ARTH 362 Studies in Early Christian and Byzantine Art and Architecture

• Tuesdays, 5:45-8:15 pm
• Instructor: Dr. Laurence Garneau

This course examines the development of early Christian and Byzantine art. It offers an opportunity to discover an important corpus of mosaics, frescoes, icons, ritual spaces, spoils, and churches in the East and the West. The chronology mainly covers the 3rd to 15th centuries, with some incursions into contemporary art to study heritages from Byzantine art.

In the first part of the course, students will learn about the main historical events (splitting of the Roman Empire, Constantine and Justinian eras, crusades), central philosophical and religious concepts (incarnation, iconoclasm, agency), technical vocabulary, and specific iconography. In the second part of the course, thematic topics such as the meaning of icons, the use of sacred spaces, the representation of bodies, the role of women in society, and the osmosis between Eastern and Western cultures will provide a dynamic approach. Through lectures, discussions, workshops, readings, and visual analysis, students will develop their ability to analyze early Christian and Byzantine art in light of historical, theological, archaeological, military, and gender issues.