ART 331 - Seminar in Northern Art

Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)

Topic for 2014/15a: Art and Science in the Age of Vermeer. The seminar explores how the spirit of curiosity and wonder that stimulated scientific discovery in the Age of Observation in the Netherlands also influenced developments in seventeenth century art. After examining empirical responses to nature by earlier northern European artists such as Jan van Eyck and Albrecht Dürer, we go on to consider how scientific illustrations differ from, but can also be very similar to, images we think of as works of art, how artists and scientists responded to the lure of the lens in this period, and how works by Vermeer and his contemporaries often reveal connections with such diverse areas of scientific inquiry as microscopy, botany, anatomy, astronomy, and cartography. Ms. Kuretsky.

Prerequisite: permission of the instructor

One 2-hour period.