The course explores cross-cultural encounters in art between 1200 and 1900. We examine a variety of

objects to consider how diverse forms of cultural exchange impacted artistic production and reception

in this period. Students learn how art mediated new and unfamiliar peoples, places and things, and

reflect on the extent to which local understandings would have shaped how such novelties were

interpreted. We also study the complex motivations for increased global movement, including trade,

war, disease, diplomacy, exploration, colonialism, religion, and industry. Beginning with Western Africa’s

trade in gold, and the migration of motifs along the Silk Road, the course moves through a series of

topics, including connections between and beyond the Safavid, Ottoman and Mughal courts and the

invention of new art forms and practices in the colonized Americas. We also explore the multiple ways

Europeans represented worlds beyond their own (and its lasting effects) during an era of rapid European

expansionism.