Fields of Study: Medieval
Medieval Studies at Florida State is explored across many disciplines, including Art History. Graduate students who specialize in Medieval art may also enjoy participating in Florida State University's interdisciplinary Medieval Studies Student Organization and in Vagantes, a traveling conference for graduate students studying any area of the Middle Ages.
Faculty
Richard Emmerson
Late Medieval Art and Manuscript Studies
Paula Gerson
Medieval Art and Architecture
Lynn Jones
Byzantine and Early Christian Art and Architecture
Course Listing - Medieval
Graduate students generally enroll for 5000-level coursework. Many of these courses are tutorials linked to the parallel 4000-level undergraduate course. It is the general practice that students attend undergraduate lectures as well as fulfill the particular requirements for the 5000-level tutorial.
ARH 5220. Late Antique and Early Christian Art and Architecture (3). Considering the area of the Mediterranean world, with emphasis on the cities of Rome and Ravenna, and focusing on the period included between 4th and 6th centuries A.D., the course will trace the pivotal mainstreams of visual art determined by the crisis of the Roman Empire and the birth of a specific Christian art. Lectures will examine the dialogue/contrast between pagan and Christian art, by paying a particular attention to the mechanisms and to the strategies of translation and transformation of visual languages. The structure of the course will be, thus, centered on lines of internal communication (among different social, political and religious spheres) and of geographical communication (between Western and Eastern Empires).
ARH 5220. Byzantine Art and Architecture (3). This course will explore Byzantine art and architecture from the rise of Christianity in the 2nd and 3rd centuries to the end of the 6th century. We will explore the topic through the strong personalities who helped shape it. Imperial rulers, who often fought hard to come to power, had a vested interest in projecting a given image of their authority; other people who commissioned art had their own distinct agendas in mind.
ARH 5221. Early Medieval Art (3). Considers the development of the uses of art in the European Middle Ages, from Barbarian metal work to the acceptance of the classical tradition, to the first mature pan-European art of Romanesque architecture and sculpture. Topics of special interest include pilgrimage, imperial imagery, manuscripts, and monasteries.
ARH 5240. Later Medieval Art (3). Generally called Gothic art, this course includes the cathedrals and their sculpture built by bishops and towns, as well as the castles, sumptuous arts, and manuscripts commissioned by princes and lords. Topics of special interest include the Black Death, devotional art, civic expression, and the arts of the courts.
Graduate Seminars - Medieval
In addition to these "linked" tutorials, the Department also offers traditional graduate seminars in which students work closely with the professor in small groups. Students may take up to nine (9) semester hours of ARH 6292, Topics in Medieval Art. The subjects of these seminars are varied; recent Medieval seminars include:
Medieval London: Focuses on the role of London in the later Medieval Ages through an examination of art, architecture, and poetry.
Medieval Illustrated Manuscripts: History of book illustration in Western Europe
Medieval Jerusalem: Examines the art and architecture of Jerusalem from the reign of Herod to Ottoman domination.
Chartres: Explores the history of Chartres Cathedral and its importance to High Gothic architecture.