Painted Space: The Window and the Wall

About the Class

If our world is three-dimensional and the surface of a canvas is flat, how do painters create works that appear to be windows onto an imagined reality? Artists have debated this question for centuries, developing various strategies to suggest space, depth, and volume.

This four-session online course traces the development of pictorial systems through key examples from global artistic traditions. We’ll begin in ancient Egypt and Rome then examine artists from Byzantium and Mughal India to explore strategies for representing space that predate the widespread use of linear perspective. Next, we’ll study Italian Renaissance painters to understand the impact and legacy of systematic approaches to spatial illusion. Finally, we’ll look at European modernism, including works from the Barnes collection, to see how 19th- and 20th-century artists built on past knowledge while developing unique approaches for depicting pictorial space.

Rather than viewing works from various traditions as either successful or failed attempts at creating illusionistic space, we’ll consider them as examples of intentional and meaningful artistic choices.

The class is online-only. More about online classes.

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Barnes classes will:

• Sharpen your observational and critical thinking skills.
• Improve your ability to communicate about art.
• Deepen your appreciation for cultures and histories outside your own.

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What Our Students Say

“The instructor was not only knowledgeable but so accessible, and such an inviting presence. She provided great reading to supplement the course.” —Mary Cassatt: Art, Identity, and Independence with Larissa Bailiff

“Pierre brings the art alive with her inside stories and images and how she interacts with the students. She is always able to answer and follow up with more information at the next class.” —Exhibiting Modernism: From the Salon to the Avant-Garde with Caterina Pierre

“Alison Boyd was engaging and effective during the online instruction, and she offered well-selected background materials for further reading.” —Aaron Douglas from Harlem to Philly with Alison Boyd