Course Schedule and Catalog

Long Title: TRUTH TO NATURE: AMERICAN AND ENGLISH PRE-RAPHAELITE PAINTING

Department: Art History

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: 'The Pre-Raphaelites' were 19th century English painters who strived for 'Truth to Nature,' i.e., mimetic renderings of nature and Man, a concept prescribed by aesthete John Ruskin. The latter's writings have reached the United States; American artists have created their own version of Pre-Raphaelitism, adapting it to mythical concepts of American as the new 'Promised Land.' For each lecture, Graduate Students will be assigned additional readings. They will write an annotated bibliography of all the readings to be turned in at the end of the semester. We will meet for an additional two or three weeks to discuss the interpretive and methodological problems and ideas associated with the readings. Graduate students will be expected to complete all requirements of the class in addition to writing a substantial research paper due at the end of the semester.