Bruce J. Hunt

UGS 303—Science and Art: Then and Now                                   Spring 2010

GRG 102 Tu–Th 11–12:30

64105: Fri. 10–11

64110: Fri. 11–12

64115: Fri. 12–1

64120: Th. 2–3

64125: Th. 3–4

64130: Th. 4–5

Linda Henderson
Department of Art and Art History
DFA 2.122; Office Hours: Wed. 1-3

Bruce Hunt
Department of History
GAR 2.106; Office Hours: Tues. 2-4

This Signature Course seeks to introduce students to some of the ways science and art have interacted from the Renaissance to the present day.

Assigned readings will be made available in a course packet and through Blackboard.

Grades will be based on three exams (20% each), a research paper (20%), and participation in weekly discussion sections (20%); the latter will include some short written exercises.

19 Jan.     Introduction; style in art and science; Raphael’s The School of Athens

21 Jan.     Life and learning in medieval and early modern Europe (Hunt)    

Sections:  MAI 220C—Get acquainted; hand out first short writing assignment

26 Jan.     Background to Renaissance art; debts to the classical past; fundamentals of painting (Henderson)

28 Jan.     Linear perspective and the geometrization of space (Henderson)              

Sections:  Meet at the Blanton Museum—Renaissance painting

2 Feb.       Leonardo da Vinci and Andreas Vesalius: art and anatomy (Henderson/Hunt)

4 Feb.       Anatomy, natural history, and the art of printing (Henderson/Hunt);

                 first short writing assignment due; hand out paper assignment and post list of topics

Sections:  Meet at the Harry Ransom Center—History of science collections

9 Feb.       Galileo, the telescope, and the depiction of the heavens (Hunt)

11 Feb.     Baroque science and art as spectacle (Hunt/Henderson)    

Sections: MAI 220C—Review for first exam; settle topics for research papers

16 Feb.     FIRST EXAM

18 Feb.     Newton on light and color (Hunt)

Sections: Meet at the PCL—Session on library research in the digital era

23 Feb.     Scientists as heroes in the 18th and 19th centuries (Hunt)

25 Feb.     The Romantic revolt in science and art (Henderson/Hunt)

Sections: Meet at the Blanton Museum—Print collection

2 March   Geology and “deep time” in the early 19th century (Hunt)            

4 March   Darwin and the theory of evolution (Hunt)

Sections: MAI 220C—Progress reports on research papers

9 March   Representing nature in the 19th. century: geology, evolution, and light (Henderson)

11 March Thermodynamics, entropy, and the heat death of the universe (Hunt)

No section meetings

— SPRING BREAK —

23 March Light waves, the ether, and electromagnetism (Hunt)

25 March The visible and the invisible in 19th-century photography (Henderson);

                 research papers due

Sections:  MAI 220C—Review for second exam

30 March EXAM 2

1 April     X-rays, atoms, and radioactivity (Hunt)

Sections: Meet at the Harry Ransom Center—Photography Collection

6 April     From visible to invisible nature: Cubism and Futurism (Henderson)

8 April     The fourth dimension of space and modern art (Henderson);

                 hand out short writing assignment on Einstein and popular culture

Sections:  MAI 220C—“Flatland”

13 April   Einstein and relativity (Hunt)

15 April   Art for the world of space-time (Henderson);

                 short papers on Einstein and popular culture due

Sections:  MAI 220C—Discuss Einstein and popular culture

20 April   Atomic power and the atomic bomb (Hunt)

22 April   Abstract expressionism, WWII, and the bomb (Henderson)

Sections: Meet at the Blanton Museum—Abstract Expressionist painting 

27 April   Thermodynamics and art: Marcel Duchamp’s Large Glass and Robert Smithson’s, Spiral Jetty (Henderson)

29 April   The expanding universe (Hunt)

Sections: MAI 220C—Review for third exam

4 May      Overview (Hunt, Henderson and class); course evaluation

6 May      THIRD EXAM

No section meetings