The Georgia Museum of Art’s study gallery provides a unique opportunity for students to step outside of the traditional classroom and engage with original works of art in an academic setting. Now entering its second year, the program invites University of Georgia faculty from across disciplines to select multiple works from the museum’s permanent collection to use as teaching tools for a specific course. These objects remain on view to the public in the Dorothy Alexander Roush Gallery for the entire semester, so you don’t have to be enrolled as a student to learn something new.
This spring, the study gallery will display artwork selected by three professors. Sunghoon Lee, assistant professor of art history at the Lamar Dodd School of Art, will incorporate works by Rembrandt van Rijn and Cornelis van Dalen II into ARHI 3030: Baroque Art, a course that examines major transformations in art and visual culture in Europe and its colonies between roughly 1550 and 1750. With an emphasis on a global perspective, the course highlights the interconnected forces of global trade, colonial expansion, the extraction of natural resources and the enslavement of human labor.
“I design writing assignments that utilize museum collections, ranging from close formal analyses to mock curatorial projects,” said Lee. “The study gallery is an invaluable resource because it allows students to revisit the objects they are researching throughout the entire semester. With Rembrandt’s prints in the gallery this year, I hope students can clearly see how etched lines build both figures and atmosphere.”
Paola De Santo, associate professor of Italian, will also take advantage of the study gallery for her course ITAL 4120/6120: Topics in Italian Culture, Language and Literature. Taught in Italian to build fluency in speaking, reading and writing, the course’s special theme this semester is the art of translation. Students will learn the fundamental theoretical concepts and techniques of translation with a focus on early modern Italian literature. De Santo selected three lithographs by American artist Jacob Landau that illustrate scenes from Dante’s “Inferno.” She also selected works by Italian artists Giovanni-Battista Piranesi and Stefano della Bella.
Paul Babinski, assistant professor of religion, chose a variety of work to teach from in his course RELI 1001: Introduction to Judaism, Christianity and Islam. This class surveys the three major Abrahamic religions — Judaism, Christianity and Islam — outlining their beliefs and practices, tracing their development to the present and exploring their expression in art and literature. Works such as “Jews in the Synagogue” by Rembrandt van Rijn, “Sidi Moresh Mosque” by Mary Jett Franklin and “Christ Taking Leave of His Mother” by Albrecht Dürer offer windows into the architecture, practices and narratives of religious communities across the world.
These new selections from the museum’s collection debuted on January 17 and will remain on view through May. While some works may illustrate general themes of a class, others serve as source material for specific assignments. Aiming to deepen engagement between students, faculty and the museum, the study gallery is open to all visitors and welcomes the public to follow along.
Authored by:
Jessica Smith
