This survey course will examine the history of the visual arts
in the Western world from the Ancient Near East and Egypt to the end
of the Gothic era.  The course will examine architecture, sculpture
and painting as well as small-scale arts such as ceramics,
metalwork, textiles and manuscripts.  In lecture and discussion
sessions, we will approach the works of art with two specific goals
in mind: 1) to understand the buildings and artworks in terms of
their formal structure, artistic innovations and stylistic
development, and 2) to set these artworks into their historical and
social contexts in order to understand better how the people of
different societies lived and perceived the world around them.