Roman Art & Architecture · Art History And Archaeology
Midterm: 5 commented slide IDs and 1 essay on the "special reading Paper: 8-10 double-spaced pages on a topic of your choice, due toward end of the semester Final: 5 commented slide IDs and 1 essay on one of five topics given ahead of time, not cumulative One class visit to the Met
One midterm (which includes an essay /book review already prepared), one final exam and one 10 page paper on whatever topic related to the book you chose for your book review. Totally doable. Additional readings, but not necessary. Definitely come to class and listen to his lectures, and take notes, you will be fine. He hands out a long list of possible books beginning of semester to choose from. Augustus is fascinating!
A midterm, final, and term paper. Note: not all slide I.D.'s on the exams are images seen in class. Studying for the I.D.s can be difficult (see second 'shitty')--if you really want to review every image, you'll have to get your hands on many of the suggested books and go raking through the index for the names of the works not on the website. Mind you, the Roman works were named by art historians several hundred years after they were created, and thus the names vary based on who you ask. If you can get an 'A' in this class, hats off to you.
a final research paper & oral presentation
Prof. De Angelis is a knowledgeable and articulate lecturer. He really tries to engage the students during each class, even though it only ends up being a few of the same people talking during class. The class will be more meaningful if you come in with solid knowledge of the Roman history, which unfortunately I did not. The class was typical of art history, so it wasn't particularly challenging to wrap your head around, but it was a lot of memorization for exams. As a CS student, I have a feeling this class was a lot more valuable to Classics or Art History majors than it was to me. I feel like I learned something, though maybe not as much as the professor would have hoped. I would recommend Prof. De Angelis, but only take this particular class if you know you are interested in the topic. CLASS: The course covers a lot of material, and much of the material in the lectures does not end up on the exams because there is just too much. The lectures overall are not in chronological order; instead they are grouped by topic. This was kind of confusing to me, but it was an organized and logical presentation of the behemoth that is Roman art/architecture. All the powerpoints are uploaded to courseworks, but they're only images so it's not that helpful. There were three consecutive lectures on imperial portraiture, which were rather dry, because you spend the entire class staring at ma…
Prof. Angelis was excellent and I hope to take other courses with him in the future. Although he has a slight accent and seems disorganized in the beginning, he is actually one of the most organized presenters and lecturers at Columbia. The slides he picks for each lecture tell a theme/story from start to finish and there is never an excessive slide in that mix. I really appreciated that each lecture had a topic which ended up being one of the many options for essay topics for the final. This made the subject matter easy to understand and follow. for example, one week the topic would be roman portraits, another one would be funerary monuments, another one would be triumphal arches...simple and organized. I did most of the readings, but they were not really necessary. Most more interesting, some no so much. It is important to come to class to get notes from his lectures as the textbook is decent, but does not follow the same order of topics. Textbook seemed more disorganized compared to his lectures. Definitely take this class! The subject matter is also very interesting.
Why the f*** has no one written about this guy yet? There are truly exceptional aspects of this class and utterly shitty ones as well. I'll start with the shitty. Shitty: to validate my first sentence--Brilliant does not use e-mail or the Internet--he really doesn't even seem to know what these things do or provide. This is a downside because you can't get in touch with him outside of going to his office hours. Shitty: the class, rather ironically, has a website. However, as opposed to every other Art History course, every image that you see in class is not on the website (don't ask me why). In fact, about a fifth of the images are online. You can imagine the bitch this is when it comes time to studying for exams. What's even more frustrating is the fact that he goes over probably 25-35 slides in an hour and fifteen minutes. Also, he does not make slide lists for class--you have to rely on the lecture for names, dates, locations, and museums. Shitty: if you've done the math based on the last 'shitty,' this means you will be writing non-stop for the entire class period. You might not even see the image because you are taking notes from the lecture. Shitty: taking the last 'shitty' into account, he announces on the first day of class that he "expects you to know everything"--from class lectures, slides, and readings. Shitty: and about those readings--you get a syllabus (written…
Kampen's lectures were always "politically correct," & no one challenged these views even as one had to listen to students drivel on about queer studies. her lectures & use of slides were supurb but her grading was difficult & random. she does not accept excuses for incomplete work
Not too much, but the midterm and finals are demanding.
Midterm, final, 10-page paper, reading, trip to the Met.