The course proposes to deepen the analysis of architecture both stylistically and structurally as well as in its historical framework. The student learns to handle the notion of architectural archetype, model, copy, and tries to understand the role of a building in its context, the reasons that justify the success, or failure, of a new form, and to learn the global reading of monumental decoration (techniques, typology, style, placement in the building, iconography).
The course considers the architectural production of the Middle Ages through thematic modules. In addition to Western religious architecture, the monastic architecture of the early Middle Ages, domestic architecture, defensive architecture and Byzantine architecture are all potential module themes. This pedagogical approach, which is also favoured for the course on architecture of the Modern Period, makes it possible to vary the way in which architecture and its decoration are approached and to insert new modules from one year to the next, depending on the evolution of research but also on the complementarity of this course with other FUNDP courses. Within each module, the subject matter progresses according to a chronological framework.
Oral examination, lasting about twenty minutes, during which the student is required to demonstrate his or her mastery of the subject by answering an open-ended question, favouring a transversal reading of the subject, and also by answering a few short questions, and then by submitting to an analysis of images during which he or she must identify the characteristics of the architecture observed and then use them to try to situate this architecture in its spatio-temporal context.
For a quick refresher course: - HECK, Ch. (ed.), Moyen âge: la chrétienté et l'Islam, Paris: Flammarion, 2007 (Histoire de l'art. Flammarion). - Bibliography given during the course