DU1713 Seminar: Medieval Art from Constantine to Giotto II

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2021
Extent and Intensity
0/2/0. 5 credit(s). Type of Completion: k (colloquium).
Teacher(s)
Adrien Palladino, M.A., Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
Adrien Palladino, M.A., Ph.D.
Timetable
each even Wednesday 9:00–12:40 VP
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is offered to students of any study field.
The capacity limit for the course is 15 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/15, only registered: 0/15, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/15
Course objectives
The Material Cultures of the Anglo-Saxon World: from Roman Britain to the Formation of England

This seminar investigates the material cultures present in late roman and early medieval England. It examines how visual, material, and ritual cultures coexisted and interacted roughly between the 4th and the 10th century CE, from the Roman domination over England to the emergence and consolidation what is called an Anglo-Saxon culture. Within such a wide timeframe, the interactive seminar will focus on the formation of this artistic culture in contact with other cultural and religious spheres. To goals are to:
1. understand the notion of the birth of an artistic culture stemming from the British, Germanic, Celtic, Pict, Irish, Scandinavian, and Late Antique Roman and Mediterranean world; 2. question and assess the phenomenon of the material conversion and Christianization of Anglo-Saxon culture; 3. comprehend the cross-cultural contacts between the Anglo-Saxon world with the Scandinavian one; 4. reassess the birth of European visual cultures during the “Dark Ages”.
Learning outcomes
Students will develop a comprehensive knowledge of the actual nature of what is usually termed “Anglo-Saxon art”, by examining a vast array of images, objects, and techniques, from monumental architecture to jewelry, from book illumination to ship burials. They will encounter and study in-depth through seminar work some of the most famous objects of the European early Middle Ages (the Franks casket, the Sutton Hoo burial, the Lindisfarne Gospels, the Ruthwell cross, the Alfred Jewel, etc.).
They will be able to contextualize them within a network of cross-cultural artistic encounters, ultimately aiming at recognizing he place of Anglo-Saxon England within the global Middle Ages. As such, at the end of the course, they should be provided with intellectual tools to discuss and criticize outdated or conventional approaches to the topic. In this seminar format, they will also learn to research and synthetize information on the selected period and objects, and to transmit and convey this information in the form of an oral presentation accompanied by a slideshow. This presentation will also be presented in written form, as an essay, including the use of scholarly footnotes and bibliography.
Syllabus
  • Forthcoming
Teaching methods
Interactive seminar with PowerPoint presentations
Assessment methods
Student are requested to prepare an oral presentation in class, whcih will be followed by a short written paper about a single object or monument of Anglo-Saxon art, chosen in arrangement with the teacher.
Language of instruction
English
Further Comments
Study Materials
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2020, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2024, Spring 2025.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2021, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/phil/spring2021/DU1713