Course Description
Summary
This introductory course explores, through the lens of cross-cultural exchange, artistic and architectural production from the late medieval period to the nineteenth century. It considers the Mediterranean and its related regions as dynamic settings where global contacts, prompted by trade, diplomacy, war and conquest, travel, and pilgrimage, strongly shaped material and visual cultures. These contacts were not only maintained over distance, but through the proximity of shared communities of several religious and ethnic groups. Questions that the course will address include: How was ‘otherness’ visually expressed? How were aesthetic ideas adopted and repurposed in their new contexts? What strategies were employed to consolidate identities and cultural differences? No previous background is required. All readings are available in English.
