13 – A World in Pieces: Medieval Mosaics
Course 13
Dr George Bartlett, with contributions by Professor Liz James
Summer School – Online
Monday 28 June – Friday 2 July 2021
£395
Course description
Mosaics are the largest and most spectacular works of art from the medieval world, used to create some of the most sumptuous and spectacular celebrations of religious and secular power. They are also among the most beautiful. Next to a wall mosaic, a Renaissance altarpiece is like a postage stamp. This course is about why mosaics matter in understanding and thinking about medieval art, so we shall consider what messages they were intended to convey to the observer. But we shall concern ourselves with how they were made and the breath-taking range of skills that putting a mosaic together involved. Our focus will be with wall mosaics, from the Byzantine churches of Constantinople and Greece to the mosaics of Ravenna, Rome, Norman Sicily and Venice.
Lecturer’s biography
Dr George Bartlett completed his AHRC-funded PhD in Art History at the University of Sussex in 2020, where he also teaches modules on Late Antique and Middle Byzantine art. His thesis was supervised by Professor Liz James and is entitled ‘What’s in a name? Images of Christ inscribed with epithets in Middle and Late Byzantine art, c. 1000-1453’. In 2014-15, he studied at The Courtauld for an MA in Byzantine and Islamic art, which was jointly funded by the Courtauld Friends and the Stravros Niarchos Foundation. He has taught art history courses to students from widening participation backgrounds at the National Gallery, London and is currently a visiting lecturer for the MA in Art Conservation at West Dean College.
