Lecture



Architectural Theory and History Ⅱ: Western Architectural History



Introduction to Medieval Art and Architecture in Europe



JIANG Jiawei 江嘉玮


Jiawei Jiang is assistant professor at the College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University. He was granted doctoral degree in architectural history and theory by Tongji University in 2019. He served as visiting researcher at Yale University, TU Wien, Pusan National University. He had made researches and travelled around China, France, Switzerland, US, Austria, Germany, South Korea since 2013. He is engaged with the translation of Viollet-le-Duc’s Dictionnaire raisonné de l’architecture française du XIe au XVIe siècle into Chinese in recent years.


This lecture introduces European medieval art and architecture by chronological divisions of three periods: pre-Romanesque (475 – c.900 AD), Romanesque (c.900 – 1150 AD), Gothic (c.1150 – 1450 AD). The vicissitudes of almost a thousand years witness the transformations of urban morphology, art form in religious architecture, feudal system and endless theological debates. Five topics are included: 1. Social structure of feudalism in Western Europe; 2. Transforming Catholic liturgies and spatial responses; 3. Evolution of building technology and structural rationalism; 4. Decoration motifs and relevant iconographical meanings; 5. Summum opus of gothic arts.