History of mediaeval art

obligatory courses

Course for year-two students of “Mediterranean Civilization” and students from other departments interested in Mediaeval art. It encompasses the history of Mediaeval architecture and visual arts in relation to history, theology, and liturgy.

The subject of the course is an outline of the history of art in Mediaeval Latin Europe, against a wide political and social as well as philosophical and theological background.

- Source texts on Mediaeval art

- Source texts on Mediaeval aesthetics

- Art from the period of the great migrations

- Art in Italy up to the 9th century

- Langobard art

- Germanic, Ostrogothic, and Merovingian art

- Visigothic art

- Irish and Anglo-Saxon art

- Viking art

- Carolingian art

- Asturian, Mozarabic, and Catalan art

- Slavic art up to the 9th century

- Romanesque art: France, Italy, Spain, Germany, England

- Romanesque art in Poland

- Gothic art: France, Italy, Spain, Germany

- Gothic art in Poland

- Gothic style in Warsaw

- Painting and sculpture during the Italian Trecento

Each of the above classes will include a description of selected works of architecture and visual arts (sculpture, painting, handicrafts), their forms and iconography, relations to liturgy (in the case of religious art), and source texts on art and aesthetics, against a broad background of history of culture.

(lista lektur w językach obcych będzie podana w zależności od stopnia zainteresowania i językowych możliwości grupy):

Białostocki J., sztuka cenniejsza niż złoto, t. 1, Warszawa 1991, rozdz. I-VII;

Bochnak A., Historia sztuki średniowiecznej, Warszawa 1973;

Eco U., Sztuka i piękno w średniowieczu, Kraków 1994;

Gombrich E., O sztuce, Warszawa 1997, rozdz. 6-11;

Mroczko T., Polska sztuka przedromańska i romańska, Warszawa 1988;

Sauerländer W., Rzeźba średniowieczna, Warszawa 1978;

Skubiszewski P., Sztuka Europy łacińskiej od VI do IX wieku, Lublin 2001;

Świechowski Z., Sztuka romańska, Poznań 1950;

Świechowski Z., Sztuka gotyku, Poznań 1950;

Tatarkiewicz W., Historia estetyki, t. 2, Estetyka średniowieczna, Wrocław 1962.

Learning outcomes

a. knowledge: students will be able to distinguish major stylistic phenomena in the art of the latter half of the first millennium and in Romanesque and Gothic art, identify major works of art related to them and understand their ideological message; they will see the relationship between Mediaeval art and theology.

b. skills: students will identify the style of individual periods and artistic regions and find common elements.

c. social competences: students will appreciate the importance of the philosophical and theological foundations of the Latin Middle Ages and their role in the contemporary anthropological discourse.

Final credits will be based on:

- attendance (3 absences allowed per semester)

- active participation in classes

- presenting a report on a topic agreed upon with the teacher, followed by a discussion in class

- the mark for the final test