Art History Study Library.

Paleolithic portable and cave art (pigment, incising, relief) · Neolithic architecture and megalithic structures · Transition from hunter-gatherer to settled agricultural communities · Animal imagery and human figures in prehistoric art · Function and interpretation of prehistoric art (ritual, communication, record-keeping) · Materials and techniques: ochre, charcoal, bone, stone, antler · Stonehenge and post-and-lintel construction · Female figurines and fertility interpretation debates

Ancient Near East: Mesopotamia, Sumer, Akkad, Babylon, Assyria — ziggurats, votive figures, relief sculpture · Ancient Egypt: funerary art, canon of proportion, hierarchical scale, ka, pharaonic portraiture · Aegean civilizations: Minoan and Mycenaean art and architecture · Ancient Greek art: Geometric, Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic periods; kouros/kore, contrapposto, idealization · Etruscan art and its relationship to Greek and Roman traditions · Ancient Roman art: portraiture, historical relief, architecture (Pantheon, Colosseum), mosaic · Funerary function in Egyptian and Roman contexts · Development of naturalism from Archaic stiffness to Classical idealism to Hellenistic emotionalism

Early Christian and Byzantine art: mosaics, icons, centralized church plans, hierarchical abstraction · Migration period and early medieval art: manuscript illumination, metalwork, interlace ornament · Romanesque architecture and sculpture: barrel vault, thick walls, tympanum programs, pilgrimage churches · Gothic architecture and sculpture: pointed arch, ribbed vault, flying buttress, stained glass, portal programs · Proto-Renaissance and Italian Renaissance: Giotto, perspective, naturalism, humanism · Northern Renaissance: oil painting technique, Flemish masters, domestic subject matter, disguised symbolism · Mannerism and High Renaissance: Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael; formal experimentation · Baroque art in Europe: dramatic light (tenebrism, chiaroscuro), emotional intensity, Counter-Reformation patronage · Spanish Colonial art in the Americas: synthesis of European and Indigenous visual traditions

Rococo: lightness, pastel palette, aristocratic leisure subjects, ornamental asymmetry · Neoclassicism: return to Greek/Roman forms, moral subject matter, linear clarity, response to Enlightenment · Romanticism: sublime, emotional intensity, exotic/historical subjects, gestural brushwork · Realism: working-class subject matter, rejection of idealization, social critique · Impressionism: broken brushwork, optical color mixing, modern leisure subjects, plein-air painting · Post-Impressionism: Cézanne (structure/plane), Seurat (pointillism), Van Gogh (expressive line), Gauguin (primitivism) · Early twentieth-century movements: Cubism, Expressionism, Dada, Surrealism, Abstraction · American art and architecture in the 19th–20th centuries: Hudson River School, Harlem Renaissance, Abstract Expressionism · Modern architecture: steel, glass, functionalism, International Style · Photography as art form from its invention through mid-20th century

Mesoamerican civilizations: Olmec, Maya, Teotihuacan, Aztec (Mexica) — monumental architecture, calendrical sculpture, ritual objects · Andean civilizations: Chavin, Moche, Nazca, Wari, Inca — textiles, ceramics, goldwork, site planning · North American Indigenous traditions: Mississippian mounds, Southwest Pueblo architecture, Northwest Coast carving and weaving · Ritual and cosmological function of art and architecture in Indigenous American contexts · Materials and techniques: jade, obsidian, featherwork, quipu, adobe, stone masonry · Continuity of Indigenous American artistic traditions into the colonial and modern periods · Post-colonial and contemporary Indigenous American art reclaiming traditional forms

Kingdom of Benin: bronze and brass court sculpture, lost-wax casting (cire-perdue), altar pieces, oba portraiture · Nok terracotta tradition: cylindrical heads, stylized features, early sub-Saharan figural sculpture · Kongo and Central African power objects: nkisi nkondi, mixed materials, ritual activation · East African architecture: Great Zimbabwe stone enclosures, function and political authority · Islamic influence in North and West African art and architecture: mosques, geometric ornament · Yoruba traditions: Ife naturalistic bronze/terracotta heads, Gelede masquerade · Mask traditions across sub-Saharan Africa: function in ritual, initiation, governance · Material culture and the role of organic materials (wood, fiber, clay) in African artistic traditions

Achaemenid Persian art: Persepolis, processional reliefs, luxury metalwork, imperial portraiture · Islamic architecture: mosque typology (hypostyle, iwan, central-dome), Dome of the Rock, Great Mosque of Cordoba, Hagia Sophia conversion · Islamic decorative arts: arabesque, geometric pattern, calligraphy as sacred art, tilework · Illuminated manuscripts in the Islamic tradition: miniature painting, figural representation debates · Nomadic and steppe cultures: portable objects, animal-style metalwork, Scythian goldwork · Silk Road cultural exchange: hybrid visual vocabularies across West and Central Asia · Safavid and Mughal court arts: carpet weaving, architecture, miniature painting

Hindu temple architecture: shikhara, mandapa, vimana, sculptural programs, devotional function · Buddhist art and architecture: stupa, chaitya hall, vihara, mudra system, bodhisattva iconography · Indus Valley Civilization: Mohenjo-Daro urban planning, standardized seals, bronze dancing figure · Gupta period sculpture: idealized Buddhist figural style, serene expression, clinging drapery · Chinese art: jade, bronze ritual vessels (zoomorphic, taotie motif), landscape painting, calligraphy · Japanese art: Zen-influenced ink painting, woodblock prints (ukiyo-e), ceramics, architecture · Southeast Asian monumental architecture: Angkor Wat (Hindu/Buddhist cosmological plan), Borobudur · Mughal miniature painting: synthesis of Persian and Indian traditions, court portraiture

Polynesia: Easter Island moai (ancestor commemoration, volcanic tuff, ahu platforms), Hawaiian featherwork and war helmets · Melanesia: Abelam yam cult houses, ancestor poles (malagan), body ornamentation · Micronesia: Nan Madol, navigational charts, architecture · Australia: Aboriginal bark painting, Wandjina rock art, dot painting (contemporary connection to traditional forms) · New Zealand Maori: meeting house (wharenui) carved programs, ta moko (facial tattooing), hei tiki · Northwest Coast of North America (overlap with Unit 5): totem poles, bentwood boxes, potlatch objects · Function of art in Pacific cultures: ancestor veneration, social rank, ritual efficacy, navigation · Materials and techniques: basalt, volcanic tuff, obsidian, feathers, bark cloth, wood carving

Postmodernism: appropriation, pastiche, deconstruction of modernist hierarchies, critique of the canon · Identity politics in contemporary art: race, gender, sexuality, diaspora as subject and medium · Installation and site-specific art: immersive environments, audience participation, ephemeral works · Conceptual art: idea over object, dematerialization, artist's statement as integral component · Street art and graffiti: public intervention, political critique, Basquiat, Banksy · Globalization and hybrid identities: artists working across cultural traditions simultaneously · Digital and new media art: video, net art, computer-generated imagery as fine art · Contemporary works referencing or reclaiming traditional non-Western forms · Image rights and image set currency: works by living or recently living artists may require rights clearance; ~10% of the 250-work image set can be updated every 5–7 years