ARTH310

Art and the Christian Transformation of the Roman Empire

This course considers the diverse roles of visual culture and changing modes of viewing art in areas that comprised the Roman Empire from the first to the sixth century, including the cultural transformations that came about with the move from a pagan to a Christian world in the wake of the conversion of the emperor, Constantine, in the early fourth century and on a major stylistic change in art from the Classical naturalism of the earlier centuries to the more hieratic forms of the Late Antique style. The course throughout will attend to what is particular about the visual, about the nature of images in a diverse range of contexts: Public ceremonies; Roman imperial triumphant art and architecture; the art of private dwellings in first-century Italy; art and care for the dead in both pagan and Christian contexts; the development and decoration of Early Christian Churches; pilgrimage to Jerusalem and other holy sites; early Christian book painting, Icons and icon veneration.