This course investigates the art of Medieval Christian communities that lay beyond the eastern boundaries of the Byzantine Empire and that can be defined by their different languages: Georgian, Armenian, Syriac, Coptic, and Ethiopic. Often treated as peripheral to or dependent upon the art of Byzantium, the art of these regions has been neglected, marginalized, condemned as derivative. In order to think away from such center-periphery models of influence, students will examine the distinct aspects of each of these cultures and will take full advantage of a major exhibition on Medieval Armenian art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
