Early Christian and Byzantine Art
Islamic Art.
- Recognize and identify key Islamic works in visual art and architecture.
-
Recognize the swiftness with which Islam
established itself as a major player in world history.
- Learn the basic tenets of Islam
and recognize connections with the older religions of Judaism and Christianity.
- Appreciate the abstract decorative
impulses that were nurtured in part by the recurrent Islamic reluctance
to depict the human figure.
- Identify those pockets of Islamic
culture and history that cultivated depiction of the human figure.
-
Recognize the three basic
types of mosques.
- Note that the so-called "decorative
arts" of vessel making and weaving are major arts in Islamic history.
- Note
that the establishment in Istanbul (Constantinople) of a major world power
that will continue to play a role in world affairs until World War I.
The Early Middle Ages and the Romanesque
- Discuss the relationship between Christian belief
and the art of the early Middle Ages.
- Identify key artworks from the early medieval period.
- Discuss the impact of Charlemagne and the Carolingian Era upon European
art and culture.
- Discuss monasticism, Crusades, pilgrimage, chivalric
ideal. How seen in art?
- Understand the vastness of the vacuum due to the departure of Rome.
- Appreciate the enormous consequence of Charlemagne's decision to
resurrect the "Roman Empire."
- Estimate how Charlemagne's new empire looked backwards toward Rome
as well as surveyed the new values and attitudes attendant in the triumph
of Christianity in Western Europe.
- Familiarize yourself with key structural
units of the vault, the rib, the buttress, and the organization of bays.
- Learn the parts of the portal of
the typical Romanesque church and appreciate the role of sculpture in articulating
the parts of the entrance.
- Recognize the enormous importance
of relics and the legends of saints in the designation of holy places throughout
Europe.
- Learn the variety of artistic traditions
drawn upon by Romanesque artists, including contemporary ones such as Islamic
and Byzantine, and the continuing presence of ancient Roman art.
The Gothic and Late Middle Ages
- Identify and discuss works of art, architecture
from the Late Medieval period.
- Understand and discuss the development of Gothic
architecture in France and elsewhere, including key structural elements.
- Discuss the intellectual developments of the Late
Medieval period, including the establishment of universities, the influence
of Muslim libraries and universities, the intermingling of Classical thought
and Christian theology, and the impact of the French and English monarchies.
- Grasp the regional flavors of the
Gothic style, especially in architecture and painting. Take
note of the fact that a great many more names of individuals--artists and
patrons--are known to us in the Gothic than in the previous periods.
- Learn the basic structural underpinnings
of Gothic architectural engineering.
- Understand how engineering is made
to yield new ways of shaping space and surfaces.
- Note the effects of catastrophic
events such as the Black Death and the resilience of Europe in continuing
to develop even during troublesome times.
- Be aware of the increasing interest
of artists in the monuments of antiquity.
-
Monitor the growth of private
patronage of the arts.