Art 222
Fall 2001
This course surveys
art and architecture in Western Europe from the 12th to the 15th
centuries.Our primary focus will be the church building where
sculpture and painting were integrated with architecture to create
a multi-media environment for communal and personal devotion.
Discussion will explore Gothic art as a representation of spiritual
beliefs, as a tool of political persuasion, and as a site that
reveals the dynamic tensions within contemporary society.
Course Requirements
In addition to a mid-term and final examinations which will cover
the material presented in lecture and assigned readings, two papers
(ca.5 pages each) will also be required.
Texts
Abbot Suger, E, Panofsky, ed.
Camille, M., Gothic Art: Glorious Visions
Chartres Cathedral, R. Branner, ed.
Stoddard, W.S., Art and Architecture in Medieval France
Reading pack
Books are in paperback and are available at the Odyssey Bookshop
in the Village Commons.
*** Images and assignments will be posted on the course web site
Office Hours
Monday 2-4: 206 Art Building and by appointment
e-mail: mtdavis@mtholyoke
phone: 538-2474
Lectures and Readings
I: Saint Denis and the Gothic
Camille, Glorious Visions, introduction: 9-25
Abbot Suger, E. Panofsky, ed.
W. Stoddard, Art and Architecture, chs. 8-9: 93-111 (look
through part 1, "Romanesque France"
Revelations, chapter 21 (handout)
II. The Royal Portals of Chartres
Cathedral
Stoddard, ch. 15: 153-164
Chartres Cathedral: 126-168
L.Spitzer, "The Cult of the Virgin and Gothic Sculpture:
Evaluating Opposition in the Chartres West Facade Capital Frieze,
Gesta, 33/2 (1994): 132-150 (reading pack)
W. Sauerländer, Gothic Sculpture in France, plates
III. Notre-Dame, Paris and the Quest
for Size
Camille, chapter 1: 27-68
Stoddard, chs. 10-14: 113-152
"Critics of the New Architecture," in Gothic Art, T. Frisch,
ed., 30-33 (handout)
IV. Cunning Geometry: Gothic Design and
Construction
Plan Design exercise in class
Recall "The Cathedral
of Notre-Dame, Amiens"
Columbia University, Amiens website
M.
Davis, "Scenes from a Design: The Plan of Saint Urbain, Troyes"
Chartres Cathedral: 102-103; 124-125
V. "The Work of God":
the Church as Performance Space
C. Wright, "The Shape of the Liturgy..." (reserve)
M.Fassler, "Liturgy and Sacred History.at Chartres," Art Bulletin,
75 (1993), 499-520 (reserve)
P. Crossley, "The Man from Inner Space" (reading pack)
VI. Gothic Architecture
in England to 1230
Canterbury, Lincoln, Wells, Salisbury
Gervase of Canterbury, "The New Architecture," in
Gothic Art, T. Frisch, ed. 14-23 (reading pack)
P. Kidson, "Saint Hugh's Choir," (reading pack)
MID-TERM EXAMINATION
VII. Chartres Cathedral: Image of an Ideal World?
The New Cathedral
Camille: 70-99
Chartres Cathedral: 69-102; 104-114; 120-122
Stoddard, chs. 16-17: 167-190; 253-257
Augustine, The City of God (excerpt, handout)
Transept Sculpture
Chartres Cathedral: 186-206
Sauerländer, French Gothic Sculpture, plates
Higher and Higher:
Cathedrals of Bourges, Reims, Amiens, Beauvais
Stoddard, ch. 18-23: 191-251
William Durand, "The Symbolism of Churches and Church Ornaments,"
Gothic Art, 1140-c.1450, 33-37 (handout)
S. Murray, "Architecture of Transcendence" (video)
visit the Columbia University Amiens web site
VIII. Art and Politics
in the 13th Century
France: the Reign of Louis IX (1226-1270)
Architecture
Stoddard, chs. 25, 26: 279-310
Sculpture and Statecraft
D. Sadler, "The King as Subject, the King as Author," (reserve)
W. Sauerländer, French Gothic Sculpture, plates for Reims Cathedral
The Empire: the Age of Frederick II (1226-1250)
C. Wilson, "Germany,"
The Gothic Cathedral, 144-156 (reserve)
P. Williamson, Gothic Sculpture (reserve)
England: Henry III and Westminster Abbey
IX. Art and Personal Piety
The Cult of the Virgin
Camille: 102-131
"The Assumption of the Virgin," The Golden Legend
(reading pack)
J.E. Keller, "The Cantigas de Santa Maria," Alfonso X, El Sabio
(reserve)
Cantigas: CD-Rom multi-media program in special
projects lab, Dwight
The Hours of Jeanne d'Evreux
The Hours of Jeanne d'Evreux (look
through)
M. Caviness, "Patron or Matron...?" Speculum,
68 (1993), 333-362 (reserve)
Lecture
notes
X. Public and Private Art in Italy
Camille: 133-183
Giovanni Pisano, sculptor and architect
Siena Cathedral facade
Pistoia pulpit
M. Ayrton, Giovanni Pisano, 121-131 (reserve)
Giotto: the Arena Chapel, Padua
G. Vasari, "Cimabue" and "Giotto," from The Lives of
the Most Eminent Painters (reserve)
look through illustrations of G. Basile, Giotto:
the Arena Chapel frescoes (reserve)
Siena: Good and Bad Government frescoes
N. Rubinstein, "Political Ideas..." Journal of the Warburg and
Courtauld Institutes, 21 (1958), 179-189 (reading pack)
XI. Paris: a Medieval Metropolis
Jean de Jandun, "In Praise of Paris (reading pack)
M. Davis, "Desespoir, Esperance, and Douce France"
in Fauvel Studies, 187-213
(reserve)
W. Sauerländer, "Paris" in Paris, Center of Artistic Enlightenment(reading pack)