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Apr 29, 2024
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ARFA 817 - Mystical Imagery in Art3 credits
One of the peculiarities of the mystical experience is its inscrutability. Artists try to describe with images what cannot be said in words. Throughout the centuries many images of mystical experiences have been produced around the world, some for magical or healing purposes, others for worship. These images are a window into the human soul that let us look at the projections, desires or hopes of the visionary. In this course we will study these images to explore the figure of the mystic and the nature of mystical experience. The course includes a practicum component in which students create their own image of a divinity: a painting, an idol, etc., using any medium and technique they want or feel comfortable with. Topics to explore are:
- Shamanistic Art: Cave paintings of Paleolithic Europe and Shamanistic Art from the Paleolithic to today throughout the world.
- The Gods of the Silk Road: The Silk Road permitted cultural exchanges between the East and the West: we will analyze examples of art that show this communication/contamination as well as temples decorated with frescoes dedicated to the Buddha that have been recent subject of study and restoration.
- Everlasting Iconoclasm: Iconoclasts versus Iconodules: the problems related to the depiction of God and the various iconoclastic occurrences from the Byzantine period to the destruction of the statues of Buddha by the Taliban.
- Holy Murals: Great fresco cycles in Italy, 1300’s to 1500’s.
- The Eye of God: Images of heaven, cupolas and mandalas
- Mystical Wanderlust: Pilgrimages in various religions; the concept of Magus in the Renaissance; the Crusades.
- From Pagan to Christian: How pagan concepts and gods were Christianized.
- Blasphemous Art: What is and what is not acceptable in depicting the divinity?
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