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The Medieval Image: Art and Culture (AHIS30021)
Undergraduate level 3Points: 12.5Not available in 2018
About this subject
Overview
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Taking the so-called ‘late Middle Ages’ (approximately 1300–1520) as its focus, this subject confronts a set of seemingly simple questions: what is an image, who makes images, and how do they circulate in the world? It examines the roles images played during this period from a variety of perspectives, including mystical devotion, market conditions, the emergence of print technology, (im)materiality, artisanal craft traditions, and political frameworks in which conflicting attitudes toward image-making were developed. More broadly,students in this upper-level subject will investigate different art historical approaches to this period and scrutinize the way art history as a discipline orders images, objects, and art temporally.
Intended learning outcomes
On successful completion of this subject, students should have:
- acquired a good knowledge of the intellectual history of the visual image;
- become aware of the social, cultural, or historical forces that shaped/affected certain intellectual movements and thus influenced attitudes toward image-making in the medieval period;
- developed an understanding of the different visual strategies employed by artists in the medieval period for representing the divine;
- developed an ability to analyse a work of art during the period in relation to the social, political or religious context in which it was created; and
- developed an understanding of the conditions of the reception of medieval images, alongside issues relating to their production.
Generic skills
At the completion of this subject, students should have gained the following generic skills:
- how to frame and develop a cohesive and compelling argument;
- how to plan a research project; and
- how to communicate the outcomes of their research in seminar presentations.
Last updated: 9 February 2025