ARTH 549
Early Modern Transmissions Spring 2019
Division I
This is not the current course catalog

Class Details

Through analyses of networked objects and people in what has come to be seen as an increasingly globalized early modern world, we have become more cognizant of the ways in which compositions and subject matter of paintings circulated through the medium of reproductive print; manuals meant to be followed to the letter were adapted for foreign audiences; and ideas were disseminated in book form, either through the open market or in banned publications. But is it enough to track the movement of people, ideas, and objects? And what did it mean to transmit information–whether it be visual, material, or theoretical–across media, languages, continents, or religions in the early modern period? Our goal will not be to map the physical movements of (art) objects or individuals, but rather to query what is gained, lost, or altered beyond recognition when things are transmitted over time and space. The scope of this seminar will span roughly the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries–from the systematization of academic and artistic training and the Scientific Revolution, to the Enlightenment and, consequently, accelerated imperial expansion. Our discussions will center on readings and case studies drawn from the visual arts (such as the reproduction of Albrecht Dürer’s woodblock prints on Italian maiolica); mechanical arts (the European mechanization of ancient Chinese timekeeping technology); natural philosophy (the continental reception of Isaac Newton’s Opticks); and intellectual history more generally (for instance, the project of translating and adapting William Chambers’ Cyclopaedia for a French audience) and the terrain covered will include European encounters with the Americas, the Ottoman Empire, and Asia.
The Class: Format: seminar
Limit: 16
Expected: 12
Class#: 3934
Grading: no pass/fail option, no fifth course option
Requirements/Evaluation: class presentations, research paper
Extra Info: may not be taken on a pass/fail basis; not available for the fifth course option
Prerequisites: none
Enrollment Preferences: graduate students, then advanced Art History major undergrads
Distributions: Division I

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