Syllabus
19 Feb 2018
Signs, Attributes, Gestures and their Meaning
- iconography and iconology; introduction into methodology
- Erwin Panofsky, Aby Warburg, Ernst Gombrich 26 Feb 2018
Out of Cave: Nativity scenes and Christ´s apocryphal childhood 5 March 2018
Changing Stones into Bread: Christ as a „Magician“ 12 March 2018 Reading Week no class 19 March 2018
The Suffering Christ 26 March 2018
Crucifixion: Narrative and Symbolics 2 Apr 2018 Easter Monday no class 9 Apr 2018
To the Hell and Back: Scenes after Christ´s Death on the Cross 16 Apr 2018
Struggling with Satan: Last days of the World 23 Apr 2018
In the Beginning: Creation and Renovation 30 Apr 2018
How Lucifer Fell from Heaven and Became Satan 7 May 2018
Virgin Mary: Mother and Church 14 May 2018
Medieval Cult of Saints and its Audiences
Annotation
The course introduces the principal themes of Christian iconography as depicted in the medieval art. It focuses on the process in which an iconographic motif (e.g. biblical scene, various depictions of Christ) developed into its final „form“ from the very beginning in visual arts of ancient civilisations (Egypt, Greek and Roman Antiquity) up to the Late Middle Ages.
Students get thus the opportunity to follow how schemes and motifs were endowed by different meanings in order to correspond to the changing needs of their readers. In the centre of the course are key stories from life of Christ and Virgin Mary as well as non-narrative representations of devotional or dogmatic character.
The aim of the course is to approach medieval images with their specific visual vocabulary und make them readable also for a postmodern student of the 21th century.