Specialized courses offered periodically on specific aspects of the art of the medieval world. Courses are normally research-led topics on an area of current academic concern.
May be taken more than once for credit with different topics.

Satisfies "the Medieval World" core course requirement for Art History majors

The course explores medieval visuality through a topical focus on art produced at “limits and margins,” defined ideologically, physically, and geographically.

The course material centers on four main themes. The first of these addresses images located at the edges and ancillary areas of church spaces and manuscripts, and how the character of these images shifts as one moves toward the “margins.” Topics to be studied include the iconographic programs of thresholds, depictions of the apocalypse, and the irreverence and humor of manuscript marginalia. A second theme introduces students to how medieval viewers imagined their world through maps, and specifically how the edges of society, the “monstrous,” and the unknown came to be depicted and conceptualized.

A third theme deals with art that flourished in locations with significant cross-cultural contact, and how this visual evidence pushes against anachronistic ideas of “borders” or constructs of “center/periphery.” Topics for this section of the class include rock-cut or “cave” churches in Anatolia and Southern Italy, as well as art produced in medieval Ethiopia and under the medieval Serbian Empire. The fourth theme concentrates on medieval imaginings of the “Other,” and includes discussions on crusader views of the Islamic world and the politics of Christian visual representations of Judaism.

As a complement to the four broad themes described above, the course concludes with a final section on “medievalisms.” Considering topics such as Gothic Revival, the Neo-Medieval architecture of Rome, and the use of medievalisms in modern nation-building, this final focus of the course asks how “the Middle Ages” itself has been construed in terms of its “alterity.”

Upon successful completion of this course, students will:

- Recognize key works of medieval manuscript illumination.

- Analyse the visual material within its social and historical contexts.

- Demonstrate awareness of significant primary source texts.

- Evaluate secondary literature critically and individuate various scholarly approaches.

- Identify key themes and genres of illuminated manuscripts; interpret individual works of art in relation to these ideas.

- Cultivate oral communication skills by discussing art and readings in the classroom.

- Develop writing skills that include: the formation of clear arguments; effective organization and structuring of material; visual analysis; and the incorporation and evaluation of primary and secondary sources.

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 12 Dec. 2025.

Provisional Schedule:

Week 1

[9/1] 1. Introduction and Course Overview: Scope, Issues, Requirements

[9/3] 2. Marginalia: Humor & Irreverence in Medieval Manuscripts

Week 2

[9/8] 3. Seen/Unseen: Visions & the Space of the Imagination

[9/10] 4. Concealment & Revelation: Thresholds & Barriers

Week 3

[9/15] 5. Concealment & Revelation: Light

[9/17] 6. At the Edge of Time: Apocalyptic Imagery

Week 4

[9/22] 7. Contemplating the Limits of Life & Death

[9/24] 8. Betwixt & Between?: Rock-Cut Churches of Apulia

Week 5

[9/29] 9. Betwixt & Between?: Rock-Cut Churches of Cappadocia

[10/1] 10. Defining a Field: Medieval Ethiopia

Week 6

[10/6] 11. Defining a Field: Medieval Serbia

[10/8] 12. Midterm Exam Review

Week 7

[10/13] 13. Midterm Exam

[10/15] 14. Research Paper Workshop

Week 8

[10/20] 15. Maps, Marvels, & the Monstrous

[10/22] 16. Maps & Imagined Pilgrimage

Week 9

[10/27] 17. Christian Politics & Representations of Islam

[10/29] 18. Christian Politics & Representations of Judaism

Week 10

[11/3] 19. “Anachronic Renaissance”: Re-Framing the Medieval in Rome > Visit to S. Maria in Trastevere

[11/5] 20. Collapsing Time: Current Events through the Lens of the Past

Week 11

[11/10] 21. Nostalgic Medievalism & the Pre-Raphaelites

[11/12] 22. No class (meeting on-site 11/14)

[Fri. 11/14] Gothic & Romanesque Revival Architecture in Rome > Visit to St. Paul’s Within the Walls and S. Alfonso de Liguori

Week 12

[11/17] 23. Dangerous Appropriations: “Whitewashing” the Middle Ages

[11/19] 24. Final Exam Review

Week 13

[11/24] 25. Final Exam

[11/26] 26. Research Paper Presentations

Week 14

[12/1] 27. Research Paper Presentations

[12/3] 28. Research Paper Presentations

Sample Reading List:

Akbari, Suzanne Conklin. Idols in the East: European Representations of Islam and the Orient, 1100–1450 (2009).

Camille, Michael. Image on the Edge: The Margins of Medieval Art (1992).

De Giosa, Sami Luigi, and Nikolaos Vryzidis, eds. The Medieval Mediterranean between Islam and Christianity: Crosspollinations in Art, Architecture, and Material Culture (2025).

Karkov, Catherine E., Anna Kłosowska, and Vincent W.J. van Gerven Oei, eds. Disturbing Times: Medieval Pasts, Reimagined Futures (2020).

Patton, Pamela, and Maria Alessia Rossi, eds. Out of Bounds: Exploring the Limits of Medieval Art (2023).

Wood, Christopher, and Alexander Nagel. Anachronic Renaissance (2010).