00950 - History of Byzantine Art

Learning outcomes

This course addresses students to Byzantine Art (4th-15th century). At the end of this course students should possess the appropriate tools to read a work art from a stylistic and iconographic perspective, with particular attention to the historical context.

Course contents

The course is structured in two parts, including a series of general lectures and seminar lectures. The first part will give a chronological overview of Byzantine art, from its late antique antecedents - starting from the foundation of Constantinople (330) - to the conquest of the capital by the Ottoman Turks (1453). It will focus on visual arts - overcoming today-inefficient distinctions between major and minor arts, but including sculpture, painting and objects. It will be shown that Byzantine artifacts reflected the historical development of thought and taste in the Eastern Roman Empire, not only in Constantinople but also in faraway areas, where Byzantine art found extraordinary acceptance and further growth. Starting with a reflection on the value of works of art and of images in Byzantium, monuments and artifacts will be observed as sources, replete with meaning, and as cultural evidence, with its specific ways of communication and expression.

The seminar lectures will be be devoted to ecclesiastical decor with particular reference to the image depicted in the apse. The analysis of church architecture and decoration and their development between Late Antiquity and Byzantium will allow students to observe through defined case studies the evolution of art and theological conceptions that found visual expressions in the place that was considered as most sacred within Byzantine monumental architecture, the apse

Readings/Bibliography

Reading list - for every student:

• R. Cormack, Byzantine Art, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2018 (2nd edition) OR N. Asutay Effenberger, A. Effenberger, Bisanzio. L'impero dell'arte, Torino, Einaudi 2019 OR E. C. Schwartz (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Art and Architecture, Oxford, Oxford University Press 2021, Part 1 and 3.

Seminar lectures - Readings: 

• M. Andaloro and S. Romano, L’immagine nell’abside, in M. Andaloro and S. Romano (a cura di), Arte e iconografia a Roma: dal tardoantico alla fine del Medioevo, Milano 2002, pp. 93–132;
• F. Bisconti, L’abside piena, l’abside vuota: arredi e decorazioni al tempo dei Costantinidi, in G. Bordi (a cura di), L’officina dello sguardo: scritti in onore di Maria Andaloro, vol. 1, Roma 2014, pp. 229–36;
• P. Liverani, L’abside lateranense nei primi secoli, in C. Dell’Osso and P. Pergola (a cura di), "Titulum nostrum perlege": miscellanea in onore di Danilo Mazzoleni, Studi di Antichità Cristiana 68, Città del Vaticano 2021, pp. 625–641;
• B. Brenk, The Apse, the Image and the Icon. An Historical Perspective of the Apse as a Space for Images, Wiesbaden 2010;
• E. Thunø, Inscription and Divine Presence: Golden Letters in the Early Medieval Apse Mosaic, Word & Image, 27.3 (2011) pp. 279–291;
• E. Thunø, The Apse Mosaic in Early Medieval Rome: Time, Network, and Repetition, Cambridge 2015;
• J.-M. Spieser, Images du Christ: des catacombes aux lendemains de l’iconoclasme, Genève 2015;
• C. Jolivet-Lévy, Les églises byzantines de Cappadoce. Le programme iconographique de l’abside et de ses abords, Paris 1991.

Further readings (those about the seminar lectures) will be provided during the course.

Additional readings (for students who have not attended classes):

• E. Kitzinger, Byzantine art in the making: main lines of stylistic development in Mediterranean art, 3rd-7th century, Cambridge, Mass : Harvard University Press, 1995.
  
• L. Brubaker, Inventing Byzantine Iconoclasm, Liverpool, Bristol classical press, 2012.
• B. V. Pentcheva, Icons and Power: the Mother of God in Byzantium, University Park, The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2006.

Teaching methods

Generally, lectures will take place in class with the aid of visual materials. Occasionally lectures may take place in situ, with a direct discussion of certain works of art and in collaboration with other colleagues.

Assessment methods

The final examination will verify the fulfillment of the following learning objectives:

• knowledge of the topics and of the critical methodology discussed in class or studied in the literature;
• ability to use critical tools when examining a given image;
• ability to understand one's own critical opinion in relation to the historiographical debate. This ability is based on the assumption that our critical opinion is inevitably conditioned by our cultural views.

The exam will be exclusively in the form of an oral examination, which is evaluated in %30. It will be based on the images discussed in the books provided in the reading list or in class. Students should identify the works of art, demonstrate an understanding of their chronological, geographical and historical context, discuss their relationship with other works of art. For this reason, students are expected to bring their own books on the day of the exam.

Following the Alma Mater's guidelines, notably:

• the demonstration of an organic vision of the themes addressed in class or in books indicated in the reading list as well as of the critical use, command of oral expression and specific vocabulary, will be assessed with marks of excellence (28-30).
• mechanical and/or mnemonic knowledge of the subject, scarce ability of synthesis and analysis and/or the use of a correct but not always appropriate vocabulary will lead to discrete assessments (23-27).
• training gaps and/or inappropriate vocabulary - even in conjunction with a minimal knowledge of the subject - will lead to marks that will not exceed the minimum grade (18-22).
• training gaps, inappropriate vocabulary, lack of command of the bibliography discussed within the course will lead to negative evaluations.

Teaching tools

Exam materials and further readings can be found online on UNIBO https://virtuale.unibo.it.

Reading lists and publications are available on Virtuale. They can serve as preparatory materials for the course and can be useful to fill any gaps for those who have never had an approach to the Byzantine Art.

Students who are affected by learning disability (DSA) and in need of special tools to compensate it, are kindly requested to contact the Teacher, in order to be referred to the colleagues in charge and get proper advice and instructions.

Office hours

See the website of Maria Cristina Carile