I've never actually taken anything but modern/contemporary or survey courses in the Cal Art History department, which I'm hoping to change this semester at least.

I'm waitlisted for HistArt 170, which focuses on Italian Baroque (i.e. post-Renaissance) art, including painting, architecture, and sculpture. The work at the left is Bernini's St. Theresa of Avila in Ecstasy (1647-1652), sculpted for the Cornaro Chapel of Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome. I'm desperately hoping to get into the course; I'm high on the wait list but graduating seniors apparently have priority.

I'm particularly fascinated by the evolution of sculpture over the past 500 or so years; examining Bernini's work should be interesting.

The other course I'm actually enrolled in for this semester promises to be difficult, simply because of the density and relative obscurity of the reading; we're using Lives of the Artists (1550/1568) by the fellow pictured at the right (Giorgio Vasari) as a central text. I must admit, I do enjoy reading works that I may not have picked up otherwise, and of course expanding my knowledge base - that's why I'm in school, after all! But skimming even the introduction and the first one or two artists discussed has proven to be a somewhat yawn-inducing task.

That said, the professor teaching the course is particularly charismatic (although he speaks very slowly), and I feel privileged to take his course as this is his last semester teaching before he retires.

This course also discusses sculpture and architecture in addition to painting, which I find particularly relevant and interesting. Apparently, the five different types of classical columns (Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, and Composite) are designed according to a sort of Vitruvian Man principle; their diameter is proportional to their height based on the proportions in differently gendered human bodies. For example, the more slender columns, such as the Corinthian and Composite structures, are based on the more extreme (1 to 9 or 10) ratios of a woman's body, while the stockier columns such as the Doric or Ionic models are based on the broader construction of the male body.

I'm actually looking forward to this semester now, which I certainly wasn't before; modern and contemporary subjects, such as the study of new media or foreign propaganda, are usually what float my boat. But hearing the first few lectures and being presented with the opportunity of learning about something I've never even considered - well, how could I not be excited?