Making Sense of Christian Art - Key Figures, Style and Contexts The Courtauld Institute of Art

Overview

Christian art encompasses imagery drawn from Christian belief and tradition – scenes from the life of Jesus, events from the Old and New Testaments, and representations of the Virgin Mary and the saints. Yet what is often overlooked is how much this imagery has evolved over the centuries, reflecting the Church’s changing theology, responses to heresy, and developments in spirituality and worship.

In this Making Sense of Christian Art - Key Figures, Style and Contexts course at The Courtauld Institute of Art, artworks by renowned artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and El Greco will be studied alongside lesser-known examples, offering a broad view of the visual language of Christian belief across time.

Features

The course will, for example, consider how images of the Crucifixion on a fifth century ivory casket in the British Museum reflect the Church’s doctrinal discussions at that time, then show how medieval spirituality resulted in devotional images of a suffering Jesus, consider the subsequent impact of the Reformation on Christian art, and finally see how a Crucifixion painted by Titian in the sixteenth century reflected Counter-Reformation teaching about making religious art clear and educational.

It will also explore how theological controversies – such as those concerning the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption of Mary – were visualised and even contested through art itself.