- Autumn 2017
Additional Details:
The course surveys the material culture and artistic production of South Asia — which includes the present-day nation states of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka — from antiquity until the early modern period. We attend to traditional art historical concerns such as the role of the artist, treatment of materials, systems of patronage, development of style, theories of aesthetics, and iconographic analysis. We relate South Asian art to its social contexts, emphasizing exchange and interaction between cultures and groups, including but not limited to artists, pilgrims, merchants, warriors, and kings; Buddhists, Hindus, Jains, Muslims, Sikhs, and Christians; Indians, Persians, Europeans, Central Asians, and Southeast Asians.