This course concentrates on
Major styles are presented first in purely visual terms (lots of slides with little verbal analysis); then the evolution of each component of style is traced through the periods of the Middle Ages (e.g. treatment of the human figure, Early Christian through Gothic; the vault, Early Christian through Gothic); eventually (in the written papers) the student reconstructs the whole from its constituent parts. The structure of the course emphasizes the active demonstration of the mastery of skills by the student. Each group of lecture units is accompanied by work sheets (e.g. diagrams, terminology definitions and slide lists for reference) and exercises designed to test the student's understanding; these form the basis of the work done in sections and are the focal point for section discussion; work sheets provide suggested answers. The exercises concentrate on dissection of parts of buildings or works of art (represented by a single slide); this skill is also tested in the midterm and final, while the written papers concentrate on testing the cumulative mastery of skills by presenting works of art as a whole (multiple different views of the same monument, or the same style represented by several examples in painting or sculpture). There are three written assignments, one each for the painting, architecture and sculpture parts of the course, done outside of class time and due according to the schedule obtaioable in the main menu..
Lecture units are presented in class by the Professor. Review of the lecture material is facilitated by sets of tapes synchronized with slides (the same as those used in the lectures) which are available, listed by unit number, for individual or small group viewing in UCIR, Hillman Library. This course is in the midst of being transferred onto Internet: substantial portions of the required materials are available on WWW http://www.pitt.edu/~medart http://www.pitt.edu/~medintro and http://www/pitt.edu/~medpat). You will be advised on how to use these materials.The Pittsburgh area offers little medieval art for firsthand study, but effort is made to include the limited holdings of The Carnegie, Museum of Art, and the facsimiles of medieval manuscripts in the Frick Fine Arts Library, as well as visiting at least one neo-medieval building.