ARTH 22100
INTRODUCTION TO THE MEDIEVAL WORLD
PROF. STEPHEN CLANCY

SECOND EXAM

Write answers to FOUR OUT OF THE FIVE essay questions given below. Since I will be out of town when the exam is due, you should submit your answers electronically, as email attachments (make sure that you hear back from me that I could open the attachment!); all answers are due by 6 PM on Friday, May 13, 2011.  Although this is an "open book" test, COLLABORATION BETWEEN STUDENTS IS NOT ALLOWED.  You should base your answers on our in-class discussions and the readings, and cite specific visual evidence from specific works in support of your answers. You should also use appropriate terminology (the terms and names we have discussed in class) when necessary.

NOTE: To view images relevant to these questions, you should log into the Blackboard site for this course, and download the OIV (Offline Image Viewer) files for the second exam -- these are the same OIV files I've used in our classroom. As I explain on our Blackboard site, "[i]n order to open those files, you will first need to download the "Offline Image Viewer" software from ARTstor. You can get the software from ARTstor's site, under the "Tools" menu. Once you have downloaded and installed that software (which is very easy to do), simply double-click on the .prs file and it will open up the image-viewer." I have not provided direct links to the image folders on ARTstor itself, because this seemed to result in a number of "technical" issues during the first exam; if you want to look at images directly on ARTstor, simply log into ARTstor, then log into the course folder (using the "chillon" password), and open up the image folder you're interested in.

Exam question #1
A friend of yours thinks that medieval castles were the most "practical" buildings constructed during the Middle Ages, since, she maintains, everything about them was designed solely to serve the purposes of medieval warfare. Having taken "Introduction to the Medieval World," you know otherwise. Explain to your friend how and why the non-war-related functions of the medieval castle -- both practical and symbolic -- far outweighed its war-related functions. Cite specific examples and specific visual evidence (and use appropriate terminology) in support of your answer.

Exam question #2
We looked in class at a variety of images dealing with chivalric life, including images of war, images of love, images of hunting, and images of tournaments. Based on what we saw, heard, and discussed, answer the following questions: In what way(s) do the images show an increasing preoccupation with "physical reality" in later medieval cultural production, and why? In what way(s) do the images and show, paradoxically, a striking separation from the "realities" of the later medieval world, and why? Cite specific examples and specific visual evidence (and use appropriate terminology) in support of your answer.

Exam question #3
What kinds of concepts "kingly authority" (as articulated in Saint Louis' Advice to His Son and Joinville's The Life of Saint Louis) are embodied in the images of French rulers that we studied in class, and how? In what way(s), if any, are the concepts of "kingly authority" related to broader concepts of chivalry? Cite specific examples and specific visual evidence (and use appropriate terminology) in support of your answer.

Exam question #4
In what ways do the layout, focal points, functions, and imagery of the medieval city serve as vehicles for the expression of merchant-class values and merchant-class pride in the later Middle Age? How and why did medieval civic spaces and images break from the "chivalric" conceptions of medieval society? Cite specific examples and specific visual evidence (and use appropriate terminology) in support of your answer.

Exam question #5
Based on what discussed in class, and what you can glean from the readings, how and why was death treated visually in the Middle Ages -- in paintings, manuscript illumination, and tomb effigies -- in ways both similar to and different from how we tend to visualize death today? What impact might the Black Death have had on medieval visualizations of death, including tomb effigies? Cite specific examples and specific visual evidence (and use appropriate terminology) in support of your answer.