The European demand for spices spurred the search for new trade routes to the East. From the mid 15th century, their voyages of discovery, improvements in naval technology and competition for domination of the East-West commerce opened up new markets.  At the same time, they facilitated new opportunities for exchange and provided a fresh stimulus for artistic expression in both continents.  This course explores the creative transactions that took place through court and religious art, luxury goods and exotica in Asia and Europe from 1450 to today.  The history of trade, imperial ambitions and movements of people provides a context for assessing the dynamic relationships between art and changing tastes, the fascination with the exotic, and perceptions of the self and the world around.   

Upon successful completion of this course, students should be able to: 

1. relate art works and their creation to their specific historical, social and political contexts of contact and exchange
2. identify and analyse the imitation, appropriations, assimilations and transformations in art within these contexts
3. use specific examples to evaluate theories of and approaches to the processes and exchanges between Europe and Asia that informed artistic creation from 1450 to the present
4. research, select and combine examples of art and integrate key textual and archival sources to develop and present, orally and in writing, their own perspectives on the exchanges in European and Asian art. 

Forum presentation and research paper (6000 words) - 50% (Learning outcomes 1, 2, 3 and 4) 

Forum chair/responder and paper on key issues/questions (2000 words) - 20% (Learning outcome 1, 3 and 4) 

Short writing exercises based on forum topics (3 x 1000 words) - 30% (Learning outcomes 1 and 4)

Contact hours include a one hour lecture followed by a two hour forum.  The forums will take various forms, including: 

• seminar presentations followed by question and answer sessions.

• structured group discussion.

• films and documentaries that have had a signficant impact on the discipline of Art History, followed by discussion.

Students are expected to complete an average of 17 hours per week outside these contact hours.

This course is only open to graduate students.

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Michael Sullivan, The Meeting of Eastern and Western Art. 2^nd ed. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989

Anna Jackson and Amin Jaffer, Encounters: The Meeting of Asia and Europe 1500-1800, London: V&A Publications, 2004

John M. MacKenzie. Orientalism: History, Theory, and the Arts. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1995

Jay A. Levenson (ed.). Circa 1492: Art in the Age of Exploration, Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1991

Jay Levenson (ed.). Encompassing the Globe: Portugal and the World, 3 vols.  Washington: Smithsonian, 2007

Yukiko Shirahara (ed.). Japan envisions the West: 16th – 19th century Japanese art from the Kobe City Museum. Washington: Seattle Art Museum, 2007

John Vollmer et al. Silk Roads China Ships, Toronto:  Royal Ontario Museum, 1983.