Undergraduate Courses

The courses listed below are provided by Student Information Services (SIS). This listing provides a snapshot of immediately available courses within this department and may not be complete. Course registration information can be found at https://sis.jhu.edu/classes/.

Please consult the online course catalog for cross-listed courses and full course information.

Column one has the course number and section. Other columns show the course title, days offered, instructor's name, room number, if the course is cross-referenced with another program, and a option to view additional course information in a pop-up window.

Intro to History West Art
AS.010.101 (04)

A survey of painting, sculpture, and architecture from Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and medieval culture.

  • Credits: 4.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: MW 12:00PM - 1:15PM, F 11:00AM - 11:50AM
  • Instructor: Stager, Jennifer M S
  • Room: Hodson 311
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 3/12
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Art of the Islamic World
AS.010.110 (01)

This course is an introduction to the art of the Islamic world, covering a geography that stretches from Spain to India and a chronology that extends from the seventh century into our own time. Within this rich and varied continuum, we will look at a range of art forms—including architecture, painting, sculpture, ceramics, and calligraphy—in relation to such themes as patronage, production, function, and audience. A number of the artworks will be viewed firsthand in local collections. We will also explore the intersection of Islamic art with today’s political realities.

  • Credits: 4.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: TTh 12:00PM - 1:15PM, F 1:00PM - 1:50PM
  • Instructor: Rustem, Unver
  • Room: Gilman 55
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 11/19
  • PosTag(s): ISLM-ISLMST

Freshman Seminar - Lower, Later, Farther Away: Roman Art Beyond the Center
AS.010.112 (01)

This course will introduce students to the art of the Roman world through art created by and for the Roman lower classes, art created in late antiquity, and art created in the far provinces of the empire. These topics represent a dramatic shift away from the traditional “center” of the study of Roman art (art created for the wealthy and politically privileged citizens of central Italy between the first century BCE and the first century CE), and are leading to new understanding of marginalized groups in the Roman world.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: TTh 4:30PM - 5:45PM
  • Instructor: Bevis, Elizabeth Allison
  • Room: Gilman 208
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 14/15
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Medieval Art and Architecture of the Holy Land
AS.010.319 (01)

The course focuses on art and architecture in the political and religious contexts of the Middle East, from the 4th to the 14th c. The three monotheistic religions all claimed specific territories -- in particular the city of Jerusalem -- for cult practices. This situation resulted in military conflicts that had an impact of Jewish, Medieval, Byzantine, and Islamic art in the Holy Land. The political conflicts, which still plague the region today, are rooted in the complex situation of the medieval period. The Roman, Arab, Byzantine, and crusader invasions resulted however in exciting eclectic styles that characterize the art and architecture of the region. We will discuss concepts behind political and religious leadership, as they intersect with the power of the arts.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: MW 12:00PM - 1:15PM
  • Instructor: Zchomelidse, Nino
  • Room: Gilman 177
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 18/19
  • PosTag(s): ISLM-ISLMST, HART-MED

Intro to History West Art
AS.010.101 (03)

A survey of painting, sculpture, and architecture from Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and medieval culture.

  • Credits: 4.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: MW 12:00PM - 1:15PM, F 12:00PM - 12:50PM
  • Instructor: Stager, Jennifer M S
  • Room: Hodson 311
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 5/12
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Art since 1945
AS.010.209 (01)

Critical survey of developments in the visual arts primarily in Europe and the United States from 1945 to the present, ranging from painting and sculpture to performance, photography, and video, with emphasis on the critical concepts and the aesthetic, social, and historical implications of new forms of artistic production and dissemination. Visits to the BMA and Special Collections.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: TTh 10:30AM - 11:45AM
  • Instructor: Warnock, Molly
  • Room: Gilman 119
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 4/19
  • PosTag(s): HART-MODERN

Mirror Mirror: Reflections in Art from Van Eyck to Velázquez
AS.010.212 (01)

Explores the different ways Early Modern painters and printmakers incorporated mirrors and optical reflections into their works for the sake of illusion and metaphor, deception and desire, reflexivity and truth-telling. Connecting sense perception and ethical knowledge, embedded mirror images often made claims about the nature of the self, the powers of art, and the superiority of painting in particular.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: TTh 12:00PM - 1:15PM
  • Instructor: Merback, Mitchell
  • Room: Gilman 177
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 8/19
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Arts of the Spanish Empire
AS.010.325 (01)

From the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries, visual forms and practices linked such far-flung places as Mexico City and Naples, Manila and Lima, Cuzco and Antwerp, Quito and Madrid: all cities in the Spanish Empire. This course is conceived as a voyage, moving city by city to explore objects that connected Spain’s vast holdings. We will investigate how the Spanish Crown and the Catholic Church used visual strategies to consolidate political power and instill religious faith across the world; and, alternatively, we will consider how local conditions, concerns, and resistance reshaped those efforts. This course surveys a diverse range of artistic production: religious paintings and sculptures; maps used for imperial surveillance; luxury goods crafted from shimmering feathers, ceramics, ivory, and precious metals; urban design and architecture from the ports of Europe to the highland outposts of the Andes; ephemeral cityscapes for civic performances. In examining such materials, students will be introduced to the art historical methods and theoretical concerns used to study a wide diversity of objects within an imperial frame.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: MW 3:00PM - 4:15PM
  • Instructor: Hyman, Aaron M.
  • Room: Gilman 119
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 16/19
  • PosTag(s): HART-RENBAR

Freshman Seminar: Representing Roman Power: Sculpture as Political Rhetoric from Republic to Empire
AS.010.222 (01)

Rome created one of the world’s most powerful empires that dominated the Mediterranean from the 3rd century BCE into the 4th century CE. As Rome expanded its borders, its cities saw a proliferation of sculptural monuments that produced a visual political rhetoric and expressed imperial ideologies. This class examines the close relationship between Roman sculpture and politics from the Republic through the Severan principate. Through close visual analysis of the ancient materials and critical readings of scholarship, this course will examine the role of sculpture in the formation, reproduction, and attenuation of imperial rule.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: MW 3:00PM - 4:15PM
  • Instructor: Miranda, Amy Christine
  • Room: Hodson 315
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 15/18
  • PosTag(s): HART-ANC

Leonardo da Vinci: The Renaissance Workshop in the Formation of Scientific Knowledge
AS.010.208 (01)

How does a notary’s son trained as a painter come to claim expertise in the construction of machines and acquire knowledge of the principles of optics, human anatomy, the flight of birds, the dynamics of air and water? The course will focus critically on the myth of Leonardo’s singularity and explore his achievements with regard to the artisanal culture of his time, as well as the problems of authority in the recognition of artisanal knowledge as scientific discovery.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: TTh 1:30PM - 2:45PM
  • Instructor: Campbell, Stephen
  • Room: Gilman 119
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 3/19
  • PosTag(s): HART-RENBAR, MSCH-HUM

The Art of War and Peace in Ancient Mesopotamia
AS.130.219 (01)

Ancient Mesopotamia, modern-day Iraq, Syria, and Iran, is the “cradle of civilization.” It witnessed new inventions previously unknown to the ancient world: urban cities, writing systems, kingship, and empires. This course examines the close relationship between war and peace and art in ancient Mesopotamia (ancient Sumer, Babylonia, and Assyria) from 3500 to 539 BCE. During the semester students will be introduced to the art, architecture, and archaeology of ancient Mesopotamia. This course is aimed at students without a previous background in art historical or archaeological approaches to Mesopotamia, but more advanced students are welcome.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: MW 4:30PM - 5:45PM
  • Instructor: Taylor, Avary Kathryn
  • Room: Gilman 277
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 10/15
  • PosTag(s): NEAS-ARTARC, ARCH-ARCH

Introduction to the Museum: Past and Present
AS.389.201 (01)

This course surveys museums, from their origins to their most contemporary forms, in the context of broader historical, intellectual, and cultural trends including the social movements of the 20th century. Anthropology, art, history, and science museums are considered. Cross-listed with History and History of Art.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: TTh 12:00PM - 1:15PM
  • Instructor: Kingsley, Jennifer P
  • Room: Shriver Hall 104
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 22/30
  • PosTag(s): HIST-EUROPE, ARCH-ARCH, PMUS-INTRO

Art of the Ancient Andes
AS.010.365 (01)

The ancient visual arts of Andean South America and their respective cultural contexts form the basis of this course. In conjunction with the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Johns Hopkins Archaeological Museum students will have access to collections for study.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: TTh 10:30AM - 11:45AM
  • Instructor: Deleonardis, Lisa
  • Room: Hodson 216
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 2/25
  • PosTag(s): ARCH-ARCH

Challenge to Painting: Collage, Montage, Assemblage
AS.010.422 (01)

The invention of Cubist collage is generally regarded as a watershed in twentieth-century art. This seminar will examine key junctures in the rapid proliferation and redefinition of collage strategies primarily in Europe and the United States, including but not limited to Futurist “words in liberty”; Dada and Constructivist photomontage; the Surrealist exploration of desire; Situationist "détournement"; and selected varieties of postwar assemblage. Frequent meetings in Special Collections.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: T 3:00PM - 5:30PM
  • Instructor: Warnock, Molly
  • Room: Gilman 177
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 5/8
  • PosTag(s): HART-MODERN

Reading through Things: Early Modern Chinese Medicine, Technology, and Art
AS.100.331 (01)

This course introduces the history of late imperial China from the perspective of medicine, technology, and the arts.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: TTh 9:00AM - 10:15AM
  • Instructor: Ji, Xiaoqian
  • Room: Gilman 413
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 4/18
  • PosTag(s): HIST-ASIA, INST-GLOBAL

Obsessed with the Past: the Art and Architecture of Medieval Rome
AS.010.431 (01)

In antiquity, Rome became the capital of an empire, its growing status reflected in its sophisticated urban planning, its architecture, and the arts. While an abundance of studies explores the revival of this glorious past in the Renaissance, this seminar discusses various ways of the reception of antiquity during the medieval period. We address the practice of using "spolia" in medieval architecture, the appropriation of ancient pagan buildings for the performance of Christian cult practices, the continuation of making (cult)images and their veneration, the meaning and specific visuality of Latin script (paleography and epigraphy) in later medieval art. We discuss the revival and systematic study of ancient knowledge (f. ex. medicine, astronomy, and the liberal arts), in complex allegorical murals. As we aim to reconstruct the art and architecture of medieval Rome, this course discusses ideas and concepts behind different forms of re-building and picturing the past, as they intersect with the self-referential character of a city that is obsessed with its own history.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: M 4:00PM - 6:30PM
  • Instructor: Zchomelidse, Nino
  • Room: Gilman 177
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 6/8
  • PosTag(s): HART-MED

Diplomats, Dealers, and Diggers: The Birth of Archaeology and the Rise of Collecting from the 19th c. to Today
AS.010.307 (01)

The development of archaeology in the Middle East – its history of explorers, diplomats, missionaries and gentlemen-scholars – profoundly shaped the modern world, from the creation of new museums and the antiquities market to international relations and terrorism.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: MW 1:30PM - 2:45PM
  • Instructor: Feldman, Marian
  • Room: Gilman 119
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 13/19
  • PosTag(s): ARCH-ARCH

Jade, Turquoise, Feathers, and Gold: Valued Materials in Aztec Art
AS.010.332 (01)

This seminar (which meets twice weekly) introduces students to the art of the Aztec Empire (1428-1521 CE) through the lens of the production of art from valued materials. The issue of value—how it is constructed, conceptualized, and deployed—provides key insights into the political, religious, economic, and conceptual life of a society. Throughout this course, we will examine these questions by focusing on the major themes of art’s social functions, materiality and artistic process, historicity, and cross-cultural exchange. Special emphasis will be placed on in-person examination of objects in local museum collections and the study of writings by indigenous authors.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: TTh 3:00PM - 4:15PM
  • Instructor: Caplan, Allison N
  • Room: Gilman 119
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 13/18
  • PosTag(s): HART-NW, ARCH-ARCH

Workshop in Object Analysis: Ancient Americas Collection
AS.010.390 (01)

Direct analysis of ancient Americas objects in the JHU Archaeology Museum to include methods and theory of description, classification, cataloging, exhibition.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: TTh 1:30PM - 2:45PM
  • Instructor: Deleonardis, Lisa
  • Room: Gilman 150A
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 4/10
  • PosTag(s): HART-ANC, ARCH-ARCH

Course # (Section) Title Day/Times Instructor Room PosTag(s) Info
AS.010.101 (04)Intro to History West ArtMW 12:00PM - 1:15PM, F 11:00AM - 11:50AMStager, Jennifer M SHodson 311
AS.010.110 (01)Art of the Islamic WorldTTh 12:00PM - 1:15PM, F 1:00PM - 1:50PMRustem, UnverGilman 55ISLM-ISLMST
AS.010.112 (01)Freshman Seminar - Lower, Later, Farther Away: Roman Art Beyond the CenterTTh 4:30PM - 5:45PMBevis, Elizabeth AllisonGilman 208
AS.010.319 (01)Medieval Art and Architecture of the Holy LandMW 12:00PM - 1:15PMZchomelidse, NinoGilman 177ISLM-ISLMST, HART-MED
AS.010.101 (03)Intro to History West ArtMW 12:00PM - 1:15PM, F 12:00PM - 12:50PMStager, Jennifer M SHodson 311
AS.010.209 (01)Art since 1945TTh 10:30AM - 11:45AMWarnock, MollyGilman 119HART-MODERN
AS.010.212 (01)Mirror Mirror: Reflections in Art from Van Eyck to VelázquezTTh 12:00PM - 1:15PMMerback, MitchellGilman 177
AS.010.325 (01)Arts of the Spanish EmpireMW 3:00PM - 4:15PMHyman, Aaron M.Gilman 119HART-RENBAR
AS.010.222 (01)Freshman Seminar: Representing Roman Power: Sculpture as Political Rhetoric from Republic to EmpireMW 3:00PM - 4:15PMMiranda, Amy ChristineHodson 315HART-ANC
AS.010.208 (01)Leonardo da Vinci: The Renaissance Workshop in the Formation of Scientific KnowledgeTTh 1:30PM - 2:45PMCampbell, StephenGilman 119HART-RENBAR, MSCH-HUM
AS.130.219 (01)The Art of War and Peace in Ancient MesopotamiaMW 4:30PM - 5:45PMTaylor, Avary KathrynGilman 277NEAS-ARTARC, ARCH-ARCH
AS.389.201 (01)Introduction to the Museum: Past and PresentTTh 12:00PM - 1:15PMKingsley, Jennifer PShriver Hall 104HIST-EUROPE, ARCH-ARCH, PMUS-INTRO
AS.010.365 (01)Art of the Ancient AndesTTh 10:30AM - 11:45AMDeleonardis, LisaHodson 216ARCH-ARCH
AS.010.422 (01)Challenge to Painting: Collage, Montage, AssemblageT 3:00PM - 5:30PMWarnock, MollyGilman 177HART-MODERN
AS.100.331 (01)Reading through Things: Early Modern Chinese Medicine, Technology, and ArtTTh 9:00AM - 10:15AMJi, XiaoqianGilman 413HIST-ASIA, INST-GLOBAL
AS.010.431 (01)Obsessed with the Past: the Art and Architecture of Medieval RomeM 4:00PM - 6:30PMZchomelidse, NinoGilman 177HART-MED
AS.010.307 (01)Diplomats, Dealers, and Diggers: The Birth of Archaeology and the Rise of Collecting from the 19th c. to TodayMW 1:30PM - 2:45PMFeldman, MarianGilman 119ARCH-ARCH
AS.010.332 (01)Jade, Turquoise, Feathers, and Gold: Valued Materials in Aztec ArtTTh 3:00PM - 4:15PMCaplan, Allison NGilman 119HART-NW, ARCH-ARCH
AS.010.390 (01)Workshop in Object Analysis: Ancient Americas CollectionTTh 1:30PM - 2:45PMDeleonardis, LisaGilman 150AHART-ANC, ARCH-ARCH

Column one has the course number and section. Other columns show the course title, days offered, instructor's name, room number, if the course is cross-referenced with another program, and a option to view additional course information in a pop-up window.

Introduction to the History of Western Art II
AS.010.102 (02)

This introductory course surveys major developments in the arts primarily in Europe and North America from the fourteenth century to the present day, looking in particular at painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, and, starting in the twentieth century, new media. Topics to be considered include the landmark innovations of Renaissance artists and theorists; the drama of Baroque art; the impact of the Enlightenment on eighteenth-century art; artistic responses to the advent of modernity; and the emergence of abstraction, the avant-garde, and a range of new mediums during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Throughout the semester, we will explore how the artistic practices and theories under consideration relate to their specific historical, intellectual, social, political, and geographical contexts, and we will also consider the roles that works of art and artists played in shaping many of those very same contexts.

  • Credits: 4.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: MW 12:00PM - 1:15PM, F 11:00AM - 11:50AM
  • Instructor: Warnock, Molly
  • Room: Hodson 311
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 2/12
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Introduction to the History of Western Art II
AS.010.102 (03)

This introductory course surveys major developments in the arts primarily in Europe and North America from the fourteenth century to the present day, looking in particular at painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, and, starting in the twentieth century, new media. Topics to be considered include the landmark innovations of Renaissance artists and theorists; the drama of Baroque art; the impact of the Enlightenment on eighteenth-century art; artistic responses to the advent of modernity; and the emergence of abstraction, the avant-garde, and a range of new mediums during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Throughout the semester, we will explore how the artistic practices and theories under consideration relate to their specific historical, intellectual, social, political, and geographical contexts, and we will also consider the roles that works of art and artists played in shaping many of those very same contexts.

  • Credits: 4.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: MW 12:00PM - 1:15PM, F 12:00PM - 12:50PM
  • Instructor: Warnock, Molly
  • Room: Hodson 311
  • Status: Waitlist Only
  • Seats Available: 0/12
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Art of the Assyrian Empire, 1000-600 BCE
AS.010.315 (01)

From 900 to 609 BCE, the Assyrian Empire dominated the ancient Near Eastern world, stretching from western Iran to the Mediterranean and Egypt. In concert with imperial expansion came an explosion of artistic production ranging from palace wall reliefs to small-scale luxury objects. This course provides an integrated picture of the imperial arts of this first world empire, situating it within the broader social and political contexts of the first millennium BCE. In its conquest of foreign lands, this powerful state came in contact with and appropriated a diversity of cultures, such as Phoenicia, Egypt, and Greece, which we will also study.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: MW 12:00PM - 1:15PM
  • Instructor: Feldman, Marian
  • Room: Gilman 177
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 7/18
  • PosTag(s): HART-ANC, ARCH-ARCH

Introduction to the History of Western Art II
AS.010.102 (04)

This introductory course surveys major developments in the arts primarily in Europe and North America from the fourteenth century to the present day, looking in particular at painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, and, starting in the twentieth century, new media. Topics to be considered include the landmark innovations of Renaissance artists and theorists; the drama of Baroque art; the impact of the Enlightenment on eighteenth-century art; artistic responses to the advent of modernity; and the emergence of abstraction, the avant-garde, and a range of new mediums during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Throughout the semester, we will explore how the artistic practices and theories under consideration relate to their specific historical, intellectual, social, political, and geographical contexts, and we will also consider the roles that works of art and artists played in shaping many of those very same contexts.

  • Credits: 4.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: MW 12:00PM - 1:15PM, F 12:00PM - 12:50PM
  • Instructor: Warnock, Molly
  • Room: Hodson 311
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 1/12
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Italian Art in the Middle Ages
AS.010.204 (01)

This course explores key monuments of medieval art and architecture in Italy from c. 400 until 1350. We will concentrate on historical, functional, and aesthetical aspects that lead to the creation of single monuments and art works. Emphasis is given to the analysis of “sacred space” by means of architecture, painted, and sculptural decoration, as well as ritual performances. Another focus is laid on the emergence on the political dimension of art for the creation of civic identity as well as in the context of the late medieval courts. We raise questions about the importance of materiality and science for the creation of medieval art works.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: MW 1:30PM - 2:45PM
  • Instructor: Zchomelidse, Nino
  • Room: Gilman 177
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 2/15
  • PosTag(s): HART-MED

Asian Art Since 1945
AS.010.233 (01)

This course examines the art and architecture of East, South, and Southeast Asia produced since the mid-twentieth century. We will engage with theoretical, visual, and political developments in the recent art of this region, reading statements by artists and architects, discussing the rising commercial and international profile of contemporary Asian art, and exploring established and emerging art histories of this period. Cross-list with East Asian Studies

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: MW 12:00PM - 1:15PM
  • Instructor: Brown, Rebecca Mary
  • Room: Gilman 119
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 3/19
  • PosTag(s): HART-NW, HART-MODERN

Art, Medicine, and the Body: Middle Ages to Modernity
AS.010.235 (01)

This course explores seven centuries of fruitful collaboration between physicians and artists, uncovering the shared discourses, diagnostic techniques and therapeutic agendas that united the art of picture-making with the art of healing. Topics include the origin and development of medical illustration; the long, cross-cultural history of the therapeutic artefact; the anatomical investigations of Renaissance artists such as Leonardo and Michelangelo; depictions of bodily pain and disease in the art of Matthias Grünewald and psychosomatic syndromes like melancholy in the work of Albrecht Dürer; the spectacularization of the body in Enlightenment science and the ethics of medical specimen display today -- all in order to bring the complex intersections of the history of medicine and the history of art into view.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: TTh 12:00PM - 1:15PM
  • Instructor: Merback, Mitchell
  • Room: Gilman 177
  • Status: Waitlist Only
  • Seats Available: 0/19
  • PosTag(s): HART-RENBAR, MSCH-HUM

Freshman Seminar: Art and Medicine in the ancient Mediterranean (600-100 BCE)
AS.010.237 (01)

The visual arts played an important role in the foundations of medicine often traced to the ancient Mediterranean. Drawing on a range of objects from representational art to surgical tools and magic spells, this seminar will explore the ways in which the visual arts crafted a different narrative of ancient medicine from that of the texts of the Hippocratic canon. Of particular focus will be the relationship between the doctor Hippocrates and the healing god Asclepius, the representation and subsequent excision of the goddess Hygeia, anatomical votives dedicated in sanctuaries, depictions of medical practices, surgical tools, as well as curse and healing spells. Participation will include visits to local museums and collections.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: TTh 1:30PM - 2:45PM
  • Instructor: Stager, Jennifer M S
  • Room: Gilman 119
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 1/12
  • PosTag(s): HART-ANC, ARCH-ARCH

Michelangelo: Religion, Sexuality, and the Crisis of Renaissance Art
AS.010.301 (01)

The course will focus on the controversies surrounding the representation of the body in the writings and figurative art of Michelangelo and his contemporaries, the historical circumstances under which the most admired artist in Europe was attacked as a blasphemer and an idolator, and the effect of widespread calls for censorship on his later production. The writings of Michelangelo, Pietro Aretino, Benvenuto Cellini and own writings will be considered with a focus on their staging of an ambivalent and transgressive eroticism.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: TTh 10:30AM - 11:45AM
  • Instructor: Campbell, Stephen
  • Room: Gilman 177
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 2/18
  • PosTag(s): HART-RENBAR

Encountering American Art
AS.389.373 (01)

Students investigate the Baltimore Museum of Art’s American art collection and its presentation to the public alongside current scholarship on American art to develop strategies for a new permanent collection display that aligns with the museum’s commitment to artistic excellence and social equity. M&S Practicum. Co-taught with BMA curator Virginia Anderson.

  • Credits: 4.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: Th 1:30PM - 4:00PM
  • Instructor: Anderson, Virginia, Kingsley, Jennifer P
  • Room: Gilman 150A
  • Status: Waitlist Only
  • Seats Available: 0/12
  • PosTag(s): PMUS-PRAC

Native American Art
AS.010.366 (01)

The works of Native American artists are examined and discussed in their respective social and historical contexts. Such works include Hopewell stone sculpture, Mimbres pictorial painting, and Tlingit guardian figures. We examine the concept of sacred landscape through analysis of monumental earthworks and effigy mounds, Anasazi architecture, and rock art. In conjunction with the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA), and Johns Hopkins Special Collections, students will have access to collections for study.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: TTh 10:30AM - 11:45AM
  • Instructor: Deleonardis, Lisa
  • Room: Hodson 315
  • Status: Waitlist Only
  • Seats Available: 0/25
  • PosTag(s): HART-ANC, ARCH-ARCH

Historical and Conceptual Bases of Art History
AS.010.413 (01)

Critical readings in and of relevance to the intellectual foundations of the modern discipline of art history. Texts by Wölfflin, Riegl, Warburg, Panofsky, Baxandall, Clark, Krauss, Fried, and others.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: T 1:30PM - 4:00PM
  • Instructor: Lakey, Christopher
  • Room: Gilman 177
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 3/10
  • PosTag(s): HART-THRY

Hands-On Approaches to European Books and Prints before 1800
AS.010.433 (01)

Baltimore’s rich museum and library collections create a dynamic laboratory for students to gain an understanding of early modern European traditions of prints and books. Engraving, etching, woodcut, mezzotint, à la poupée; Rembrandt, Dürer, Aldus Manutius, Plantin-Moretus. This course will introduce students to the basic techniques, concepts, terms, and artists that shaped the production of reproductive works on paper in early modern Europe and their subsequent art historical study. All sessions will be taught out of local collections (BMA, Walters, NGA, Hopkins Special Collections); that is, this is a hands-on class that—while requiring no previous experience—will attend to the nitty-gritty details and methods of studying works in person, giving students the tools, expertise, and confidence to pursue their own research with historical printed materials.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: M 2:00PM - 4:30PM
  • Instructor: Hyman, Aaron M.
  • Room: BLC 2030
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 1/8
  • PosTag(s): HART-RENBAR

Seminar in Research Methods in Near Eastern Studies: Religion and Science
AS.130.420 (01)

This writing intensive seminar examines the relationship between religion and science in ancient Mesopotamia and the rest of the Near East from the 4th millennium to the Hellenistic period. Using a variety of case studies, and through engagement with scholarly literature pertaining to the topic of the course, students will develop skills in specific research skills such as critical reading, analysis, and interpretation.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: W 2:00PM - 4:30PM
  • Instructor: Delnero, Paul
  • Room: Gilman 130G
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 6/15
  • PosTag(s): ARCH-RELATE

Classics Research Lab: Antioch Recovery Project (ARP)
AS.010.444 (01)

Antioch Recovery Project investigates mosaics from the ancient city of Antioch (modern Antakya, Turkey, near the border with Syria) now in the collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art. Excavated by an international team of archaeologists in the 1930s, hundreds of ancient mosaics from the cosmopolitan city were subsequently dispersed to museums across the globe, with twenty-four mosaics entering the collection of the BMA. Phase I will focus on the digital documentation and analysis of the mosaic of Narcissus as a prototype for ongoing research bringing together the fragments of ancient Antioch for contemporary beholders. The Greek myth of Narcissus tells the story of a beautiful Theban hunter doomed to love his own reflection and is the origin of the modern psychiatric term “narcissism”. Researching the mythology, materials, conservation history, archival material, historiography, and contemporary reception of the Narcissus mosaic and myth offers extensive opportunities to collaborate with scholars across a range of disciplines at JHU, in the Baltimore museum community, and beyond. Investigators will move between the Baltimore Museum of Art, the CRL processing lab in Gilman Hall, and Special Collections. The course will involve some travel to visit other mosaics from Antioch now in collections at Harvard’s Dumbarton Oaks in Washington D.C., and the Princeton Art Museum in Princeton, New Jersey.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: Th 3:00PM - 5:30PM
  • Instructor: Stager, Jennifer M S
  • Room: Gilman 261
  • Status: Waitlist Only
  • Seats Available: 1/12
  • PosTag(s): HART-ANC, ARCH-ARCH

Power Dressing: The Politics of Costume between the Ottoman Empire and the West
AS.010.440 (01)

In the Ottoman Empire—a vast multiethnic state straddling Africa, Asia, and Europe—how one dressed was a deeply political affair. Ottoman rulers and subjects alike used clothing to express (and sometimes transgress) the hierarchical, religious, and communal distinctions defining their society, much to the fascination of foreigners who visited the empire or sought knowledge of its sartorial traditions in texts and images. This seminar will explore Ottoman dress and dress codes in the context of the empire’s long and complicated relationship with Western powers, focusing on the role that costume played as a charged site of cross-cultural interaction, posturing, and self-assertion from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. Our case studies will include costume albums—books showing people high and low in their characteristic garb—painted by Ottoman artists for Western buyers; diplomatic robes of honor and their attendant ceremonies; and cultural cross-dressing as manifested in European turquerie portraiture and masquerades. Moving into the modern period, we will consider how nineteenth-century dress reforms bridged the gap between Ottoman and Western costume while engendering new modes of Ottoman sartorial self-representation that challenged hardening Orientalist discourses in such venues as mannequin museums and world’s fairs. The seminar will make considerable use of artworks in local collections, including rare books and prints at Hopkins itself.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: M 1:30PM - 4:00PM
  • Instructor: Rustem, Unver
  • Room: Gilman 119
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 6/10
  • PosTag(s): HART-NW, ISLM-ISLMST

Introduction to the History of Western Art II
AS.010.102 (01)

This introductory course surveys major developments in the arts primarily in Europe and North America from the fourteenth century to the present day, looking in particular at painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, and, starting in the twentieth century, new media. Topics to be considered include the landmark innovations of Renaissance artists and theorists; the drama of Baroque art; the impact of the Enlightenment on eighteenth-century art; artistic responses to the advent of modernity; and the emergence of abstraction, the avant-garde, and a range of new mediums during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Throughout the semester, we will explore how the artistic practices and theories under consideration relate to their specific historical, intellectual, social, political, and geographical contexts, and we will also consider the roles that works of art and artists played in shaping many of those very same contexts.

  • Credits: 4.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: MW 12:00PM - 1:15PM, F 10:00AM - 10:50AM
  • Instructor: Warnock, Molly
  • Room: Hodson 311
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 1/12
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Global Amsterdam: The Golden Age of a Small but Mighty Metropolis
AS.010.337 (01)

This course examines the visual and material culture of the Dutch Golden Age as the product of global forces. The young Dutch Republic quickly achieved a global reach in the seventeenth century. And Amsterdam served as its commercial capital, which by 1630 could be counted as one of the most important port cities in the world and home to the Dutch East India Company (VOC), the world’s first multinational corporation. Moving an incredible quantity of goods (spices, silks, porcelain, coffee, precious stones, “exotic” arts, and slaves) generated not only the economic riches, but also the cultural touchpoints that would give rise to art produced by the likes of Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals, and the many exceptional craftsmen that have left us some of the most enduring masterpieces of the seventeenth century. This course situates that art, and the city of Amsterdam itself, within networks that connected it to such far flung places as Japan, Jakarta, Surinam, Curacao, Brazil, and the Indian Subcontinent.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: Th 1:30PM - 4:00PM
  • Instructor: Hyman, Aaron M.
  • Room: Gilman 177
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 11/15
  • PosTag(s): HART-RENBAR

Vanguards: American Art and Literature
AS.300.332 (01)

Why is art from one country considered forward-looking or modern, and art from another is not? What makes or made American culture cutting edge, and when did that happen—if it ever did? This course explores theories and practices of the vanguard, paying close attention to the mostly early- to mid-twentieth century art and literature that arguably made up the American avant-garde: that is, art and culture that is radically experimental, strange, and often fascinating. For some thinkers, America’s consumerism and robust cultural production (think: movies, television, advertising) mean that American art and poetry could not be cutting edge. But others disagree, contending that a work of “sculpture” like Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain (a urinal turned on its side) proves that an American vanguard has long flourished. We will jump into these debates and explorations, investigating what it means to think of art as modern or avant-garde, studying the kinds of painting, sculpture, performance art, and writing that might apply, and envisioning how the poetry of writers ranging from Muriel Rukeyser to Sylvia Plath and others takes the vanguard in new directions.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: TTh 10:30AM - 11:45AM
  • Instructor: Siraganian, Lisa Michele
  • Room: Gilman 208
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 12/15
  • PosTag(s): n/a

The Politics of Display in South Asia
AS.010.382 (01)

Through an examination of colonial exhibitions, the rise of national, regional, and archaeological museums, and current practices of display and representation in institutions, we will explore how the image of South Asia has been constructed in the colonial, modern, and contemporary eras. We will engage with the politics of representation, spectacle, and the economies of desire as related to colonialism and the rise of modernity. Readings from postcolonial theory, museum studies, anthropology, history, and art history.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: W 1:30PM - 4:00PM
  • Instructor: Brown, Rebecca Mary
  • Room: Gilman 119
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 6/15
  • PosTag(s): HART-MODERN, HART-NW

Art and the Harem: Women’s Spaces, Patronage, and (Self-)Representation in Islamic Empires
AS.010.338 (01)

Long characterized in the Western imagination as exotic realms of fantasy, harems in Islamic tradition served as private domestic quarters for the women of elite households. This course explores the harem—as an institution, a physical space, and a community of women—from various art-historical perspectives, considering such topics as the harem’s architecture, the agency of its inhabitants as patrons and collectors, the mediating role of eunuchs in the harem’s visual and material culture, and the ability of harem women to make their mark through public artistic commissions. Our case studies will address a range of Islamic geographical and chronological contexts, though we will focus on the empires of the early modern period and, above all, the famous harem of the Ottoman sultans at the Topkapı Palace in Istanbul. In challenging popular misconceptions, the course will also look at the wealth of exoticizing imagery that the harem inspired in Western art, which we will consider through Orientalist paintings at the Walters Art Museum and illustrated rare books at Hopkins itself.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: TTh 12:00PM - 1:15PM
  • Instructor: Rustem, Unver
  • Room: Gilman 119
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 3/15
  • PosTag(s): HART-NW, ISLM-ISLMST

Feminist Modernisms
AS.363.400 (01)

Prize Teaching Fellowship seminar. Triangulating feminist psychoanalysis and theories of embodiment and subjectivity with art criticism and case studies of artistic practice (primarily painting), this course comparatively investigates the routes modernism takes after the Second World War and decolonization (1945/1947). We will be interested in specific postcolonial and postwar contexts where modernism in the domain of the visual arts was mounted as a feminist project. Each week will pair readings that establish conceptual frameworks with close analyses of works by specific artists, including those represented by the Library's Special Collections and the Baltimore Museum of Art. Texts include Freud, Spivak, Butler, Irigaray, Kristeva, and Mahmood.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: T 3:00PM - 5:30PM
  • Instructor: Ballakrishnen, Meghaa
  • Room: Gilman 134
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 8/12
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Course # (Section) Title Day/Times Instructor Room PosTag(s) Info
AS.010.102 (02)Introduction to the History of Western Art IIMW 12:00PM - 1:15PM, F 11:00AM - 11:50AMWarnock, MollyHodson 311
AS.010.102 (03)Introduction to the History of Western Art IIMW 12:00PM - 1:15PM, F 12:00PM - 12:50PMWarnock, MollyHodson 311
AS.010.315 (01)Art of the Assyrian Empire, 1000-600 BCEMW 12:00PM - 1:15PMFeldman, MarianGilman 177HART-ANC, ARCH-ARCH
AS.010.102 (04)Introduction to the History of Western Art IIMW 12:00PM - 1:15PM, F 12:00PM - 12:50PMWarnock, MollyHodson 311
AS.010.204 (01)Italian Art in the Middle AgesMW 1:30PM - 2:45PMZchomelidse, NinoGilman 177HART-MED
AS.010.233 (01)Asian Art Since 1945MW 12:00PM - 1:15PMBrown, Rebecca MaryGilman 119HART-NW, HART-MODERN
AS.010.235 (01)Art, Medicine, and the Body: Middle Ages to ModernityTTh 12:00PM - 1:15PMMerback, MitchellGilman 177HART-RENBAR, MSCH-HUM
AS.010.237 (01)Freshman Seminar: Art and Medicine in the ancient Mediterranean (600-100 BCE)TTh 1:30PM - 2:45PMStager, Jennifer M SGilman 119HART-ANC, ARCH-ARCH
AS.010.301 (01)Michelangelo: Religion, Sexuality, and the Crisis of Renaissance ArtTTh 10:30AM - 11:45AMCampbell, StephenGilman 177HART-RENBAR
AS.389.373 (01)Encountering American ArtTh 1:30PM - 4:00PMAnderson, Virginia, Kingsley, Jennifer PGilman 150APMUS-PRAC
AS.010.366 (01)Native American ArtTTh 10:30AM - 11:45AMDeleonardis, LisaHodson 315HART-ANC, ARCH-ARCH
AS.010.413 (01)Historical and Conceptual Bases of Art HistoryT 1:30PM - 4:00PMLakey, ChristopherGilman 177HART-THRY
AS.010.433 (01)Hands-On Approaches to European Books and Prints before 1800M 2:00PM - 4:30PMHyman, Aaron M.BLC 2030HART-RENBAR
AS.130.420 (01)Seminar in Research Methods in Near Eastern Studies: Religion and ScienceW 2:00PM - 4:30PMDelnero, PaulGilman 130GARCH-RELATE
AS.010.444 (01)Classics Research Lab: Antioch Recovery Project (ARP)Th 3:00PM - 5:30PMStager, Jennifer M SGilman 261HART-ANC, ARCH-ARCH
AS.010.440 (01)Power Dressing: The Politics of Costume between the Ottoman Empire and the WestM 1:30PM - 4:00PMRustem, UnverGilman 119HART-NW, ISLM-ISLMST
AS.010.102 (01)Introduction to the History of Western Art IIMW 12:00PM - 1:15PM, F 10:00AM - 10:50AMWarnock, MollyHodson 311
AS.010.337 (01)Global Amsterdam: The Golden Age of a Small but Mighty MetropolisTh 1:30PM - 4:00PMHyman, Aaron M.Gilman 177HART-RENBAR
AS.300.332 (01)Vanguards: American Art and LiteratureTTh 10:30AM - 11:45AMSiraganian, Lisa MicheleGilman 208
AS.010.382 (01)The Politics of Display in South AsiaW 1:30PM - 4:00PMBrown, Rebecca MaryGilman 119HART-MODERN, HART-NW
AS.010.338 (01)Art and the Harem: Women’s Spaces, Patronage, and (Self-)Representation in Islamic EmpiresTTh 12:00PM - 1:15PMRustem, UnverGilman 119HART-NW, ISLM-ISLMST
AS.363.400 (01)Feminist ModernismsT 3:00PM - 5:30PMBallakrishnen, MeghaaGilman 134