Art in the Ancient World

This course introduces students to art of the Ancient world (chiefly Egypt, Greece, and Rome, with a look at art of the Jews), examining it in its spiritual and intellectual context relative to key developments in the cultural life of the West.

This is done in a steady effort to answer three primary questions: What is an image? (a question also central to the Bible) and What is art for? and What art is good?

Questions the student will be able to answer by the end of the course include:

How much of Ancient art is religious art? How, in the Ancient world, do you ‘read art’? Is a work of art a message communicated to the viewer by the artist? How important to the art of this period was the artist’s self-expression? What is the attitude of ancient Judaism toward images?

Course Instructor

Edward Tingley Author