ART H 473 A: Topics in Baroque Art

Prof. Estelle Lingo

Office: Room 359 Art Building

E-mail: elingo@uw.edu

Office Hours: Wednesdays 4-6 pm and by appointment

Artemisia and All That: Gender and Early Modern Art

2017 was the fortieth anniversary of the Los Angeles County Museum’s exhibition Women Artists, 1550-1950, the controversial first exhibition devoted to women artists. This milestone makes it timely to reexamine the feminist recovery of early modern women artists and to consider art historical approaches to their work, which despite optimistic and idealistic beginnings, have often struggled to realize their promise. A focus of the course will be recent discoveries regarding the artistic career of Artemisia Gentileschi, including the publication in February 2019 of a new seventeenth-century biography of the artist. Our readings will be drawn primarily from recent scholarship, and class sessions will focus upon discussion of this literature, with the aims of exploring the interpretive issues raised by women’s art and identifying ways to redefine and pursue the art historical study of this material.

Skill Building:

Course assignments will build skills in critical analysis of scholarly arguments and the formulation of original art historical arguments.

Grading:

Your final grade will be based upon three, equally weighted components:

First Exam (in-class essay exam) – 1/3

Position Paper – 1/3

Second Exam (in-class essay exam) – 1/3

Late Work Policy:  For late submission of work not arranged in advance with me, a deduction of .5 per day late will apply to the final grade for that assignment.

Grading Scale: All assignments will be graded on a 4.0 scale.

Course Reading: Daily class readings are available under "Files" in the Readings Folder, listed in alphabetical order by author's last name. For class session topics and reading schedule, please consult the course syllabus, available under "Files."

Course Assignments:

Two Essay Exams – May 1 and June 5

These in-class essay exams will ask you to reflect upon our class readings and discussions. In formulating your responses, you should be able to cite specific works by each artist and the names of authors of relevant readings. While you should demonstrate a basic sense of historical chronology, memorization of the precise dates of works is not required for the exams. The first exam will cover material from the first half of the course, and the second exam will cover the second half of the course.

Position Paper – due May 6, 8, or 13

In this approximately 5-page, double-spaced paper (not including endnotes) you will apply the skills developed in class discussions of readings to the analysis of scholarly debates about Artemisia Gentileschi’s early works, self-portraits, and later career. For this assignment I will provide further directions in class, as well as the necessary readings and a grading rubric. Papers should include endnotes in Chicago Manual format. Each student will complete one position paper due on one of the three possible dates; I will hand out a sign-up sheet and try to accommodate student preferences. The papers will be the focus of a panel discussion in class on the due date; participation in the panel discussion is considered part of the assignment.