Topics explore themes and problems, often reflect current research interests of the instructor, and supplement regular curricular offerings. Detailed descriptions of current and future offerings available in 416 Doe Library.

This graduate seminar examines main themes in the historiography of Byzantine Art, from the reign of the emperor Constantine (306-337) to the fall of Byzantium in 1453. The material is divided in three parts: beginnings, foundations, and current trends. Part I considers the earliest work on Byzantine art and Byzantium. We’ll start with the assessments of Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574), examine the work of antiquarians, such Bernard de Montfaucon (1655-1741), and evaluate the impact of scholars such as historian Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) and archaeologist/art historian J. J. Winckelmann. Part II will then consider main themes in the scholarship of nineteenth- and twentieth-century scholars, such as Christianization, style, patronage, and classicism. Scholars whose work will read include Nikodim Kondakov, Alexander Vasiliev, Charles Diehl, Gabriel Millet, André Grabar, Kurt Weitzmann, Ernst Kitzinger, and Sirarpie Der Nersessian, among others. Part III turns to contemporary analytical approaches such as gender, race, and globalism. The material, as much as possible, will be organized in addition around key artworks, such as the Arch of Constantine (315), the Paris Psalter (10th c.), and the Chora Church (14th c.).

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