Università Roma Tre

The course aims to provide students with a general background in the visual arts and ornament in the Medieval Mediterranean arena, retracing the main stages of historiography on the subject.
Through selected case studies (Hagia Sophia in Constantinople and the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, San Vitale in Ravenna and the Great Mosque of Cordova, the Palatine Chapel in Palermo and San Lorenzo f.l.m. in Rome), an in-depth study of transcultural relationships between East and West in the 6th-13th centuries and among different visual, ornamental and esthetic languages will be provided.

Readings and bibliography

Medieval Mediterranean Art History

Mandatory:
• Caskey, Cohln, Safran, Art of the Middle-Ages, 2022
o chap. 2: St Peter church, pp. 53-58;
o chap. 3: Six to mid-seventh century, Hagia Sophia, San Vitale
o chap. 4: Mid-seventh to late eighth century, Dome of the Rock, Damascus mosque
o chap. 7: Romanesque  1070 – 1170

Byzantine Art

Mandatory:
• Kitzinger, Byzantine art in the making, 1977
o ch. 5: The Justinian Synthesis

Mandatory for non-attending students only:
• Kitzinger, Byzantine art in the making, 1977
o ch. 1: Ancient Art in crisis

Islamic Art

Mandatory:
• Ettinghausen, Grabar, Islamic art and architecture, 2001
o Chapter 2: Dome of the Rock, pp. 15-19; Damascus Mosque, pp. 22-26; Ibn Tulun Mosque and Kairouan mosque, pp. 30-36; Abbasids, pp. 51-59;
o Chapter 3: Omayyad Cordoba, pp. 81-98:
o Chapter 6: The Fatimids, pp. 187-213;
o Chapter 8: Islam out of Islam, pp. 291-302

Mandatory for non-attending students only:

• Grabar, The Formation of Islamic Art, 1973
o Introduction
o 1. The Problem
o 3. The Symbolic Appropriation of the Land
o 4. Islamic Attitudes toward the Arts
o 8. The Formation of Islamic art

Facultative:
• Rosser-Owen Mariam, Islamic Art from Spain – 2010
o Intro
o Age of Empire

Ornament and Theory of art

Mandatory:
• Grabar, The Mediation of Ornament, 1992
o Preface
o Introduction
o Chap. I " A Theory of intermediaries in Art")
o Chap. III Geometry

Mandatory for non-attending students only:
• Gombrich, Art and Illusion, 1960
o Preface
o Introduction. Psychology and the riddle of style

Facultative:
• Grabar Andrè, Les origines esthétique médiévale, 1992 (also available in Italian and Spanish translation)
o Préface
o Plotin
o L’intelligible

• Trilling, Ornament. A modern perspective, 2004
o Preface
o Chap. 1: How ornament works


Norman Sicily

Mandatory:
• Higgs and Booms, Sicily, culture and conquest, 2017
o Chapter 4, pp. 172-228;
o Chapter 5, pp. 229-245;
• Longo, Anzelmo, From Creation to Communication, Reviewing Art in Norman Sicily 2022;
• Kapitaikin, Norman Sicily and the stage of multiculturalism, 2017
• Longo, The Royal Palace 2010 (with Italian version including pics);
• Longo, The first Norman cathedral in Norman Palermo, 2018;

Mandatory for non-attending students only:
• MWNF, Leone, Mauro et al. Siclulo-Norman Art Islamic Culture in Sicily, 2003
o Islamic Art in the Mediterranean: pp 15-34;
o Historical Artistic Intro: pp. 35-65;
o Royal Palace and Palatine Chapel: pp. 123-132;
o Martorana and San Cataldo: pp. 158-163;
o Cefalù: pp. 249-254;
o Cathedrals (Palermo and Monreale): pp 135-149;
o Favara Palace: pp.115-118;
o Norman Palaces: pp: 67-84;
o XIX century studies: pp. 85-86;

• Kitzinger, Byzantine studies, Norman Sicily, collection of essays:
o Cappella Palatina, arrangement of subjects, 1949, pp. 1001-1054
o Roger II mantle, 1950, pp. 1055-1062;
• Ćurčić, Some Palatine aspects of the Cappella Palatina, 1987;
• Bongianino, King’s Chapel, 2017;
• Grabar, Experience of Islamic Art at the Margins, 2005;

• Winkler, et al, Designing Norman Sicily, 2020:
o Introduction: pp. 1-21;
o Reilly, Roger II and Medieval Visual Culture, pp.23-46;
o Tronzo, The interplay of media: pp. 47-59;


Facultative:
• Longo, Forma e Sostanza, with pseudo-Dionysius Areopagite (in Italian) 2023;
• Nef, Companion to Medieval Palermo, essays:
o Di Liberto, Norman Architecture: pp. 139-194;
o Pezzini, Forma urbis: pp. 195-232;
• Higgs and Booms, Sicily, culture and conquest, 2017
o Frederick II and Nobiles Officinae, pp. 246-269;
• Longo, Idealizing medieval medierranean, 2018
• Armando, Role and perception of Islamic Art in Sicily, 2017;
• Bloom, Islamic (Fatimid?) Art in Sicily, 2008;
• Johnson, Episcopal and royal views in Cefalù, 1994;
• Kessler, Peter and Paul in Palermo (in Italian), 2010;
• Johns, Savage-Smith, The Book of Curiousities, Imago Mundi 55, 2003;
• Borsook, Messages in Mosaics, 1990;
• Peters-Custot, How Byzantine was Norman Sicily, 2018;
• Tranchina, Emir’s God, 2019