Description

This module will focus on the architectural use of domes, both externally and internally, as symbolic structures selected for specific purpose in a number of highly influential buildings in the late antique and early medieval periods, from the Pantheon in Rome to the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.

It aims to give students an introduction to:

• the buildings most commonly associated with domed features in late antiquity and the early medieval period
• a specific architectural feature and its associated symbolic vocabularies
• the changing perceptions and symbolic functions of domes across early cultures in Western Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean
• the language used to discuss domed features by their contemporaries

Objectives

By the end of this module, students should have an understanding of:

• the architectural feature of the dome in late antiquity and the early medieval period
• the ways in which architecture can function symbolically
• how to assess such symbolic potentials
• the ways in which symbolic architectural vocabularies can be adopted, appropriated and re-articulated by different cultures

Preliminary Reading

• X. Barral i Altet, The Early Middle Ages: From Late Antiquity to AD 1000 (Köln, 1997)
• R. Krautheimer, Early Christian and Byzantine Architecture (New Haven, 1986)
• J. Elsner, Imperial Rome and Christian Triumph (Oxford, 1998)
• D. Janes, God and Gold in Late Antiquity (Princeton 1996)
• R. Stalley, Early Medieval Architecture (Oxford, 1999)
• R. M. Harrison, A Temple for Byzantium (London, 1989)
• M. Hattstein & P.Delius (eds), Islam: Art and Architecture (Köln, 2000)
• K. Armstrong, A History of Jerusalem: one city, three faiths (London, 1996)
• H. Stierlin, Islam, I: early architecture from Baghdad to Jerusalem and Cordoba (Köln, 1996)