At Penn, the Middle Ages embraces wide geographic and cultural terms. Penn’s History of Art Department offers students the opportunity for a synchronic-based focus, studying in depth one period across multiple cultures, or a diachronic focus, studying one culture over several decades or centuries. Faculty work closely with students to hone their critical and observational skills for advanced training in the areas of study that interest them most, whether it is in the close analysis of objects, the methods of building construction or field archaeology, medieval and contemporary theories of art, or historiography.
Medieval Europe is the specialty of Sarah M. Guérin, whose research centers on the Gothic period across Western Europe. Professor Guérin is particularly interested in materials and how they shaped, both physically and intellectually, works of art. Her specialty in medieval ivory carving forefronts intercultural connections – both through courtly patrons emulating their neighbors around the Mediterranean, and also through the trade in elephant tusks across the medieval World System.
The department’s medieval offerings are augmented by Ann Kuttner’s interest in the Late Antique and post-Constantinian cultures of Italy and surrounding regions.
Ivan Drpić’s research focuses on the art of Byzantium and its Slavic neighbors. Two major interests run through Drpić’s scholarship and also inform his teaching. The first concerns the material practices of religion, more specifically, how religious artifacts, images, and spaces shape and mediate devotional experience, as well as different forms of social exchange and interaction. The second interest pertains to what may be termed Byzantine Kunstliteratur, namely, the rich body of texts that in various ways document, comment on, or—in the form of inscriptions—interact with works of art.
Across Penn’s campus, outstanding scholars in the history, literature, music, and religion offer excellent opportunities for students to broaden their cultural training. We encourage students to seek courses in other departments to compliment their art-historical study, whether taking courses in paleography, historical preservation, Islamic religious studies, western Romances, Latin or Greek, and so on. Collaborative teaching, joint exhibitions, and conference planning all express the faculty’s genuine interest in generating interdisciplinary dialogue. Students find additional resources through the local university consortium, which makes it possible to attend courses taught at other colleges and universities across the Delaware Valley (Temple, Bryn Mawr, Delaware, and Princeton). More information about the medieval offerings across campus are found at the Medieval Studies @ Penn website.
Philadelphia and the surrounding area offer Penn students a wealth of resources. The recently inaugurated Schoenberg Center for Manuscript Studies, housed in Van Pelt Library, is at the nexus of the study, research, and publication of Penn's collections of rare books. The Schoenberg Center organizes an annual conference, as well as wide-ranging meetings and lectures, for students and faculty interested in all aspects of medieval manuscripts and early books.
Beyond Penn, the region is rich in European medieval, Eastern and Islamic art collections, particularly of sculpture, manuscripts, and stained glass. Recent study trips have included curator-led discussions at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore (Departments of Manuscripts and of Medieval Art); the Morgan Library in New York; the Philadelphia Museum of Art (Departments of Decorative Arts and of Prints); the Free Library of Philadelphia (Department of Manuscripts); the Rosenbach Museum of Library (Department of Manuscripts); the Glencairn Museum; and the University Museum. Penn students have also held curatorial internships, lectureships, and guest lectureships at the University Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Walters Art Museum, and the Free Library of Philadelphia.