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Course Info for AHIS - 219 - 01, Fall 2025
Class number: 2911 Title: Medieval, Ren Women & Art Department: Fine Arts
Career: Undergraduate Component: Lecture Session: Regular
Instructor's Permission Required: No Grading Basis: Regular Units: 1.00
Enrollment limited to 25 Current enrollment: 22 Available seats: 3
Start date: Tuesday, September 2, 2025 End date: Wednesday, December 17, 2025 Mode of Instruction: In Person
Schedule: MW: 10:00AM-11:15AM, AAC - 320 Instructor(s): Scanlan, Suzanne
Prerequisite(s): None
Distribution Requirement: Meets Arts Requirement
Course Description:
This course looks at images made by female artists and artisans, as well as works commissioned by and for women, between the Medieval and Renaissance periods (c 1100-1600). As recent scholarship shows, daughters, wives and sisters were integral members of artists' workshops, producing paintings, sculpture, prints and household furnishings. Female patrons - from queens and duchesses to nuns and widows - commissioned grand buildings and public memorials as well as small decorative items. Here, we discuss women from various social classes and their contributions to the visual and material culture of Europe across five centuries. Along with art making and patronage, we will also consider gift giving and bequests as modes of consolidating wealth and security among women.