A History of European Art
Course Description – Approaches to European Art
Travel across twelve centuries of European art—from illuminated manuscripts and Gothic cathedrals to the Renaissance, Baroque splendor, Impressionism, and the birth of Modernism. In 48 concise lectures, Professor Kloss builds the habits of “looking patiently,” guiding you through subject, style, context, and emotion while exploring masterpieces by Giotto, Jan van Eyck, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian, Dürer, Bruegel, Caravaggio, Bernini, Rubens, Rembrandt, Poussin, Velázquez, Watteau, David, Goya, Delacroix, Manet, Monet, Degas, Cézanne, Seurat, Van Gogh, Matisse, Picasso, Rodin, Brancusi, and more.
👉 Ideal for art lovers, students, and curious minds seeking a clear, structured survey of Western art’s key movements, artists, and ideas.
📚 Course Lectures
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Approaches to European Art – How to look: subject, style, context, emotion (30 min)
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Carolingian and Ottonian Art – Manuscripts; Palatine Chapel; Bayeux Tapestry (30 min)
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Romanesque Sculpture and Architecture – St. Étienne, St. Trophîme, pilgrimage roads (31 min)
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Gothic Art in France – Notre-Dame, Chartres, Rouen, Saint-Maclou (29 min)
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Gothic Art in Germany and Italy – Strasbourg, Pisa reliefs; Cimabue, Duccio, Giotto (29 min)
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Giotto and the Arena Chapel – Part I – History, fresco method, Virgin & Christ cycles (30 min)
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Giotto and the Arena Chapel – Part II – Power of narrative; rise of the “great artist” (29 min)
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Duccio and the Maestà – Structure and meaning of Siena’s great altarpiece (31 min)
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Sienese Art in the 14th Century – Simone Martini; Lorenzetti brothers; Palazzo Pubblico (32 min)
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The Black Death and the International Style – Plague’s impact; rise of International Gothic (31 min)
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Early Renaissance Sculpture in Florence – Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, Donatello, della Robbia (30 min)
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Early Renaissance Architecture in Florence – Brunelleschi & Alberti innovations (29 min)
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Masaccio and Early Renaissance Painting – Linear perspective; Brancacci & Santa Maria Novella (30 min)
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Jan van Eyck and Northern Renaissance Art – Arnolfini, Ghent Altarpiece; North vs. Italy (30 min)
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Northern Renaissance Altarpieces – Campin, van der Weyden, van der Goes (29 min)
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Piero della Francesca in Arezzo – Baptism, Resurrection, Legend of the True Cross (30 min)
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Sandro Botticelli – Mars and Venus, religious imagery, lyrical style (30 min)
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Andrea Mantegna and Giovanni Bellini – Mantua frescoes; illusionism and Venetian color (30 min)
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High Renaissance Painting in Venice – Bellini, Giorgione’s Pastoral Concert, Titian (31 min)
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The High Renaissance – Leonardo da Vinci – Madonna of the Rocks, Mona Lisa, Last Supper (29 min)
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The High Renaissance – Raphael – Madonnas, portraits, Vatican frescoes (30 min)
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The High Renaissance – Michelangelo – Pietà, David, Sistine Ceiling (30 min)
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Albrecht Dürer and German Renaissance Art – Schongauer; Dürer’s synthesis (30 min)
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Riemenschneider and Grünewald – Holy Blood Altarpiece; Isenheim Altarpiece (29 min)
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Netherlandish Art in the 16th Century – Bosch, Patinir, Gossaert, Lucas van Leyden (30 min)
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Pieter Bruegel the Elder – Icarus, Hunters in the Snow, Parable of the Blind (30 min)
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Mannerism and the Late Work of Michelangelo – Pontormo, Rosso, Parmigianino, Bronzino (30 min)
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Annibale Carracci and the Reform of Art – Correggio; Carracci academy; Farnese Gallery (31 min)
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Caravaggio – Life, chiaroscuro, sacred realism and controversy (30 min)
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Italian Baroque Painting in Rome – From Carracci & Caravaggio to Baroque revival (32 min)
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Gian Lorenzo Bernini – Sculptures; St. Peter’s piazza; Baroque total art (29 min)
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Peter Paul Rubens – Altarpieces; Marie de’ Medici cycle; portraits & landscapes (30 min)
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Dutch Painting in the 17th Century – Genres and specialists: Hals to Vermeer (31 min)
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Rembrandt – Religious works, portraits, self-portraits, etching mastery (30 min)
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Poussin and Claude – The Allure of Rome – Classical landscapes and ideals (30 min)
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Baroque Painting in Spain – El Greco, Zurbarán, Murillo, Velázquez (29 min)
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Louis XIV and Versailles – Architecture, gardens; Watteau and the Rococo transition (31 min)
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French Art in the 18th Century – Chardin, Greuze, Boucher, Fragonard (30 min)
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Neoclassicism and the Birth of Romanticism – Houdon, David, Goya (30 min)
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Romanticism in the 19th Century – Géricault, Delacroix, Constable, Turner (31 min)
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Realism – From Daumier to Courbet – Social truth and modern life (32 min)
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Manet and Monet – The Birth of Impressionism – Modernity and new vision (30 min)
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Monet and Degas – Rouen series, water lilies; circus, ballet, café life (31 min)
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Renoir, Pissarro, and Cézanne – Styles within Impressionism; key masterpieces (30 min)
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Beyond Impressionism – From Seurat to Matisse – Seurat, Gauguin, Van Gogh; toward Fauvism (30 min)
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Cubism and Early Modern Painting – Picasso, Braque, Matisse innovations (32 min)
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Modern Sculpture – Rodin and Brancusi – Expression to minimal form (32 min)
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Art between Two Wars – Kandinsky to Picasso – Expressionism, Futurism, Dada, Surrealism (31 min)

