Authority and Invention: Medieval Art and Architecture

Masterworks of art and architecture in Western Europe from the decline of Rome to the dawn of the Italian Renaissance. Explores the creative tension between the impulse to originality and the authority of classical models in the search for new art forms. Emphasis on representative works considered in their totality (architecture, painting, sculpture, and minor arts) as experiential wholes; and on the plurality of geographical and cultural contexts (Italy, Germany, France, England, and Spain). Exploration of the forms, types, styles, intellectual, theoretical, and cultural contexts of paradigmatic monuments from Late Antiquity through the Middle Ages (approximately 300-1300 A.D.).

This is a lecture course with no prerequisites. It is intended for both graduate and undergraduate students. Requirements include quizzes on images, lecture materials and readings; short papers and prepared discussion topics; and a final research paper. Design students may substitute a design problem of their own devising for the research paper.

The course is jointly offered with FAS as MEDVLSTD 107.