HAU33024 Art, Piety and the Body in the Late Middle Ages and Early Renaissance

This module will explore the art of Europe in the long fifteenth century (approximately 1380-1520) with particular attention being paid to religious culture and belief; how gender and the body were understood and expressed; the role of pilgrimage, suffrages and the saints; the differences of artistic expressions between northern Europe (e.g. Flanders) and southern (Italy); the art of crises such as witchcraft, plague and religious reform; and the ways in which naturalism and humanism challenged existing modes of artistic expression. We will also look at whether the view of the period as one steeped in pessimism, the macabre and thoughts of decay, known according to the formulation of Jan Huizinga as the ‘waning of the Middle Ages’ is still useful. The dominant centres to be examined will be the cities of Flanders and Italy, but the art of northern France, England, Germany and elsewhere will also be drawn on.