- Department: History of Art
- Credit value: 20 credits
- Credit level: I
- Academic year of delivery: 2023-24
- See module specification for other years: 2022-23
The module introduces students to the ideas associated with rendering visible the nature of the sacred, and the strategies invoked in various cultures to make the visual sacred.
Occurrence | Teaching period |
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A | Semester 2 2023-24 |
This module will explore the various ways in which it was deemed possible - or impossible - to present the sacred visually in late antiquity, early Christianity and early Islam, cultures that had varied and often strongly opposing views about visual representation in sacred contexts. It is thus concerned to explore ideas surrounding ‘image’ and ‘icon’ - is there a difference? if so, how might we understand that difference? In considering these questions we will explore issues relating to function, viewing experiences, scale and materiality. Bound up with these considerations we will also encounter various perceptions of the image / icon in sacred contexts across time, geographical space and culture in the early medieval period (broadly the first millenium CE). The module will, therefore, raise wide-ranging questions about the role of the visual in religious, early Christian and Islamic cultures; about ways of seeing, ways of engaging with the visual in sacred contexts, and with images deemed to be sacred in contexts not necessarily ‘sacred’. It may also challenge our understanding of what ‘images’ might be.
By the end of this module, students should have an understanding of:
Traditional views of art historians relating to ‘image’ and ‘icon’
The various ways in which ‘icons’ might be constructed and presented
Early attitudes to images and the sacred
The status of the visual in early religious cultures
Task | % of module mark |
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Essay/coursework | 100 |
None
Task | % of module mark |
---|---|
Essay/coursework | 100 |
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