This course explores what objects and artworks reveal about the spiritual, social, cultural, and intellectual history of medieval Europe, while also aiming at understanding how they were experienced by medieval beholders. It will explore the significance of several categories of material artifacts, focusing on how they generated meanings by virtue of their visual and material qualities. In order to do that, it will address medieval theories of vision, visuality and materiality, and in addition it will scrutinize the perception, reception and use of images in various social environments.
The course is structured in two parts: in the first one, the interpretative framework will be established, examined, and discussed, and the key concepts will be explored; in the second part, specific case studies will be tackled, related to the visual and material culture of a variety of social groups and environments in medieval Europe. Students will thus develop robust methodological skills in the specific field of analysis, which will then be tested and critically applied through the study of artefacts, contexts, and beholders.
Specifically, the course will be articulate as follows:
FIRST PART
- Interpretive framework: concepts of visual and material culture
- Visual Culture Studies: subjects, methods, and tools of analysis
- Material Culture Studies: subjects, methods, and tools of analysis
- Medieval theories of vision, visuality and materiality
- Theories of reception and response, the role of the senses in the experience of art
- Performative and ritual uses and meanings of artworks, objects, spaces
SECOND PART
Social environments and groups in medieval Europe, tackled through their visual and material culture:
- The Papacy: Rome and Avignone
- Women: saints, nuns, queens
- The Mendicant orders: the Friar Minors and the Poor Clares
- Pilgrims, between Europe and the Middle East
- The courts and the cities
- The minorities: migrants, disabled, the poor
- Children: education and devotion
The course is structured in two parts: in the first one, the interpretative framework will be established, examined, and discussed, and the key concepts will be explored; in the second part, specific case studies will be tackled, related to the visual and material culture of a variety of social groups and environments in medieval Europe. Students will thus develop robust methodological skills in the specific field of analysis, which will then be tested and critically applied through the study of artefacts, contexts, and beholders.
Specifically, the course will be articulate as follows:
FIRST PART
- Interpretive framework: concepts of visual and material culture
- Visual Culture Studies: subjects, methods, and tools of analysis
- Material Culture Studies: subjects, methods, and tools of analysis
- Medieval theories of vision, visuality and materiality
- Theories of reception and response, the role of the senses in the experience of art
- Performative and ritual uses and meanings of artworks, objects, spaces
SECOND PART
Social environments and groups in medieval Europe, tackled through their visual and material culture:
- The Papacy: Rome and Avignone
- Women: saints, nuns, queens
- The Mendicant orders: the Friar Minors and the Poor Clares
- Pilgrims, between Europe and the Middle East
- The courts and the cities
- The minorities: migrants, disabled, the poor
- Children: education and devotion
- Docente: Zuleika Murat