This course will focus on acts of violence and defacement directed at works of art. We will study examples from a wide range of historical global cultures, including Christian iconoclasm in the Medieval and Reformation periods, the smashing of the gallery of kings on the façade of Notre Dame in Paris during the French Revolution, the slashing of Velazquez's Rokeby Venus by a British suffragette, the dynamiting of the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan, the destruction of cultural heritage by ISIS, and the breakage of a stained-glass window affirming slavery at Yale University. These transformative acts will be contextualized and conceptualized in religious, social, and political terms; the conventional terminology used to characterize the destruction of images (iconoclasm, desecration, censorship, renewal) will be interrogated. We will explore how visual art can operate as sites of contestation, where competing belief systems, regimes of knowledge, aesthetic values, and political ideals come into conflict and are given charged expression. We will be interested in the so-called "power of art" to elicit such strong responses from viewers and we will explore cultural understandings about the agency of images. There will be two short reading response papers and a 10-12 page research paper.

Textbooks/Other Materials: Articles will be posted on Canvas

Intended Audience: All students welcome, no prior art history necessary

Estimated Cost of Materials: $0-50

HISTART Distribution Requirements: D. Europe and the US, 2. Medieval, 3. Early Modern, 4. Modern and Contemporary