An 8-week course from the first cave painters to the contemporary gallery — beauty as a divine attribute, and the loss of transcendence. Parallel to Music History (Bezalel thread). Jubal and Bezalel in week 1; Gothic cathedrals in week 3; peak sacred art in week 4.
8-week survey
- The First Artists — Prehistoric, ancient, and biblical art — when making images began.
- Early Christian and Byzantine — When faith became visual (100–1400).
- Gothic Cathedrals — Medieval vision — theology in stone and light.
- The Renaissance — The explosion of beauty (1400–1550).
- Baroque and Dutch Golden Age — Light, shadow, and the sacred in the ordinary.
- Romanticism and Van Gogh — Emotion, impression, and modern vision.
- Modern Art — The break (1900–1970) — form, abstraction, meaning.
- Contemporary Art — Beauty, meaning, and your calling.
Students keep a looking journal — training attention the way a historian trains it on a text.
The course treats art as theology and craft — not decoration. Students learn to see structure, intention, and the moral weight of beauty (or its absence). Scripture is the foundation, not the trim.