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Major: Bachelor of Arts
MajorOverview
The undergraduate program is designed to help students think critically about the visual arts and visual culture. Courses focus on the meaning of images and media and their historical development, societal roles, and relationships to disciplines such as literature, music, political science, religion, and philosophy. Work performed in the classroom, studio, and screening room is designed to develop a student’s powers of perception, capacity for visual analysis, and knowledge of technical processes.
Requirements
Core Program Requirements
Core Courses
Art History Courses
ARTHIST 5
Art and Power
ARTHIST 294
Writing and the Visual: The Art of Art Writing
ARTHIST 296
Junior Seminar: Methods & Historiography of Art History
Art Practice Course
Complete any four-unit Art Practice (ARTSTUDI) course
Survey Courses
ARTHIST 1A
What is Art: Introduction to Early Global Art and Architecture
ARTHIST 1B
How to Look at Art and Why: An Introduction to the History of Western Painting
ARTHIST 2
Asian Arts and Cultures
ARTHIST 2B
Introduction to Islamic Art
FILMEDIA 4
Introduction to Film Study
FILMEDIA 6
Media and Mediums
Breadth in Discipline
Temporal and Geographic Electives
Majors must take two courses in each of 6 Distribution Categories: three temporal and three geographic.
Any individual course satisfies one temporal and one geographic category. Courses listed in multiple temporal or geographic categories may count toward only one temporal and one geographic requirement (a single course may not be used to satisfy multiple temporal or geographic requirements). Survey Courses and courses taken in the Area of Concentration may apply toward Distribution Categories.
Completing a full year of ITALIC or SLE may count as an Art History elective.
Temporal Distribution Categories
A given course may only be used once to satisfy the below temporal distribution categories.
Before 1350
ARTHIST 1A
What is Art: Introduction to Early Global Art and Architecture
ARTHIST 2B
Introduction to Islamic Art
ARTHIST 100N
The Artist in Ancient Greek Society
ARTHIST 101
Introduction to Greek Art I: The Archaic Period
ARTHIST 102
Introduction to Greek Art II: From the Parthenon to Scopas
ARTHIST 106
Byzantine Art and Architecture, 300-1453 C.E.
ARTHIST 119
Love at First Sight: Visual Desire, Attraction, and the Pleasures of Art
ARTHIST 121N
Islam and Water
ARTHIST 134
Introduction to Early Andean Visual Culture: Interspecies Value and More-than-Human Presence
ARTHIST 139
East Asian Buddhist Painting: Visions and Practices
ARTHIST 143A
American Architecture
ARTHIST 182B
Cultures in Competition: Arts of Song-Era China, 960-1279 CE
ARTHIST 188
Imperial Collecting, Patronage, and Taste in China and Japan
ARTHIST 203
Artists, Athletes, Courtesans and Crooks
ARTHIST 204
Dialogues with the Dead
ARTHIST 205
Enchanted Images: Medieval Art and Its Sonic Dimension
ARTHIST 208
Hagia Sophia
ARTHIST 208A
The Dome as an All-Seeing Eye: Theatre of Judgment in Byzantine Art
ARTHIST 208B
The Art of Medieval Spain: Muslims, Christians, Jews
ARTHIST 208D
Virginity and Power: The Mother of God and Visions of Empire
ARTHIST 209C
Medieval Image Theory
ARTHIST 211A
Andean Textile Logic: Weaving as Practice and Process in the Precontact Andes
ARTHIST 237
The Crusades: A Cultural History
ARTHIST 265A
Word and Image
ARTHIST 287A
The Japanese Tea Ceremony: The History, Aesthetics, and Politics Behind a National Pastime
1350 to 1850
ARTHIST 1B
How to Look at Art and Why: An Introduction to the History of Western Painting
ARTHIST 2B
Introduction to Islamic Art
ARTHIST 115
The Italian Renaissance, or the Art of Success
ARTHIST 119
Love at First Sight: Visual Desire, Attraction, and the Pleasures of Art
ARTHIST 121N
Islam and Water
ARTHIST 129
Fashion
ARTHIST 134
Introduction to Early Andean Visual Culture: Interspecies Value and More-than-Human Presence
ARTHIST 139
East Asian Buddhist Painting: Visions and Practices
ARTHIST 143A
American Architecture
ARTHIST 185
Arts of China in the Early Modern World, 1550-1800
ARTHIST 188
Imperial Collecting, Patronage, and Taste in China and Japan
ARTHIST 211A
Andean Textile Logic: Weaving as Practice and Process in the Precontact Andes
ARTHIST 218A
Michelangelo: Gateway to Early Modern Italy
ARTHIST 231
Leonardo's World: Science, Technology, and Art
ARTHIST 231A
Otherized and Organized: The Politicization of Indigeneity in Colonial Latin America
ARTHIST 238C
Art and the Market
ARTHIST 250A
Printing Protest: The Artist as Social Critic
ARTHIST 265A
Word and Image
ARTHIST 287A
The Japanese Tea Ceremony: The History, Aesthetics, and Politics Behind a National Pastime
1850 to the Present
ARTHIST 111N
Art Worlds: Museum, Studio, Gallery, Archive
ARTHIST 116
The American Civil War: A Ghost Story
ARTHIST 127
Nineteenth-Century Visual Culture in Europe: The Art World en masse
ARTHIST 128
Modern Africa: Art and Decolonization
ARTHIST 129
Fashion
ARTHIST 133
Introduction to Global Modern Art
ARTHIST 142
Architecture Since 1900
ARTHIST 143A
American Architecture
ARTHIST 160
Censorship in American Art
ARTHIST 163
Queer America: Art, Photography, and Politics
ARTHIST 165
Vincent van Gogh and His World
ARTHIST 168A
AI 360: What's Critical to Know about AI
ARTHIST 186B
Asian American Art
ARTHIST 188B
From Shanghai Modern to Global Contemporary: Frontiers of Modern Chinese Art
ARTHIST 191
African American Art
ARTHIST 214A
Love's Reach: A Visual and Poetic History
ARTHIST 217B
Design Theory
ARTHIST 226
Field Works: Contemporary Chinese Landscape Arts across Cultures
ARTHIST 246
Duchamp Then and Now
ARTHIST 250
Cultural Heritage and Urban Space in Cairo and Istanbul
ARTHIST 261
Black Aliveness
ARTHIST 264B
Starstuff: Space and the American Imagination
ARTHIST 265A
Word and Image
ARTHIST 273
Couture Culture
ARTHIST 274
Wonder: The Event of Art and Literature
ARTHIST 274A
The Art of the Uncanny
ARTHIST 284
Material Metonymy: Ceramics and Asian America
ARTHIST 284B
Introduction to Museum Practice
ARTHIST 287A
The Japanese Tea Ceremony: The History, Aesthetics, and Politics Behind a National Pastime
ARTHIST 291
Riot: Visualizing Civil Unrest in the 20th and 21st Centuries
ARTHIST 293A
Latin American Art and Literature: 100 Years of Modernisms
FILMEDIA 4
Introduction to Film Study
FILMEDIA 6
Media and Mediums
FILMEDIA 50Q
The Video Essay: Writing with Video about Media and Culture
FILMEDIA 100A
History of World Cinema I: Silent Cinema and Modern Life
FILMEDIA 100B
History of World Cinema II: Film as Industrial Art
FILMEDIA 100C
History of World Cinema III: Queer Cinemas Around the World
FILMEDIA 101
Close Cinematic Analysis: Poetic Cinema
FILMEDIA 102
Theories of the Moving Image: The Technologically Mediated Image
FILMEDIA 110N
Coming-of-Age Movies
FILMEDIA 112
How French Women (Re)invented Cinema
FILMEDIA 114
Reading Comics
FILMEDIA 120
Superhero Theory
FILMEDIA 135
Around the World in Ten Films
FILMEDIA 178
Film and History of Latin American Revolutions and Counterrevolutions
FILMEDIA 253
Aesthetics and Phenomenology
FILMEDIA 270
German Media Theory
FILMEDIA 290
Movies and Methods: The Films of Howard Hawks
Geographic Distribution Categories
A given course may only be used once to satisfy the below geographic distribution categories.
Asia/Africa/Islam
ARTHIST 1A
What is Art: Introduction to Early Global Art and Architecture
ARTHIST 2
Asian Arts and Cultures
ARTHIST 2B
Introduction to Islamic Art
ARTHIST 106
Byzantine Art and Architecture, 300-1453 C.E.
ARTHIST 121N
Islam and Water
ARTHIST 128
Modern Africa: Art and Decolonization
ARTHIST 133
Introduction to Global Modern Art
ARTHIST 139
East Asian Buddhist Painting: Visions and Practices
ARTHIST 164
History of World Cinema III: Queer Cinemas Around the World
ARTHIST 182B
Cultures in Competition: Arts of Song-Era China, 960-1279 CE
ARTHIST 185
Arts of China in the Early Modern World, 1550-1800
ARTHIST 188B
From Shanghai Modern to Global Contemporary: Frontiers of Modern Chinese Art
ARTHIST 209C
Medieval Image Theory
ARTHIST 214A
Love's Reach: A Visual and Poetic History
ARTHIST 226
Field Works: Contemporary Chinese Landscape Arts across Cultures
ARTHIST 230
Beauty
ARTHIST 237
The Crusades: A Cultural History
ARTHIST 250
Cultural Heritage and Urban Space in Cairo and Istanbul
ARTHIST 287A
The Japanese Tea Ceremony: The History, Aesthetics, and Politics Behind a National Pastime
Europe
ARTHIST 1A
What is Art: Introduction to Early Global Art and Architecture
ARTHIST 1B
How to Look at Art and Why: An Introduction to the History of Western Painting
ARTHIST 100N
The Artist in Ancient Greek Society
ARTHIST 101
Introduction to Greek Art I: The Archaic Period
ARTHIST 102
Introduction to Greek Art II: From the Parthenon to Scopas
ARTHIST 106
Byzantine Art and Architecture, 300-1453 C.E.
ARTHIST 115
The Italian Renaissance, or the Art of Success
ARTHIST 119
Love at First Sight: Visual Desire, Attraction, and the Pleasures of Art
ARTHIST 127
Nineteenth-Century Visual Culture in Europe: The Art World en masse
ARTHIST 129
Fashion
ARTHIST 133
Introduction to Global Modern Art
ARTHIST 164
History of World Cinema III: Queer Cinemas Around the World
ARTHIST 165
Vincent van Gogh and His World
ARTHIST 168A
AI 360: What's Critical to Know about AI
ARTHIST 203
Artists, Athletes, Courtesans and Crooks
ARTHIST 205
Enchanted Images: Medieval Art and Its Sonic Dimension
ARTHIST 208
Hagia Sophia
ARTHIST 208A
The Dome as an All-Seeing Eye: Theatre of Judgment in Byzantine Art
ARTHIST 208B
The Art of Medieval Spain: Muslims, Christians, Jews
ARTHIST 208D
Virginity and Power: The Mother of God and Visions of Empire
ARTHIST 209C
Medieval Image Theory
ARTHIST 214A
Love's Reach: A Visual and Poetic History
ARTHIST 218A
Michelangelo: Gateway to Early Modern Italy
ARTHIST 231
Leonardo's World: Science, Technology, and Art
ARTHIST 238C
Art and the Market
ARTHIST 246
Duchamp Then and Now
ARTHIST 250A
Printing Protest: The Artist as Social Critic
ARTHIST 265A
Word and Image
ARTHIST 275
The Russian and Soviet Avant-Garde
The Americas
ARTHIST 116
The American Civil War: A Ghost Story
ARTHIST 129
Fashion
ARTHIST 134
Introduction to Early Andean Visual Culture: Interspecies Value and More-than-Human Presence
ARTHIST 133
Introduction to Global Modern Art
ARTHIST 143A
American Architecture
ARTHIST 160
Censorship in American Art
ARTHIST 164
History of World Cinema III: Queer Cinemas Around the World
ARTHIST 168A
AI 360: What's Critical to Know about AI
ARTHIST 186B
Asian American Art
ARTHIST 191
African American Art
ARTHIST 207E
Sacred Play: The Material Culture of Christian Festivals
ARTHIST 211A
Andean Textile Logic: Weaving as Practice and Process in the Precontact Andes
ARTHIST 231A
Otherized and Organized: The Politicization of Indigeneity in Colonial Latin America
ARTHIST 246
Duchamp Then and Now
ARTHIST 250A
Printing Protest: The Artist as Social Critic
ARTHIST 261
Black Aliveness
ARTHIST 264B
Starstuff: Space and the American Imagination
ARTHIST 273
Couture Culture
ARTHIST 284B
Introduction to Museum Practice
ARTHIST 291
Riot: Visualizing Civil Unrest in the 20th and 21st Centuries
ARTHIST 293
Black and Brown: American Artists of Color
Film & Media Studies Course
Complete any four- or five-unit Film & Media Studies (FILMEDIA) course.
Survey courses, FILMEDIA 4 Introduction to Film Study and FILMEDIA 6 Media and Mediums, and the FILMEDIA courses within the 1850 to Present Temporal Distribution may count towards this requirement.
Depth in Discipline
Area of Concentration
The department encourages students to pursue their interests by designing an area of concentration tailored to their intellectual concerns. This area of concentration provides the student with an in-depth understanding of a coherent topic in Art History.
The student’s faculty advisor approves concentrations within the major; they are not declared on Axess and do not appear on the transcript or the diploma. Sample concentrations can be found on the department website opens in a new tab.
By Winter Quarter of their junior year, students must complete an area of concentration form, identifying their chosen concentration and three courses to fulfill it.
Seminar course: one seminar (200-level) course within the area of concentration
Two additional courses: two ARTHIST courses of any level within the area of concentration
Writing in the Major (WIM)
Writing in the Major (WIM)
This course is designed for Art History majors in their junior year, equipping them with the scholarly tools necessary for writing about art in various contexts as they progress through the major.
ARTHIST 294
Writing and the Visual: The Art of Art Writing
Capstone
Capstone Junior Seminar
This course is designed to introduce majors to methods and theories underlying the practice of Art History. The seminar is offered annually, typically during Autumn Quarter.
ARTHIST 296
Junior Seminar: Methods & Historiography of Art History
Honors
OptionalHonors
Overview and Course
The purpose of the honors program is to extend and deepen work done in Art History classes. The honors thesis topic typically emerges from prior coursework; it should be focused and have clear parameters. Ordinarily, an honors thesis is an exploration of an area the student has already studied.
Admission to the Honor Program
The minimum requirement for admission to the honors program is an overall GPA of 3.5 and at least 3.5 in Art History courses. Students must complete at least five Art History courses at Stanford by the end of their junior year, and four must be completed by the end of Winter Quarter.
Submission of the Thesis Proposal
Candidates for the honors program must submit a five-page (double-spaced) thesis proposal, including bibliography and illustrations, and one completed paper that demonstrates the student’s ability to conceptualize and write cogently about art historical issues. A complete application is due to the proposed thesis advisor on March 31.
Submission and Approval of the Honors Thesis
Students must submit the final draft of their honors thesis to their faculty advisor, the second faculty reader, the Student Services Specialist, and the Honors Director by the thesis deadline.
More Information
For more information about the Art History and Film & Media Studies Honors Program opens in a new tab, students can visit the department website.
ARTHIST 297
Honors Thesis Writing
Honors students must complete a total of 10 units of ARTHIST 297 during their senior year.