Intended for students throughout the university who would like to know more about art, this course offers a chronological survey of painting, sculpture, and architecture from the Paleolithic era to the present day. Focusing on a limited number of major works, students will learn to recognize the characteristics that distinguish the styles of one period from those of another. More importantly, they will come to understand the historical and cultural forces that hare shaped art during its long history as a vehicle of human expression. While this course deals primarily with Western art, it also includes an enlightening overview of Chinese and Japanese art-a rich, sophisticated tradition that for most of its history has been almost wholly independent of developments in the West.
