39614 - History and Anthropology of the Christian Iconography

Learning outcomes

The course deals with some major topics and methodological questions in cultural and religious history of Europe from Late Antiquity to the Renaissance (mythologies and rituals, laws and doctrines, vectors and communication processes between orality and writing), with particular attention to the developments of the theological reflection on image and intermediaries on the sacred (places of worship, icons, relics, devotional images and liturgical furnishings) and the role of the ruling classes in secular and ecclesiastical patronage on monumental art. The student, at the end of the course is able to handle some of the main tools for a critical evaluation of the art-history heritage of Italy and Europe, especially in relation to the role of religious institutions and religious orders from the fourth to the eighteenth century.

Course contents

The course consists in a seminar based on reading and commenting of literary, iconographic, and documentary sources, and will be dedicated to the theme Image, Dream and Vision in Medieval Christianity. The reference and critical texts will be suggested by the teacher during the lessons. The bibliography provided in Section B (Studies) thus has an introductory character and guidance, especially with regard to the heuristic and methodological aspects.

Readings/Bibliography

A) Handbooks To all the students is recommended critical knowledge of one of the following works of synthesis:: J. Baschet, La civiltà feudale, trad. it. Roma, Newton Compton, 2005 P. Brown, La formazione dell'Europa cristiana. Universalismoe diversità, nuova edizione, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2006 A. Corbin (a cura di), Storia del cristianesimo, Milano, Bruno Mondadori, 2007 G. L. Potestà - G. Vian, Storia del cristianesimo, Bologna, il Mulino, 2010 B) Readings: M. Baxandall, Pittura ed esperienze sociali nell'Italia del Quattrocento, trad. it. Torino, Einaudi, 1978 (rist. 2001) E. Kitzinger, Il culto delle immagini. L'arte bizantina dal cristianesimo delle origini all'Iconoclastia, trad. it. Firenze, La Nuova Italia, 1992 D. Freedberg, Il potere delle immagini. Il mondo delle figure: reazioni e emozioni del pubblico, trad. it. Torino, Einaudi, 1993 (rist. 2009) C. Ginzburg, Occhiacci di legno. Nove riflessioni sulla distanza , Milano, Feltrinelli, 1998 H. Belting, Il culto delle immagini. Storia dell'icona dall'età imperiale al tardo Medioevo, trad. it. Roma, Carocci, 2001 J.-Cl. Schmitt, Le corps des images. Essais sur la culture visuelle au Moyen Âge , Paris, Gallimard, 2002 M. Bacci, Investimenti per l'aldilà. Arte e raccomandazione dell'anima nel Medioevo, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2003 M. Bacci, Lo spazio dell'anima. Vita di una chiesa medievale, Roma-Bari, Leterza, 2005. M.-J. Mondzain, Immagine, icona, economia. Le origini bizantine dell'immaginario contemporaneo, trad. it. Milano, Jaka Book, 2006 G. Lingua, L'icona, l'idolo e la guerra delle immagini. Questioni di teoria ed etica dell'immagine nel cristianesimo, Milano, Medusa, 2006 E. von Dobschütz, Immagini di Cristo, a cura di G. Lingua, Milano, Medusa, 2006 E. Pommier, L'invenzione dell'arte nell'Italia del Rinascimento, trad. it. Torino, Einaudi, 2007 H. Belting, La vera immagine di Cristo, trad. it. Torino, Bollati Boringhieri, 2007 L. Canetti, Il passero spennato. Riti, agiografia e memoria dal Tardoantico al Medioevo, Spoleto, Fondazione CISAM, 2007 A. Dal Lago - S. Giordano, Fuori cornice. L'arte oltre l'arte, Torino, Einaudi, 2008 G. Didi-Huberman, La somiglianza per contatto. Archeologia, anacronismo e modernità dell'impronta, trad. it. Torino, Bollati Boringhieri, 2009 D. Levi, Il discorso sull'arte. Dalla tarda antichità a Ghiberti, Milano, Bruno Mondadori, 2010 J.-P. Vernant, L'immagine e il suo doppio. Dall'èra dell'idolo all'alba dell'arte, a cura di P. Conte, Milano, Mimesis, 2010 J. von Schlosser, Storia del ritratto in cera, trad. it. Macerata, Quodlibet, 2011 E. Panofsky, La scultura funeraria dall'Antico Egitto a Bernini, trad. it. Torino, Einaudi, 2011 H. Belting, Antropologia delle immagini, trad. it. Roma, Carocci, 2011 V. E. Genovese, Statue vestite e snodate. Un percorso, Pisa, Edizioni della Normale, 2011 Sacre impronte e oggetti «non fatti da mano d'uomo» nelle religioni . Atti del Convegno internazionale (Torino, 18-20 maggio 2010), a cura di A. Monaci Castagno, Alessandria, Edizioni dell'Orso, 2011 (disponibilre anche on-line: http://archive.org/details/SacreImpronteEOggettinonFattiDaManoDuomoNelleReligioni.Atti) R. Salvarani, Il Santo Sepolcro a Gerusalemme. Riti, testi e racconti tra Costantino e l'età delle Crociate, Città del Vaticano, Libreria editrice vaticana, 2012 L. Canetti, Impronte di gloria. Effige e ornamento nell'Europa cristiana, Roma, Carocci, 2013

Teaching methods

In support of the traditional lecture the teacher will use texts and images, which will be shown and made available online to students in the teaching materials (Alma-DL Campus) of the University website http://campus.cib.unibo.it/

Assessment methods

The oral examination held at the end of the entire educational cycle, which may also include participation in seminars, conferences and conventions from time to time reported or promoted by the teacher. Of such participation will be considered in the calculation of credits for the purposes of evaluation.

For students attending the examination consists in checking the knowledge acquired during the course namely, first, the sources gradually made partially available on the website Alma-DLCampus (http://campus.cib.unibo.it/) in addition, they are required to know the general outlines of the history of Christianity on the basis of one of the texts recommended in Section A of the "Texts".

Students unable to attend, in addition to in-depth knowledge of a manual (point A in the "Texts"), are obliged also to the critical reading of a book (or a collection of essays) which are contained in Section B of the "Texts" or recommended by the teacher during the reception. The reading of a monograph (or, alternatively, of some essays suggested by the teacher during lessons or receipt) is in any case recommended to also attending.

It is also required of all students enrolled in the course (attending or not) the knowledge of L. Canetti, Discourses and practices of the sacred, in the History of Europe and the Mediterranean, dir. A. Barbero, sect. IV, The Middle Ages, edited by S. Carocci, vol. IX (Structures, pre-eminences, common vocabularies), Rome, Salerno Publishing, 2007, pp.. 535-580, repr. with the title The reasons of the invisible, between the sacred and religion, in L. Canetti, The sparrow plucked. Rites, hagiography and memory from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages, CISAM Foundation, Spoleto, 2007, pp.. 1-62. The text, available for consultation at the library of the Faculty, is a free download in pdf format from the website of Alma-DL Campus (http://campus.cib.unibo.it/) between the teaching materials online courses hosted by teacher.

Class attendance is essential to achieve a good profit evaluation. All those who work for demonstrable reasons, can not attend the course are required to agree in advance with the teacher during the reception, their syllabus.

Teaching tools

During the course will be indicated, and partly shown, the main tools, directories and bibliographic support, iconographic and information relevant to the study of the sources for the history of Christianity and churches from Late Antiquity to the Renaissance.

Links to further information

http://www.beniculturali.unibo.it/DISMEC/default.htm

Office hours

See the website of Luigi Canetti