ARTH120

Description

In their own time, works of Byzantine art and architecture were highly valued both at home and abroad, making them the "global" art of the medieval world, a world perceived to be coterminous with "Christendom." The Byzantine Empire, beginning with the transfer of the imperial capital of the Roman Empire to Constantinople in 324 by Constantine the Great and ending with loss of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, possessed a central role in the creation and development of art and visual culture in the Mediterranean basin, Europe, and parts of western Asia and the Near East, wielding an influence far beyond its own political borders for more than a millennium. This course will present Byzantine art and architecture in a chronological, historically driven narrative inflected by interactions, both peaceful and agonistic, amongst the myriad of cultures of the Mediterranean basin from the fourth to the fifteenth centuries. In addition, this course will position the arts of Byzantium in their (ever-changing) sociohistorical contexts, informed by the combined study of architecture and archaeological sites, centering on the capital of Constantinople and imperial art, but including other urban and rural sites in what are today the countries of Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia, Russia, Italy, Egypt, Syria, Israel, Palestine and parts of western Europe. Interactions at the highest levels of society, between emperors and princesses, khalifs and dragomen, crusaders and pilgrims, soldiers and peasants-evidenced through currency, hoards, diplomatic gifts and deeds, through seals and portraits-will be paralleled with material drawn from the archaeological record, pointing to artistic cultural interactions between real Byzantine people on islands, coastlines, valleys, and mountain tops in villages and towns. Texts in translation by authors from Byzantium as well as those in the Latin west and Islamic east will be featured: the events of the First and Fourth Crusades will also be a focus.