This course examines the representation of the Cosmos and of Creation narratives in the arts of Late Antiquity. While its focus will be the illumination of manuscripts of the Book of Genesis, attention will also be paid to competing Late Antique cosmologies, particularly the revival of interest in Plato’s Timaeus. In addition to considering the implications of the varied manners in which the Genesis narrative is visualized, the course will investigate how the Jewish-Christian definition of a created cosmos conditioned understanding of one’s being in the world and the ethical life.
