Art History 290MB - Issues in Art History: 'Medieval Bodies'

In this course we will examine how medieval European thinkers and artists theorized and visualized the body in ways that are vastly different from how the body is conceptualized today. Indeed, the "medieval body" was not a monolithic entity, but rather a shifting constellation of ideas and practices that waxed, waned, and coexisted throughout the Middle Ages. A body could be understood as an earthly body -- sexed, fleshly, corruptible -- as well as a heavenly and divine body, including Christ's own. Our considerations will further contextualize representations of gendered, racialized, clerical, monstrous, animal, virginal, non-Christian, heretical, and resurrected bodies. Artworks and monuments include icons, reliquaries, altarpieces and other church decorations and liturgical objects, sculptural programs, illuminated manuscripts, prints, and incunabula.

Course limited to sophomores, juniors and seniors