Throughout human history, art has served as a window into current events, traditions, societies and culture. And, Chinese and Western civilizations have produced some of the most famous artworks by world-renowned artists.
This course will examine Western and Chinese art, artists and history. Through exploring immortal works of art, this course will help learners gain insight into our shared history and better understand culture, both past and present.
From an interdisciplinary perspective of art history, aesthetics, intellectual history and cultural history, we will explore spiritual and cultural questions such as “where are we from” and “what is humanity.” The course will present a general overview of Chinese art and Western art, focusing on major works with special attention paid to the comparison between China and the West and between tradition and modernity.
In this course, learners will develop a systematic knowledge of Western and Chinese art history, its artists and aesthetic theories. Students will develop aesthetic judgment, appreciation and a knowledge of humanities, and cultivate their artistic tastes.
Join us as we survey renowned Chinese and Western artists and deepen our understanding and appreciation of art, history and culture.
1.1Factual impairment between image and message
1.2Relationship between Fact and Truth
1.3The image revelry in the information age
1.4 Nature, animal and human body art
1.5 Art: from concrete bodies to metaphorical constructions
1.6 On defining art
1.7 Globalization and Consumerism
1.8 Art and Anti-art
1.9The value classics hold to the modern time
2. The Dawn of Icon: Masterpieces by Unknown Artists
2.1 The occurrence of prehistoric art
2.2 Mysterious cave mural paintings
2.3 Symbolism of rock engravings
2.4 Expressive functions about prehistoric painting
2.5 Aesthetic characters of prehistoric art
2.6 The tribal art of bodily operation
2.7 The construction to reach the heaven
2.8 Immortal art in ancient Egyptian
3.Mythological creation of beauty: From Homer to Phidias
3.1 The relationship between mythology and Greek culture
3.2 The marks of the epics written by Homer
3.3 Three greatest tragedy drammatists in Greece
3.4 The aesthetics woven into ancient Greek architecture
3.5 The ancient Greek sculpture
3.6 The Greek sculpture of the classic age
3.7 Works of Phidias
3.8 The essence and verve of ancient Greek classical art
4.Majesty and Divinity: From Bronze Ware to Han Stone Rrelief
4.1The beginning of Chinese painting and Calligraphy
4.2 Majesty and divinity from bronze ware
4.3 The Duke Mao Tripod and eternal characters
4.4The Philosophy of Chuang Tzu
4.5Qin Shi Huang’s Terracotta Warriors
4.6The painting in the Han Dynasty
4.7 The sculpture in the Han Dynasty
5.Grief and Transcendence: Wang Xizhi and Gu Kaizhi
5.1Master Chuang Tzu's impact on the Wei and Jin Dynasties
5.2Talking about Ji Kang
5.3 The general spirit of the Wei and Jin Dynasties
5.4 Wang Xizhi and his unrivalled attainment in calligraphy
5.5 A Preface to the Orchid Pavilion
5.6 The penmanship of two famous calligraphers surnamed Wang
5.7Gu Kaizhi and his painting
5.8 Great poet Tao Yuanming
6.Unrestrained-ness and unconventional-ness: Zhang Xu and Wu Daozi
6.1The Chan School in the Tang dynasty
6.2“Cursive King”: Zhang Xu
6.3《Four Calligraphy Works of Ancient Poems》
6.4Zhang Xu and Huai Su
6.5Wu Daozi and his paintings
6.6Wang Wei and Chinese landscape painting
6.7The relation of painting and poetry
7. Earthliness and Holiness: Giotto and Jan Van Eyck
7.1 The beginning of Renaissance: Giotto
7.2 Giotto’s naturalism
7.3 The frescoes in the Arenal Chapel
7.4 The Renaissance artist in north Europe: Robert Campin
7.5 The Ghent Altarpiece
7.6 Jan Van Eyck’s secular paintings
8. The Blossoming of Holiness: From Da Vinci to Titian
8.1 The beauty of dawn during Renaissance
8.2 The reproducer of nature: Da Vinci
8.3 The immortal work Mona Lisa
8.4 The classicism of Raphael
8.5 The Sistine Chapel ceiling
8.6 The mythology and sculpture of Moses
8.7 Michelangelo's struggle between life and death
8.8 The perceptual Titian and Venice
9.Nature and Human Nature: Rubens, Poussin and Rembrandt
9.1Rubens and the Baroque Art
9.2Poussin and his classical spirit
9.3Rembrandt and his aptitude of wielding light and shadow
9.4 Rembrandt in his self-portrait
9.5 Vermeer and his painting
10.Verve and Character: From Wang Wei to Ni Zan
10.1Landscape painting from the Five Dynasties period to the Northern Song Dynasty
10.2 Creating painting out of poetry by Emperor Huizong of Song
10.3 Viewing the small through the large
10.4 Combining the tangible with the intangible
10.5 The atmosphere of freedom, detachedness and ease of landscape painting
10.6 Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains
10.7 Friendliness in Ni Zan’s painting
10.8 A pristine and boundless world in Ni Zan’s painting
11.Personality and Love for Ridicule: Xu Wei the Lunatic
11.1The origin and expression of the madman culture
11.2 The madman Li Zhi
11.3 Xu Wei: from gifted scholar to mad man
11.4 The aesthetic ideology of Xu Wei
11.5 Xu Wei’s notions and theories on painting practise
11.6 Miscellaneous Plants and Flowers
11.7 Drunkenness in Xu Wei's art
12.The Transition of Classicism: From David to Courbet
12.1 Winckelmann
12.2 Neoclassical master: David
12.3 The Death of Marat
12.4 The Intervention of the Sabine Women
12.5 The aestheticism works by Ingres
12.6 The contrast between photography and paintings
12.7 Courbet and realism
13.The Philosophy and Painting of Romanticism
13.1 Rousseau and emotionalism
13.2 Kant's view about the beautiful and the sublime
13.3 Goethe, from Werther to Faust
13.4 Byron, romantic hero
13.5 The painting laws of Romanticism
13.6 John Constable
13.7 The world of Turner
14.Experience and Contemplation: Van Gogh and Cézanne
14.1 Western modernism and Rodin
14.2 The Gates of Hell
14.3 Painting conception of Manet
14.4 Impressionism of Monet
14.5 Cezanne：the Father of the art of modernism
14.6 Van Gogh：painting and life
14.7 The art value of Van Gogh
15.Boundless Art: From Marcel Duchamp to Andy Warhol
15.1 art modernism
15.2 porcelain urinal of Marcel Duchamp
15.3 This is not a pipe
15.4 The great innovation artist: Picasso
15.5 the infinity of art
15.6 the art after Andy Warhol
Final exam