CLASS 2701 - [Art, Nature, and Ecology in Antiquity and Beyond]

(crosslisted) ARTH 2701
(HB) (CA-AS) (CU-SBY)

Fall. Next Offered: 2019-2020. 3 credits. Letter grades only.

V. Platt.

Environmental crisis is a pressing challenge for contemporary artists, many of whom address climate change and sustainability in their work. But how do the current issues of the Anthropocene relate to the longer history of art, and the broader sphere of ecology? This course examines the relationship between art and nature in Greco-Roman antiquity, exploring how ancient approaches and responses to the environment shaped Western ideas about visual representation, landscape, artistic media, and natural resources, paying special attention to the ways in which Greco-Roman art negotiated the relationship between humans and animals, nature and the divine, power and consumption. Throughout, we will put Classical material into dialogue with more recent approaches to environmental art history and eco-criticism, from land art to eco-activism.