A survey of the major works of architecture, sculpture, book illumination, monumental mural decoration (mosaic and fresco) and the minor arts (ivory carving, metalwork, etc.) produced from Dura Europos to Toledo and from the Fayum to the Isle of Iona between approximately 200 and 1050. Lectures will focus on questions of style, content, function, patronage and audience in an attempt to convey not only the remarkable diversity and inventiveness of early medieval artistic practice, but also the central role that buildings, images and fashioned objects played in articulating and even shaping early medieval life. Aiming to situate these works within their larger social, political, devotional, intellectual as well as art-historical contexts, the course also hopes to demonstrate the unique power of the visual arts to provide access into an emerging European world whose values and concerns were radically different from, and yet fundamental to, those of the modern West. Requirements: midterm, final exam, three to four short papers. No prerequisites.