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2020/2021

Medieval Architecture: Image and Function

Code: 100554 ECTS Credits: 6
Degree Type Year Semester
2500239 Art History OT 3 0
2500239 Art History OT 4 0
The proposed teaching and assessment methodology that appear in the guide may be subject to changes as a result of the restrictions to face-to-face class attendance imposed by the health authorities.

Contact

Name:
Eduardo Carrero Santamaria
Email:
Eduardo.Carrero@uab.cat

Use of Languages

Principal working language:
spanish (spa)
Some groups entirely in English:
No
Some groups entirely in Catalan:
Yes
Some groups entirely in Spanish:
No

Prerequisites

There are no specific prerequisites, but it is desirable that the subjects of Byzantine Art, Romanesque Art and Gothic Art have been studied.

Objectives and Contextualisation

In this subject, we will work on architecture and furniture in religious architecture -synagogues, churches and mosques- and civil architecture from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. The appropriate knowledge about space and function will be worked on and how the use conditioned and mediated the architecture that hosted it. Also, we will study how the building had to be furnished and dressed according to the activity that would take place there. On the other hand, the topography of architecture and its urban environment will be analyzed. All this analysis will allow us to approach an attempt to reconstruct the material landscape in which we will work on the problems of the creation of architectural types and their revision or consolidation until the sixteenth century. The basic intention of the syllabus is to approach the plurality of architectural solutions that proposed the three most important cultural contexts in Europe (Judaism, Christianism and Islam) and work on the problem of the transcultural perspective.

Competences

    Art History
  • Critically analysing from the acquired knowledge a work of art in its many facets: formal values, iconographic significance, artistic techniques and procedures, elaboration process and reception mechanisms.
  • Developing critical thinking and reasoning and communicating them effectively both in your own and other languages.
  • Interpreting a work of art in the context in which it was developed and relating it with other forms of cultural expression.
  • Producing innovative and competitive proposals in research and professional activity.
  • Recognising the evolution of the artistic imagery from the antiquity to the contemporary visual culture.
  • Respecting the diversity and plurality of ideas, people and situations.
  • Students must be capable of applying their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and they should have building arguments and problem resolution skills within their area of study.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Accurately defining and explaining an artistic object with the specific language of art criticism.
  2. Analysing ideas about an artistic phenomenon in a given cultural context.
  3. Analysing the creators of an artistic phenomenon in a specific cultural context.
  4. Analysing the recipients of an artistic phenomenon in a specific cultural context.
  5. Applying the iconographic knowledge to the reading of artistic imagery.
  6. Connecting an artistic imagery with other cultural phenomena within its period.
  7. Distinguishing the elaboration techniques and processes of an artistic object.
  8. Efficiently presenting knowledge in oral and written form.
  9. Encouraging creativity and fomenting innovative ideas.
  10. Examining an artistic imagery and distinguishing its formal, iconographic and symbolic values.
  11. Explaining the reception mechanisms of a work of art.
  12. Identifying the artistic imagery, placing it into its cultural context.
  13. Identifying the main and secondary ideas and expressing them with linguistic correctness.
  14. Reconstructing the artistic outlook of a particular cultural context.
  15. Working in teams, respecting the other's points of view and designing collaboration strategies.

Content

1. INTRODUCTION. THE HISTORY OF SPACE IN MEDIEVAL ARCHITECTURE

2. THE JEWISH ARCHITECTURAL SPACE IN THE MIDDLE AGES: SYNAGOGUES AND OTHER BUILDINGS

3. CHRISTIAN SPACE AND ARCHITECTURE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

4. THE PLURALITY OF FUNCTIONS: CATHEDRALS, PARISHES, MONASTERIES AND CONVENTS

5. ISLAMIC ARCHITECTURE. THE MOSQUE

6. ISLAMIC ARCHITECTURE (II). MADRASAS AND OTHER BUILDINGS

7. BETWEEN CASTLES AND PALACES

8. THE WOMEN PLACE IN MEDIEVAL ARCHITECTURE

Methodology

All subject matter of the course will be distributed between the classes taught by the professor, the recommended readings and the seminars that will be held in class.

During the seminars, the students will present a topic, previously consensuated with the professor. They will have to work on it through recommended readings and other means of information indicated by the professor.

Attendance at the seminars is obligatory and its contents will be part of the general subject of the course.

During the seminars the ability to think critically and to establish debate between different opinions of those expressed by the students and the professor will be assessed.

Activities

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Classes 30 1.2 3, 2, 9
Seminaries 21 0.84 3, 4, 2, 1, 9, 8
Type: Supervised      
Readings and others 4 0.16 1, 7, 9, 14
Tutorials and evaluation tests 5 0.2 3, 4, 2, 1
Type: Autonomous      
Autonomous study 90 3.6 5, 7, 10, 14, 6

Assessment

The evaluation will be carried out using three main evidences:

1. Participation in the forum or a parallel activity via Moodle

2. The memory about a compulsory reading.

3. The test that will be done at the end of the course (with the possibility of doing a partial in the middle of the semester).

The percentages of the activities will be 40% for the test, 30% for the forum and 30% for the memory.

The specific dates of both the written tests and the compulsory reading memories will be specified on the first day of class.

At the time of each evaluation activity, the teacher will inform the students (Moodle) of the procedure and date of revision of the grades.

To be able to average with the rest, the average of the two partial written tests will never be made with grades below 4.

The student will receive the grade of Non-evaluable as long as they have not passed more than 30% of the evaluation activities.

In the case of having failed any of the two partial tests, the student may present to the recovery of the corresponding block.

To participate in the recovery, the students must have previously been evaluated in a set of activities, the weight of which is equivalent to a minimum of 2/3 parts of the total grade.

To participate in the recovery process, it may be required to have obtained a minimum final grade, which cannot exceed 3.5 in any case.

In the event that the student makes any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade of an assessment act, this assessment act will be rated 0, regardless of the disciplinary process that may be instructed.

In the event that several irregularities occur in the acts of evaluation of the same subject, the final grade for this subject will be 0.

In the event that the tests cannot be done in person, their format will be adapted (maintaining the weight) tothe possibilities offered by the virtual tools of the UAB. Homework, activities and class participation will be carried out through forums, wikis and / or discussions of exercises through Teams, etc. The teacher will ensure that the student can access or offer alternative means that are within their reach.

Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
One or more written test 40% 0 0 3, 4, 2, 12, 1, 10, 11, 13, 14, 6, 8
Participation in seminars and obligatory readings 30% 0 0 2, 1, 9, 8
Presentation of one or more works, prepared individually or in groups, and oral presentation of a synopsis of it during tutorial or seminar hours 30% 0 0 3, 4, 12, 5, 1, 7, 9, 10, 14, 6, 8, 15

Bibliography

 

BACCI, Michele, Lo spazio dell'anima. Vita di una chiesa medievale, Roma, 2005

BANGO TORVISO, Isidro G., Edificios e imágenes medievales. Historia y significado de las formas, Madrid, 1998.

BRAMON, Dolors, Moros, jueus i cristians en terra catalana. Memòria del nostre passat, Pagès editor, Lérida, 2013.

CALVO CAPILLA, Susana, Las mezquitas de al-Ándalus, Almería, 2014

CARRERO SANTAMARÍA, Eduardo, "Catedral y liturgia medievales. La definición funcional del espacio y sus usos", en O clero secular e as suas catedrais, eds. R. Morujao y A. Saraiva, Lisboa, 2014.

CARRERO SANTAMARÍA, Eduardo, La catedral habitada. Historia viva de un espacio arquitectónico, Barcelona, UAB, 2019.

DÍEZ JORGE, Mª Elena. Women and Architecture: Christian and Mudejar Women in Building. Granada, Universidad, 2016

ESPINOSA, Miguel A., Judaísmo, estética y arquitectura. La sinagoga sefardí, Granada, 1998.

MERINISSI, Fátima, El harén en occidente; Espasa Libros, 2001.

MICHELL, George, La arquitectura del mundo islámico, Madrid, 1988

PELÁEZ, Jorge, La Sinagoga, Córdoba, 1994.