Admission requirements
There are no prerequisites for this course. This course grants access to 300-level courses in Global Citizenship, Human Interaction, and Political Arts.
Description
This course looks at the way humans have represented the sacred in works of art all over the world, and in all periods. It will focus on a few key issues that arise from the use art in religion, or from the transformation of cult objects into works of art:
art, cult and faith
art, agency and divine presence
is art born out of religion, or religion out of art?
expressing the sacred and experiencing beauty
from cult object to collector’s item
The religious objects/art works discussed will range from the Baldacchino in Saint Peter’s Rome, to the Borodudur in Indonesia; from the Haya Sophia in Istanbul to the paintinga Rothko made for the Seagram Building, inspired by Michelangelo’s work in San Lorenzo, Florence.
Course objectives
- To acquire the knowledge and analytical skills to understand by what visual strategies the sacred is represented in a variety of cultures and periods.
- To acquire the knowledge and analytical skills to understand how these objects functioned within the cult for which they were made.
- To learn to study how they were perceived by believers, art historians or anthropologists, that is, how they morphed from religious objects to works of art, museum pieces or decorative items.
To achieve these aims students will read the prescribed literature, look at religious objects in musems, choose one object to analyse in class, and on which to write their final paper.
Timetable
Please see the LUC website: www.lucthehague.nl
Tuesdays from 2 to 4 pm; Fridays from 4 to 6 pm
Please note: on 17 February and 28 February there will be no class; instead students will work on their assignments. This means, however, there will be classroom hours in week 8.
Mode of instruction
Introductory lectures by the tutor; museum visit; presentations by groups of students in which they analyse a work of art or religious object of their own choice from one of the museums in The Hague and Leiden: Mauritshuis, Haags Historisch Museum, Gemeentemuseum, Leiden Museum of Ethnology, State Museum of Antiquities, etc etc.
Assessment method
- Interactive engagement with course material: assessed through In-class participation:20%:Ongoing Weeks 1 – 7
- Individual engagement with course readings: assessed through presentation in class (20% of final grade): Weeks 1 – 7
- Understanding of course content :assessed through take-home essay
(1500 words; 20% of final grade): Week 4 - Expression of holistic understanding of the course: assessed through final research essay (3000 words; 40% of final grade): Week 8, April 8, 2012, 24.00
Blackboard
This course is supported by a BlackBoard site
Reading list
S. Brent Plate, Religion, Art ,and Culture (New York: Palgrave, 2002), pp. 53-73; 89-193.
N. Aston, Art and Religion in Eighteenth-Century Europe (London: Reaktion Books, 2009), pp. 19-73.
A. Gell, Art and Agency. An Anthropological Theory of Art (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998), Introduction.
W. Pietz, ‘Fetish’, in R. Nelson (ed.), Critical Terms for Art History¬ (Chicago and London 2003 [1996]), p. 307-28.
Students are advised to buy the book by Plate ; the other articles will be put on blackboard/in a reader.
Registration
This course is only open for LUC The Hague students.
Contact information
c.a.van.eck@umail.leidenuniv.nl
071-5272693
Weekly Overview
Week 1: Representing the sacred across the world (1) and (2)
Week 2: Representing the sacred across the world (3); literature study/museum visit (17/2)
Week 3: Art, agency and divine presence (1) and (2)
Week 4: Is art born out of religion, or religion out of art? (1); literature study/museum visit (28/2)
Week 5: Is art born out of religion, or religion out of art? (2); student presentations
Week 6: Art, ritual and memory; student presentations
Week 7: Expressing the sacred, experiencing beauty; student presentations
Week 8: From cult object to collector’s item; student presentations