Announcements and Handouts

Check here often for selected announcements from the program
and for PDFs of readings and program materials

IMPORTANT:
As of Mon. Sept. 22,
The Power of Images
by David Freedberg
is NOT available in the bookstore; Please plan to get this book from another source.

Syllabus revision
for week 1!
Two Friday lectures,
10 - 12:
Early Christian art and The crucifixion and the mass.
(The remaining Monday lectures will be delivered as they appear in the syllabus)

Class Breakout PDF
(for writing workshop groups and seminar groups)

Weekly intellectual journal synthesis papers should be written every week and handed in with your portfolio week 5 and again in week 10

Writing Workshop for Week 1
Read and be prepared to discuss the "Five-page-handout-on-writing-a-three-page-essay" handout.

(Our) Writing Tutor's Hours
in the Writing Center:

Theodora: Mon: 11 - 7:30, Thurs: 11 - 3, Sat: 12 - 5

Derek: (new hours as of Tues. 9/30) Sun: 2 - 5 and 6 - 9 (Prime Time in dorms), Tues: 1 - 5:30 and 6 - 9 (Primetime in dorms), Weds: 2 - 6

Duffy, "The Mass" (pdf)

Fall quarter full syllabus (pdf)

dossier handout (pdf)

essay writing handout (pdf)
read this prior to writing workshop on Weds. and bring it to the workshop.

Early Christian Images: Powerpoint
Early Christian Images: Lecture notes PDF

The Crucifixion and the Mass: Lecture notes PDF

Week 2/ Group A writes for workshop
Consider one of the following images from the Clegg book—figures 1, 16, 27 or 30—each of which represents the high altar and the mass (the Palm Sunday mass in the case of #30).

Write down everything you see when you look at the image. What material objects do you see in the picture? Where are the people standing in relation to each other and the altar? What clothing are they wearing? What architectural elements are represented?

Now, answer the following question: “What does this image tell you about why the visuality of the mass was essential to belief in the miracle of transubstantiation?” The answer you come up with, which may change as you go through the writing process, will serve as your thesis statement.

Caveat: We know even less about manuscript illuminators than we do about many other artists—don't try to sort out their intentions or ideological points of view, just focus on what you can see in the image, using the information from Clegg, Duffy, and from lecture to help you sort out what you're seeing. Remember, you only have three pages to talk about this image, so you don't have room to bring in outside sources.

Byzantine Iconoclasm reading by Robin Cormack (3 pages)

Byzantine Images: Powerpoint
Byzantine Images: lecture notes PDF

Elizabeth's lecture on Icons/iconoclasm

Lisa's lecture notes
on Byzantine images
Byzantine images Powerpoint

Week 3/ Group B writes for workshop
Both of our readings for this week tackle the question of how images are received. How do we respond to them physically? What meanings do we attach to them through the act of speaking or writing about them? What powers do we assign them? And who gets to decide their value?

Using specific quotations from any of the texts we've read so far, discuss one instance of the reception of images in a traditional Christian context, focusing on the theological and philosophical issues raised by that act of reception. You may choose to explore the innate visuality of Christian ritual practice, or the specific problem of idolatrous worship explored in John of Damascus's treatise on images. Freedberg may give you language for addressing the psychology of response, though you will want to be thoughtful about using his book—which is not limited to Christian art—as the primary source for your paper.

Sumption, from
The Age of Pilgrimage (pdfs)
(print all three)
Sumption1.pdf
Sumption2.pdf (revised)
Sumption3.pdf


Geary, from Furta Sacra (pdfs)
(print both 1 and 2)
Geary1.pdf
Geary2.pdf

Lisa's lecture notes on reliquaries
Reliquaries Powerpoint

Elizabeth's lecture on relics (pdf)

Julian of Norwich's
Revelations of Divine Love revised reading assignment:
Read the introduction and short text only(long text is optional).

The Duffy and Freedberg readings remain as they are in the syllabus

IMPORTANT!
sign up for midterm conferences this week

If you have an Evergreen e-mail account, please be sure it is not full, so that the college and faculty can contact you.
E-mail is now the primary way the college and faculty communicate with students.

Week 4/ Group A writes for workshop

Develop a thesis that identifies crucial similarities and differences between images and relics. Focus your discussion on one concept such as devotional use, authenticity of the objects/images, or their relationship to saints' lives and other narrative traditions.

Duffy, "Lewd and Learned" and "The Devotions of the Primers" (pdf)

Reformation handout

Lisa's lecture notes: Illuminated Manuscripts (pdf)
Lisa's Powerpoint: Illuminated Manuscripts

Elizabeth's week 4 lecture

IMPORTANT!
Midterm check-ins
Submit intellectual journals and synthesis papers to your seminar leader on Monday

Week 5/ Group B writes for workshop

Using at least three carefully explained examples from the readings, discuss the role images play in the individual believer's active engagement with Christian conventions through the practice of prayer or meditation. Images in this context may refer to visions, icons, art, visual descriptions, and oral/scriptural traditions

Update on Seminar Readings this week:

We've decided to focus on the chapters assigned in Freedberg, The Power of Images (chapters 11 and 14) and defer the reading of Koerner until the winter quarter. It is not necessary to read Koerner this week.

Week 6/ Group A writes for workshop

Duffy argues that prayer books function like sacred objects, particularly when their visual quality is emphasized (214).

How does the devotional use of books (or the destruction of them) emphasize their materiality? You may choose to discuss one example in depth, or several variations on a theme perhaps addressing the shifts (and lack thereof) from pre- to post-Reformation practice.

Focus on drawing your evidence/ideas from the readings by Cummings, Aston and Scribner primarily (you can use other readings secondarily).

Koerner, from The Reformation of the Image (pdf)
(print all three)
Koerner1.pdf
Koerner2.pdf
Koerner3.pdf

Lisa's notes on German Winged Altarpieces (pdf)
Lisa's Powerpoint on German Winged Altarpieces

Elizabeth's lecture notes: crucifixes

Seminar Reading:
Harbison's
Mirror of the Artist. Read "Introduction," Chaps. 1 - 3 and "Conclusion"
(chapter 4 is optional )

On Weds., everyone meet. in Library 3301 for the exam review:
10 am. - 1 p.m

Lisa's Powerpoint on Northern Early Modern Diptychs/Triptychs

Lisa's lecture notes (pdf)

Final Exam Review handout (PDF)

Concerning the Winter quarter text, Nuns as Artists by Jeffrey Hamburger: to get students a low price on the text (40.00 rather than 70.00) you will be charged a 40.00 fee for the text. Please pay the fee within 30 days of its appearance on your account. We will pass out the text in class next quarter.

Final Exam:
Weds. Dec. 3, Library Classroom 3301
9 a.m. - 1 p.m.

Exam Images in Powerpoint

Brusati, "Stilled Lives: Self-portraiture and Self-Reflection in Seventeenth-Century Netherlandish Still-Life Painting" (pdf)

Nuechterlein, from Holbein and the Reformation of Art (pdf)

Lisa's Holbein lecture notes (pdf)
Lisa's Holbein Powerpoint

Lisa's Evaluation Conference schedule is posted outside E 4106

Portfolios due on Tuesday, Dec. 6,
3 p.m. (or before!)

Winter quarter
independent research
project prospectii