The Silk Road remains an alluring topic
steeped in exoticism and mystery. Stretching across the Asiatic
Continent, the Silk Road was far more than a route for commerce. It
was a cultural crossroad that brought
together the artistic and religious traditions of all the great
civilizations of Asia. Indeed, the rapid spread
of religious movements like Buddhism or Islam depended largely on
the economic and diplomatic
opportunities that the Silk Road offered. In the same way, the great
Asiatic empires – the Kushans, the
Sassanians, the Soghdians, or the Mongols from China to the Middle
East – all rose upon the fundamental
relation between commerce and power that played itself out
constantly across the Silk Road. And it
was the Silk Road that stimulated a complex, multi-faceted tradition
of Central Asian art and architecture,
just as it facilitated the cross-cultural and cosmopolitan aspect of
all the great artistic traditions from China
to India, and the Middle East.
This course will consider all these
issues within a consistent historical
framework. We will focus extensively on art and architecture, with
particular attention to the portable
commodities – textiles, carpets, painting, and metal work – for
which the Silk Road was famed. This
course will also offer an optional class trip to see the exhibition,
The Silk Road, which is currently on view
at the Museum of Natural History in New York.
DAVID CASTRIOTA, professor of
History at Sarah Lawrence College, received his MA and PhD in
history and archaeology at Columbia University.
Date/Time:
Six Tuesdays, starting 3/2 (no class
3/30); 4 - 5:30 pm.
The Silk Road remains an alluring topic
steeped in exoticism and mystery. Stretching across the Asiatic
Continent, the Silk Road was far more than a route for commerce. It
was a cultural crossroad that brought
together the artistic and religious traditions of all the great
civilizations of Asia. Indeed, the rapid spread
of religious movements like Buddhism or Islam depended largely on
the economic and diplomatic
opportunities that the Silk Road offered. In the same way, the great
Asiatic empires – the Kushans, the
Sassanians, the Soghdians, or the Mongols from China to the Middle
East – all rose upon the fundamental
relation between commerce and power that played itself out
constantly across the Silk Road. And it
was the Silk Road that stimulated a complex, multi-faceted tradition
of Central Asian art and architecture,
just as it facilitated the cross-cultural and cosmopolitan aspect of
all the great artistic traditions from China
to India, and the Middle East.