| Main themes |
A. Imperial Christianity is the essence of the eastern Roman civilisation; it conditions every artistic expression in the vast areas of Europe, Asia and Africa where it developed.
B. The arts of Islam, of which architecture and calligraphy are most widely recognized, are a prestigious chapter not to be ignored by any historian of the arts and civilizations: all its forms of arts and crafts have flourished and expanded on the African, Asian and European continents.
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| Aims |
A. Acquiring the capacity to recognize the shapes and aesthetic characteristics of each region and period of the arts of the Christian East, and the ability to identify their common features as they interact with other cultural expressions.
B. Knowledge of techniques and formal features generated in the Islamic context and of the physical, socio-political, religious, historical and geographical environment of which they are characteristic.
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| Content |
A. Particular attention will be paid to the main holy places and to the great cities -Jerusalem/Hagiapolis, Bethlehem, Antioch, Constantinopolis/Byzantium, the Sinai, etc.
The monumental arts, with their painted and mosaic decoration, precious art objects and furniture are studied in their context of creation and use. Analysis of the setting for the liturgy and for court ceremonial, for monastic and profane life. Technical, stylistic and iconographic innovations and characteristics are reviewed in relation with the main historical and geographical articulations of the Christianized East, and as they have radiated and still mark the world of Orthodoxy.
B. Study of the main holy places and art centres of the lands of Islam : Jerusalem/Al Quds, Damascus, Cairo, Kayruan, Cordoba, Baghdad, Samarra, Isfahan, Tabriz, Bukhara and Samarkand. The most significant monuments of urban, palatial, religious and garden architecture of the main periods of art in the Mediterranean and near and central Asia are analysed, particularly in view of their art historic posterity. Forms, techniques and functions are set in context and are analysed as to their ornament and iconography in the course of studying the most important innovations and realizations in the arts and crafts of glass, pottery and wall ceramics, textiles, wood and metalwork. The regions and the artistic productions studied will vary from term to term, thus allowing different combinations and fields to be tackled (ex. Eastern and western Umayyads; Sefevid Iran and the Moguls; the Fatimids and Seljuks; Timurids and Ottomans).
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| Other information |
Handouts of graphic and photographic data, chronological tables, bibliographies and set readings. Interactive group visits of collection(s), and of sites for the "Eastern and African Arts" students.
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