In twelve weeks this course will examine major art works from the period ca. 300-1200 CE. Presenting works from Europe and the Middle East, and working with the Princeton collections in precept, the course will introduce students to the art of Catholicism and Orthodoxy, Judaism and Islam; the great courts of the Eastern- and Holy Roman Empires, and the roving Vikings, Celts and Visigoths. Students will not only be invited to consider how art can represent and shape notions of sacred and secular power, but will also come to understand how the work of ‘art’ in this period is itself powerful and, sometimes, dangerous.
