Beginning with the Trojan Wars and concluding with the War on Terror, this wide-ranging introductory seminar examines warfare as an artistic theme, a cultural catalyst, and a social construct. Individual units focus on specific media such as sculpture, monuments, painting, film, etc.... in order to develop art-historical tools of analysis and to deepen our understanding of the production and reception of visual art related to warfare. Major themes include the artist's role in state propaganda, the development of mythologies and metaphors of warfare, critiques of violence, and the role of gender in these representations.