Art History and Spirituality in Western Europe (CH9212Y)

Content

This unit investigates some of the ways in which visual images for example painting and sculpture reflected the spiritual characteristics and preoccupations of the Late Middle Ages, 1300-1500. After identifying the most important sacred stories and their chief personages, i.e. Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and various saints, the unit examines the patrons and audience for these "images of salvation". What objects inspired devotion and how did these paintings, sculptures and other objects instruct the faithful in the mysteries of faith?

Learning outcomes

Pedagogy

synchronous lectures, class discussion, and class visit to the NGV International

Indicative Bibliography

• Bruzelius, Caroline. Preaching, Building and Burying Friars in the Medieval City. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014.
• Cooper, Donal, Holly Flora, Amy Neff, Janet Robson, and Frist Center for the Visual Arts (Nashville, Tenn). Sanctity Pictured : The Art of the Dominican and Franciscan Orders in Renaissance Italy. Edited by Trinita Kennedy. Nashville, London: Frist Center for the Visual Arts ; Philip Wilson Publishers, 2014.
• Finaldi, Gabriele. The Image of Christ. London: National Gallery Company Ltd, 2000.
• Flora, Holly. The Devout Belief of the Imagination: The Paris Meditationes Vitae Christi and Female Franciscan Spirituality in Trecento Italy. Turnhout: Brepols, 2009.
• Hamburger, Jeffrey F., and Anne-Marie Bouché. The Mind’s Eye: Art and Theological Argument in the Middle Ages. Princeton, N.J.: Department of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University in association with Princeton University Press, 2006. Jacobus, and William Granger Ryan. *The Golden Legend: Readings on the Saints. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, n.d.
• Katz, Melissa R. Divine Mirrors: The Virgin Mary in the Visual Arts. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
• Marks, Richard. Image and Devotion in Late Medieval England. Stroud: Sutton Publishing Ltd, 2004.
• Mecham, June L. Sacred Communities, Shared Devotions: Gender, Material Culture, and Monasticism in Late Medieval Germany. Edited by Alison I. Beach, Constance H. Berman, and Lisa M. Bitel. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2014.
• Os, H.W. van. The Art of Devotion in the Late Middle Ages in Europe 1300-1500. Princeton, N.J. Princeton University Press, 1994.

Assessment