Chariot-racing, archery, tennis, and jousting were just some of the sports enjoyed over the 1000 years (4th-15th centuries CE) known as the "Middle Ages." Kings and queens, monks and nuns, and nobles and peasants engaged in these in order to gain athletic prowess, fame, status, wealth, love, sex, and pleasure. This course examines the powerful visual expressions of an array of sports and games developed, cultivated, and encouraged or discouraged over the medieval era. The material evidence includes athletic monuments, illustrated manuscripts, tapestries, and relatively unexpected objects such as mirrors and combs; modern material such as films and TV excerpts shall also be used. Key issues explored are: the spectacle and spectatorship of medieval sports; gender, class, and religion in the practice of sports; and comparisons between their medieval and modern versions.

HISTART Concentration Distributions: Europe, Middle East, Medieval, Early modern