Graduate Program in Art History Requirements and Courses

Master of Arts in art history:  Students applying to the MA program in art history should have a bachelor’s degree in art history or another appropriate field, for example, history, literature, or religion.  By the end of the first semester of study (completion of nine credit hours of course work), students must pass a reading comprehension examination in French, German, Italian or Spanish.

The MA is a thirty-six credit hour program.  All work must be in graduate courses, which are ones numbered at the 200-level.  As many as two courses (six credits) may, with the approval of the advisor, be taken outside the department, in another department at GW or at another university in the Washington area.  

During the first semester all students must take historiography (AH 258).  First-year students are encouraged to take as many as three proseminars. Proseminars (e.g., AH 201, 211) typically meet twice a week for lecture and once for discussion. 

Students must successfully complete two qualifying papers.  One paper is due at the end of the first year (eighteen credit hours) and the second at the close of the program (thirty-six hours).  Qualifying papers are ones typically arising from a seminar or proseminar and revised as a publishable work; all qualifying papers are judged by a panel of faculty members. 

Master of Arts in the field of art history with a concentration in museum training is identical to the MA in art history with one exception: students serve a museum internship for six of their thirty-six required credit hours.  The internship is served in the second year of study, after, that is, the completion of eighteen credit hours.

201 Proseminar in Ancient Art of the Bronze Age and Greece (3)
Hartswick
Greek art from the Minoans and Mycenaeans (c. 2000 B.C.) to the age of Alexander (c. 300 B.C.). Relationships among the arts of the different groups in the Aegean area and their impact on Western culture. The Theran volcanic eruption, the "Dorian Invasion," the portrayal of women, "heroic nudity," and the assumption of a stylistic chronology.

202 Proseminar in Ancient Art of the Roman Empire (3)           
Hartswick
Roman art from the successors of Alexander the Great (c. 300 B.C.) to the fall of the Roman Empire in the West (c. 300 A.D.). The impact of the Greek world on Roman art and culture; innovations and achievements of the Romans in architecture,

205 Seminar in Ancient Art (3)                                                           
Hartswick
May be repeated for credit provided the topic differs.  [formerly AH 246]

211 Proseminar in Early Christian and Byzantine Art and Architecture (3)
Anderson
Art of the Mediterranean world following the collapse of Roman administration.  Growth of the basilica and its decoration; the significance of small objects in medieval study.  The rise and fall of the East Roman (Byzantine) Empire from Justinian to 1453.

212 Proseminar in Romanesque and Gothic Artand Architecture(3)
Anderson
The origin of Western art from the Hiberno-Saxon and Carolingian worlds and their relationship to the Ancient heritage.  Romanesque and Gothic architecture and its sculptural decoration studied as social phenomena.

215 Seminar in Medieval Art (3)                                                            
Anderson
May be repeated for credit provided the topic differs.  [formerly AH 247]

220 Proseminar in Italian Art of the Thirteenth through Fifteenth Centuries (3)
Jacks
Origins, development, and theoretical foundations of Renaissance painting, sculpture, and architecture (Giotto, Duccio, Masaccio, Donatello, Ghiberti, Brunelleschi, Mantegna, Bellini, Botticelli).

221 Proseminar in Italian Art of the Sixteenth Century (3)             
Jacks
The development of the universal genius within the circle of Florence and Rome (Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo) and their counterparts in Venice (Giorgione, Titian, Tintoretto, Sansovino, Palladio).

222 Proseminar in Northern Renaissance (3)                                   
von Barghahn
Royal and ducal patronage and the French and Flemish masters of the fifteenth century, including van Eyck, Campin, van der Weyden, Fouquet, van der Goes, Memling, and Gerard David. 

223 Proseminar in Northern Renaissance (3)                                   
von Barghahn
Francis I and Fontainebleau Palace, Henry VIII and Hampton Court, Johann Friedrich of Saxony and his Castle of Torgau, the Holy Roman Emperors Maxmilian I and Charles V, and the Flemish Archduchesses Margaret of Austria and Mary of Hungary. François Clouet, Hans Holbein, Lucas Cranach, Albrecht Dürer, Pieter Brueghel, Bernard van Orley, and others. 

225 Seminar in Renaissance Art (3)                                               
Jacks, von Barghahn
May be repeated for credit provided the topic differs.  [formerly AH 221]

231 Proseminar in Italian Art and Architecture of the Seventeenth Century (3) Jacks
The Counter-Reformation and creation of the Baroque in painting, sculpture, and
architecture in Rome (Carracci, Caravaggio, Bernini, Borromini, Pietro da Cortona), Turin (Guarini, Juvarra), and Venice (Longhena).

232 Proseminar in Northern European Art and Architecture of the Seventeenth Century (3)            
von Barghahn
Hapsburg Flanders and Brussels under the Spanish archdukes and their patronage of Rubens and his circle. The role of Dutch merchants commissioning diverse secular themes in Utrech, Haarlem, Delft, Leyden, and Amsterdam from "Golden Age" artists such as Rembrandt, Vermeer, and Hals.

234 Proseminar in Spanish Art through the Sixteenth Century                        
von Barghahn
The Kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula from the Reconquest of Granada to the Renaissance Age of Exploration. 

235 Seminar in Baroque Art (3)                                                           
Jacks, von Barghahn
May be repeated for credit provided the topic differs.  [formerly AH 220]

240 Proseminar in Euopean Art of the Eighteenth Century (3)           
Bjelajac
Painting, sculpture, and architecture in France, Great Britain, and Italy. Emphasis on Watteau, Chardin, David, Hogarth, Gainsborough, Reynolds, Canaletto, and Tiepolo.

245 Seminar in European Art of the Nineteenth Century  (3)           
Robinson
May be repeated for credit provided the topic differs.  [formerly AH 244]

246 Proseminar in Modern Architecture in Europe and America (3)           
Jacks
Major developments in architecture and urbanism from the Industrial Revolution to the end of the twentieth century.

251 Proseminar in American Art in the Age of Revolution (3)           
Bjelajac
Examination of American art during the 18th-century "consumer revolution," the American War for Independence, and the early republic. Emphasis on the socioeconomic and political purposes of art, with focus on Enlightenment symbolism and the visualization of national identity.

252 Proseminar in American Art in the Era of National Expansion (3)
Bjelajac
Examination of American art from the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 to theSpanish-American War in 1898. Emphasis on the role of art in the expansion of the United States, exploring issues of race, class, and gender; art and religion.

254 Seminar in American Art of the Nineteenth Century (3)           
Bjelajac
May be repeated for credit provided the topic differs.  [formerly AH 243]

255 Seminar: Studies in American Art and History (3) (Joint offering of the Art Department and the American Studies Program in affiliation with the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution. Exploration of selected problems and themes in American cultural history involving the use of artistic materials in different media; emphasis on methodology and analytic techniques.)   Same as AmSt 284.  [formerly AH 284]

256 Seminar in  American Art of the Twentieth Century (3)
Lader
May be repeated for credit provided the topic differs.  [formerly AH 245

257 Seminar in Photography (3)                                                                       
Staff
May be repeated for credit provided the topic differs. 

258  Seminar in Historiography (3)                       
Staff
The development of art history as a discipline from the eighteenth century to the present.  An investigation of different art historical methodologies, including formal analysis, iconological, feminist, Marxist, semiotic and deconstructivist approaches.  [formerly AH 261]

286 Museum Preventive ConservationI (3)                                               
Staff
Same as Anth 232.  [formerly AH 232]

287 Museum Preventive Conservation II (3)                                               
Staff
Same as Anth 233 

[289-90 Thesis Research (3-3)                                                                       
Staff]

298 Independent Research in Art History (3)                                               
Staff

299 Museum Internship (3 to 12)                                                                       
Staff

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last updated 16 Dec 2008