Fine Arts (FINH-GA)

This course will give you systematic approaches to analyzing and translating French text and the tools with which you can expand your understanding. Using texts in history of art, you learn the fundamentals of French grammar, how to use a dictionary and how to decipher the meaning of a text. You will learn how knowing certain grammar points, knowing how sentence structures work, and knowing essential vocabulary will give you the keys to understanding French. With the aim of preserving the essence and integrity of the original text, you will become proficient at understanding, critically analyzing, and accurately translating from French to English. No prior knowledge of French is required. Textbook and texts will be provided by the instructor. French Reading is a two-semester course: French Reading 1 is for those with no prior knowledge of French and is offered in fall. French Reading 2 is for those with basic knowledge of French and is offered in Spring.

The course is focused on translating complex texts, like scholarly literature on Art History and Archaeology. The objective of the course for the students is to learn the basic usage of written Italian language, to gain the ability to translate advanced texts and expert words, and to improve knowledge of Italian language and culture. The adopted methodology and strategies pivot on an intensive grammar introduction and revision, with focused exercises, acompanied by the reading, translation, and discussion on different type of specialized texts. The syntactic analysis of a text, along with the knowledge of the vocabulary used by Art Historian, leads the students to the choice of the appropriate translation technique, and to the correct understanding of scholarly texts. The course is open to beginners, intermediate, and advanced students: there will be an initial assessment of the level of knowledge of the participants, thereby the lesson will be tailored to meet the needs, the goals, and the skills of the learners.

Enhance your research skills by learning how to read and translate German scholarly texts. The courses are conducted in English, and RK1 does not require any previous knowledge of German. After completing both courses, RK1 and RK2, you will be able to independently read, understand, and translate texts. After completion of RK2, students will take the Reading Knowledge Exam. Coursebook: German Quickly: A Grammar for Reading German

This course is an introduction to the art and archaeology of the Greek world from 1050 to 480 BCE. While offering a detailed discussion of the urbanism, architecture, and visual arts of this period in their social and cultural context, this course explores critical questions about ancient art: including the birth of monumental architecture, the development of visual narrative, and the agency of images and monuments. The two requirements for the lecture are a final examination, which will encompass the material covered in the entire course, and a fifteen pages paper.

This course provides an overview of Medieval art and its major issues, moving chronologically from the Late Antique/Migration period to the Late Gothic. Students become familiar with key monuments and also the kinds of interpretations scholars have developed to give works meaning. Discussions focus especially on several wide-reaching themes: the aesthetic status of art and the theological role of images; the revival of classical models and visual modes; social rituals such as pilgrimage and crusading; the cult of the Virgin and the status of women in art; and, more generally, the ideology of visual culture across the political and urban landscapes. Assessment by two exams and a short interpretive paper. No interview required.

IFA lecture course with different subtopics offered on a rotating basis per semester based on teaching faculty research. For the most up-to-date description of the current semester's course offering, please review the information on the Class Notes section, or visit the IFA website.

IFA lecture course with different subtopics offered on a rotating basis per semester based on teaching faculty research. For the description of the current semester's course offering, please visit the IFA website here: https://ifa.nyu.edu/study/courses.html.

The lectures survey selected issues in the prehistory of the museum, such as collecting in classical antiquity through the Renaissance; the studiolo; the Kunstkammer; the birth of the 'modern' museum in the age of Enlightenment; the history of European and American museums in the 19th century as they emerged alongside the disciplines of archaeology and art history; museums in the 20th century and their expanding definition largely as a consequence of increased attention to modern and contemporary art and its rupture with tradition. The course will conclude with an examination of how museums are adapting to a rapidly changing world and more diverse audiences; how museums are affected by and harnessing technology such as virtual reality and artificial intelligence; how these and other developments are shaping the museum of the future.

IFA lecture course with different subtopics offered on a rotating basis per semester based on teaching faculty research. For the most up-to-date description of the current semester's course offering, please review the information on the Class Notes section, or visit the IFA website.

This course will examine the development of art conservation in both theory and practice from its earliest manifestations to the current moment. An historical overview of the field will serve as background for a more detailed exploration of core issues in preservation and restoration. How does conservation change the appearance - and by extension, the meaning - of a work of art? How have the theoretical underpinnings of the discipline evolved, and what role do they play in practice today? And how has conservation responded to the enormous social, historical and intellectual changes of the last few years? Topics to be discussed include the roles of artist-restorer and architect-restorer in the rise of a discipline; the impact of science and scientific inquiry; cleaning controversies and the lure of positivist thinking; the development of ethical standards; decision-making in conservation; the challenges of modern and contemporary art; sustainability; and the expanding roles of the conservator. Readings will range from theoretical treatises to case studies of treatments, but no pre- requisite of scientific knowledge is required. The course is open to all art history, archaeology and conservation students, and it fulfills the conservation requirement for art history and archaeology students.

This course provides an advanced introduction to the discipline and methods of art history, driven by members of the Institute faculty. Taking up the view that art history is not a fixed, unitary discipline but rather a multifarious field of study, the course introduces incoming M.A. students to some foundational concepts and historical developments that shape art history's various specializations. The course aims to provide a basis for the coursework and research of these students over the two years of the program, and a foundation for critical reflection in all future work.

These courses emphasize the study and conservation of both organic and inorganic materials found in art and archaeology from ancient to contemporary periods. The preparation, manufacture, and identification of the materials used in the construction and conservation of works of art are studied as are mechanisms of degradation and the physiochemical aspects of conservation treatments.

These courses emphasize the study and conservation of both organic and inorganic materials found in art and archaeology from ancient to contemporary periods. The preparation, manufacture, and identification of the materials used in the construction and conservation of works of art are studied as are mechanisms of degradation and the physiochemical aspects of conservation treatments.

This course introduces first-year conservation students to organic materials and the methods used to produce works of art and cultural heritage, as well as to aspects of their deterioration and treatment histories.

This course introduces first-year conservation students to inorganic materials and the methods used to produce works of art, archaeological and ethnographic objects, and other historical artifacts as well as to aspects of their deteriorations and treatment histories.

These courses provide an introduction to instrumental methods of examination and analysis that find frequent use in the field of conservation. Equipment housed in both the Conservation Center and the Metropolitan Museum of Art is utilized and made available to the students.

These courses provide an introduction to instrumental methods of examination and analysis that find frequent use in the field of conservation. Equipment housed in both the Conservation Center and the Metropolitan Museum of Art is utilized and made available to the students.

This course introduces students to current practices in conservation, including examination and documentation, adhesion, consolidation, structural support, cleaning and compensation. Topics are presented as they relate to divergent specialties of conservation, including paintings, paper and objects.

This course introduces all relevant issues of the museum environment: temperature and relative humidity, gaseous and particulate pollutants, light, vibration, and biological attack. Guidelines for the proper storage, display and transport of art objects are reviewed and cost-benefit analysis and risk assessment, emergency preparedness and disaster response are exercised on selected case studies.

This course will examine the development of art conservation in both theory and practice from its earliest manifestations to the current moment. An historical overview of the field will serve as background for a more detailed exploration of core issues in preservation and restoration. How does conservation change the appearance - and by extension, the meaning - of a work of art? How have the theoretical underpinnings of the discipline evolved, and what role do they play in practice today? And how has conservation responded to the enormous social, historical and intellectual changes of the last few years? Topics to be discussed include the roles of artist-restorer and architect-restorer in the rise of a discipline; the impact of science and scientific inquiry; cleaning controversies and the lure of positivist thinking; the development of ethical standards; decision-making in conservation; the challenges of modern and contemporary art; sustainability; and the expanding roles of the conservator. Readings will range from theoretical treatises to case studies of treatments, but no pre- requisite of scientific knowledge is required. The course is open to all art history, archaeology and conservation students, and it fulfills the conservation requirement for art history and archaeology students.

This course provides a foundation in the theory and practice of image-based documentation, focusing primarily on techniques which use DSLR cameras. Taught as a combination of lectures and hands-on sessions, weekly sessions will cover the following topics: documentation theory, standard visible light imaging, multiband imaging, reflectance transformation imaging, photogrammetry, micro-imaging, videography and data management. Deliverables will include a mixture of small technique-specific assignments and a broader outreach project.

An advanced graduate-level studio course on the conservation of paintings.

The student is assigned specific deteriorated objects related to their field of special interest. The student examines and records their condition and then recommends and performs courses of treatment. A review is made of published records of treatment of related works. Written reports of treatment together with supporting illustrative materials are submitted.

The student is assigned specific deteriorated objects related to their field of special interest. The student examines and records their condition and then recommends and performs courses of treatment. A review is made of published records of treatment of related works. Written reports of treatment together with supporting illustrative materials are submitted.

This course involves the instrumental and scientific analysis of materials of a specific nature. Emphasis is placed on research to develop new methods of examining, preserving, and restoring works of art exhibiting particular types of structural failure. The results lead to a publishable paper.

This course involves the instrumental and scientific analysis of materials of a specific nature. Emphasis is placed on research to develop new methods of examining, preserving, and restoring works of art exhibiting particular types of structural failure. The results lead to a publishable paper.

IFA colloquium course with different subtopics offered on a rotating basis per semester based on teaching faculty research. For the most up-to-date description of the current semester's course offerings, please review the information on the Class Notes section, or visit the IFA website.

IFA colloquium course with different subtopics offered on a rotating basis per semester based on teaching faculty research. For the most up-to-date description of the current semester's course offering, please review the information on the Class notes section, or visit the IFA website.

IFA colloquium course with different subtopics offered on a rotating basis per semester based on teaching faculty research. For the most up-to-date description of the current semester's course offering, please review the information on the Class Notes section, or visit the IFA website.

Tapping into New York City’s unparalleled collections, this colloquium explores the history of medieval art in America. Key figures include J. P. Morgan, Henry Walters, G. Grey Barnard, William Randolph Hearst, Isabella Stewart Gardner, and Raymond Pitcairn. It will consider the various contexts that inspired and motivated these collectors (English Romanticism, the American Arts & Crafts movement, German Rundbogenstil revival...). Some weeks we will meet in public and private collections around New York; a day-trip to private collections in Philadelphia is also a possibility. Students will produce one short object-oriented paper, drawing from a museum’s archives, and one seminar-long paper.

Using the current exhibition Hear Me Now: The Black Potters of Old Edgefield, South Carolina as a model, this graduate-level seminar course explores emerging modes of curatorial practice at The Met. This course will deconstruct and examine the process of developing Hear Me Now, a multi-year collaboration that was shaped by external input and expertise, decentralizing the museum as the authoritative voice. Guest lecturers will include museum staff as well as outside partners, and discussions will range from exhibition space and design, interpretation strategy, and research methodology to community engagement, museum hierarchies, and restorative practice. The course examines the ways in which this exhibition makes several key interventions and suggests a possible framework to rethink curatorial approaches and catalyze change in museum practice.

IFA seminar course with different subtopics offered on a rotating basis per semester based on teaching faculty research. For the most up-to-date description of the current semester's course offering, please review the information on the Class notes section, or visit the IFA website.

IFA seminar course with different subtopics offered on a rotating basis per semester based on teaching faculty research. For the most up-to-date description of the current semester's course offerings, please review the information on the Class Notes section, or visit the IFA website.

IFA seminar course with different subtopics offered on a rotating basis per semester based on teaching faculty research. For the most up-to-date description of the current semester's course offering, please review the information on the Class notes section, or visit the IFA website.

IFA seminar course with different subtopics offered on a rotating basis per semester based on teaching faculty research. For the most up-to-date description of the current semester's course offering, please review the information on the Class notes section, or visit the IFA website.

IFA seminar course with different subtopics offered on a rotating basis per semester based on teaching faculty research. For the description of the current semester's course offering, please visit the IFA website here: https://ifa.nyu.edu/study/courses.html.

The perception of Islamic art as an aniconic art is long-established and pervasive. In the nineteenth century, the idea was canonized in Orientalist discourses on the relation between race and culture by the coining of the German term Bilderverbot (lit. Image Prohibition) to denote an antipathy to figurative images seen as characteristic of Semitic peoples, including both Jews and Arabs (qua Muslims). On the one hand, this assumed antipathy to figurative art is often said to have inspired the development of characteristic art forms: calligraphy, geometry and vegetal ornament (the ‘arabesque’). On the other, it is often said to have inspired historical acts of iconoclasm, even up to our own day. Perhaps not surprisingly, both the material and textual evidence suggest a more complex, nuanced and varied series of attitudes to the production or consumption of images, marked by regional and temporal variations. In addition, etic accounts of the relationship between Islam and image are characterized by striking inconsistencies and paradoxes – at various times, for example, Muslims have been depicted as both iconoclasts and idolaters. This colloquium will explore some of these paradoxes. It will consider the kinds of materials that might serve to construct a history (or histories) of attitudes to images and image-making in the Islamic world, and the difficulties inherent in such a project. Profiting from a recent proliferation of publications on aniconism and iconoclasm more generally, we will discuss such topics as the ontological status of images, their social function and material (in)stability, concepts of abstraction, and iconoclasm and modernity.

This seminar explores the history and representation of French colonial activity in the Americas, Asia, and Africa from the reign of Louis XIV to the invasion of Algiers (c. 1660-1830). It studies the formation and fall of state-sponsored corporations like the French East India Company, the Senegal Company, and the Mississippi Company, as well as entities and individuals involved in the transatlantic slave trade. It also examines the increasing reliance in eighteenth-century Europe on the production, extraction, exportation, and consumption of natural resources and commodities like sugar, mahogany, cotton, and indigo, not only for economic livelihood but also for the construction of what Simon Gikandi has called the “culture of taste:” a world of “civilized” European comportment and aesthetics that was fundamentally dependent on violent, dehumanizing practices of enslavement and human trafficking. In the second half of the semester, we will research largely unexplored links between plantation ownership and enslavement in France’s Caribbean colonies (most notably Saint Domingue/Haiti) and the production and consumption of art in metropolitan France, and we will work on a digital mapping project dedicated to revealing these links. Lastly, we will consider how museums have addressed or elided histories of slavery and colonialism in installations and exhibitions. Students will be required to produce a 15-20 page research paper or a creative project; reading knowledge of French is recommended but not required.

How did religious life in the capital and its port reflect or react to what was simultaneously occurring across the Roman Empire and at its frontiers? How and why were so many different deities integrated within Rome and Ostia during the high imperial period and Late Antiquity in various contexts and how did polytheists and monotheists coexist? In this seminar, we will engage in vibrant current debates about these questions, asking whether we are able to define categories such as “foreign,” “official,” “unofficial,” “elective” and “ancestral,” and evaluating their usefulness. We will delve into the complex archaeological, visual, epigraphic, and topographical evidence for religious choices and activities in Rome and Ostia at the local level during a period of intense change. The religious and cultural identities of the cities’ diverse residents will be considered, as well as the divine images they created, dedications they offered, and the buildings and spaces where they venerated gods and goddesses that represent myriad traditions. Examples include shrines for lares (household gods) in houses and at street corners, dedications to the woodland god Silvanus in Rome’s military camps, elaborate sanctuaries dedicated to Magna Mater, Isis, and Mithras, and the exceptionally well-preserved synagogue and Christian basilica at Ostia. Students will gain experience working with different types of archaeological, topographical, visual, and epigraphic evidence, and familiarity with excavation reports, topographical lexicons, epigraphic corpora, and seminal recent publications. Our study will also be contextualized within a broad framework as we draw careful comparisons to relevant material from sites across the Empire, east and west.

IFA seminar course with different subtopics offered on a rotating basis per semester based on teaching faculty research. For the most up-to-date description of the current semester's course offering, please review the information on the Class notes section, or visit the IFA website.

IFA seminar course with different subtopics offered on a rotating basis per semester based on teaching faculty research. For the most up-to-date description of the current semester's course offering, please review the information on the Class Notes section, or visit the IFA website.

IFA seminar course with different subtopics offered on a rotating basis per semester based on teaching faculty research. For the most up-to-date description of the current semester's course offering, please review the information on the Class Notes section, or visit the IFA website.

IFA seminar course with different subtopics offered on a rotating basis per semester based on teaching faculty research. For the most up-to-date description of the current semester's course offerings, please review the information on the Class Notes section, or visit the IFA website.

This course will consider how vernacular photography offers insight into the possibilities and limitations of the medium’s central relationship to black subjectivity. While the history of photography most often begins with a named photographer, considerations of vernacular photographs often start with the unknown or quotidian subject depicted. In the case of vernacular photography of the African Diaspora, interpretations depend heavily on discourses of race as they intersect with the images’ historically specific social uses and viewing conventions, their physical and tactile nature, and diverse networks of circulation. This course addresses a range of visual material including daguerreotypes, commercial studio portraits, family albums, identity photographs and lynching postcards. It will turn to a roster of innovative thinkers to remap the very ways photography and Black life are discussed. Readings by scholars including Tina Campt, Shawn Michelle Smith, Leigh Raiford, Christina Sharpe, Kevin Quashie, Tanya Sheehan, and Saidiya Hartman inform moments of close looking and reflection.

IFA seminar course with different subtopics offered on a rotating basis per semester based on teaching faculty research. For the most up-to-date description of the current semester's course offering, please review the information on the Class notes section, or visit the IFA website.

IFA seminar course with different subtopics offered on a rotating basis per semester based on teaching faculty research. For the most up-to-date description of the current semester's course offering, please review the information on the Class notes section, or visit the IFA website.

IFA seminar course with different subtopics offered on a rotating basis per semester based on teaching faculty research. For the most up-to-date description of the current semester's course offering, please review the information on the Class Notes section, or visit the IFA website.

IFA seminar course with different subtopics offered on a rotating basis per semester based on teaching faculty research. For the most up-to-date description of the current semester's course offering, please review the information on the Class notes section, or visit the IFA website.

IFA seminar course with different subtopics offered on a rotating basis per semester based on teaching faculty research. For the most up-to-date description of the current semester's course offering, please review the information on the Class Notes section, or visit the IFA website.

IFA seminar course with different subtopics offered on a rotating basis per semester based on teaching faculty research. For the most up-to-date description of the current semester's course offering, please review the information on the Class Notes section, or visit the IFA website.

IFA seminar course with different subtopics offered on a rotating basis per semester based on teaching faculty research. For the most up-to-date description of the current semester's course offering, please review the information on the Class Notes section, or visit the IFA website.

IFA seminar course with different subtopics offered on a rotating basis per semester based on teaching faculty research. For the most up-to-date description of the current semester's course offering, please review the information on the Class Notes section, or visit the IFA website.

Attention spans are on the decline, as are our memories. We are flooded by images presented on digital platforms designed to enhance delivery of an unending cascade of visual content. The times call out for principled resistance, and also some reconsideration of the values we associate with slowness and speed. In this course we approach works of art as invitations to slow looking, in order to cultivate attuned and independent thinking. The course will include visits to the Met and the Frick to do slow looking in person. Besides learning a protocol for extended observation, students will receive intensive training in analytical methods. How do we pass from a series of observations to a set of questions, and then go about exploring those questions? Students will engage in discussion of works of art and write frequent short writing assignments. We will also read essays that address questions of visual attention, and others that exemplify the art of slow looking, anatomizing them in order to learn from them. Students will get used to spending one or two hours looking at a single work of art, writing logs of their time spent doing so. They will also write analyses (“X-rays”) of the readings. They will also develop questions about a given work that will serve to lead group discussion on our site visits. Finally, they will write a paper of 15-20 pages focused on one of the works, drawing on the materials prepared by all the students throughout the term concerning that work. Grading: class participation (20%), logs (10%), X-rays (20%), questions for discussion and leading discussion (15%), paper (35%).

A seminar for art historians on the technical and material aspects of art objects.

On occasion, a student’s particular interest may not be fully represented by the course offerings or is of such a personal nature that a course is just not available. In these cases, the student, in consultation with the Chair, can develop his or her own independent study course, focusing either on their area of specialization in conservation or hostory of art and archaeology. Individualized Instruction courses must be approved prior to registration. A course number will be assigned during the registration period.

On occasion, a student’s particular interest may not be fully represented by the course offerings or is of such a personal nature that a course is just not available. In these cases, the student, in consultation with the Chair, can develop his or her own independent study course, focusing either on their area of specialization in conservation or hostory of art and archaeology. Individualized Instruction courses must be approved prior to registration. A course number will be assigned during the registration period.

On occasion, a student’s particular interest may not be fully represented by the course offerings or is of such a personal nature that a course is just not available. In these cases, the student, in consultation with the Chair, can develop his or her own independent study course, focusing either on their area of specialization in conservation or hostory of art and archaeology. Individualized Instruction courses must be approved prior to registration. A course number will be assigned during the registration period.

The student will, in consultation with the Faculty Advisor, conduct research and write a scholarly Master’s Thesis on a specific topic within art history or archaeology. The Thesis will follow the outline proposed and approved in the previous semester. The student will gain experience with graduate-level research and the writing of a paper of publishable quality (9,000 word limit).

In consultation with their Faculty Advisor, the student will prepare for their oral and written exams related to a specific topic within art history or archaeology that is based upon the approved prospectus. The student will complete these final exams before earning their Master's of Philosophy.

In consultation with their Faculty Advisor, the student will conduct research and write a dissertation on a specific topic within art history or archaeology that is based upon the approved prospectus. The student will gain experience with graduate-level research and the writing of a book-length manuscript of publishable quality.