Byzantine Art and Architecture I (LH)

Classics and Ancient History, Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity

College of Arts and Law

Details

Code 11935

Level of study Third/Final year

Credit value 10

Semester Scheduled 2012-13, 1

Pre-requisite modules None

Other pre-requisites None

Module description

You will be introduced to the pictorial and architectural media of Byzantium which, along with written documents, are the primary contemporary records of the East Roman Empire between ca 300 and ca 1450. Different interpretative strategies apply, however, and we focus on what the visual can tell us about Byzantine responses to the world. We also examine the ways that images interact with people, which is often different from what the usual documents used by historians might lead us to believe; and we consider the significance of art and architecture for modern understandings of Byzantium. In the Autumn term, we concentrate on material produced between ca 300 and ca 850.

Teaching and learning methods

Lecture