The course is structured with a fundamentally chronological approach. This provides a framing ‘scaffold’ to facilitate careful engagement with material across a considerable time-span, and establishes a ‘global Mediterranean’ approach as investigative practice.

 This allows the course to ask fundamental questions regarding characteristics, contacts and interchanges of the Latin West, Byzantium, and Islamic worlds over time, as well as to engage with the abundance of theoretical approaches and critical debates that are essential to understanding artistic practices of the medieval worlds.

 The course is organized in four overarching issues, each of which frame a different way to approach the visual arts: Art in context, Media and display, Art as local and global, and Viewing as process. As well as providing avenues of in-depth analysis pertinent to the works examined, these issues engage with the theoretical approaches and methods that characterize the making and analysis of works in this period.

 Coursework assignments assist in the analysis and research on works. However, their primary objective is the development of skills essential for working with visual material through lenses such as objects, space, viewership, participation, criticism, and reception, and across a variety of media and display conditions. The requirements of formal analysis, of contextual and issue-based analysis, of research, and the relationship between these are addressed in assignments that progressively increase in complexity and train students in the attainment and effective application of art-historical techniques and tools.

- Recognize key works and issues in medieval art

- Develop an understanding of the chronology and developments of art and material culture within the arch of the timespan of the course

- Exercise critical thinking while looking, reading, writing, and speaking about medieval art

- Identify, analyze, and interpret significant aspects and themes in the histories of medieval art within different social, historical, and critical contexts

- Evaluate the ways that art is shaped by dynamic social and cultural interactions

- Recognize and reason about key contributions and approaches to the field of medieval art

- Formulate an analytical argument and draw out observations on the cultural outlook, norms, and histories that influenced the production, creation, and reception of the works under discussion

- Develop technical vocabulary appropriate to the fields of art history, communication, studio art and, more generally, to our image-based culture

- Develop an aptitude at visual analysis and the contextualization of works in different critical frameworks

- Learn to visually analyze works in relation to other genres and other bodies of knowledge — archaeological, political, economic, historical

- Formulate and develop critical and rigorous arguments, especially through assignments; find and evaluate pertinent, high-quality sources and information.

- Structure and effectively communicate ideas and information orally and in writing; understand how ideas and information may be conveyed visually

You cannot make-up a major exam (midterm or final) without the permission of the Dean’s Office. The Dean’s Office will grant such permission only when the absence was caused by a serious impediment, such as a documented illness, hospitalization or death in the immediate family (in which you must attend the funeral) or other situations of similar gravity. Absences due to other meaningful conflicts, such as job interviews, family celebrations, travel difficulties, student misunderstandings or personal convenience, will not be excused. Students who will be absent from a major exam must notify the Dean’s Office prior to that exam. Absences from class due to the observance of a religious holiday will normally be excused. Individual students who will have to miss class to observe a religious holiday should notify the instructor by the end of the Add/Drop period to make prior arrangements for making up any work that will be missed. The final exam period runs until 3 May 2024.