Early Medieval Art Assignments

These requirements are designed to create useful scholarly habits, to give you the best chance of ensuring that your work is given the credit it deserves. First impressions are vitally important, and ease of use for the grader comes a close second. Other requirements make the work more useful to you, and ensure that you make educational progress as the course continues. All these requirements are worked into the grading system, which is set out on the grading policy which you have (also on the web page), and I will not accept papers or plans which visibly neglect them, so make sure you meet the requirements!

General requirements - all assignments

• All assignments word-processed, one inch margins all round.

• All assignments quoted in full on a cover page or at the beginning of the paper. NO substitute titles! No extra titles! Professor's preference is for no cover page.

• All assignments to have bibliography or reference list on separate page at end. Three to five works, minimum.

• All assignments to have word count typed on separate line well below the text at end, BEFORE the bibliography. All word-processors have this facility. If you cannot find it, try "document information" or ask ACC.

• Use the grading policy as a check list to make sure you have covered the necessary content.

Specific requirements for paper plans (all assignments involve paper plans)

• 600-650 words only - fit the plan onto two pages, bibliography on third page.

• Use short notes. NO FULL SENTENCES (not even in thesis statements, introductions or conclusions: NOWHERE!).

• SINGLE LINE SPACING.

• Indented layout, as on sample, NO ROMAN NUMERALS, NO PARAGRAPH NUMBERS.

• Word allocations beside each section heading (i.e. how many words you think you would use in the written up 2000-word paper).

Specific requirements for full papers (second assignment only)

• 2000 words only

• DOUBLE LINE SPACING

Assignments are due on the relevant discussion day.

7.

DISCUSSION #1
If Early Christian art is neither illusionistic nor logically narrative, how did the artists seek to get its message across? What are the main outlines of that message and how does it relate to the historical context? Illustrate your answer by analyzing one main church and its decoration (complete the analysis with reference to others) and one independent work.

14.

DISCUSSION #2
Which aspect of the human mind did Early Byzantine artists and architects seek to "hook"? How did they do this, and how might this have affected the issue of Iconoclasm? Illustrate your answer by analyzing one church and its decoration, and by analyzing a surviving icon which might have been particularly inflammatory.

22.

DISCUSSION #3
When a king seeks to impose a new religion on his people, how does he make this visible? And when he seeks to make new alliances, how does he make this visible too? Compare Oswald and his successors with Charlemagne, illustrating your answer with an analysis of two books each and one building or monumental sculpture each.

29.

DISCUSSION #4
Today, books are mundane repositories of information. But it was not always like that. Highlight the Early Christian, Insular, Early and Late Carolingian attitudes to book design using specific examples. Which culture comes closest to our modern attitude, and can you suggest any reasons for this?

33.

DISCUSSION#5
During Iconoclasm, artistic traditions in the Byzantine Empire foundered and many artists sought work in the west (remember Demetrius whose name appears in Charlemagne's Coronation Gospels). When images were again tolerated in the East, the style was quite different. Using at least FOUR examples, suggest sources for the Middle Byzantine style.

FINAL DISCUSSION (Final Exam)

The Second Commandment should pose a very real block to the development of figurative art in a Christian context. Survey the whole series of approaches traced in this course, and say why do you think iconoclasm did not happen in the west. Illustrate your points with specific examples. After iconoclasm, a new style was adopted in the east which became more pronounced as the centuries passed and is still in use today. How would you account for this?