Studying at York
Art & Religion in the First Millennium - MST00067M
- Department: Centre for Medieval Studies
- Credit value: 20 credits
- Credit level: M
- Academic year of delivery: 2022-23
Module summary
The conversion of Europe to Christianity was one of the most significant transformations of the Middle Ages. But it may be understood as part of a broader story: the first millennium CE saw the rise and spread across Eurasia of scriptural faiths with universal claims, and the decline of polytheistic, dynastically specific or locally focused pagan beliefs. Much of the success of Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism was down to the development of powerful religious images and distinct visual identities.
This module foregrounds visual and material evidence in the study of first millennium religion, focusing in each session on key images, objects and sites as case studies. The questions we tackle will relate as much to the reception of images as to their creation. Did viewers of the Hinton St Mary mosaic see Christ, or the Roman Emperor? Did Islamic rulers really dispense with all human images? Why did European Christians and Indian Buddhists venerate holy relics? And what use were illuminated holy books to those who could not read?
Alongside our strong focus on visual sources, we shall investigate contemporary responses by reading relevant primary texts such as pilgrimage narratives, doctrinal tracts, histories and hagiographies.
Comparative themes include relics in different traditions, the political and dynastic use of religious images, and iconoclasm. We shall also explore how these religions used the visual in conversation with each other, through connection – such as the transmission of motifs – and distinction – including in their use of figural images or holy text.
Module will run
| Occurrence | Teaching period |
|---|---|
| A | Spring Term 2022-23 |
Module aims
The module aims to:
- Develop skills of source analysis and interpretation;
- Assess a range of source material and relevant secondary works; and
- Develop students’ powers of evidence-based historical argument, both orally and in writing.
Module learning outcomes
After completing this module students should have:
- A familiarity with a selection of religious images, objects, and sites from Ireland to India in the first millennium, their connections and characteristics
- An awareness of major developments in the history of religion across Eurasia in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages
- An understanding of first millennium discourses on images and religion (for instance discussions of iconoclasm, ‘books for the illiterate’, relics and representation)
- A critical assessment of the modern narratives used to discuss and display these images, objects and sites
- The ability to use visual and material sources alongside written texts in historical research, and an appreciation of associated methodological issues
- An understanding of ‘global’ and comparative approaches to the history of religion
Module content
The conversion of Europe to Christianity was one of the most significant transformations of the Middle Ages. But it may be understood as part of a broader story: the first millennium CE saw the rise and spread across Eurasia of scriptural faiths with universal claims, and the decline of polytheistic, dynastically specific or locally focused pagan beliefs. Much of the success of Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism was down to the development of powerful religious images and distinct visual identities.
This module foregrounds visual and material evidence in the study of first millennium religion, focusing in each session on key images, objects and sites as case studies. The questions we tackle will relate as much to the reception of images as to their creation. Did viewers of the Hinton St Mary mosaic see Christ, or the Roman Emperor? Did Islamic rulers really dispense with all human images? Why did European Christians and Indian Buddhists venerate holy relics? And what use were illuminated holy books to those who could not read?
Alongside our strong focus on visual sources, we shall investigate contemporary responses by reading relevant primary texts such as pilgrimage narratives, doctrinal tracts, histories and hagiographies.
Comparative themes include relics in different traditions, the political and dynastic use of religious images, and iconoclasm. We shall also explore how these religions used the visual in conversation with each other, through connection – such as the transmission of motifs – and distinction – including in their use of figural images or holy text.
Teaching Programme:
Students will attend eight weekly two-hour seminars in weeks 2-9.
The provisional outline for the module is as follows:
- Introduction: Religion, word, and image in the first millennium
- Roman imperial religion and the image of Christ
- ‘From the lineage of the gods’: Mazda-worship in the Sasanian Empire
- Representing Buddha: the first images and relics
- Holy text and human figure in early Islamic art
- Image and Iconoclasm in Byzantium
- ‘Barbarian splendour’ and the inheritance of Rome in the West
- Judaism and the graven image
Indicative assessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100 |
Special assessment rules
None
Indicative reassessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100 |
Module feedback
Feedback report within twenty working days of essay submission.
Indicative reading
For term time reading, please refer to the module VLE site. Before the course starts, we encourage you to look at the following items of preliminary reading:
Belting, Hans. Likeness and Presence. A History of the Image before the Era of Art, trans. by Edmund Jephcott. Chicago, I.L.: Chicago University Press, 1994.
Elsner, Jas, Stefanie Lenk, et al. Imagining the Divine: Art and the Rise of World Religions. Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2017.
Fowden, Garth. Before and After Muhammad: The First Millennium Refocused. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2014.
Wickham, Chris, The Inheritance of Rome: A History of Europe from 400 to 1000. London: Penguin, 2009.