The late 18th century was a period rife with revolutionary fervor and transformative ideas that altered the course of history. The American Declaration of Independence, adopted in 1776, and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, ratified in 1789, were radical manifestos that proclaimed new principles of governance and human dignity and challenged centuries-old political and social structures. Historian Alexander Mikaberidze explores these groundbreaking documents and the individuals who dared to imagine a new order that ignited flames of liberty that spread throughout the world.
Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau are three influential philosophers whose ideas have significantly shaped political theory and the understanding of the social contract. In a fall series, join Georgetown professor Joseph Hartman as he explores these thinkers who offered distinct perspectives on the nature of human beings, the origins of political authority, and the formation of societies. This session focuses on Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
Unlike other great painters of 16th-century Venice such as Titian and Paolo Veronese, Jacopo Tintoretto was born and bred in the lagoon city. A considerable number of his works remain there to this day in the churches, confraternity buildings, and palaces for which they were commissioned. Art historian Sophia D’Addio of Columbia University explores a selection of Tintoretto’s dramatic and expressive sacred works located in such beautiful settings as the Church of the Madonna dell'Orto, the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, and San Giorgio Maggiore. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)
Painting was often perceived as a sister art of music, though typically occupying a somewhat lower place in the hierarchy. Nonetheless, throughout the Early Modern era, painters used musical motifs in their works to give their paintings a "voice" and convey a sense of beauty and harmony comparable to those qualities in musical compositions. Art historian Aneta Georgievska-Shine explores this relationship as it evolved between the 15th and the 17th centuries in Italy and Northern Europe. (World Art History Certificate core course, 1 credit)
New York City in the early decades of the 20th century was a shaping force of America’s national culture. Cultural historian George Scheper explores the impact of the Progressive Era and the subsequent Jazz Age as reflected in the art, literature, and architecture created in the metropolis. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)
When the doors of Radio City Music Hall opened in 1932, New Yorkers entered a new world: a dazzling Art Deco fantasy of an entertainment palace far removed from the drab realities of the Great Depression. With its Hollywood films and lavish stage shows, “The Showplace of the Nation” has given generations of audiences a place to escape from the everyday and dream. Actor Tim Dolan surveys the history of this iconic theater, sharing its stories, secrets, traditions, and trivia.
Commissioned by Pope Julius II to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo used the most universal artistic language available—the human body in all its configurations. From the spark of life given to Adam and Eve to the Last Judgment, his frescoes blazed a path toward secularism despite the chapel’s religious themes. Art historian Liz Lev examines the evolution of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, a work so astounding it changed the course of Western art. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)
When classicist Michael Ventris deciphered the Linear B script in 1952, he shed light on our understanding of the politics, economy, society, and religion of the world of Late Bronze Age Greece, sometimes referred to as "Mycenaean." Classicist and archaeologist Dimitri Nakassis examines what this writing system and a second still-undeciphered “Minoan” script, Linear A, can tell us about life in the Aegean during the second millennium B.C.E.
