Early Christian Art and Architecture (CH2012Y)

Content

This unit studies the origins and growth of Christian art by exploring ways in which liturgy and devotions in the early church found expression in visual culture. Themes and topics to be presented will include: the art of the catacombs; the centrality of monasticism and of the city of Constantinople in Eastern Christianity; the mosaics of Ravenna and Rome; the emergence of new art forms such as the icon; the iconoclastic controversy; the impact of Byzantine art and architecture in the medieval West e.g. Monreale in Norman Sicily and San Marco in Venice.

Learning outcomes

Pedagogy

Lectures, tutorials

Indicative Bibliography

• Baxandall, Michael. Painting and Experience in Fifteenth Century Italy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.
• Clifton, James. The Body of Christ in the Art of Europe and New Spain, 1150-1800. Munich: Prestel-Verlag, 1997.
• Finaldi, Gabriele. The Image of Christ. London: National Gallery Company Ltd, 2000.
• Jacobus, and William Granger Ryan. The Golden Legend: Readings on the Saints. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, n.d.
• Katz, Melissa R. Divine Mirrors: The Virgin Mary in the Visual Arts. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
• Marks, Richard. Image and Devotion in Late Medieval England. Stroud: Sutton Publishing Ltd, 2004.
• Os, H.W. van. The Art of Devotion in the Late Middle Ages in Europe 1300-1500. Princeton, N.J. Princeton University Press, 1994
• Woods, Kim W. (ed.) Art and Visual Culture: 1100-1600: Medieval to Renaissance. Millbank, London: Tate Publisher in association with Open University, 2012.

Assessment