World Civilizations through Art and Material Culture

Catalog description

This course takes an object-centered approach which engages students closely with the materials, processes, and cultures around making art, as well as with the ways art objects accrued and communicated meaning as they traveled across the globe before 1500. Focusing on a core group of examples, including functional and decorative objects, as well as natural materials, we consider the ways that art facilitated the spread of both technical knowledge and intellectual ideas. We explore subjects such as the spread of papermaking and porcelain from China, lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, the codex in the ancient world, sugar sculptures and printed manuals from Europe, and the work of Nasca ceramic artists in the Andean region. Students learn to excavate the potential that art holds as evidence of cultural histories and exchanges.