Fall, 2003
Tuesday, September 2: review web-page entitled First Assignments. As indicated, include in your journals your "denotative" and "connotative" readings of the Hopper painting. E-mail me your entries.
Thursday, September 4: respond to the assignment for this date included on the First Assignments web page.
Tuesday, September 9: bring a copy of your draft of your first paper to class to be workshopped. We will be examining contemporary images of women at work. Here I want to draw upon images from advertising. See the page entitled Women at Work presents a few examples I have collected. Review them in advance of the class, and be prepared to identify the codes you see in operation in these. Record your responses in your journals.
Thursday, September 11: It is significant the number of major works of Renaissance art that focus on the question of gender. Any consideration of Northern Renaissance art needs to take into consideration Jan Van Eyck's so-called Arnolfini Wedding Portrait. While scholars debate about whether this is a wedding portrait or not, there is no question that the relationship of the man (Giovanni Arnolfini, an Italian merchant active in the Netherlands) and woman (Giovanna Cenami, a daughter of prominent, Italian merchant family also active in Northern Europe) is central to the content of the painting. Review the webpage I have created for the Arnolfini Wedding Portrait. A significant issue in the painting is the question of the social role of women and marriage as an institution in the fifteenth century. To give you some historical context read the page entitled Women in Renaissance Florence. For more information on the social standing of Jan Van Eyck, review the page focused on Van Eyck as a Court Painter that I have developed for my Northern Renaissance Art class. As I have asked you in the page dedicated to the Arnolfini Wedding Portrait, try to write a narrative based on the painting and its details.
Thursday, September 18: we will shift our focus from northern Europe to Italy. I want to explore the gender construction of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, but to do this it is important to understand the social and artistic contexts for the painting in order to appreciate the innovations in Leonardo's painting. Today's class will examine these contexts. Read the excerpts from the essay by Dale Kent "Women in Renaissance Florence" which is included in the exhibition catalog entitled: Virtue and Beauty. Also read the excerpts from Patricia Simons's article "Women in Frames: The Gaze, the Eye, the Profile in Renaissance Portraiture."
Tuesday, September 23: No survey of western art since the Renaissance can ignore an examination of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa. In the context of our discussion of the construction of gender in art, this painting can also claim a central place. To give a recent critical perspective on Leonardo's Mona Lisa, read the excerpts from Mary Garrard's article "Leonardo da Vinci: Female Portraits, Female Nature."
As evident in Garrard's article, the Mona Lisa represents a major break from the earlier fifteenth century images of women. Review the Kent and Simon's articles to get a sense of the preceding tradition. On the basis of your reading of these articles, respond in your journals to the comparison below:
See the page I have constructed for my Italian Renaissance art class on Renaissance Images of Women.
2nd Paper Assignment: see the webpage describing this assignment that asks you to look at Gender in Advertising. There are three different stages or due dates for this assignment. For Tuesday, September 30, you are expected to bring in a selection of advertisements you are considering for inclusion into your paper. You will be asked to brainstorm your selections with a workshop group. The following Thursday, October 9, you are expected to bring in a draft of your paper to workshop. The following Tuesday October 14, you will be expected to submit a final draft of your paper. The paper should be approximately 3 pages in length.
Thursday, September 25: as a way of brainstorming for your next paper, consider the ads included on the page entitled Sample Ads(Sample Ads Comparisons).Try to identify the codes, social practices, cultural meanings, etc. that the advertisers exploit to make meaning and market their products. Articulate the audience for these ads. Read Tom Streeter's "A Web Essay on the Male Gaze, Fashion Advertising, and the Pose". Also look at the page entitled The Social Construction of Gender. As you review this latter page pay attention to the role of the mirror in the different images.
For anyone interested in exploring more the issue of the negative image of women in contemporary advertising and the question of "re-visioning" women see the website produced by the San Francisco based organization: "About Face." (Comparisons)
Thursday, October 2: in our discussion of the representation of gender in advertising we have noted the different conceptions of male and female. What seems "natural" in the representation of a woman seems quite unnatural when the male is placed in the same context. As I have argued this is a part of cultural codes we have inherited. This is well demonstrated by a comparison of two of the great works of Italian Renaissance Art: Michelangelo's David and Titian's Venus of Urbino:
Compare these two images and identify what you consider to be the significant differences in the conception of the two figures.
As a way of putting, Michelangelo's David in the context of the tradition of the male figure in Western Art look at the images included on the page I have entitled Man the Measure of Things.
During Thursday's class we discussed the "George W. Bush Action Figure" and I alluded to his speeches. On the page entitled Bush's Rhetoric I have included critical excerpts from his speeches. Think about these quotations in relationship to the tradition of images like Michelangelo's David.
If you are interested in exploring more the tradition of the Venus pudica pose read Nanette Salomon's article.
Thursday, October 9: You are expected to bring in a draft of your Advertisement Paper to workshop.
We will continue our discussion of images of women in Italian Renaissance art, by examining the development of the female nude. We will focus in particular on the Venetian artist, Titian's Venus of Urbino. Although not the first female nude in the Renaissance, this work has come to play a central role in the development of this category of art. I have prepared a webpage on the Venus of Urbino which includes some of the recent scholarly responses to this work. In reviewing this material pay attention to the connections you notice to the material included in the earlier material we have discussed.
Like you did at the beginning of our discussion of Hopper's painting Office at Night, I would like you to write down what you understand as the denotative and connotative meanings of the Venus of Urbino. To determine the connotative meanings you are going to draw from the material included in the webpages. Record your responses to this in your journals and E-mail me your responses as well.
Tuesday, October 14: we will continue our discussion of Titian's Venus of Urbino.
Thursday, October 16: we will return to our consideration of Michelangelo's David. I also want to consider his Creation of Adam from the Sistine Ceiling.
In considering these dominant figures of the male in Renaissance art consider the excerpts included on the webpage entitled Renaissance Conceptions of Man.
Tuesday, October 21: again I want to break the traditional boundaries between traditional art history and contemporary popular culture. A frequent comparison in studies of Italian Renaissance art is one between two images of David: the one by Michelangelo and one done by his great Florentine predecessor Donatello dated about 1440:
Relate this comparison to the images included on the entitled I see England, I see France.... In considering these images read the excerpts from Susan Bordo's book entitled The Male Body in which Bordo considers the re-visioning of the male body in contemporary ads for companies like Calvin Klein and Gucci. Also look at the separate page I have constructed dedicated to Calvin Klein ads.
Thursday, October 23: Michelangelo's Creation of Adam is a major artistic statement articulating the Renaissance conception of man and the power of the artist. It also can be tied to European culture's attitude about itself in relationship to the world. Consider the comparison between Michelangelo's Creation of Adam and the late sixteenth century image of Amerigo Vespucci 'Discovering' America. Consider also the comparison of the Creation of Adam to Albrecht Dürer's image of Draughtsman Drawing a Nude. Review these excerpts on these webpages. Also relate these images to the binaries we began to establish in our comparison of Titian's Venus of Urbino to Michelangelo's David.
Tuesday, October 28: go back over the assignment for October 23. Make sure that you explore the linked pages: colonialism, primitivism, and the power of perspective.
Thursday, October 30: Examination of any of the traditional surveys of Western Art reveals that a good number of the "masterpieces" of sixteenth and seventeenth century art focus on the subject of rape. In a web-page entitled Authoritative and Disciplined Discussions of Masterpieces, I have included excerpts from some of these surveys discussing some of these images of rape. Read these texts and consider how the art historian deals with or does not deal with the subject of rape. These images have been reexamined from a feminist perspective. Read the excerpt from the article by Margaret D. Carroll entitled "The Erotics of Absolutism: Rubens and the Mystification of Sexual Violence" and from the book by Diane Wolfthal entitled Images of Rape: the "Heroic" Tradition and its Alternatives. I realize that this assignment entails a fair amount of reading, but I remind you that the success of our discussion depends on your careful reading and consideration of this material. My intention is to both become aware of a particular category of subject matter in western art and to critically examine how traditional art history has approached this subject.
November 4:Review the material assigned for last Thursday's class; pay careful attention to Rubens' painting of the Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus. Read carefully the excerpt from Frederick Hartt's survey discussing the painting and which I have included at the end of the page entitled Authoritative and Disciplined Discussions of Masterpieces.
A popular subject matter in sixteenth and seventeenth century art was the story of Susanna and the Elders. Read the webpage dedicated to this topic. Included on this webpage is the Biblical source for the subject. Consider how well the images represent the subject, and try to answer why this subject would be so popular during the period.
Tuesday, November 11: a follow-up to the video we watched in Thursday's class, spend some time looking at the paintings included on the webpage dedicated to Vermeer, and select one of them. In your journal write a gender reading of the painting. I also encourage you to explore the links I have included on the page for supplementary material.
Thursday, November 13: we will consider gender construction in 18th century French art. This century began with the period we call the Rococo and ended with Neo-Classicism. French Rococo art is exemplified by the paintings of Antoine Watteau (see the slide list for my ARTH 110 course for examples of Watteau's work). One of the most famous Rococo images is that by Jean Honoré Fragonard entitled the Happy Accidents of the Swing. Read the excerpt from a textbook account of The Swing. The attitudes expressed in Watteau's and Fragonard's art are in marked contrast to that of Neo-Classicism as exemplified by Jacques Louis David's famous painting The Oath of the Horatii of 1784-85:
Do a gender reading of David's painting. Pay careful attention to the binary oppositions employed to distinguish male and female. To give you a context for understanding David's painting read the excerpt discussing the painting and the art of the salon.
Tuesday, November 18: remember to e-mail me your choice of topics for the third paper. We will turn to an examination of nineteenth century art. I have prepared a gallery of examples of Nineteenth-Century Images of Women. Review these images. Select three of these, a outline your gender reading of these images in your journal. If you are interested in the theme of Orientalism you can consult the webpage that I have begun to construct dedicated to this topic. The page includes some excerpts from Edward Said's influential book entitled Orientalism. Pay attention to the eerie echoes of our current foreign policy debates.
Thursday, November 20:we will be focusing on the construction of gender in Impressionist art. Consider the images of Manet included on the page dedicated to Nineteenth-Century Images of Women. I would also like you to read the excerpts from Griselda Pollock's "Modernity and the Spaces of Femininity." This is a challenging article, but if you put the time into it, you will find it opens up interesting critical perspectives. There are some excellent comparisons between male and female artists' visions of gender included in the article.
Third Paper: select a work of art from the Renaissance to the 20th century that focuses on the issue of gender. Write a three to five page paper analyzing the gender construction evident in the painting. This can include works we have discussed in class or works we have not considered. You can develop your paper as a traditional critical analysis, or, like the option for the Hopper painting, you can develop a narrative around the work. Either way you develop your paper, I want you to explore the gender issues as fully as possible. Deadlines for your paper: Choice of topic: Tuesday, November 18: e-mail me your choice of topics by this class period. You will have the opportunity to brainstorm your topic in a workshop. Drafts: Thursday, December 4: bring your draft to class and be prepared to workshop your draft. Paper Due: Tuesday, December 9: the paper should be 3-5 page in length. You are free to research your topic, but make sure to cite material derived from secondary sources.
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