WHAT TO DO:

1. Use the museum's website. Beware! Most museums are closed on Mondays, and the Walters closes on Tuesdays as well.

2. Choice. Find the Byzantine galleries. Please look at Early Christian or Byzantine works to about oh, 1500, or any you may find from Russia, medieval Sicily, medieval Italy, Coptic Egypt, Christian Ethiopia, or Greece from the same period, roughly.

3. Choose two works that depict the human figure Panel painting, manuscript, enamel reliquary, miniature mosaic, painted tile, repoussé metal, carved ivory, textile, or decorated ceramics would all work. Try to pick two that make sense as a grouping. Select each one from a different medium, or at least a different display case.

4. Description. Describe each object in your notes, enough to make a good paragraph. Start with the basics of a formal analysis: How big is it, what is it made of (the medium), what does the label call it? Date? Do we know where it is from? Then describe any scene or decoration or shapes or colors. Explain its iconography, or symbolism. A good formal analysis begins with the big stuff and works down through the details.

5. Function and original context. What was each object, exactly? Where or when would it be used? Be sure to look up any unfamiliar vocabulary terms that you run across.

6. Museum context. Where is each piece displayed? What sort of exhibit is it part of? Be sure you understand why each piece is where it is-why did the curators put it in that setting? Were pieces grouped by medium? Period? Function? Something else?

7. Comparison. What is the point of your two-object comparison? Show me you've learned something about Byzantine art and its contexts.

8. Primary source. Mine the Mango book for a primary source germane to the topic. Quote from it, cite it fully, and explain how it fits in. Please use an actual Byzantineperiod primary source, not the Bible. Or use The Internet Medieval Sourcebook's Byzantine page:

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook1c.html if you must.

9. Historical reading. Please demonstrate that you've mastered our class readings (beyond the Lowden textbook). Explain some aspect of your images through reference to issues in Byzantine art brought up by our reading. Show me that you've mastered the reading and can apply it to what you see in the museum.

10. Writing this up. I expect four to five pages, typed and double-spaced, with all sources used properly cited. See my writing instructions in the syllabus for clarification. Plan