Early Islamic Art

A survey of the visual arts in Muslim lands from Spain to Central Asia between the seventh and thirteenth centuries, emphasizing the role of visual arts in the formation and expression of cultural identity. Painting, sculpture, architecture, and the portable arts of ceramics, ivory, metalwork, and manuscript illustration will be considered. Topics will include the uses of figural and non-figural imagery; calligraphy and ornament; religious and secular art; public and private art; the art of the court and the art of the urban middle class; and the status, use, and meaning of the portable arts. (Also offered as lower level.)