Architecture and Spectacle in Late Medieval Europe

• Credit value: 30 credits at Level 7
• Convenor: Zoë Opacic

The power of Gothic architecture to move the spectator - whether modern or medieval - has been one of its undisputed qualities and chief attractions. The dizzying, gravity-defying verticality of Gothic cathedrals, complemented by the jewel-like colours of the stained glass and the richness of painted and sculpted images, created a unique visual and spatial setting - a theatre for the mass. While scholars agree that deep symbolism of these complex structures can only be 'decoded' by looking at them in an integrated fashion, finding a coherent way of reading a Gothic church has often proved to be conflicting and elusive. This course will put to test such programmatic views of Gothic through a series of case studies concentrating on the correlation between architecture and other media and on how they are used to articulate multiple functions of a medieval building - as a site of pilgrimage, royal cult, relic veneration or personal commemoration. In doing so, we will also consider spatial strategies developed by medieval architects and their patrons, and the role played by ritual - sacred or secular - that could transform buildings into Heavenly Jerusalems and city planning into a quasi-liturgical experience. This flexibility and theatricality of Late Gothic, its ability to create spectacle through performance and the use of different media makes it relevant to our modern thinking, but to medieval observers the sight of soaring buildings, powerful images of saints and relics, and highly-charged processions gave focus to their everyday lives and shaped the landscape they inhabited. 

This option is seminar-based and the students will be expected to have read key texts for each class and to give presentations.