ILLUMINATING MEDIEVAL ART
A FOUR-WEEK ONLINE COURSE
Course begins 6pm, Wednesday 3 April 2024
We’re giving budding medievalists another chance to sign up to Professor Janina Ramirez’s hugely popular 2022 course, Illuminating Medieval Art. While there is no live component to this course, attendees will have access to a treasure trove of recorded material.
From gilded manuscripts to eerie relics; from sculpted figure, to glittering jewels. Medieval art fascinates, but few can understand much of its meaning and symbolism, as the ideas, texts and moments are buried in centuries of misrepresentation and misunderstanding. See these enigmatic objects afresh as we explore art from the 6th to 14th centuries together. You’ll discover unknown ideologies, maverick individuals and world-class craftspeople. This course will help you see the medieval period with new eyes.
Delivery: The course consists of a series of four pre-recorded video lectures, and separate recorded group Q&As with Professor Janina Ramirez. Participants will also have access to a reading list, course literature and activities. Links and details will be sent to participants a few days before the course begins. Recorded lectures and discussions will be released at 6pm (GMT) on Wednesday 3 April and will be available to view until Wednesday 5 June 2024.
*Please note: lectures are pre-recorded and the group discussions originally took place in 2022 and 2023.
Accessibility: All lectures and Q&As are captioned. If you have any additional access requirements, please get in touch via enquiries@histfest.org
ENROL – £37.50 (+ BOOKING FEE)
Lectures
1. Dark Age or Golden Age? (6th to 9th centuries)
People on the move following the fall of Rome led to individualistic artistic traditions that celebrated warrior culture, mystical beasts and personal, private, portable art.
2. Monsters At Every Turn. (10th to 12th centuries)
As power centralised in the hands of the Papacy and ruling houses like the Normans, so art becomes a means of control.
3. Signed, Anonymous: The Rise of the Artist (12th to 13th centuries)
Signing artworks and naming craftspeople signals a rise in the super-star artist. High medieval art was about show, prestige and power.
4. We Are All Individuals (13th to 14th centuries)
Ideological, social and economic shifts like the Reformation and Hanseatic League, compounded by the Black Death, creates a new type of art that fed into the Renaissance.
Your Tutor: Dr Janina Ramirez is a lecturer in medieval history, a critically acclaimed broadcaster, and author of Private Lives of the Saints, Julian of Norwich and the Sunday Times bestselling Femina: A New History of the Middle Ages.
If you have any queries about the course, please do not contact the tutors direct. Instead, contact enquiries@histfest.org where we will be happy to advise.