Course Content and Outcomes Guides (CCOG)

CCOG for ART 205 Winter 2025


Course Number:
ART 205
Course Title:
Global Art History: 6th Century - 1700
Credit Hours:
4
Lecture Hours:
40
Lecture/Lab Hours:
0
Lab Hours:
0

Course Description

Explores art globally from the 6th century CE through 1700. Analyzes visual culture and the built environment to reveal social, religious, political, economic and technological changes in societies, recognizing the impact of art history on the world today. Prerequisites: WR 115, RD 115 and MTH 20 or equivalent placement test scores. Audit available.

Intended Outcomes for the course

Upon completion of the course students should be able to:

  • Recognize and critique traditional approaches to art history, considering the way art history upholds racialized and gendered concepts of style, development, and civilization.
  • Explain how art is representative of the historical moment in which it was produced, acknowledging the interactions between social, religious, political, economic and technological factors. 
  • Analyze the relationships between form, context, and meaning in visual communication utilizing a critical vocabulary. 
  • Articulate the relationships between art made from the 6th century CE through 1700, the history of visual culture, and world history to enhance civic and global engagement.
  • Apply insights gained from course content to visual culture encountered outside of the classroom.

Integrative Learning

Students completing an associate degree at Portland Community College will be able to reflect on one’s work or competencies to make connections between course content and lived experience.

General education philosophy statement

Through the study of art history, students look closely at works of art and architecture, articulating the way elements of art are interrelated and considering how values and interpretations have changed over time. They critically analyze visual communication, work creatively with art historical data, use evidence to support arguments and assess the stakes of primary and secondary sources. They also analyze the relationships between art and its historical, cultural, social and political contexts. Art history enhances students’ engagement in contemporary global culture through a deeper understanding of history, which helps students recognize connections between the past and present and become more aware of their own vantage points.

Outcome Assessment Strategies

Assessment tools may include:

  • informal and formal responses to discussion questions

  • analysis and evaluation of reading assignments

  • visual and contextual analysis of art in writing assignments and exams

  • journals assessing learning in and out of the classroom

  • research projects resulting in papers or presentations

  • class field trips    

Course Content (Themes, Concepts, Issues and Skills)

COMPETENCIES AND SKILLS:

  • Analyze and work creatively with art historical data, using it to better understand the history of art and visual culture.

  • Evaluate primary and secondary art historical sources, assessing their stakes and motives.

  • Assess the ways in which art is impacted by the viewer’s vantage point.

  • Articulate the relationship between art and its historical, social and political context.

  • Recognize and differentiate various styles of art and evaluate how values and interpretations change over time.

  • Recognize and identify parallels between the art historical past and the present.

  • Conduct a formal analysis of a work of art and articulate the way its elements are interrelated.

  • Research and write coherently about art history, using evidence to support arguments.

  • Use knowledge gained in the course to study fine art, art history, design, anthropology or history at a four-year institution.

THEMES, CONCEPTS, AND ISSUES:

  • The Development of Islamic Art in North Africa, West Asia and Central Asia

  • Art of African Kingdoms and Empires

  • Art of South Asia and Southeast Asia

  • Dissemination of Buddhism and East Asian Art

  • Byzantine Art

  • Art of Medieval Europe

  • Art and Ritual

  • Pax Mongolica

  • The Art of Writing

  • Art of China

  • Art of Korea and Japan

  • Romanesque and Gothic Art and Architecture in Europe

  • Renaissance Art in Europe

  • Art of Mesoamerica and North America

  • Art of Central and South America

  • Mapping the World

  • African Art and Global Trade

  • Islamic Art of Empires

  • Art of Oceania

  • Baroque Art in Europe

  • Art of the Dutch Republic

  • Regional Connections: Trade and Diplomacy

  • Global Connections: Pax Mongolica, European Colonization

  • Colonization and Decolonization

  • Images of the Human Form

  • Images of Land and the Landscape 

  • Constructions of Gender

  • Architecture and the Environment 

  • The Art of Writing

  • Looting and Repatriation

  • Art and the Sacred 

  • Power and Oppression 

  • Art and Labor 

  • Perspective 

  • Art and Spectacle 

  • Public Images / Private Images

  • Technology and Art