Mediterranean Art from the Minoans to the Byzantines

• Week 1: Minoan Art and its predecessors (c.3500–c.1400 BCE)
  The earliest art of the Mediterranean belongs to islands: the island of Malta, whose isolated temples and sculptures are the earliest in Europe, and the islands of the Cyclades. After briefly examining the highly stylized and unrealistic art of these two cultures, we’ll turn to the unprecedented humanistic art of the Minoan civilization based on the island of Crete.   
• Week 2: Mycenaean Art and the Greek Dark Age (c.1400–c.700 BCE)
  Mycenaean art is the earliest of the ancient Greeks. Developed under the tutelage of the Minoans, it achieved its own individuality as the power of the Mycenaeans rose at the expense of the Minoans. The Bronze Age collapse (c.1150 BCE), which destroyed Mycenaean civilization, led to the more primitive art of the Greek dark age (c.1150–c.700 BCE). 
• Week 3: Archaic, Hellenic and Hellenistic Art (c.700–c.31 BCE)
  These are the sub-periods of the high art of classical Greece—when Greece was the strongest power on the Mediterranean Sea until the rise of Rome. 
• Week 4: Italy and Rome (c.500 BCE–c.500 CE)
  Beginning with a side glance at the art of the Etruscans, we will examine the art of classical Rome, whose culture was largely an extension of Greek Hellenistic civilization. 
• Week 5: Early Christian art and Byzantine art (c.300–c.600 CE)
  Christianity’s rise brought a cultural revolution in the Mediterranean world, as the church replaced the Roman state as Western society’s most stable institution. The result, in art, was the Byzantine style, propagated by the so-called Byzantine Empire, the Christianized eastern half of the Roman Empire that survived the fall of Rome.
• Week 6: The diffusion of the Byzantine style (c.600–c.1000 CE)
  The Byzantine Empire was the chief artistic centre of art in Europe after the fall of Rome. We will examine its artistic influence in both western and eastern Europe, most notably in the Slavic lands, and also its influence on Muslim art, especially in architecture.

By the end of the course, you should be able to:

• Describe the differences between the humanism of the Minoans, Greeks and Romans and the more theocratic perspective of the Egyptian period, and why this difference led to a revolution in artistic style
• Explain how the Romans, while often imitating the Greeks, nevertheless developed original art of their own
• Consider how the rise of Christianity brought about yet another artistic revolution, opposed to the humanism of the classical world

• Lectures
• Participation in discussions 
• Supplementary resources accessed through Canvas
• Reflective essay (applicable only to certificate students)

No textbook is required. We will provide all course materials online.