ARTH 105(F) Picturing God in the Middle Ages: An Introduction
How did Christians come to depict God? How did they visualize the deity described in the Bible as well as such theological subtleties as the Incarnation and the Trinity? And what purposes did pictures of God serve, both in public and private life? Paying particular attention to the function of works of art, this freshman seminar will examine the evolution of medieval Christian images of God, in both the Eastern and Western halves of Europe, and the problems these images often generated. Among other specific topics, the course will investigate: the impact of the Roman cult of the emperor and of images of the dead on the earliest portraits of Christ; theological debates about the nature of spiritual versus physical vision and their influence on the making and viewing of images; the relationship of sacred images to relics, the Eucharist, and other aspects of Christian ritual; and the pictorial exploration of both the torture and sexuality of Christ.
Format: seminar. Evaluation will be based on several short writing assignments, oral presentations, a research paper, and class participation.
Enrollment limit: 10; limited to first-year students. This course is part of the Critical Reasoning and Analytical Skills Initiative. This course satisfies the pre-1400 and pre-1800 requirements. This course does NOT satisfy the seminar requirement for the major.
Hour: LOW