Content

This unit studies the origins and growth of Christian art by exploring ways in which liturgy and devotions in the early church found expression in visual culture. Themes and topics to be presented will include: the art of the catacombs; the centrality of monasticism and of the city of Constantinople in Eastern Christianity; the mosaics of Ravenna and Rome; the emergence of new art forms such as the icon; the iconoclastic controversy; the impact of Byzantine art and architecture in the medieval West e.g. Monreale in Norman Sicily and San Marco in Venice.

Unit code: CH9012Y

Unit status: Approved (Major revision)

Points: 24.0

Unit level: Postgraduate Elective

Unit discipline: Church History

Delivery Mode: Face to Face

Proposing College: Yarra Theological Union

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Learning outcomes

1.

Identify the central iconographic themes of Early Christian and Byzantine art

2.

Demonstrate ability to use vocabulary of visual analysis and historical inquiry in written communication at a more advanced level

3.

Show a sophisticated understanding of the various lenses (historical, ideological, spiritual) through which the interpreter views visual images

4.

Engage in critical analysis of a variety of methodological perspectives of art historical scholarship

5.

Display sophisticated capacity to analyse and synthesise research material and to express findings coherently in written form

Unit sequence

This unit is generally available as an elective unit in all post-graduate awards

Pedagogy

Lectures, class discussion

Indicative Bibliography

  • Cormack, R. Writing in Gold: Byzantine Society and Its Icons. London: George Philip, 1985.
  • --------------. *Byzantine Ar*t. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
  • Finney, Paul Corbey, The Invisible God: The Earliest Christians on Art. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.
  • Grabar, A. Christian Iconography: A Study of Its Origins Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1968.
  • Jensen, R.M. Understanding Early Christian Art. London: Routledge, 2000.
  • Kessler, Herbert. Spiritual Seeing: Picturing God’s Invisibility in Medieval Art. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000.
  • Kitzinger, E. Byzantine Art in the Making. Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Press, 1977.
  • Lowden, J. Early Christian and Byzantine Art. London: Phaidon, 1997. (recommended for purchase)
  • Safran, Linda. (ed.) Heaven on Earth. Art and the Church in Byzantium. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2002.
  • Spier, Jeffrey. (ed.) Picturing the Bible: The Earliest Christian Art. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007.

Assessment

Type Description Word count Weight (%)
Material Culture Analysis (identification and description of artefacts)

Material Culture Analysis 2000 words

2000 30.0
Essay

Essay 5000 words

5000 70.0
Approvals

Unit approved for the University of Divinity by John Capper on 27 Sep, 2019

Unit record last updated: 2021-06-07 08:43:50 +1000