School of Arts and Sciences
Department of the History of Art and Architecture

Courses

Fall 2024 Offerings Spring 2025 Offerings Course Info on SIS Archives

Course Descriptions

The list below includes descriptions of all undergraduate and graduate courses offered by the Department of the History of Art and Architecture.

Visit the undergraduate and graduate pages for course requirements for specific programs. For up-to-date information on course offerings, schedules, room locations and registration, please visit the Student Information System (SIS).

HAA 0001 Introduction to World Art I. Introduction to the major works and themes of world art and architecture from ancient times to early modern. How images and buildings expressed and served religious ideas and beliefs in different parts of the world; how artifacts were created and viewed; how power was invested in images and how these images affect us today; tools and approaches to analyze and understand the language of the visual arts. Includes field trips to local museums.

HAA 0002 Introduction to World Art II. (Cross-listed as VMS 2). Thematic survey of major artists, monuments, and materials from the Renaissance to the present. A historic thread underpins an exploration of dominant themes in the Western tradition of visual art including nature, the body, politics and protest, gender, race, representation, and religion. Exploration of pressing contemporary issues like climate change, de-colonization, who is commemorated through public art, the art market, and museum ethics.

HAA 0003 Introduction to Contemporary Art. (Cross-listed as ILVS 0003) Art since the postwar era with a particular emphasis on the present. Who is making contemporary art, where is it being made, and why? Do these elements constitute an “art world” or multiple and fragmented pockets of production? How do they relate to uneven flows of commerce and capital and what is their connection to emerging political and technological trends? Center/periphery relations; activist art and the counterculture; experimental groups across the Americas, Europe, and Asia; Conceptualism and abstraction; dynamics between offline and online reception; and dilemmas of producing art in a digital economy. Trips to contemporary art exhibitions and events in the Boston area.

HAA 0004 Introduction to Arts of Africa. (Cross-listed as AFR 4) Survey of the diverse arts of Africa from antiquity to the present. Each class is devoted to a single civilization, emphasizing the ways the visual arts function with respect to larger cultural issues. Within this context, students consider the relationship of art to religion, cosmology, gender, identity, and political power, as well as the representation of the "other."

HAA 0005 Introduction to the Arts of Asia. Major monuments and themes in the religious and secular arts of India, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, China, Korea, and Japan: their meaning and place in cultural history. Focus on indigenous developments and cross-cultural influences. Offered in alternate years.

HAA 0007 Introduction to Latin American Art. (Cross-listed as LAS 7) Art and visual culture of Mexico and Latin America from the colonial era to the present. The role of art in the development of cultural identities in different Latin American contexts; the role of art in sustaining real and imagined historical narratives including the revival of pre-conquest and contemporary indigenous/folk culture; the struggle between religious and secular, nationalist, and international avant-garde artistic currents. The social and ideological uses of art and the representation of race, ethnicity, class, and gender.

HAA 0008 Introduction to Architecture. A survey of the history of architecture covering major architects, buildings, theories, and urban and landscape developments from the Renaissance through Postmodernism. Emphasis on European and American architectural history within its social and global contexts. Introduction to basic methods of architectural analysis.

HAA 0009 The Art World. Introduction to the structures, systems, and people that make up the art world. Definition of art, profile and function of those who make art—artists; consume art—critics and collectors; circulate art—consultants, dealers, galleries, and auction houses; display and preserve art—curators, conservators, and museums; and recent public controversies involving art. No prerequisites.

HAA 0010 Japanese Art and the West. Artistic exchange between Japan and the West from the sixteenth century to the present. Focus on Japan's Occidentalism and the West's Japonisme movements; also Japanese nationalists' rebellion against cultural and artistic invasions from the West. Major artists include Hokusai, Degas, Aoki Shigeru, and Van Gogh. (May be taken at 100 level with consent.)

HAA 0011 Buddhist Art. A survey of the Buddhist art of India, China, and Japan. Painting, sculpture, and architecture in relation to changing liturgical requirements. Changes in form and iconography that occurred when Buddhism encountered indigenous traditions.

HAA 0012 The Arts Of Japan. Study of traditional painting, sculpture, architecture, and ceramics from pre-Buddhist times to the Meiji Restoration (1868). Particular focus on national modes of expression developed in response to foreign cultural influences.

HAA 0013 The Arts of China. Survey of Chinese painting, sculpture, metalwork, ceramics, and architecture from Neolithic times through the Ch'ing dynasty, with emphasis on major achievements of each epoch. 

HAA 0015 Japanese Architecture. Historical survey of major developments in Japanese religious and secular architecture and gardens from pre-Buddhist times to the modern age. (May be taken at 100 level with consent)

HAA 0016 Japanese Landscape Tradition. Major styles and movements in monochrome ink and color. The role of Zen Buddhism in establishing the tradition and changes effected by new patronage groups and foreign influences. Trips to museum collections. (May be taken at the 100 level.) 

HAA 0019 Classical Archaeology. (Cross-listed as ARCH 27 and CLS 27.) Survey of ancient Greco-Roman civilization spanning c. 3,100 BCE to 565 CE. Archaeological analysis of the interrelations between art, architecture, history, and ideology, as preserved in material culture, inscriptions, and literary texts: sculpture, temples, tombs, settlements and cities, exceptional masterpieces and artifacts of daily life. Multiple excursions into religion, sociopolitical organization, and artistic technique. Examination of the development and collapse of the Bronze Age civilizations of the Aegean and Italy. Exploration of the evidence of cultural transformations driven by trade, colonization, and territorial expansion leading first to the development of the city-state in archaic Greece and Italy, then to the Greek-speaking kingdoms of the eastern Mediterranean and Near East, and finally to the inclusion of the Latins, Etruscans, Greeks, Egyptians, and others within a single multicultural state: the Roman Empire. Assessment of the renegotiation of identities and historical narratives as polytheistic religions were supplanted by Christianity within the Roman state. Field trip to the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts.

HAA 0021 Early Islamic Art. A survey of the visual arts in Muslim lands from Spain to Central Asia between the seventh and thirteenth centuries, emphasizing the role of visual arts in the formation and expression of cultural identity. Painting, sculpture, architecture, and the portable arts of ceramics, ivory, metalwork, and manuscript illustration will be considered. Topics will include the uses of figural and non-figural imagery; calligraphy and ornament; religious and secular art; public and private art; the art of the court and the art of the urban middle class; and the status, use, and meaning of the portable arts. (May be taken at 100 level.)

HAA 0022 Iconoclam and Iconophobia: Treat of the Image. The proscription of representational images in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic ideologies, and resulting iconic modes of expression (signs, symbols, architectural forms) at various times in the first millennium; the avoidance or removal of images, and motivations for and the effect of the art which it produces (Byzantine "iconoclasm"; Islamic avoidance; Protestantism; the French Revolution; the Jesse Helms syndrome). (May be taken at 100 level with consent)

HAA 0023 Byzantine Art and Architecture. Introduction to the art and architecture of the Byzantine empire, c. 326 to 1453. Considers a range of media, including icons, illuminated manuscripts, sculpture, church architecture, metalwork, ivories, and textiles. Location of these artistic traditions within their social and historical context, focusing on issues such as imperial ideology, patronage, art and devotion, secular art, classical revivals, cultural interaction, and the role of images in Byzantine society. (May be taken at 100 level with consent)

HAA 0025 Medieval Architecture. Social histories of medieval buildings from c.300 - c. 1400 CE., with particular attention to space, audience and experience. Course themes include: architecture and remembrance in the early Christian period; liturgy and ritual; gendered spaces in medieval monasteries; architects, masons and engineering; castles and the ideology of conquest; late medieval civic architecture; timber/stone construction; symbolism in the Gothic cathedral; and cross-cultural forms. (May be taken at 100 level with consent.)

HAA 0031 Early Renaissance Italy. Art, culture, and politics in key regional centers during the fifteenth century. Issues include the revival of antiquity, the concepts of progress and competition, the social status of the artist, patronage, refinement of illusionistic techniques such as linear perspective, and the expansion of secular subjects produced for the home. (May be taken at 100 level with consent)

HAA 0032 High Renaissance in Italy. The dominance of Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Titian in the sixteenth century. Consideration of the High Renaissance in Florence and Rome and its aftermath, Mannerism, in Catholic courts across Europe. The development of art history as a discipline in conjunction with the rise of academies, art collecting, and the search for elevated status. The challenge of women artists such as Sofonisba Anguissola to prevailing notions of creativity. (May be taken at 100 level with consent)

HAA 0034 Renaissance Venice. Painting, sculpture, and architecture in the "most serene republic" of Venice, 1400-1600. Elite patrons, confraternal piety, wealth from the Levant, and a taste for pleasure provide some framing contexts for Venetian subject matter ranging from altarpieces to sensuous female nudes. Artists to be considered include Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, Sansovino, Palladio, and Tintoretto. (May be taken at 100 level with consent)

HAA 0037 Van Eyck to Brueghel. The Netherlandish tradition from its roots in manuscript painting up to the Reformation and the iconoclastic riots of the 1560s. Focus on the relation of painting to beholder; iconic and narrative images; rise of genres; the expression of politics, class, and gender; the development of printmaking.

HAA 0041 Age of Rembrandt and Bernini. The arts of seventeenth-century Catholic Europe (Italy and Spain) and Holland in the context of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. The religious use and prohibition of images; the rise of secular art forms, private collecting, and the art market. (May be taken at 100 level with consent)

HAA 0046 Rococo to Revolution: Art in 18th Century Europe. Major artists and themes in eighteenth-century European art, including Watteau and the Fête galante, Art and the Enlightenment, Reynolds and the portrayal of gender and class, the country house, nature vs. ideology in landscapes of Gainsborough and Constable, David and the French Revolution. Role of art in society. (May be taken at the 100-level).

HAA 0047 Romanticism and Realism: Art in Europe 1789-1860. Themes in the representational arts from Neo-classicism to Realism. Art and revolution, the public monument, the rise of landscape, the romantic genius, caricature and popular imagery, art criticism (Stendhal, Baudelaire). Artists to include Goya, Géricault, Friedrich, Turner, Courbet, Daumier. (May be taken at 100 level with consent)

HAA 0048 Nature Into Art. From the Garden of Eden and caves of Lascaux to contemporary art responding to climate change, the natural world has been a constant source of inspiration—and foil—for art. Survey of ways in which nature—the land, environment, flora, and fauna—has been filtered through the artistic imagination for our edification and pleasure. Themes will include: landscape painting and photography; parks and gardens; Environmental art and sustainability; exploration, tourism, and scientific illustration.

HAA 0050 Impressionism And Post-impressionism. The urban aspect of Impressionism, its themes of work, entertainment, leisure; its response to the growth and redevelopment of Paris in the "painting of modern life" of Degas, Manet, and others. Nature in Pissaro and Monet, domestic life in Cassatt and Morisot. Post-Impressionism of Seurat, Cezanne, Van Gogh, and Gauguin. Students who take HAA 50 may not also take HAA 53.

HAA 0051 Nineteenth-century Art. The major movements--Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Realism, Impressionism, and Post-Impressionism--in Western Europe and America. (May be taken at 100- level with consent.)

HAA 0052 Dada & the Avante Garde (Cross-listed as GER 81, ILVS 77 and FR 71) Dada literary and art movement as subversion of society and culture. Use of irony, sarcasm, paradox, bombast, montage, etc. to undermine ideologies, e.g., capitalism, nationalism, religion, and militarism. Focus on individual signs, poetry, manifestos, photomontages and assemblages, and commodity forms and aesthetics, as objects of sabotaged meaning making. Avant-garde contexts from Dada’s predecessors, Cubism and Futurism, and successors, Surrealism, Situationalism, and Fluxus. Its continuing influence on popular culture. In English. 

HAA 0053 Origins Of Modern Art. The interaction of tradition, realism, and "the painting of modern life." Urban and rural Impressionism. Post-Impressionism, Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism, Constructivism. Changing ideas of representation, expansion of genres, modes of exhibition, and critical reception. (May be taken at 100 level with consent)

HAA 0054 Twentieth Century Art In Europe And America The dissemination and assimilation of modernism in Europe and America after the moment of high Cubism, the establishment of abstraction as the language of the avant-garde, and the gradual shift in the location of the modern art center from Paris to New York after World War II. Cubism, Dada, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, Pop, Minimalism, and the New Expressionism from a critical, contextual standpoint. Postmodernism as a movement and a critique of modernism. (May be taken at 100 level with consent)

HAA 0055 Contemporary Art Since 1960. (Cross-listed as HAA 0155) Major art movements in Europe and America from the 1960s through the early 2000s. Discussions of the major works of avant-garde art and its criticism, from Abstract Expressionism through the postmodern practices of conceptual art, feminist art, performance art, and site-specific installation art. Analysis of works of art in terms of formal issues, the art-critical debates in which they were produced, and their importance for current art production. (May be taken at 100 level with consent)

HAA 0056 History Of Photography. Issues and developments in photography from its inception with Daguerre in 1839 to the present in Europe and the United States. The interaction of art and technology in photography, relationships of photography to painting, development of genre and themes in photography, the effect of photography on ways of seeing. Major artists include Nadar, Atget, Stieglitz, Weston, and Frank. (May be taken at 100 level with consent)

HAA 0057 Global Conceptualism? Traces networks of conceptual art through case studies in New York, Beirut, Amsterdam, Los Angeles, Buenos Aires, Moscow, Vancouver, Tokyo, and other prominent scenes. Centers around the invention and dissemination of the conceptual art through seminal journals; use of information and new media platforms; relationship between "dematerialized" art and immaterial labor; history of the mediums (painting, sculpture, photography, video, dance, film, and poetry) in the movement's wake, and its legacy in contemporary art.

HAA 0059 Aesthetics (Cross-listed with PHIL 0052,  VMS 53) A survey of some fundamental problems in the philosophy of art: the nature of aesthetic judgment; the task of criticism, formalism, and formalist criticism; the idea of antiart; the concept of quality in a work of art; modernist vs. traditional art. The course will include writings in contemporary philosophy and criticism as well as works by philosophers such as Hume, Kant, Nietzsche, and Heidegger.

HAA 0061 American Art 1776-1900. (Cross-listed with HAA 161) Survey of painting, sculpture, and graphic art from the seventeenth century to World War I. The wealth of original material in the Boston area is especially valuable to the course. Frequent field trips are scheduled and lectures held at the Museum of Fine Arts.(May be taken at 100 level with permission of instructor)

HAA 0070 Contemporary Arts In Africa. (Cross-listed with ILVS 69) Examination of African art since the end of colonialism. Consideration of sculpture, painting, performance, film, and architecture. Emphasis on the changing meanings of art within different African contexts. Exploration of the tension between the tribal and the (post)modern with respect to the advent of national cultures and outside factors. (May be taken at 100 level with consent)

HAA 0071 Arts Of The Afro-atlantic Diaspora. Examination of the arts of African peoples from both sides of the Atlantic. Emphasis on movement of images and ideas back and forth across the Atlantic. The unique ways artists from different parts of the Afro-Atlantic diaspora have fused indigenous and foreign ideas and forms in their work. Offered in alternate years. (May be taken at 100 level with consent)

FAH 0078 African Film And Photography. Study of African visual culture from the perspective of film and photography. Equal emphasis on "popular" and "high art". Topics may include the relationship between photography and memory, the decolonization of image, and postmodern questions of representation. 

HAA 0080 Colonial Mexican Art & Architecture: Converging Cultures. An examination of art and architecture in colonial Mexico from the Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire in 1521 to Mexican independence from Spain in 1821. Consideration of painting, sculpture, the decorative arts, and the built environment. Central themes include questions of cultural influence, hybridity and transculturation, and aesthetic forms as expressions of political power and social status. Topics will include the encounter and conquest as described in indigenous and European texts and images, the introduction of the Roman Catholic tradition and the use of art and architecture in the Christian conversion of indigenous people, new forms of religious devotion unique to "New Spain," women as cultural agents, the development of local pride and the expression in the visual arts of a class-conscious, multi-racial society, and Mexico as the cultural crossroads of the Spanish empire. (May be taken at the 100-level.)

HAA 0081 Twentieth Century Mexican Art. (Cross-listed with LAS 81 and HAA 181) The dominant art forms of twentieth-century Mexico including post-revolutionary muralism and socially-concerned representational art; movements, artists, and visual genre outside of the mural school including abstraction, surrealism, photography, print culture, and film. The influence of politics, class, race, and gender on the production of art in Mexico. Art by Mexican-American artists in the U.S., and the effects of globalization and the art market on contemporary Mexican art. (May be taken at 100 level with consent)

HAA 0083 Gender In Latin American Art. Women artists in Latin America in the twentieth century and their place within the canon of Latin American art history. Their work in relation to feminist strategies of resistance and the disruption and/or appropriation of dominant artistic and cultural narratives. Artistic expression in relation to emergent women's movements and constructions of gender, race, and ethnicity in distinct Latin American contexts. The representation of women in Latin American art. (May be taken at the 100-level).

HAA 0084 Latin American Cinema. (Cross-listed with FMS 69) The development of cinema in district Latin American contexts with emphasis on Mexico, Brazil, Cuba, and Lationos in the U.S.. Emphasis on how film from aids articulations of cultural and political identity. Course consists of weekly film screening outside of class and in-class discussion and film screening. Students taking the course at the 100-level are required to write an additional research paper incorporating both contextual and comparative analysis of two films selected in consultation with the instructor. (May be taken at 100-level.)

HAA 0086 The Latino Presence in Art and Visual Culture. (Cross-listed as LST 86 and AMER 86) Representations of Latinos and by Latinos across a broad range of media, with emphasis on contemporary art and film/television, but including literature and music. Popularity and increase of Latino culture in the U.S. in the context of ongoing debates about immigration, national security, and shifting demographics. Key topics include the cultural politics of representation, the relationship of contemporary Latino artists to the mainstream art world, debates about visual art as a vehicle for the expression of cultural identity, the role of gender, sexuality, class, and ethnicity in creative expression, the relationship between Latino culture and the mainstream, the diversity of the Latino community, how self-representation informs political dissent, and an examination of Latinidad as an affirmative cultural construction for people of Latin American descent in the U.S. No prerequisites. (May be taken at the 100-level.)

HAA 0092 Special Topics. Special Topics. Please refer to semester brochure for course descriptions.

HAA 0093 Special Topics: Study Abroad.

HAA 0095 Boston Architecture and Urbanism. A history of the Boston area's architecture from the seventeenth through the twenty-first centuries, as seen through the region's urban history. Major buildings, architects, and urban planning schemes examined in terms of economic, political, social, and institutional histories. Course work includes field trips; class presentations; and design, research, and photography projects. (May be taken at 100 level.)

HAA 0096 Design: Architectural. Introduction to architectural design through an intensive studio experience. Independent student exploration guided by critical discussions. Analysis, representation, and creation of spaces through a series of design projects that incorporate drawing and modeling techniques, concept development, spatial thinking, multi-scalar awareness, program analysis, context analysis, and many other layers of the architectural design process. Trips to architectural works, lectures, and libraries. Recommendations: At least one college level architectural history or art history course and one studio art course.

HAA 0097 Design: Advanced Architectural. Builds upon the foundational knowledge of architectural design and develops a higher degree of architectural design sophistication through a series of projects. Design challenges increase in complexity and duration over the course of the semester. Examines issues of context, form, and space, and draws upon previous design work from related courses such as architectural history, architectural engineering, urban planning, sculpture, and drawing. Emphasizes developing and critiquing the design process. Recommendation: Advanced skills in drawing and model making required. Trips to architectural works, lectures, and libraries. Prerequisite: HAA 0096 or its equivalent at another institution. High Demand.

HAA 0098 Integrative Project Seminar. A spring semester seminar required of all senior architectural studies majors.    
Recommendations: Open only to senior architectural studies majors. May be registered for by civil engineering double majors in architectural studies as CEE 99 (Internship in Civil and Environmental Engineering) in consultation with the directors of architectural studies in both A&S and Engineering.

HAA 0100 Theories and Methods of Art History. This seminar introduces students to critical theory and the application of its methodologies to the study of art, architecture, and visual culture. The course focuses on key art historical texts that exemplify concerns central to the practice of the discipline, as well as select critical and theoretical texts that have had a major impact on how art history is practiced today. Students are introduced to the various approaches that have been  
used for understanding the meanings and functions of works of art and architecture from the Middle Ages to the contemporary moment. This course—reading  
intensive and broad in scope—aims to help students understand the various strengths and weaknesses of various art historical methods and perspectives, while  
honing their analytical and critical writing skills Required course for art history major; recommended to be taken in the senior year. Open to non-majors with consent.    
Recommendations: Two 100-level art history courses completed or taken concurrently. This course is offered only in the fall term. In order to avoid possible course conflicts, it is recommended that students who plan to double major take this course during their junior year.

HAA 0101 Historiography and Methodology of Art History. Each discipline defines itself by having a set of key concepts, theories and methods. What concepts and theories are important in art history? Where do they come from? Why do they matter – and for whom?   
Open to Art History and Art History Museum Studies Graduate Students. Offered in fall semester.

HAA 0103 Aegean Archaeology. (Cross-listed as ARCH 163 and CLS 163.) The study of the sites and monuments of the Aegean area from the Neolithic period to the end of the Bronze Age, with special emphasis on the art of the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations. Museum trips will be part of the course.

HAA 0104 Greek Art And Archaeology. (Cross-listed as ARCH 164 and CLS 164.) The development of Greek art from the Geometric Age through the fourth century B.C., studied in architecture, sculpture, pottery, painting, and selected sites. Museum trips will be part of the course.    
Recommendations: ARCH/CLS 27 or FAH 1, or permission of instructor.

HAA 0105 Tyrrhenian Archaeology. (Cross-listed as ARCH 167 and CLS 167.) The study of ancient Italy from prehistoric times to the Roman Republic. Special emphasis may be placed on the Etruscan civilization, its possible origins, and its context in the Mediterranean world as shown by its artistic development. Museum trips will be part of the course.    
Recommendations: ARCH/CLS 27 or permission of instructor.

HAA 0106 Roman Art And Archaeology. (Cross-listed as ARCH 168 and CLS 168.) The study of Imperial Rome and its provinces, with attention to the Hellenistic background and subsequent contributions to urban development, architecture, sculpture, or painting. Museum trips will be part of the course. Recommendations: CLS 0027, HAA 0001 or permission of instructor.

HAA 0110 Japanese Art And The West. Artistic exchange between Japan and the West from the sixteenth century to the present. Focus on Japan's Occidentalism and the West's Japonisme movements; also Japanese nationalists' rebellion against cultural and artistic invasions from the West. Major artists include Hokusai, Degas, Aoki Shigeru, and Van Gogh. Extra assignments and class meetings. (Also offered as lower-level.)

HAA 0115 Japanese Architecture. Historical survey of major developments in Japanese religious and secular architecture and gardens from pre-Buddhist times to the modern age. (Also offered as lower-level.)

HAA 0116 Japanese Landscape Tradition. Major styles and movements in monochrome ink and color. The role of Zen Buddhism in establishing the tradition and changes effected by new patronage groups and foreign influences. Trips to museum collections. (Also offered as lower-level.)    
Recommendations: permission of instructor.

HAA 0120 Armenian Art, Architecture And Politics: Fourth To Fourteenth Century. Study of castles, churches, sculpture, and manuscripts in an international context. Armenia's political and religious ties with Rome, Byzantium, Islam, the crusaders, Europe, and East Asia. The first country to declare Christianity its official religion, Armenia created art expressing distinctive religious concepts. Its architectural techniques and sculpture anticipated later developments in Western Romanesque and Gothic art.

HAA 0121 Early Islamic Art. A survey of the visual arts in Muslim lands from Spain to Central Asia between the seventh and thirteenth centuries, emphasizing the role of visual arts in the formation and expression of cultural identity. Painting, sculpture, architecture, and the portable arts of ceramics, ivory, metalwork, and manuscript illustration will be considered. Topics will include the uses of figural and non-figural imagery; calligraphy and ornament; religious and secular art; public and private art; the art of the court and the art of the urban middle class; and the status, use, and meaning of the portable arts. (Also offered as lower level.)

HAA 0122 Iconoclasm And Iconophobia: Threat of the Image. The proscription of representational images in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic ideologies, and resulting iconic modes of expression (signs, symbols, architectural forms) at various times in the first millennium; the avoidance or removal of images, and motivations for and the effect of the art which it produces (Byzantine "iconoclasm"; Islamic avoidance; Protestantism; the French Revolution; the Jesse Helms syndrome). Extra assignments and class meetings. (Also offered as lower-level.)

HAA 0123 Byzantine Art And Architecture. Introduction to the art and architecture of the Byzantine empire, c. 326 to 1453. Considers a range of media, including icons, illuminated manuscripts, sculpture, church architecture, metalwork, ivories, and textiles. Location of these artistic traditions within their social and historical context, focusing on issues such as imperial ideology, patronage, art and devotion, secular art, classical revivals, cultural interaction, and the role of images in Byzantine society. Also offered as lower-level.    
Recommendations: graduate student or junior or senior Art History major or permission of instructor.

HAA 0124 Early Medieval Art. Production, function and reception of art in the early Middle Ages, especially in Western Europe from c. 300-1100 CE. Germanic, Frankish, Anglo-Saxon, Carolingian, Scandinavian and Norman jewelry, sculpture, textiles, architecture and manuscripts. Central themes include tradition and innovation; cultural and artistic hybridity; visualizing self and other.

HAA 0125 Medieval Architecture. Social histories of medieval buildings from c.300 - c. 1400 CE., with particular attention to space, audience and experience. Course themes include: architecture and remembrance in the early Christian period; liturgy and ritual; gendered spaces in medieval monasteries; architects, masons and engineering; castles and the ideology of conquest; late medieval civic architecture; timber/stone construction; symbolism in the Gothic cathedral; and cross-cultural forms. Also offered as lower-level.  

HAA 0127 Cathedrals And The Arts, 1150-1300. Secular cathedrals and their city environments: Paris, Chartres, Reims, Canterbury, Salisbury, Strasbourg, Cologne. Artists, artisans, patrons, and audience in a changing society; the functions of the sculpted portals and the great narrative painting cycles in stained glass, and of shrines and illuminated books.

HAA 0131 Early Renaissance Italy. Art, culture, and politics in key regional centers during the fifteenth century. Issues include the revival of antiquity, the concepts of progress and competition, the social status of the artist, patronage, refinement of illusionistic techniques such as linear perspective, and the expansion of secular subjects produced for the home. Extra reading assignments and term paper. (Also offered as lower-level.)

HAA 0132 High Renaissance In Italy. The dominance of Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Titian in the sixteenth century. Consideration of the High Renaissance in Florence and Rome and its aftermath, Mannerism, in Catholic courts across Europe. The development of art history as a discipline in conjunction with the rise of academies, art collecting, and the search for elevated status. The challenge of women artists such as Sofonisba Anguissola to prevailing notions of creativity. Extra reading assignments and term paper. (Also offered as lower-level.)

HAA 0134 Renaissance Venice. Painting, sculpture, and architecture in the "most serene republic" of Venice, 1400-1600. Elite patrons, confraternal piety, wealth from the Levant, and a taste for pleasure provide some framing contexts for Venetian subject matter ranging from altarpieces to sensuous female nudes. Artists to be considered include Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, Sansovino, Palladio, and Tintoretto. Extra reading assignments and term paper. (Also offered as lower-level.)

HAA 0146 Rococo To Revolution: Art In Eighteenth Century Europe. Major artists and themes in eighteenth-century European art, including Watteau and the Fête galante, Art and the Enlightenment, Reynolds and the portrayal of gender and class, the country house, nature vs. ideology in landscapes of Gainsborough and Constable, David and the French Revolution. Role of art in society. (Also offered as lower-level).

HAA 0147 Romanticism And Realism: Art In Europe 1789-1860. Themes in the representational arts from Neo-classicism to Realism. Art and revolution, the public monument, the rise of landscape, the romantic genius, caricature and popular imagery, art criticism (Stendhal, Baudelaire). Artists to include Goya, Géricault, Friedrich, Turner, Courbet, Daumier. (Also offered as lower-level.)    
Recommendations: Permission of instructor required.

HAA 0148 Nature Into Art. From the Garden of Eden and caves of Lascaux to contemporary art responding to climate change, the natural world has been a constant source of inspiration—and foil—for art. Survey of ways in which nature—the land, environment, flora, and fauna—has been filtered through the artistic imagination for our edification and pleasure. Themes will include: landscape painting and photography; parks and gardens; Environmental art and sustainability; exploration, tourism, and scientific illustration.

HAA 0153 Origins Modern Art. The interaction of tradition, realism, and "the painting of modern life." Urban and rural Impressionism. Post-Impressionism, Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism, Constructivism. Changing ideas of representation, expansion of genres, modes of exhibition, and critical reception. Extra assignments and class meetings. (Also offered as lower-level.)

HAA 0154 Twentieth Century Art In Europe And America. The dissemination and assimilation of modernism in Europe and America after the moment of high Cubism, the establishment of abstraction as the language of the avant-garde, and the gradual shift in the location of the modern art center from Paris to New York after World War II. Cubism, Dada, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, Pop, Minimalism, and the New Expressionism from a critical, contextual standpoint. Postmodernism as a movement and a critique of modernism. Extra assignments and class meetings. (Also offered as lower-level.)

HAA 0155 Contemporary Art Since 1960. (Cross-listed as HAA 0155) Major art movements in Europe and America from the 1960s through the early 2000s. Discussions of the major works of avant-garde art and its criticism, from Abstract Expressionism through the postmodern practices of conceptual art, feminist art, performance art, and site-specific installation art. Analysis of works of art in terms of formal issues, the art-critical debates in which they were produced, and their importance for current art production. (Also offered as lower-level.)

HAA 0156 History Of Photography. Issues and developments in photography from its inception with Daguerre in 1839 to the present in Europe and the United States. The interaction of art and technology in photography, relationships of photography to painting, development of genre and themes in photography, the effect of photography on ways of seeing. Major artists include Nadar, Atget, Stieglitz, Weston, and Frank. Extra assignments and class meetings. (Also offered as lower-level.)

HAA 0157 Global Conceptualism? Traces networks of conceptual art through case studies in New York, Beirut, Amsterdam, Los Angeles, Buenos Aires, Moscow, Vancouver, Tokyo, and other prominent scenes. Centers around the invention and dissemination of the conceptual art through seminal journals; use of information and new media platforms; relationship between "dematerialized" art and immaterial labor; history of the mediums (painting, sculpture, photography, video, dance, film, and poetry) in the movement's wake, and its legacy in contemporary art.

HAA 0159 Film and the Avant-Garde. (cross-listed w/FMS 179) The role of film within avant-garde art, primarily in Europe and North America. Artists who made avant-garde films FILMS from the 1920s such as Fernand Leger and Marcel Duchamp, as well as filmmakers belonging to cross-media movements such as Dada and Surrealism. Post-war artists in the United States updating pre-war avant-garde film genres while pioneering new ones, like the lyrical film and the collage film. Considers Structural film of the 1960s and the pluralism of avant-garde film since the 1970s. The proliferation of moving image installations in art galleries and museums. Attention to the historical conditions that gave rise to these developments, the theories behind them, and the use of avant-garde film by feminists and others for socio-political critique.

HAA 0160 Museum History and Theory. Development of the art museum from its origins in private collections to the present. Themes will include evolution of museum design; symbolic value of art collecting for individuals and societies; how to display and interpret different kinds of art; current challenges and controversies in the museum world, including the return of cultural property, decolonization, diversity, and funding. Visits to local museums and guest speakers. This class is structured as an upper-level seminar and is best suited to students with some prior knowledge of art history and museums. Counts as a seminar for art history majors.

HAA 0161 American Art 1776-1900. (Cross-listed with HAA 61) Survey of painting, sculpture, and graphic art from the seventeenth century to World War I. The wealth of original material in the Boston area is especially valuable to the course. Frequent field trips are scheduled and lectures held at the Museum of Fine Arts. Extra assignments and class meetings. (Also offered as lower-level.)

HAA 0163 Art and Anthropology. (Cross-listed with ILVS 163) Focus on a number of key anthropological concepts and debates in the study of art. Assessment of their relevance, potential, and applicability for a critical understanding of artistic practice and the global art world. Questions range from notions of value and the difference between art and artifact art to the role of the body, the senses, and materiality. Course discussion on the basis of case studies from different parts of the world.

HAA 0164 Who Owns the Past? Art, Heritage, and Global Conflicts. (Cross-listed with ILVS 164 and CVS 119) Increasingly, heritage sites are flash points in cultural, economic, and religious conflicts around the globe. Clearly history matters, but how do structure become symbols of identity? Why do certain histories matter in particular ways, and to whom? Through a close study of concepts and important art historical and archaeological sites, students will learn to analyze landscapes, architecture, and objects, as well as reflect on the scholarly and public debates about history and heritage around the world. Far from being geared towards the study of beauty, art history today is often deeply embedded in heated debates about heritage and present-day conflicts. Counts as a seminar for art history majors.

HAA 0170 Contemporary Arts In Africa. Examination of African art since the end of colonialism. Consideration of sculpture, painting, performance, film, and architecture. Emphasis on the changing meanings of art within different African contexts. Exploration of the tension between the tribal and the (post)modern with respect to the advent of national cultures and outside factors. Extra assignments and class meetings. (Also offered as lower-level.)

HAA 0171 Arts Of The Afro-atlantic Diaspora. Examination of the arts of African peoples from both sides of the Atlantic. Emphasis on movement of images and ideas back and forth across the Atlantic. The unique ways artists from different parts of the Afro-Atlantic diaspora have fused indigenous and foreign ideas and forms in their work. Offered in alternate years. Extra assignments and class meetings. (Also offered as lower-level.)

HAA 0180 Colonial Mexican Art & Architecture: Converging Cultures. An examination of art and architecture in colonial Mexico from the Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire in 1521 to Mexican independence from Spain in 1821. Consideration of painting, sculpture, the decorative arts, and the built environment. Central themes include questions of cultural influence, hybridity and transculturation, and aesthetic forms as expressions of political power and social status. Topics will include the encounter and conquest as described in indigenous and European texts and images, the introduction of the Roman Catholic tradition and the use of art and architecture in the Christian conversion of indigenous people, new forms of religious devotion unique to "New Spain," women as cultural agents, the development of local pride and the expression in the visual arts of a class-conscious, multi-racial society, and Mexico as the cultural crossroads of the Spanish empire. 100-level course requirements include a longer research paper and may include additional readings, response papers, oral presentations, and group discussion meetings. (Also offered as lower-level.)    
Recommendations: Graduate student or junior or senior Art History major or permission of instructor.

HAA 0181 Twentieth Century Mexican Art. (Cross-listed with HAA 81 and LAS 81) The dominant art forms of twentieth-century Mexico including post-revolutionary muralism and socially-concerned representational art; movements, artists, and visual genre outside of the mural school including abstraction, surrealism, photography, print culture, and film. The influence of politics, class, race, and gender on the production of art in Mexico. Art by Mexican-American artists in the U.S., and the effects of globalization and the art market on contemporary Mexican art.Extra assignments and class meetings. (Also offered as lower-level.)

HAA 0182 Independent Studies. Guided individual study of an approved topic. Must have permission by an HAA faculty member.

HAA 0183 Gender In Latin American Art. Women artists in Latin America in the twentieth century and their place within the canon of Latin American art history. Their work in relation to feminist strategies of resistance and the disruption and/or appropriation of dominant artistic and cultural narratives. Artistic expression in relation to emergent women's movements and constructions of gender, race, and ethnicity in distinct Latin American contexts. The representation of women in Latin American art. Extra assignments and class meetings. (Also offered as lower-level).

HAA 0184 Latin America Cinema. (Cross-listed with FMS 169) The development of cinema in district Latin American contexts with emphasis on Mexico, Brazil, Cuba, and Lationos in the U.S.. Emphasis on how film from aids articulations of cultural and political identity. Course consists of weekly film screening outside of class and in-class discussion and film screening. Students taking the course at the 100-level are required to write an additional research paper incorporating both contextual and comparative analysis of two films selected in consultation with the instructor. (Also offered as lower-level.)

HAA 0186 The Latino Presence in Art and Visual Culture. (Cross-listed with LST 186) Representations of Latinos and by Latinos across a broad range of media, with emphasis on contemporary art and film/television, but including literature and music. Popularity and increase of Latino culture in the U.S. in the context of ongoing debates about immigration, national security, and shifting demographics. Key topics include the cultural politics of representation, the relationship of contemporary Latino artists to the mainstream art world, debates about visual art as a vehicle for the expression of cultural identity, the role of gender, sexuality, class, and ethnicity in creative expression, the relationship between Latino culture and the mainstream, the diversity of the Latino community, how self-representation informs political dissent, and an examination of Latinidad as an affirmative cultural construction for people of Latin American descent in the U.S. 100-level requirements include a longer research paper and may include additional readings, response papers, oral presentations, and group discussion meetings. (Also offered as lower-level.)    
Recommendations: Graduate student or junior or senior Art History major or permission of instructor.

HAA 0192 Special Topics. Special Topics. Please refer to semester brochure for course descriptions.

HAA 0193 Histories of Modern Architecture. The historiography of modern architecture focused upon classic works published since the 1920s by Pevsner, Giedion, Scully, Banham, Tafuri, and others. Accompanied by philosophies of history by Foucault, White, Kellner, and others. Objective is to think critically about constructions of different histories of modern architecture, and to provide tools generally for analysis of historical knowledge. No prerequisites.

HAA 0195 Boston Architecture and Urbanism. A history of the Boston area's architecture from the seventeenth through the twenty-first centuries, as seen through the region's urban history. Major buildings, architects, and urban planning schemes examined in terms of economic, political, social, and institutional histories. Course work includes field trips; class presentations; and design, research, and photography projects.

HAA 0198 Undergraduate Seminar. Upper-level art history seminar offered on different topics. Refer to semester brochure for specific details each semester. Prerequisites: art history or architectural studies concentration, or consent.

HAA 0199 Senior Honors Thesis A. Senior Honors Thesis. Please see department website for specific details.    
This is a yearlong course. Each semester counts as 4 credits towards a student's credit load. Students will earn 8 credits at the end of the second semester.

HAA 0199 Senior Honors Thesis B. Senior Honors Thesis. Please see department website for specific details    
This is a yearlong course. Each semester counts as 4 credits towards a student's credit load. Students will earn 8 credits at the end of the second semester.

HAA 0200 Seminar In Asian Art: Please refer to semester brochure for course description.

HAA 0205 Seminar In Ancient Art: Please refer to semester brochure for course description.

HAA 0210 Seminar In Armenian or Byzantine Art: Please refer to semester brochure for course description.

HAA 0220 Seminar In Medieval Art: Please refer to semester brochure for course description.

HAA 0230 Seminar In Renaissance Art: Please refer to semester brochure for course description.

HAA 0240 Seminar In Baroque Art: Please refer to semester brochure for course description.

HAA 0250 Seminar In 19th & 20th Century Art: Please refer to semester brochure for course description.

HAA 0255 Seminar In Contemporary Art: Please refer to semester brochure for course description.

HAA 0260 Seminar In Modern American/United States: Please refer to semester brochure for course description.

HAA 0270 Seminar In African Art: Please refer to semester brochure for course description.

FAH 0275 Seminar In Art History: Please refer to semester brochure for course description.

HAA 0280 Seminar Latin American Art: Please refer to semester brochure for course description.

HAA 0284 Curatorial Approaches to Collections Management. An introduction to the intersecting responsibilities of managing a museum collection while making it accessible to public audiences. The course addresses all aspects of collections management from acquisition to deaccessioning, registration documentation, creating collections and disaster plans, collections storage, special collections, art and cultural property crimes, provenance research, facility reports, loans, exhibits and displays, as well as the intellectual control and protection of collection. Students learn about collaborating with artists and community members, managing loans, insurance, and project administration, and explore access strategies such as open storage, online databases and social medial platforms utilized to highlight collections. Guest speakers and field trips connect classroom experience to current issues and practices in the field.

HAA 0285 Museums Today: Mission and Function. (Cross-listed as HIST 285 and ED 285). Offered every fall for the incoming class of museum studies certificate and graduate students, Museums Today provides an introduction to museum operations and current issues. Museums in 21st-century America are changing inside and out. New demands and expectations from various audiences-visitors, community, schools, donors-are challenging the way museums organize staff, shape collections, and create exhibitions and programs. Course topics include governance, ethics, planning, collecting, exhibitions, programming, technology, collaboration, leadership, and finances. The course also examines some of the current issues challenging the field, such as the treatment of disputed cultural property, working with communities, and dealing with controversy.

HAA 0286 Museum Education And Interpretation. The role and functions of the museum in education, and analysis of the activities employed to enhance learning by students of all ages. Methods of selecting, designing, and evaluating public programs appropriate to the learning levels and interests of children, adolescents, and adults in a variety of museum settings. Principles of learning and teaching will be discussed as they relate to educational practice in museums. Instructional methods and materials, including exhibits, demonstrations, role-enactment through living history portrayals, discovery rooms, curriculum materials, self-guided instruction, labels, and publications will be analyzed.

HAA 0287 Exhibition Planning. Classes are organized for students to carry out an actual exhibition from conception to opening reception. Discussions revolve around issues specific to the special exhibition, such as priorities, deadlines, grantsmanship, legal matters, and educational goals. Students experience hands-on involvement in scouting for works, generating the necessary paperwork, designing and installing the show, preparing objects for return to the owners.    
Recommendations: HAA 285 or equivalent experience and permission of instructor.

HAA 0288 Collections Care And Preventive Conservation. (Cross-listed as HIST 291) The chemical and physical nature of material culture, agents of deterioration, preventive conservation strategies and protocol, proper care and handling of artifacts, and the appropriate cleaning and maintenance of museum art objects and historic artifacts. Students learn to survey a collection, establish a basic Integrated Pest Management program, prepare for and respond to an emergency, execute a condition request, construct an artifact preservation plan, and establish safe exhibition and storage techniques. Trips to museums and conservation laboratories, and hands-on opportunities to learn about tools and equipment essential for documenting artifacts and monitoring the museum environment. Prerequisite: ED/FAH/HIST 285

HAA 0289 Museum Practicum. (Cross-listed as ED 284 and HIST 292.)125-hour museum internship gives students firsthand experience in museum work. The student, in collaboration with the academic and site supervisors, arranges the internship, following the protocol described in the Museum Studies Internship Handbook. Students may not do internships where they have worked or volunteered. Prerequisites: A minimum of three Museum Studies courses, one of which must be FAH/HIST/ED0285, must be completed before beginning the internship

HAA 290 Seminar In Architecture. Please refer to semester brochure for course description.

HAA 0293 Qualifying Paper #1. Guided research on a topic that has been approved for a master's qualifying paper.Please see department website for specific details.

HAA 0294 Qualifying Paper #2. Guided research on a topic that has been approved for a master's qualifying paper. Please see department website for specific details.

HAA 0295 Thesis A. Guided research on a topic that has been approved for a master's thesis. Two courses. Please see department website for specific details.    
This is a yearlong course. Each semester counts as 3 credits towards a student’s credit load. Students will earn 6 credits at the end of the second semester.

HAA 0296 Thesis B. Guided research on a topic that has been approved for a master's thesis. Two courses. Please see department website for specific details.    
This is a yearlong course. Each semester counts as 3 credits towards a student’s credit load. Students will earn 6 credits at the end of the second semester.

HAA 0401 Masters Degree Continuation. Part-time. Please see department website for specific details.

HAA 0402 Masters Degree Continuation. Full-time. Please see department website for specific details.

HAA 0404 Comb Degree-Bmfa. Combination Degree-BMFA. Please see department website for specific details.

HAA 0405 Grad Teaching Assistant. Teaching Assistant

HAA 0406 Grad Research Assistant. Research Assistant

HAA 0504 MFA Studio Art. MFA Sudio Art.