HART 610 Surveying Byzantium

Section outline

• Select section General

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  General

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  • Select activity Announcements: Please read!!!

    

    Announcements: Please read!!! Forum
• Select section Week 1 Thurs Sept 3 - What is “Canon Formation”? What is a “Master Narrative”?

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  Week 1 Thurs Sept 3 - What is “Canon Formation”? What is a “Master Narrative”?
• Select section Week 2 Asynchronous Meeting

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  Week 2 Asynchronous Meeting

  For this week's session, please make an appointment with Professor Walker to discuss your interests in the course and/or the connection of the course to your exams/thesis proposal. Please submit a reading response providing at least 2-3 articles or book chapters you read following up on your conversation with Professor Walker.

  • Select activity Reading response week 2 due to Moodle midnight 9/15

    

    Reading response week 2 due to Moodle midnight 9/15 Assignment

    Due: Tuesday, September 15, 2026, 11:59 AM
• Select section Week 3 Wed Sept 16 – Queen of the Canon: Hagia Sophia

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  Week 3 Wed Sept 16 – Queen of the Canon: Hagia Sophia

  • Select activity Submit reading response for 9/16 here

    

    Submit reading response for 9/16 here Assignment

    Due: Tuesday, September 15, 2026, 11:59 AM

    Due to Moodle by midnight Wed 9/9

  • Select activity Tuesday, September 8 - Introduction

    Completion

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    Background reading:

  • Select activity Dr. William Allen, "Hagia Sophia, Istanbul," in Smarthistory, August 8, 2015, accessed September 4, 2026.

    

    Dr. William Allen, "Hagia Sophia, Istanbul," in Smarthistory, August 8, 2015, accessed September 4, 2026. URL

    This multimedia introduction to Hagia Sophia provides a good overview of the monument and a basic timeline for its history. Spend some time with the videos and photos, which are high quality, dynamic, and will help you make sense of some of the readings that have primarily black and white images.

  • Select activity Discussion reading:

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    Discussion reading:

  • Select activity Robert Ousterhout, “The Holy Space: Architecture and the Liturgy,” in Linda Safran, ed., Heaven on Earth: art and the Church in Byzantium (Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998), 81-120.

    

    Robert Ousterhout, “The Holy Space: Architecture and the Liturgy,” in Linda Safran, ed., Heaven on Earth: art and the Church in Byzantium (Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998), 81-120. File PDF

    This brief survey of Byzantine architecture relates Hagia Sophia to a broader Byzantine tradition of sacred art.

    25.2 MB · Uploaded 09/9/26, 22:14
  • Select activity Gülru Necipoğlu, “The Life of an Imperial Monument: Hagia Sophia after Byzantium,” in ed. Robert Mark and Ahmet Cakmak, Hagia Sophia: From the Age of Justinian to the Present (1992), 195-225.

    

    Gülru Necipoğlu, “The Life of an Imperial Monument: Hagia Sophia after Byzantium,” in ed. Robert Mark and Ahmet Cakmak, Hagia Sophia: From the Age of Justinian to the Present (1992), 195-225. File PDF

    This essay considers the “afterlife” of Hagia Sophia in the Ottoman era. You may find this reading a bit more dense (it was written for more of a scholarly audience), so do your best with it.

    7.1 MB · Uploaded 09/9/26, 22:14
  • Select activity Robert S. Nelson, “‘That Domed Feeling’: A Byzantine Synagogue in Cleveland,” in eds. Emily Neumeier and Benjamin Anderson, Hagia Sophia in the Long Nineteenth Century (2024), 169-96.

    

    Robert S. Nelson, “‘That Domed Feeling’: A Byzantine Synagogue in Cleveland,” in eds. Emily Neumeier and Benjamin Anderson, Hagia Sophia in the Long Nineteenth Century (2024), 169-96. File PDF

    This close analysis of a synagogue in Cleveland offers alternative ways to think about canon formation and its impacts.

    10.3 MB · Uploaded 09/9/26, 22:14
  • Select activity Optional additional resources to consider: (copy)

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    Optional:

  • Select activity Byzantium and Friends Podcast: 29. The many identities of Hagia Sophia, past and present, with Bob Ousterhout (Jul 30, 2020).

    

    Byzantium and Friends Podcast: 29. The many identities of Hagia Sophia, past and present, with Bob Ousterhout (Jul 30, 2020). URL
  • Select activity Further reading:

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    Further reading:

  • Select activity Gareth Harris, "First Hagia Sophia, now Turkey's 'Sistine Chapel of Byzantium' will be turned back into mosque," The Art Newspaper, 24 August 2020

    

    Gareth Harris, "First Hagia Sophia, now Turkey's 'Sistine Chapel of Byzantium' will be turned back into mosque," The Art Newspaper, 24 August 2020 URL

    Completion

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    Mark as done
  • Select activity Holger Klein (Columbia University) Op Ed, "Why we should be concerned about President Erdogan turning museums into mosques," The Art Newspaper, 27 August 2020

    

    Holger Klein (Columbia University) Op Ed, "Why we should be concerned about President Erdogan turning museums into mosques," The Art Newspaper, 27 August 2020 URL

    Completion

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  • Select activity "An Open Letter about the Status of Hagia Sophia," 30 June 2020

    

    "An Open Letter about the Status of Hagia Sophia," 30 June 2020 File PDF

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    Mark as done

    Please read pp. 1-4. The rest can be perused if you wish but is not essential. 

    333.3 KB · Uploaded 09/8/26, 13:36
• Select section Week 4 - Wed Sept 23 -  Janson: Byzantium in Art History Surveys

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  Week 4 - Wed Sept 23 -  Janson: Byzantium in Art History Surveys

  Periodization, Geography, and the Borders of Art History

  • Select activity Submit reading response for Janson HERE

    

    Submit reading response for Janson HERE Assignment

    Due: Wednesday, September 22, 2027, 11:59 PM

    First read the selections from the two editions of Janson, taking notes about how you would compare and contrast the overall aims and premise of each edition.

    How is Byzantium characterized in the master narrative that each textbook constructs? How do those master narratives change from the 1964 edition to the 2007 edition?  

    What works of art are chosen to constitute a Byzantine canon? What place does the textbook give Byzantine art/architecture in the larger art historical canon?

    For analyzing the place of Byzantine art/architecture in the textbook's broader narrative, make use of the table of contents, chapter headings and subtitles, and introduction (all scanned and included on Moodle) to develop a sense of the motivations and values undergirding the selection and organization of the themes and content of the book. 

    Review your notes in response to the questions above. Choose a single topic or idea (or a closely related set of topics/ideas) to develop in your response paper.

    Cite at least one specific image from each of the Janson editions to support or focus your analysis. You can refer to the figure number and vol. of Janson for each image or snap a photo of the specific images and mount them with your response paper. I will upload the images you all have emphasized into a PowerPoint and bring them to class to guide our discussion. 

    AFTER HAVING WRITTEN YOUR RESPONSE PAPER, read the short articles in the "conceptual reading section." Then reread your essay and write a brief paragraph at the end commenting on whether/how the conceptual readings prompt you to think differently about your analysis of the two editions of Janson.

    The required reading response and discussion question is due to Moodle by Midnight Wednesday, September 16. 

  • Select activity Background readings:

    Background readings:

  • Select activity Brief biography of H. W. Janson from the Dictionary of Art Historians

    

    Brief biography of H. W. Janson from the Dictionary of Art Historians URL
  • Select activity Brief biography of Dora Jane Janson from the Dictionary of Art Historians

    

    Brief biography of Dora Jane Janson from the Dictionary of Art Historians URL
  • Select activity For discussion: survey readings:

    For discussion: survey readings:

  • Select activity H. W. Janson and Dora Jane Janson, History of art: a survey of the major visual arts from the dawn of history to the present day (Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, 1964)

    

    H. W. Janson and Dora Jane Janson, History of art: a survey of the major visual arts from the dawn of history to the present day (Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, 1964) File PDF

    Completion

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    Mark as done

    126.9 MB · Uploaded 09/8/26, 13:36
  • Select activity H. W. Janson and Penelope J. E. Davies, Janson's history of art: the western tradition, 7th ed. (Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2007)

    

    H. W. Janson and Penelope J. E. Davies, Janson's history of art: the western tradition, 7th ed. (Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2007) File PDF

    Completion

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    Mark as done

    153.6 MB · Uploaded 09/8/26, 13:36
  • Select activity For discussion - conceptual reading:

    For discussion - conceptual reading:

  • Select activity Mitchell Schwarzer, “Origins of the Art History Survey Text,” Rethinking the Introductory Art History Survey special issues of Art Journal 54.3, (1995): 24-29.

    

    Mitchell Schwarzer, “Origins of the Art History Survey Text,” Rethinking the Introductory Art History Survey special issues of Art Journal 54.3, (1995): 24-29. File

    This reading gives a brief overview to a scholarly intervention critiquing "the" survey text in art history. In the 1990s, there was a massive backlash against the survey, which was critiqued for being Eurocentric, elitist, and intellectually reductive. Many institutions, including Bryn Mawr, eliminated the traditional survey couse at this time. I will tell you more about that moment in the history of art history pedagogy when we meet.

  • Select activity Robert Nelson, “Living on the Byzantine Borders of Western Art,” Gesta 35, 1 (1996): 3-11 (Moodle).

    

    Robert Nelson, “Living on the Byzantine Borders of Western Art,” Gesta 35, 1 (1996): 3-11 (Moodle). File

    This and the next essay by Nelson discussion the how Byzantium fits into surveys of art history and other canon forming tools and practices of the discipline. The two articles employ a broad range of useful frames and terminology which you might find useful in refining impressions you wrote about in your analysis the two editions of Janson -- although please write your initial response to Janson BEFORE reading these essays. I think you will get more out of them if you first grapple with how to compare the two editions of Janson. 

  • Select activity Robert S. Nelson, “The Map of Art History,” The Art Bulletin 79, 1 (Mar., 1997): 28-40 (Moodle).

    

    Robert S. Nelson, “The Map of Art History,” The Art Bulletin 79, 1 (Mar., 1997): 28-40 (Moodle). File
  • Select activity Emily Clark, "Ten Proposals for a More Ethical Art History: an undergraduate perspective," Material Collection Blog, June 19, 2019

    

    Emily Clark, "Ten Proposals for a More Ethical Art History: an undergraduate perspective," Material Collection Blog, June 19, 2019 URL

    This brief manifesto by an undergraduate art history major reflects on the ethics of art history and possibilities for demanding accountability in how we practice the discipline. Please reflect on whether you share perspectives with the author, if you disagree with her vision, or if you would adapt it in specific ways. Please also consider whether these kinds of values should/could be incorporated into a revisionist survey of art history -- and if so, what that would look like. 

  • Select activity Optional additional readings:

    Optional additional readings:

  • Select activity Rethinking the Introductory Art History Survey special issue of Art Journal 54.3 (1995).

    

    Rethinking the Introductory Art History Survey special issue of Art Journal 54.3 (1995). URL

    Completion

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    Mark as done
  • Select activity Mark Miller Graham, “Art 101,” Art Journal 55, 2 (Summer, 1996): 99-101, 103.

    

    Mark Miller Graham, “Art 101,” Art Journal 55, 2 (Summer, 1996): 99-101, 103. File
  • Select activity Robert Nelson, “The Slide Lecture, or the Work of Art ‘History’ in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” Critical Inquiry 26, 3 (Spring, 2000): 414-34.

    

    Robert Nelson, “The Slide Lecture, or the Work of Art ‘History’ in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” Critical Inquiry 26, 3 (Spring, 2000): 414-34. File