I took a music appreciation class in college (not at Yale) thinking it would be an easy A. It turned out to be, if not hard, at least a legitimate course. It was about 90% lecture and 10% listening to music. I learned a lot about classical music as well as different kinds of folk music from around the world. After the first week I was wondering what I got myself into, but it turned out to be one of the more interesting college courses I took.
Same with Art History. It was mostly history, and back in '74 it was not politically correct history.
I had a similar experience with some Art History courses. While I did spend a lot of time looking at slides, it turned out to be a lot of rote memorization. Also, it can be challenging to come up with a 10+ page term paper based off of 1 or two works. I took a course on Baroque art of the Netherlands and actually learned a lot of history regarding the Protestant reformation and Calvinism. Good stuff and I have to say that I am better off after exploring this field.