In this Mini Core, Professor Ioannis Mylonopoulos, the Jonathan Sobel and Marcia Dunn Program Chair for Art Humanities, sheds light on the victims of conflict and guides interest away from war glorification in art. Dramatic and admittedly visually impressive scenes of battle will not be the focus. This course will focus on those moments when war stops, or takes an unwilling break, and the victim is allowed to step into the light before the peace and the restoration process can begin. The course also will attempt to study, in a diachronic perspective, the various strategies used by artists — from ancient Athens to the makers of the famous column of Trajan in Rome, to Goya and Picasso — in order to not only channel the viewer’s attention toward the victim but also to intensify the communicative relationship with and the almost corporeal experience of the depicted violence.

Image: Francisco Goya, One can’t look (No se puede mirar) from The Disasters of War (Los Desastres de la Guerra).

Session 1 | Monday, April 7

Session 2 | Monday, April 21

Session 3 | Monday, April 28