ARTH4427 · Fine Arts

Early Medieval Art in Ireland and Britain

Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences

The course will examine the development of art in Ireland and Britain in the Early Medieval period and the production of Irish and English missionaries on the Continent. Emphasis will be placed on the following: 1. manuscripts, sculpture, and metalwork of the sixth to ninth century 2. understanding works of art in their historical contexts 3. sources of the works in the Celtic, Germanic and Mediterranean worlds 4. circumstances under which artists and scribes worked 5. the complex problem of defining local styles 6. complexities of dating works of art 7. evidence yielded through excavation of principal archaeological sites 8. de-constructing the scholarship in the field over the last two centuries. 9. placing new archaeological finds in the art historical narrative 10. the role of Irish manuscripts, metalwork, and sculpture in the Celtic Revival and as national monuments 11. misappropriations of Celtic and Anglo-Saxon symbols (i.e. Celtic Cross and Runes) by white supremacists