ART 320 - Seminar in Medieval Art

Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)

Topic for 2014/15b: The Art and Architecture of the Pilgrimage Roads. The mindset of the pilgrim, the universal human desire to seek the transcendent through a spiritual or physical voyage, is inscribed from the very start, and at the deepest level, in the Christian faith. It is the physical manifestation of this desire that we study in this seminar: the art and architecture created to honor the saints whose tangible remains on earth, it was believed, retained miraculous powers; created to inspire, instruct, and—some would say—control those that came to venerate them. We begin in Jerusalem, where Christian pilgrimage, considered as an industry, began, and move to Rome, the site of the tombs of the apostles Peter and Paul. We examine the pilgrimage which, beginning in the eleventh century, supplanted those of both Jerusalem and Rome: the road to the tomb of the Apostle James in Santiago de Compostela. We conclude by considering the cult of the unlikely martyr Thomas Becket at Canterbury, and then embark upon a pilgrimage of our own: to the shrine of Saint Frances Cabrini and to the Cloisters Museum in New York. Mr. Tallon.

Prerequisite: permission of the instructor.

One 2-hour period.