In this seminar we will explore how the representation of the body in the visual arts–both its formal properties and its iconography--responded to theological, political and social constructs of the body in the later Middle Ages (ca. 1000-1400) in both Western Europe and Byzantium. The first part of the course will be devoted to class discussion of readings that represent different approaches to a wide range of topics, including the following: the concept of portraiture, corporeal form and gesture, the body in the performance of religious ritual, the body of Christ in the Passion, the body and constructions of gender, the deformed and monstrous body, and the body in death and resurrection. In the second part of the course, students will present independent research papers.

P: Graduate standing and consent of instructor