Graduate Program
Program
The graduate program of the Department of History of Art at The Ohio State University offers studies leading to the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in a broad range of areas, both Western and non-Western. Students may also take advantage of programs in conjunction with the Columbus Museum of Art and the Wexner Center for the Arts, as well as participate in the University excavations at Isthmia in Greece.
The History of Art Department cooperates with interdisciplinary programs offered at the University, including the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, programs in East Asian, Near and Middle Eastern, Byzantine, Slavic and East European, Women's Studies, and the Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity. Specializations are currently offered in the following areas and periods:
Ancient Near East and Islamic
Lecture courses are offered in the art of the Ancient Near East (Mesopotamia, Pre-Islamic Iran, Anatolia and Syria), Ancient Egypt, and the Islamic world. Graduate seminars focus on literary and documentary sources on the art and architecture of the period and region.
Greek and Roman
Lecture courses provide an overview of classical art and archaeology from Geometric Greece through the Late Roman Empire. Graduate seminars focus especially on stylistic and interpretive problems in Greek and Roman sculpture, painting, and other figurative arts. Graduate students specializing in this field are expected to have substantial preparation in the history, languages, and literature of Ancient Greece and Rome. Coursework in these allied disciplines is incorporated into each program.
Early Christian-Byzantine and Early Western Medieval
Courses deal with all artistic media in relation to their original cultural and socio-political contexts. The program offers a broad scope of approaches and geographic coverage, including Northern and Southern Europe, the Eastern and Western Mediterranean, and artistic cross-currents between Romanesque and Islamic art. Graduate seminars address issues of chronology and of formal and semiotic interpretation; seminars focus on topics as diverse as the liturgy, patronage and urbanism and their influence on the arts and architectural decoration, design and building procedures, individual monuments, and buildings of Medieval France.
High Middle Ages and Northern Renaissance
Courses are focused on monumental sculpture and painting in Northern Europe, especially in France and the Low Countries, involving questions of iconography and style as well as social context. Graduate seminars are directed at specific research interests such as the interpretive and technical aspects of 15th and 16th century altarpieces, Gothic tomb sculpture, Pieter Bruegel and the rise of secular imagery in early Netherlandish art.
Italian Renaissance
Lecture course offerings provide for extensive coverage of painting and sculpture of the 15th and 16th centuries in Florence, Rome, Venice and Northern Italy. Graduate seminars explore in greater depth the art of particular individuals in a more narrowly delineated context of their time and place. Both take as their premise that a knowledge of the works of art themselves and of the artists who created them must precede attempts to deal with them theoretically or contextually.
Baroque
A range of lecture courses consider issues of style and interpretation and context and include subfields in Southern (Italy, Spain, and France) and Northern (Dutch and Flemish) 17th century art. The many and close interconnections of the North and South are acknowledged and served in a close collaboration between the faculty specialists. Graduate seminars focus on particular artists, regional styles, problems in religious and secular iconography, and issues of interpretation.
Modern
Lecture courses provide extensive coverage on art from 1700 to the present and include the history of painting, sculpture, architecture, and film, as well as theory and criticism. The department is able to provide for a global scope in this field of study, with graduate seminars on modern African, Chinese and Soviet art, in addition to Eastern and Western European and American. Faculty interests include iconography, social history, semiotics, and questions of art and philosophy.
Buddhist Art
Covering the length and breadth of Asia, Buddhist art is treated both from the iconographic and contextual approachs as well as the standard stylistic and developmental approaches. Students specializing in Buddhist art are expected to have a thorough command of the Buddhist religion in several areas of Asia, a thorough knowledge of the practices involved in those areas, and a contextual understanding of Buddhist practice in at least one or two cultures in Asia. The languages required are Sanskrit and one appropriate area language (e.g., Chinese, Tibetan, or other as agreed up on with the advisor).
Chinese Art
The Chinese art program emphasizes Chinese painting, particularly of the Ming, Qing, and modern periods. Students will find, however, that coverage of earlier periods, including archaeology and Buddhist art, are also a strong part of the program. Chinese art history majors are encouraged to take advantage of course offerings in cognate fields, such as East Asian Literature, History, and Comparative Studies, as well as in art history. Details of the student's major and minor fields in Chinese art are planned on an individual basis with faculty advisors in the department. The languages required are Chinese and one other, usually Japanese.
Inner Asian Art
The Buddhist art of both the Himalayan and Tarim Basin regions of Asia are the focus of this concentration. Particular emphasis is given to content and transmission of Buddhological ideas. A student concentrating in Inner Asian art may develop a sub-specialization in Tarim Basin, Tibetan, or Nepali art. Students wishing to combine Islamic Inner Asia and Buddhist Inner Asia may do so with the approval of the two advisors.
Japanese Art
Because there is no Japanese specialist on the faculty at this time, advanced degree work is usually limited to Japanese painting or Buddhist art at the M.A. level or to strictly Buddhist Studies at the Ph.D. level. Those wishing to undertake work in other specialties should consult the Asian Program Advisor in the department.
South Asian Art
The entire historical range of South Asian art is taught, including the Buddhist, Hindu, Islamic, British, and modern periods, with focus primarily on the Buddhist and Hindu materials. Emphasis on methodology and historiography are an important element in the South Asian concentration.
In addition to a full range of coverage of the Asian area, particular emphases include lecture courses and graduate seminars on late and contemporary Chinese painting; Buddhist art and iconography through Asia, particularly Tantric Buddhism in the Himalayas; Buddhist and Hindu art of South Asia.
African
The curriculum emphasizes two specializations: African art and archaeology, encompassing the traditional and ancient arts, and contemporary African art, focusing on 20th-century painting and sculpture by region. Graduate seminars involve training in conceptual and research issues as well as the development of individual critical skills.