Art History I

Course Description

ARH2050 – Art History I is a 3-credit-hour course that surveys the major works, artists, and movements of Western art from prehistoric times through the late medieval period (typically extending into the early Renaissance threshold), with attention to global art traditions as institutional curricula increasingly include them. The course establishes the chronological and methodological foundation for the two-semester art history survey, with ARH2051 (Art History II) continuing the chronological narrative from the Renaissance through the contemporary period.

Students develop visual literacy — the ability to describe, analyze, and interpret works of art — and gain familiarity with the methods of art history as a discipline. Coursework typically combines lecture-based examination of artworks (using high-quality digital reproductions), close visual analysis exercises, written analytical assignments, and museum visits where institutional location allows. Students engage with painting, sculpture, architecture, ceramics, metalwork, manuscripts, mosaics, and other media, situating works within their historical, cultural, religious, political, and intellectual contexts.

ARH2050 is a Florida common course offered at approximately 33 Florida institutions and satisfies general-education humanities requirements at most Florida public colleges and universities. It transfers as the equivalent course at all Florida public postsecondary institutions per SCNS articulation policy.

Learning Outcomes

Required Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Apply the vocabulary of formal analysis — including line, shape, color, value, texture, space, composition, and the elements and principles of design — to describe works of art.
• Apply the methods of art-historical analysis, including formal analysis, iconography, and contextual analysis (historical, cultural, religious, political, biographical).
• Identify and describe major works of prehistoric art, including Paleolithic cave painting (Lascaux, Chauvet, Altamira), small-scale sculpture (Venus figurines), and Neolithic monumental architecture (Stonehenge, Göbekli Tepe).
• Identify and describe major works of ancient Near Eastern art, including Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian, Assyrian, and Persian artistic traditions.
• Identify and describe major works of ancient Egyptian art across the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms, including pyramids, tombs, sculpture, painting, and the artistic conventions associated with religious and royal art.
• Identify and describe major works of Aegean art (Cycladic, Minoan, Mycenaean) at an introductory level.
• Identify and describe major works of ancient Greek art across the Geometric, Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods, including pottery, sculpture, architecture (the Parthenon, the orders), and the development of Greek artistic ideals.
• Identify and describe major works of Etruscan and Roman art, including Roman architecture (the Colosseum, the Pantheon, aqueducts), sculpture (portraiture, narrative reliefs), wall painting (Pompeii), and the public art of empire.
• Identify and describe major works of Early Christian, Byzantine, and Coptic art, including catacomb painting, basilicas, the architecture and mosaics of Hagia Sophia and San Vitale, icons, and illuminated manuscripts.
• Identify and describe major works of Islamic art and architecture, including the Dome of the Rock, the Great Mosque of Damascus, the Alhambra, calligraphy, ceramic and tile work, and book arts.
• Identify and describe major works of medieval European art, including the Hiberno-Saxon manuscripts (Book of Kells, Lindisfarne Gospels), Carolingian and Ottonian art, Romanesque churches (pilgrimage churches, tympanums), and Gothic cathedrals (Chartres, Notre-Dame, Reims, stained glass, sculpture).
• Engage with non-Western art traditions as included in contemporary art-history teaching, including the arts of Asia (early Chinese, Indian, Japanese), Africa, the Americas (early Mesoamerican, Andean), and Oceania.
• Write clear, well-organized art-historical analyses using appropriate vocabulary and citation.
• Engage critically with museum exhibitions and art-historical scholarship as available.

Optional Outcomes

• Engage with non-Western art traditions in greater depth, particularly Chinese and Japanese painting, Indian and Southeast Asian Buddhist and Hindu art, African art traditions, Pre-Columbian art of the Americas, and Oceanic art.
• Engage with feminist, postcolonial, and critical race approaches to ancient and medieval art history.
• Engage with archaeology and art history as related disciplines.
• Engage with museum studies and conservation at an introductory level.
• Conduct an independent research project on a selected work, artist, or movement.

Major Topics

Required Topics

• Methods of Art History: Visual analysis vocabulary; formal analysis; iconography (Panofsky); contextual analysis; the role of museums and collections; the ethical issues of provenance and cultural property.
• Prehistoric Art: Paleolithic cave painting (Lascaux, Chauvet, Altamira, Pech Merle); Paleolithic sculpture (Venus of Willendorf, Venus of Hohle Fels); Neolithic monumental architecture (Stonehenge, Göbekli Tepe); transitions from hunting-gathering to settled agriculture.
• Ancient Near East: Sumerian art (the Standard of Ur, the ziggurat); Akkadian sculpture (Stele of Naram-Sin); Babylonian art (the Code of Hammurabi); Assyrian palaces and reliefs; Persian Empire (Persepolis); the cradle of civilization context.
• Ancient Egypt: Old Kingdom (Great Pyramids of Giza, the Sphinx, Old Kingdom sculpture); Middle Kingdom; New Kingdom (Hatshepsut, Akhenaten and Amarna art, Tutankhamun, Ramesses II); the conventions of Egyptian art (frontality, hierarchy of scale); Egyptian religion and afterlife in art.
• Aegean Art: Cycladic figurines; Minoan Crete (Palace of Knossos, frescoes, the Bull-Leaper); Mycenaean Greece (Lion Gate, Mask of Agamemnon, tholos tombs).
• Ancient Greek Art — Geometric and Archaic: Geometric pottery; the Archaic kouros and kore; the development toward naturalism; the rise of Greek temple architecture (Doric and Ionic orders).
• Ancient Greek Art — Classical and Hellenistic: Early Classical (Kritios Boy, Charioteer of Delphi); High Classical (Polykleitos's Doryphoros, the Parthenon and its sculptures, Phidias); Late Classical (Praxiteles, Lysippos); Hellenistic (Laocoön, Nike of Samothrace, the Pergamon Altar, Dying Gaul); Greek vase painting; the Greek artistic legacy.
• Etruscan Art: Brief survey — Etruscan tombs; Etruscan sarcophagi; Etruscan influence on early Rome.
• Roman Art — Republic and Early Empire: Republican portraiture (verism); Roman architecture (the arch, vault, dome, concrete construction); the Colosseum; the Pantheon; the Ara Pacis; Augustus of Primaporta; Pompeian wall painting (Four Styles).
• Roman Art — High and Late Empire: Trajan's Column; Hadrian's Villa; the Pantheon (Hadrian's reconstruction); Constantine; Late Antique sculpture and the transition to Christian art.
• Early Christian Art: Catacomb painting and sculpture; the basilica plan (Old St. Peter's, Santa Sabina); the central plan (Santa Costanza); early Christian iconography; the development of Christian visual culture.
• Byzantine Art: Hagia Sophia (Anthemius and Isidorus); San Vitale at Ravenna and its mosaics (Justinian and Theodora panels); Byzantine icons; the iconoclastic controversy; later Byzantine art (Hosios Loukas, the church of the Chora); Russian and Eastern Orthodox traditions.
• Islamic Art and Architecture: The Dome of the Rock; the Great Mosque of Damascus; the Great Mosque of Córdoba; the Alhambra and its decoration; calligraphy as art; ceramic and tile work; manuscript illumination; the architecture of mosques (qibla, mihrab, minaret).
• Early Medieval Europe: Hiberno-Saxon art (Book of Kells, Lindisfarne Gospels); Anglo-Saxon Sutton Hoo treasure; Viking art; Carolingian Renaissance (Charlemagne, Aachen Palatine Chapel, Carolingian manuscripts); Ottonian art (St. Michael's at Hildesheim, the Doors of Bernward, Ottonian manuscripts).
• Romanesque: Pilgrimage churches (Sainte-Foy at Conques, Saint-Sernin at Toulouse, Santiago de Compostela); barrel-vaulted naves; tympana sculpture (Vézelay, Autun); Romanesque manuscript illumination; the Bayeux Tapestry; the social context of pilgrimage and crusade.
• Gothic: The development of Gothic architecture (Suger and Saint-Denis); Chartres Cathedral; Notre-Dame de Paris; Reims; the rib vault, pointed arch, flying buttress, stained glass; Gothic sculpture (the development from column statues to High Gothic naturalism); Gothic painting and manuscript illumination; English Gothic; German Gothic; Italian Gothic (Giotto's transition toward the Renaissance).
• Late Medieval Italy and the Threshold of the Renaissance: Cimabue; Duccio; Giotto; the International Gothic style; the foundations laid for the Italian Renaissance (continued in ARH2051).
• Global and Non-Western Connections: Increasingly emphasized in art-history courses — early Chinese, Indian, Buddhist art across Asia; African traditions; Pre-Columbian art of the Americas (early Mesoamerican Olmec, Maya, Aztec; Andean Chavín, Moche); Oceanic art; the integration of these traditions with Western art history.

Optional Topics

• Asian Art Survey: Chinese painting and ceramics; Indian Buddhist and Hindu art; Southeast Asian (Khmer, Javanese); Japanese traditions; Korean art.
• African Art Survey: Ancient Egyptian context; Nok and Igbo Ukwu; Benin Kingdom; Ife; the diversity of African artistic traditions.
• Pre-Columbian Art: Mesoamerican (Olmec, Teotihuacan, Maya, Aztec); Andean (Chavín, Moche, Inca).
• Provenance and Cultural Property: The contemporary debates over museum collections; the Elgin/Parthenon Marbles; restitution movements.
• Independent Research: Student-selected investigation of a specific work, artist, or movement.

Resources & Tools

• Common Textbooks: Gardner's Art Through the Ages (Kleiner — most widely adopted), Stokstad's Art History (Cothren/Stokstad), Janson's History of Art (Davies et al.), Art History (Stokstad/Cothren — Volume 1), The Annotated Mona Lisa (Strickland)
• Open Educational Resources: SmartHistory (smarthistory.org — free, peer-reviewed art history with high-quality video and image content; widely used in Florida); Art History by Lumen Learning
• Online Platforms: Connect (McGraw-Hill), Revel (Pearson), MindTap (Cengage)
• Digital Image Resources: Google Arts and Culture (artsandculture.google.com); museum digital collections (The Met, the British Museum, the Louvre, the Vatican Museums, the Egyptian Museum Cairo, the Pergamon, the National Museums of China, Japan, India); ArtStor (institutional subscription); Wikimedia Commons
• Florida Museum Resources: The Tampa Museum of Art (Greek and Roman antiquities); the Cummer Museum (Jacksonville); the Lowe Art Museum at the University of Miami (broad collections including ancient and medieval); the Cornell Fine Arts Museum at Rollins (Greek and Egyptian antiquities); regional natural history museums with archaeology collections
• Reference Resources: Grove Art Online (institutional subscription); Oxford Art Online; museum scholarly publications

Career Pathways

Art history develops visual literacy, analytical and critical-thinking capabilities, and cultural literacy valuable across many fields. Career pathways supported include:

• Museum and Gallery Careers — Curatorial assistance, museum education, museum administration, registrar roles, exhibition design, conservation (with additional training).
• Arts Administration — Nonprofit arts management, public art programs.
• Art Education — K-12 art teaching (with additional teacher preparation).
• Cultural Heritage and Preservation — Historic preservation, archaeology-related work, cultural heritage management.
• Pre-Law (Art and Cultural Property Law) — Foundational for law specializations in art law, cultural property, and historic preservation law.
• Communications, Journalism, and Publishing — Arts journalism, art criticism, museum publications, art book publishing.
• Tourism and Cultural Tourism — Particularly relevant to Florida's tourism economy.
• Library and Information Sciences — Foundation for art librarianship.
• Diplomacy and International Relations — Cultural literacy is foundational for international careers.

Most students taking ARH2050 are not pursuing art-history careers but benefit from the visual-literacy, cultural-literacy, and analytical capabilities the course develops. The course supports general-education humanities requirements for students across virtually any major.

Special Information

General Education and Transfer

ARH2050 is a Florida common course number that satisfies general-education humanities requirements at most Florida public colleges and universities. It transfers as the equivalent course at all Florida public postsecondary institutions per SCNS articulation policy.

Course Sequence

ARH2050 is the first half of the standard two-semester art history survey, with ARH2051 (Art History II) covering Renaissance through contemporary art. Most institutions do not require ARH2050 as a prerequisite for ARH2051; students may take them in either order or independently. Some institutions offer a combined one-semester art-history survey (ARH1000 or ARH2000) as an alternative for students whose program requires only a single art-history course.

Course Approach Variations

Florida institutions vary in their pedagogical approach:

• Western canon survey: Traditional chronological coverage of the major Western movements from prehistory through Late Gothic.
• Global survey: Substantial integration of non-Western and global traditions throughout the chronology.
• Thematic approach: Organization around themes (e.g., the body, the sacred, power, identity) cutting across periods.
• Museum-engaged approach: Heavy use of museum visits, where institutional location allows.

Online and Hybrid Delivery

ARH2050 has been particularly well-suited to online delivery given the visual nature of the content (high-quality digital reproductions, virtual museum tours). Most Florida institutions offer the course in face-to-face, hybrid, and fully online formats.

Florida Museum Resources

While Florida lacks the major encyclopedic ancient-art collections of New York, Boston, Chicago, or Los Angeles, the state's art museums collectively offer substantial resources for ARH2050 study. Notable holdings include the Tampa Museum of Art (Greek and Roman antiquities), the Cummer Museum (Jacksonville), and the Lowe Art Museum (Miami).