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This site is copyrighted by Alison Stones. This means that it is available with her permission to students in HAA 0050 only. The site is accessed through your Pitt user name and password. Each student may download or print one copy for personal use for this class only. Any other use of these images and text is an infringement of copyright and is a punishable offense.
CONTENT: This course is designed as an introduction to the painting, architecture, sculpture, and minor arts of the period c.250-1450 AD in Europe, commonly known as the Middle Ages, and to basic art-historical analytical skills, with a particular emphasis on stylistic analysis and the history and development of style in all media. Iconographical content, particularly the subject matter of Christian art but including Jewish, Islamic, and secular material, is also included, as are questions of patronage and artistic production throughout the period.
GOALS: Students will learn the basic skills of stylistic and iconographical analysis, both in terms of isolating the individual components of style or iconography and in terms of defining a style as a whole (construction and deconstruction, part:whole, whole:part). They will be able to relate these concepts to the stylistic periods of the Middle Ages and have a firm grasp of what constitutes stylistic development in all the media over the entire period of c.250-1450 AD. They will be able to ask questions about this material its context and its content, and answer them verbally and in writing, using sophisticated and accurate technical terminology.
RESOURCES: Click
here to see definitions of terms used in this course.
The
major resource of course materials is this website and all its
components.
Access to it is by course-related password only. There will be
times
when access will be difficult (if the server is down, for instance) so
it is recommended that you make yourself a printout of what is on the
site.
It is best to view the class pages in Explorer (the links will not work
in Netscape) with an up-to-date browser. Please use a U of Pitt
computer
if the links do not work on your machine. Some units are not
linked--this
is because they are incomplete at this time. You will not be
tested
on them.
Readings are supplementary. All images are available on the
web site; information about them is given in class only. For this
reason, class attendance is mandatory.
COURSE SCHEDULE:
Week I Chronology of
the Middle Ages
Aug 29 History
of the Church
Techniques and media of medieval painting (wall painting, mosaic,
illumination,
stained glass)
Units 1A,1B,
50,
Homework: Ex.
51
Week II Methods: manuals,
sketchbooks,
and the concept of copying
Sept 5 Iconic
and narrative traditions
Iconography: Old and New Testament subject matter and typology;
Aspects of the Life of Christ
Units 52,
54
Homework: Ex. 53,
56
Week III Iconography
continued: Old and new Testament typology continued: the Verdun
ambo/altarpiece; The
Saints:
Life of St Edward the Confessor, Secular Themes: The Nine
Worthies,
The Aberdeen Bestiary (go to
Full Index page);
More on the
Bestiary; Poetry: The
German Minnesänger; Portraits, Symbols
Ex. 58,
59
Sept. 12 Introduction to
Style: Concepts of stylistic analysis
Early Christian and Early Medieval
Units 101,
102
Homework: non-biblical subjects; style. Media
and Iconography Exercise, 101, 102,103
Week IV Style continued, Carolingian
through
Pre-Romanesque
Sept 19 Units
104,
105,
106,107
Manuscript facsimiles in Frick Fine Arts Library
Homework: Ex. 104,
105,
107
Week V Style Continued,
Romanesque and Gothic
Sept 26
Non-figurative elements of style
Units 108,
109
Part 1, 109
Part 2, 110, 111, 112,
113
Homework: Style. Ex. 109,113
Written
paper for Painting due in class Oct 3
Week VI Introduction to
architecture:
architectural style
Oct 3
Units
2A,
2B,
2C,
Plans and their development: Terminology
for plans; Unit 3A
Homework: Ex.
2A Midterm
Practice
Week X Secular
architecture; Problems in medieval architecture.
Oct 31 The
Master
Mason: sources of evidence
Units
8,
9A,
9C
Written
paper for architecture due Nov 7
Week XI Sculpture: media,
techniques, context
Nov 7
Units 20: Media: wood
and stone; ivory
and bone; metalwork
techniques; 21:
Context
Period Style in Sculpture: Early Christian, Early Medieval,
Carolingian:
Units 30,
31, 32,
Week XII Period Style in Sculpture:
Ottonian, Romanesque; Units 33,
34,
Nov 14 Special
Unit on Vézelay
Nov 21 THANKSGIVING
Written
paper for
sculpture due in class Nov 29
Week XIII Period Style in Sculpture:
Transitional, Gothic
Nov 28 Units 35,
36, 37, 38,
39;
Special
unit on Chartres: access it via this link
Week XIV Review session
Dec 5