Studies in Medieval Art (420-0-1)
Topic
Labor in Medieval Art History
Instructors
Christina E Normore
Meeting Info
Kresge 4354 Art Hist. Sem. Rm.: Mon 2:00PM - 4:50PM
Overview of class
Despite the nineteenth-century romanticization of medieval craft production, medievalist art history has traditionally prioritized patrons and theologians over makers as the "creators" of artworks and for half a century looked to reception over facture as the locus for interpretation. Even the material turn, with its return to object-centered analysis, has shied away from questions of making in favor of methodologies that privilege object agency. These preferences have largely been shaped by the biases of the medieval textual record, which tends to obfuscate the place and nature of labor in discussions of art and architecture alike. This course seeks new avenues for addressing the role of labor (human and non-human, free and unfree) in medieval art and architectural production by bringing together archaeological research alongside medieval archival and descriptive sources. In addition to considering previous art historical attempts to engage this question, we will also look to methodologies and debates surrounding key issues such as craft specialization in archaeological literature as well as to methods such as critical fabulation that may open space for telling the stories obscured in the archive. A series of guest speakers specializing in different geographic regions of Afro-Eurasia will help us consider both the interregional nature of labor flows and the variable nature of source materials and previous research on these topics across the different subdisciplines of African, Chinese, European and Islamic art history. All required readings will be in English, but some research projects may require expertise in other languages.
Class Materials (Required)
No textbook required.