Art and the Saints
The Saints were regarded as pivotal intermediaries between the physical and spiritual worlds. The locations of their relics were akin to divine portals, spiritually defining the geographic landscape of Christendom. Their lives were regarded as exemplary examples for imitation and thus had a huge influence on the output of Christian art throughout the Middle Ages and early-modern periods. Gain an overarching historical knowledge for the depiction of the lives of the saints in the visual arts, along with the intrinsic religious and cultural roles they have played within European society. In addition, you will learn how to identify the saints by their specific iconographic emblems.
DELIVERY MODE
Hybrid (Face to Face & Online simultaneously)
SUGGESTED READING
COURSE OUTLINE
When:
Wednesday 17 November 2021
12.00 PM - 3.00 PM
Where:
WEA Sydney
72 Bathurst Street
*This class is available in Hybrid (Face to Face & Online simultaneously) options*
DELIVERY MODE
Hybrid (Face to Face & Online simultaneously)
SUGGESTED READING
- Robert Bartlett, Why Can the Dead Do Such Great Things?: Saints and Worshippers from the Martyrs to the Reformation (Princeton University Press: 2013)
- S. J. Cornelison, Mendicant Cultures in the Medieval and Early Modern World (Brepols: 2016)
- Rosa Giorgi, Saints in Art (Getty Publications: 2006)
- Fernando Lanzi, Saints and Their Symbols: Recognizing Saints in Art and in Popular Images (Liturgical Press: 2004)
- Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend: Readings on the Saints, Volumes 1 and 2, trans., William Granger Ryan (Princeton University Press: 1993)
- C.H. Lawrence, The Friars: The Impact of the Early Mendicant Movement on Western Society (Longman Pub Group: 1994)
- Diana Webb, Medieval European Pilgrimage c.700-c.1500 (Red Globe Press: 2002)
- George Weigel, Roman Pilgrimage: The Station Churches (Basic Books: 2013)
- Willibald Sauerlander, The Catholic Rubens: Saints and Martyrs, trans., David Dollenmayer (Getty Publications: 2014)
- Simon Yarrow, The Saints: A Short History (Oxford University Press: 2016)
COURSE OUTLINE
- The origins of the Saints in art: Saints are Christians, known for a life of exemplary character and piety. They were originally recognised as such within the confines of local Christian communities. In the 10th century, a process for their identification was formalised under Pope John XV. We will examine this development and how it was visually mirrored within Christian art.
- Mendicant Saints: The late Middle Ages saw the rise of a new economically independent mercantile class, who looked for a more personal and self-sustaining religious experience. In many respects, the religious identity of late medieval mercantile Europe, would be pivotal to the birth of what we now understand as the modern notion of the individual. However, the newfound wealth of the mercantile class, also created anxieties around the Christian call to self-renunciation. We will see how the rise of the new Mendicant Orders of the Franciscans and the Dominicans answered the needs of this new class of persons, and how a new visual iconography of Mendicant saints was developed within the arts to speak to these needs.
- Saints and the Counter Reformation: We will examine the saints of the Counter-Reformation within the context of the emotionally visceral visual iconography and formal characteristics of the baroque style, and how this was a pivotal means of winning back swathes of Europe that had been lost to the Protestant Reformation.
When:
Wednesday 17 November 2021
12.00 PM - 3.00 PM
Where:
WEA Sydney
72 Bathurst Street
*This class is available in Hybrid (Face to Face & Online simultaneously) options*