The Faculty Board of Architecture and History of Art give notice that they have amended the special subjects for the History of Art Tripos, 2008 (Statutes and Ordinances, p. 319) from those previously published (Reporter, 2005-06, p. 504).
'Non Angli, sed angeli' is what the future Pope Gregory the Great is supposed to have said at the sight of fair-haired Anglo-Saxon boys being sold as slaves in Rome: tradition has it that he was so struck by this encounter that he set about the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity (Bede, The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, II,1). This Special Subject explores the momentous changes that the advent of Christianity brought about in Anglo-Saxon England and which are testified to by the developments in the figurative and decorative arts that flourished from the end of the sixth century to the time of Offa (end of the eighth century). Questions of continuity and change, patronage and experiment, the relationship between a text-based religion and images, travel, and the migration of ideas and sources will be investigated using a wealth of material: manuscripts, sculpture, metalwork, and architecture as well as the coinage of the time. This artistic period will be studied in a wide western-European context, so that far from being considered 'the Dark Ages', it might be more properly appreciated in its vibrant vitality as a first renaissance.
The evolution of the Venetian townscape depended on a range of distinctive factors. This course examines the peculiar physical problems of building on marshy lagoon islands and the reasons lying behind this choice of site. Through the chosen period, the changing nature of the respective roles of client, craftsman, and architect is investigated. We consider the nature of Venetian society, both secular and religious, and the architectural settings that evolved to accommodate it. In the context of the city's role as a great international emporium, we analyse how trading contacts influenced architectural expression. With the help of written descriptions and visual renderings of the townscape, the ideological content embodied in both private and public building is explored.
By 1500 Moscow had established its hegemony over the other Russian principalities and during the reign of Ivan the Terrible finally mastered the Tartars. Moscow's political supremacy was matched by that of the Orthodox Church; in 1589 the Metropolitan of the city was elevated to the rank of Patriarch. Moscow was filled with churches, many rebuilt after the fire of 1547 and richly decorated with frescoes and icons by a succession of leading artists. As well as new commissions, miracle-working icons were brought to the city from the subjugated Russian principalities; together with relics acquired in Constantinople and elsewhere in the Orthodox world, they were used to legitimize Moscow's claim to be the Third Rome, the successor to Constantinople, which since 1453 had been in the hands of the Ottoman Turks.
In Moscow, the sacred art of icon painting was central to political as well as religious life; it was an expression of Orthodox doctrine which constituted the ideological basis of the State. In the course of the 16th and 17th centuries, icons were at the core of a series of politico-religious crises, which resulted in a violent schism within the Orthodox Church and threatened the stability of the state. The principal issue was that of Tradition, i.e. the upholding of the Orthodox faith and had two aspects: relations between the Greek Orthodox and the Russian Orthodox on the one hand; and, on the other, the influx of western ideas and sacred art.
This course will focus on the role of the icon in the social and political life of the period.
The Faculty Board are satisfied that no candidate's preparation for the examination in 2008 has been adversely affected by these changes.