed within the context of the humanities with lectures on Plato, Aristotle, Dante and Shakespeare. Students are asked to consider what is a beautiful in the works they admire; they are encouraged to debate the place of naturalistic painting and sculpture in the world today. Thus, it is hoped, they will be able to take the best of the tradition and use it to support their own vision when they become professional artists.

Sean Forester, Instructor

Lectures on the following topics have been offered in recent years:

Drawing the Human Figure
Greek Sculpture and its Influence on European Art
Plato and Aristotle  
Greek Tragedy and Tragic Painting,
The Bible and Painting
Giotto and Dramatic Painting
Dante— The Divine Comedy
The Northern Renaissance: Painting & Engraving from Van Eyck to Durer
Quattrocento Painting in Florence
Renaissance Architecture
Renaissance Humanism: The Art and Science of Leonardo Da Vinci
Michelangelo and Renaissance Sculpture
Michelangelo's Drawings and Paintings  
Raphael and Pictorial Composition                  
The Glory of Venice: Bellini, Giorgione, and Titian
Shakespeare
Caravaggio
Ribera
Is Beauty in the Eye of the Beholder?  Burke, Hume and Kant
Reynolds—Discourses on Art
Rubens and Van Dyck
Rembrandt
Vermeer
Velazquez
Bernini and Baroque Sculpture
Carpeaux, Rodin, and Claudel
19th Century French Painting
19th Century American Painting
Tonalism and Impressionism in American Art
19th Century Russian Painting
19th Century Female Painters
Scandinavian Painting: Kroyer, Edelfelt, Zorn
Landscape Painting: Carot and Monet
Sargent and Sorolla
Bastein Lapage and Naturalism
Goya, Schile and Munch
Painting, Poetry and Music
Annagoni and Whyth
20th Century Painting