Medieval Art in Europe and the Transcultural Mediterranean

Catalog description

This course offers a broad introduction to the architecture, pictorial arts, and visual and material culture of the European Middle Ages in the Greek-speaking East, Latin West, and transcultural Mediterranean c. 250–1450 CE. It provides an overview of the concepts, developments, and vocabulary necessary for analyzing and understanding the arts of the medieval period in light of the historical, religious, social, cultural, conceptual, and esthetic contexts and of their production and reception. Topics to be examined include the creation of a vocabulary of medieval imagery and architectural forms; uses of and attitudes toward the classical tradition; art and its makers, patrons, and audiences; materials and techniques of medieval art-making; the arts of religious and devotional practice; the relationships of word and image; the imaginative, multisensory, and performative dimensions of medieval art and architecture; medieval cultural exchange and colonization; art and ideologies; the relationship between art and nature; and the functions of and controversies concerning images in the medieval world. Readings include significant primary sources as well as secondary sources that offer a range of approaches to the interpretation and analysis of medieval art, architecture, and visual culture. Museum visits will provide the opportunity to discuss objects firsthand.