Lecture 1: Approaches to European Art

Approaches to European Art ..............................................................

Lecture 1

[I]n this ¿ rst lecture, I would like to offer some ideas about looking at

art—how we do it, and why we do it. I start with a question: Where

does one begin a historical survey course?

N

o matter where we jump in, there is always a known prelude,

always the desire to begin earlier than the announced starting point.

We will start with the date 800 A.D., the year of Charlemagne’s

coronation as Holy Roman Emperor. This convenient date may be regarded

as the beginning of the ¿ rst true European civilization, distinct from the

Roman Empire.

The ancient Greek and Roman civilizations preceded and prepared the way

for the new Europe and are always its background. Throughout this course,

we will refer to the artistic achievements of Classical antiquity and its

importance to European art. But our starting point will be the birth of Europe,

and our chronological path will be its evolution into a coherent civilization.

These 48 lectures are not evenly divided among the centuries. For example,

we will survey medieval art in nine lectures, an overview that only begins

to explore an era of great creativity. Medieval art is the background for the

next great era in European art, the Renaissance. Though encompassing only

about two centuries, the Renaissance is the central achievement of European

civilization, and we will devote 17 lectures to it, including 11 on Italian art

and architecture. We will discuss the Baroque era and the 18th century in

a dozen lectures. This period is truly European, politically and culturally.

Here we ¿ nd one Europe composed of many national powers, with a shared

artistic language expressed in the national accents of Italy, Spain, Holland,

Belgium, and France.

The last nine lectures will cover the 19th century and provide an introduction

to the 20th century. The French Revolution and the Napoleonic period that

followed it established France as the de facto capital of European art in the 19th

century, and we will study its art from Romanticism through Impressionism.