080105 SE High Medieval Sculpture in Austria and the Neighboring Cultural Regions (2024W)

Large-format figurative sculptures made of stone and wood have been preserved in Austria since around the middle of the 12th century. The former are generally integrated into the tectonic structure of architecture, usually sacred buildings, where they can be found both on the exterior (portals, wall structures, etc.) and on the interior (capitals, friezes, barriers, tombs, etc.). The latter, wooden sculptures, form a group of decorative objects that are often centrally positioned in the church interior in terms of both form and content.
In joint discussions, design principles of late antique as well as early and high medieval sculpture are initially developed across countries and epochs. A refined stylistic analysis will then be applied to selected ‘Austrian’ sculptures, which will make it possible to narrow down the period of their creation and their artistic origin.
Due to their (‘immovable’) position in the architectural structure, art-historical investigations of stone sculptures (or individual workpieces) sometimes play a decisive role in the context of archaeological and building research - namely in questions concerning the building history of Romanesque architecture as well as its processes and workshop operations. This will be illustrated using a prominent building in Vienna as an example (as part of an excursion).
Finally, technical aspects will also be taken into account, above all knowledge gained from the practical preservation of monuments and scientific investigations - such as on materials and surfaces (traces of work), on (former) polychrome colouring of pictorial works and their (fashionable) overpainting as well as on natural losses or deliberate manipulations of original substance due to the respective taste of the time.
The aim of the course is firstly an independent observation and precise description as well as a form and structural analysis of a sculptural object. The theses put forward in the relevant specialist literature should then be critically scrutinised and, if necessary, verified or falsified. New research questions can also be posed and hypotheses formed. The results of your observations and reflections should be presented in oral and written form.