ARTH 730/ AAMW 730 • Byzantine Architecture

Instructor: Ousterhout • R 3-6

	First published in 1965, Richard Krautheimer’s Early Christian and Byzantine Architecture appeared in its fourth revised edition in 1986. Since that time, no new English-language handbook has been attempted on the subject. Comprehensive in scope, the book is surprisingly unbalanced (e.g., privileging West over East, early over late), driven by a Modernist evolutionary model, and now several decades out of date. While approaches to historic architecture have changed dramatically in recent years, and new documents have entered the discourse, Krautheimer’s book remains by default the standard classroom text – and a daunting one at that. Looking both at recent scholarship on Byzantine architecture and newer textbooks in related fields, the seminar will explore new possibilities for introducing students to the cumbersome subject of Byzantine architecture.
	Syllabus (PDF) Images