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contact:
malbon@vt.edu
HIST 789/WOTA 789
Sacred Image/Sacred Space:
The History of Christian Visual Art and Architecture
Fall 2002, Tuesdays 9-11:50
Robin M. Jensen, Worcester 206
Office Hours: Tuesday 1-3, Wednesday 2-3
Required Texts (all available in the ANTS Bookstore):
Robin Jensen, Understanding Early Christian Art
Michael While: The Social Origins of Early Christian Art, vol. I
Vladimir Lossky and Leonid Ouspensky, The Meaning of Icons
Georges Duby, The Age of the Cathedrals
Richard Giles, Repitching the Tent
Required Reading (on reserve)
D. Freedberg, The Power of Images
Recommended Supplementary Reading (on reserve)
Thomas Barrie, Spiritual Path, Sacred Place
Hans Belting, Likeness and Presence
Alain Besançon, The Forbidden Image
Michael Camille, The Gothic Idol: Ideology and Image Making in Medieval
Art
David Cartlidge and Keith Elliott, Art and the Christian Apocrypha
Michael Crosbie, Architecture for the Gods
Jane Dillenberger, Style and Content in Christian Art
Paul Corby Finney, The Invisible God
Herbert Kessler, Spiritual Seeing
John Lowden, Early Christian and Byzantine Art
Thomas Mathews, The Clash of Gods
Margaret Miles, Image as Insight
Jaroslav Pelikan, Imago Dei
Otto Von Simpson, The Gothic Cathedral
Victor Turner and Edith Turner, Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture
Kurt Weitzmann, The Age of Spirituality: A Symposium
_____________, The Icon
Christopher Wilson, The Gothic Cathedral
Susan White and James White, Church Architecture: Building for Christian
Worship
Required Projects:
1. One analysis of a sacred space (approximately 2,000 words or eight
double spaced pages) – 30% of the final grade.
2. One analysis of a sacred image (same length) – 30% of the final
grade.
3. One short essay on a theological problem in regard to visual art and
sacred space (about ten-twelve pages) – 40% of the final grade. Topics
must be discussed with the professor, and short outline submitted in advance
of beginning the projects.
Due dates for these projects are open. Students must have all three papers
in by the end of the semester. No extensions will be granted. Incompletes
allowed only for reasons of health or family crisis.
Field Trips: Given the difficulty of scheduling field trips during class
time, we may seek some occasions for optional field trips outside of class,
to a variety of Boston churches, or perhaps Spencer Abbey.
Weekly Schedule
September 17, Week I
The Problem of Idolatry, The Uses of Art for the Church
Slides: Images of Jesus
Read: Jensen, chap. 1 (and if you have time, D. Freedberg, The Power of
Images, chap. 4 – on reserve).
September 24: Week II
The Language of Symbols in Visual Art
Slides: Continuity of Symbols from Roman to Christian iconography
Read: Jensen, chap. 2
October 1: Week III
The Creation (or Identification) of Sacred Space
Slides: Early Christian Architecture
Read: White
October 8: Week IV
Visual Exegesis and Narrative Art
Slides: Biblical Stories and Christian Iconography
Read: Jensen, chap. 3
October 15: Week V
Dogmatic and Iconic Art
Slides: Creation, Incarnation, Passion, and Resurrection in Fourth Century
Iconography
Read: Jensen, chaps 4-5-6
October 22: Week VI
Understanding the Icon as a Theological Text
Video: The Icon
Read: Lossky and Ouspensky
October 29: Week VII
Sacred Site, Sacred Journey, Sacred Dust: Pilgrimage and Relics
Slides: Saints, Martyrs, and Pilgrimage Sites
Read: (on reserve): D. Freedberg, The Power of Images, chaps. 5-6
November 5: Week VIII
The Cathedrals and Popular Religion
Video: The Cathedral
Slides: The Gothic Image: Architecture and Sculpture
Read: Duby, chaps. 5 and 9
November 12: Week IX
The Monastery and the Secular World
Slides: From Roman to Romanesque and Monasteries
Field Trip?? Spencer Abbey??
Read: Duby, chaps. 1-4
November 19: Week X
The Protestant Reformation and Art
Read (on reserve):
C. Christensen, Art and the Reformation in Germany, chaps. 1-2.
Selections from P.C. Finney, ed., Seeing Beyond the Word: Visual Arts
and the Calvinist Tradition (esp. articles by Hardy, Benedict, White,
and Williams)
NO CLASS NOV. 26
December 3: Week XI
Renaissance Humanism and The Counter Reformation
Read (on reserve): J. Dillenberger, Images and Relics, chap. 5
December 10: Week XII
Modern adaptations, Architecture
Taste and cultural values
Slides: Modern Architecture
Read: Giles