Unit name | Religious Art (Reflective Art History Unit) |
---|---|
Unit code | HART30008 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | H/6 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
Unit director | Dr. Dent |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
None |
Co-requisites |
None |
School/department | Department of History of Art (Historical Studies) |
Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
The mixture of art and religion forms a powerful cocktail. Even today, the majority of people probably encounter works of art in places of worship rather than museums and galleries. For many of these people, images are a source of supernatural power, either as channels for the divine, or as living objects in their own right. By working through a series of case studies, in this course we will be reflecting on some of the big questions that surround religious art: How do you make an image of a god? What do you get out of praying in front of a painting or sculpture? Is there still space for the religious image in the modern, secular world?
On successful completion of this unit students will be able to:
Seminars - 2 hours per week
1 x 1-hour exam (100%) [ILOs 1-5]
Caroline Walker Bynum, Christian materiality: an essay on religion in late medieval Europe, Brooklyn, 2011 Amy Knight Powell, Depositions: scenes from the late medieval church and the modern museum, Brooklyn, 2012 Gervase Rosser and Jane Garnett, Spectacular Miracles: Transforming Images in Italy from the Renaissance to the Present, London, 2013 Bissera Pentcheva, The Sensual Icon: Space, Ritual and the Senses in Byzantium, University Park, 2010 Megan Holmes, The Miraculous Image in Renaissance Florence, New Haven and London, 2013