VIS 120CLate Antique Art
During the later centuries of the Roman Empire, the ancient world underwent a profound crisis. Beset by barbarian invasions, torn by internal conflict and drastic social change, inflamed with religious passion that was to lead to a transformed vision of the individual, the world, and the divine, this momentous age saw the conversion of the Roman world to Christianity, the transfer of power from Rome to Constantinople, and the creation of a new society and culture. Out of this ferment, during the centuries from Constantine to Justinian, there emerged new art forms fit to represent the new vision of an otherworldly reality: a vaulted architecture of diaphanous space, a new art of mosaic, which dissolved surfaces in light, a figural language both abstractly symbolic and urgently expressive. The great creative epoch transformed the heritage of classical Greco-Roman art and laid the foundations of the art of the Christian West and Muslim East for the next thousand years. Recommended preparation: VIS 20 or 120B.
Prerequisites
From the catalog: “none.”
Where it sits in degree plans
One of the options in (2)
- Classical Studies (B.A.)
- Visual Arts (Art History/Criticism) (B.A.)