Professor Alexander Nemerov

McMurtry 343
5-8053
anemerov@stanford.edu
Office Hours: Mondays, 1-3,
or by appointment
Art 1:
Introduction to the Visual Arts: The History of
Western Art from the Renaissance to the Present
This course examines the history of Western art from the start of the
14th century to the late 20th century. Lectures will introduce students to
important artists and paintings (this is primarily a course about
paintings), as well as major concepts associated with the art. Sections
will focus on original works of art at the Cantor Arts Center.
Throughout the course, we will develop skills of looking closely at
pictures, and of speaking and writing about them.
The goal and question of the course will be how, or if, works of art
matter in ones life.
REQUIREMENTS
--Lecture and section attendance, section participation (20% of the
grade)
--Short paper (due October 16) (10% of the grade)
--Midterm examination (October 30) (15% of the grade)
--rough draft of final paper (topic due November 9; draft due
November 16) (10% of the grade)
--8-page final paper (Due December 4) (25% of the grade)
--Final examination (20% of the grade)
All students, including those taking the course CR/NC, will need to
complete all assignments to pass the course.
REQUIRED TEXT (available at the Stanford Bookstore)
--Laurie Schneider Adams, A History of Western Art
SECTIONS
The three t.a.s for the course are Joseph Larnerd, Helen Krueger, and
Yinshi Lerman-Tan. Please sign up for sections on axess. Sections
will meet weekly on Thursdays and Fridays at the following times:

Mondays, 1:30-2:20 (Yinshi Lerman-Tan, t.a.)

Mondays, 2:30-3:20 (Helen Krueger, t.a.)
Wednesdays, 1:30-2:20 (Yinshi Lerman-Tan, t.a.)
Thursdays, 4:30-5:20 (Joseph Larnerd, t.a.)
Thursdays, 6:30-7:20 (Joseph Larnerd, t.a.)
Fridays, 2:30-3:20 (Helen Krueger, t.a.)
Sections will start the week of September 28-October 2. All
sections will be conducted before original works of art in the
Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford and
at the Anderson Collection at Stanford. Please plan to arrive at
the museum at least ten minutes before the scheduled start of your
section, to ensure proper time to park bikes and stow backpacks.
There is a graveled place to park bikes at the southeast corner of the
building. Once you enter the building, lockers are located in the
coatroom directly behind the main lobby. All sections will gather in the
lobby prior to going up to the galleries.
Please note that water-bottles and ink pens are not allowed in the
galleries.
A NOTE ABOUT THE SHORT PAPER (due October 16)
The assignment: select a work of western art, made between ca. 1300
and 1900, in the Cantor Arts Center. Choose a work that compels you
in some way, and write a 3-4 page paper, double-spaced, about this
work of art.
Your task in the paper is threefold.
First, it is to describe what you see in this one work of art that you
could not see if you were looking only at a reproduction of it on-line or
in a book. The number of things you will see is entirely dependent upon
your own skills of observation, your own thoughtfulness too. A cursory
inspection of five minutes will yield a correspondingly low amount of
information. A sustained inspectionperhaps two sustained
engagements with the work, each one encompassing thirty minutes or
morewill yield much more information.
Second, it is to think about the way this close observation invokes a
sense of the past. How do the things youve noticed invite you to think
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about the work coming from a remote time and place? What are the
marks of age, of loss, of ruin, but also of ongoing life and presenceas
if the painting were even made yesterdaythat this work evokes for
you?
Third, and maybe most important, it is to describebased on this one
work of art, and your sustained engagement with itwhat this sense of
the past means for you. What are the benefits and/or even the lack of
benefit to studying things from remote times and places?
Note that the paper must be turned in to the t.a. in printed
form.
EXTRA CREDIT ASSIGNMENT (due October 23)
The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco will be displaying a special and
rare painting directly related to our course: Raphaels Portrait of a Lady
with a Unicorn (ca. 1505-06). The painting will be on loan from the
Cincinnati Art Museum and on display at the Palace of the Legion of
Honor (one of the two Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco) from
October 3 to January 3. Anyone who wishes to visit the museum and
write a short (2-3 page) paper about Raphaels paintinga paper that
explores the same questions explored in the short paper due October
16 (the sense of the past produced by a face-to-face encounter with a
work of art)will receive 2 additional points on their final grade at the
end of the quarter. Note that this paper should be turned in in
printed form directly to the professor himself.
A NOTE ABOUT THE FINAL PAPER (paper topic due November 9;
rough draft due November 16; paper due December 4)
The paper is to be written about one or two works of art at the Cantor
Arts Center or at the Palace of the Legion of Honor or SFMOMA in San
Francisco. Students will select the work(s) they wish to write about in
consultation with their t.a. and/or the professor, and notify their t.a. of
their selection no later than November 1. The final paper will be a
thesis-driven account, eight pages in length, analyzing the painting(s)
in detail and incorporating research from at least five books or articles
found in Stanford libraries and databases. Correct footnoting and
bibliographic formats will be expected, together with illustrations.
Note that the paper must be turned in to the t.a. in printed
form.
A NOTE ABOUT REVIEWING LECTURES AND STUDYING FOR THE
MIDTERM AND FINAL

To review the main images for each lecture, go to the Stanford Art and
Architecture Library home page; click on VRC ImageBase (on the
righthand column); then, on a new screen, click on View Art History
Faculty Collections; and then, on the next screen, click on Alexander
Nemerov. You will then see Art 1. Click on that; you will find the
main images, itemized by individual lecture. The images are
updated each Friday during the quarter to reflect the most
recent lectures.
A NOTE ABOUT COMPUTER USE DURING LECTURES
Using your computer to take notes in classand to consult the lecture
sheet available on Courseworkcan be a useful way of learning the
course material. Please be mindful that using your computer for other
purposes during lectures creates a distracting and disrespectful
environment in the classroom. A first such use will result in a warning;
a second will result in a request to leave the class.
LECTURE AND READING SCHEDULE
September 21

The Story of a Painting: Duccio and the

Maesta Altarpiece, Siena, ca. 1309
Reading: Adams, 1-22
September 23
Giotto and the Arena Chapel, Padua, ca.
1305
Reading: Adams, 222-241
September 25

NO CLASS MEETING

September 28
Fra

Perspective and Faith: Masaccio, Uccello,

Angelico: Painting in Florence, ca. 142545

Reading: Adams, 242-262
September 30

Emotion and Devotion: Rogier van der

Weydens Descent from the Cross and
Painting in Flanders, ca. 1435
Reading: Adams, 267-278
October 2

NO CLASS MEETING

October 5
Sadness

Botticellis Birth of Venus: Beauty, Love,

Reading: Adams, 263-266

October 7
Painting in

Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael:

Florence, 1501-08
Reading: Adams, 279-286, 295-297
October 9

Figuration and Disfiguration:

Michelangelo and the Mannerists,
1508-30
Reading: Adams, 287-294, 306-309
October 12
History and

Raphaels Transfiguration: The

Practice of Levitation

Reading: none
October 14

Idolatry and Iconoclasm: Art in Northern

Europe before and after the Reformation,
1480-1540
Reading: Adams, 318, 325-332
October 16
Bruegel,

The Imagination: Bosch and

Ca. 1500-60

Reading: 319-324
NOTE: SHORT PAPER DUE
October 19

Portaiture, Ghosts, and Celebrity: The Art

of Sofonisba Anguissola
Reading: Adams, 306-314
October 21
Life and Death in Painting:
Caravaggio
Reading: Adams, 333-334, 347-349
October 23

Flamboyance, Excess, and Creativity:

Peter Paul Rubens
Reading: Adams, 351-352
October 26
Art and Royalty: Velzquez
Reading: Adams, 363-365, 448-449
October 28
Art and the Public Sphere:
Rembrandt
Reading: Adams, 353-357
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October 30

MIDTERM EXAM

November 2
Art and the Face: Vermeers Girl
with a Pearl Earring
Reading: Adams, 358-361
November 4
Singleton

Sentiment and Commerce: John

Copleys Watson and the Shark, 1777

Reading: Adams, 367-376, 382-384
November 6

The Artist in the New Republic:

Charles Willson Peales Staircase Group,

1795
Reading: none
November 9
Goya and the Romantic Imagination
Reading: Adams, 407-409
NOTE: FINAL PAPER TOPIC DUE
November 11

Caspar David Friedrich and the Invention

Of Private Life
Reading: Adams, 385-392, 398-406
November 13

Painting and Modern Life: Manet

in the 1860s
Reading: Adams, 415-423, 426-428, 433-438
November 16

Sleep, Dreams, and Reverie: Edvard

Munch and the Night
Reading: Adams, 439-447, 452-466
NOTE: ROUGH DRAFT OF FINAL PAPER DUE
November 18
The Nude: Picasso and Matisse, 1908
Reading: Adams, 467-485
November 20
Mark Rothkos Seagram Murals, 1959
Reading: Adams, 518-527
November 30
The 1980s: Signs of Excess
Reading: Adams, 533-549
December 2
12
Reading: 550-581

Doris Salcedos A Flor de Piel, 2011-

December 4
Turning

Conclusion: Bruegel, Auden, and

Inward
Reading: none
NOTE: FINAL PAPER DUE
FINAL EXAM: THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10, 8:30 a.m.