All upcoming World Art History Certificate: Electives programs

Using watercolor, learn the strategies Morisot, Turner, Monet, and Cézanne employed to harness light in their images. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)

A day-long visit to the Brandywine Museum of Art led by art historian Bonita Billman brings the landscape of Pennsylvania’s Brandywine Valley to life and offers an opportunity to explore a trio of special exhibitions, featuring works by Andrew Wyeth, Jamie Wyeth, and Karl J. Kuerner—plus the Andrew Wyeth house and studio and Kuerner Farm (open to public tours for only a few days of the year). (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)

In the early 20th century, a group of Italian artists sought to embrace modernity in all its glorious messiness and contradictions. The result was Futurism, not a style but a way of looking at life. Its adherents called for abrupt change and the replacement of reason and order with vitality and force of will. Art historian Mary Ann Calo examines Futurism as both an idea and a development in the visual arts. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)

Delve into the history of cyanotypes, a photographic printing process that produces a cyan-blue and white print, and create your own cyanotype in this unique studio arts class. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)

This course examines fundamental concepts of composition and their practical application in studio art practice, offering participants tools to enrich their work as well to analyze and appreciate visual art in general. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)

Experiment with painting styles such as Cubism, Suprematism, and Abstract Expressionism to learn practical applications of the concepts and techniques of Modernism. Move beyond the basics to discover and develop your unique visual language. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)

Despite its name, the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo in Florence, Italy, is not a music museum but a museum containing extraordinary artwork commissioned by the opera, or building committee, of Florence Cathedral. Renaissance art expert Rocky Ruggiero explores the collection, which includes the reconstructed original 13th-century Gothic façade of the cathedral; Lorenzo Ghiberti’s “Gates of Paradise,” the original bronze doors of the Florence Baptistery; and Michelangelo's second “Pietà,” which he carved at age 75 and left unfinished. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)

Founded over nine centuries ago, this medieval masterpiece has been cherished by monarchs and admired by Londoners. Historian Lorella Brocklesby explores Westminster Abbey’s Gothic magnificence and important royal patronage from the Middle Ages. She discusses additions including extravagant Tudor adornments and towers designed in the Baroque era, as well as the myriad of rare and royal treasures that abound within the spectacular soaring interior. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)

Art historian Joseph P. Cassar takes a close look at the brief period in the late 1880s when Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin shared the Yellow House in Arles, where van Gogh planned to develop an artists' colony. The union between the two artists would end after nine weeks, with a tragic episode in which van Gogh threatened Gauguin with a razor after a disagreement. Several works by both artists are studied and analyzed, highlighting similarities and differences to illustrate how van Gogh and Gauguin, despite their many disagreements, influenced each other. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)

In this class, learn the strategies artists such as Rembrandt, Daumier, Cézanne, and van Gogh used to harness light and unify, intensify, and give dimension to their images. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)