FF:DU2770 Making of Christ's Physiognomy

DU2770 The Making of Christ's Physiognomy in Late Antique and Medieval Art

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2015

Extent and Intensity

2/0. 5 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).

Teacher(s)

Dr. Michele Bacci (lecturer)

Guaranteed by

prof. Ivan Foletti, MA, Docteur es Lettres, Docent in Church History
Department of Art History – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: prof. Ivan Foletti, MA, Docteur es Lettres, Docent in Church History
Supplier department: Department of Art History – Faculty of Arts

Course Enrolment Limitations

The course is offered to students of any study field.
The capacity limit for the course is 30 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/30, only registered: 0/30, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/30

Syllabus

We are accustomed to associate a specific physiognomic type (marked by a blondish long, waving hair and beard) with Jesus of Nazareth’s outward appearance: this outstanding look is so strongly rooted in our visual culture that it is regularly repeated in all images and movies concerning him, including the most disrespectful or even blasphemous ones. Indeed, the type was hardly shared by all early Christian communities and it was not before the end of the Iconoclastic controversies, in the 9th century, that it was accepted in the Eastern church as the standard image of Christ. This course will describe the centuries-long process which led to the attribution of a specific physiognomy to Jesus of Nazareth and the many factors which played a role in shaping his physical look – including theological debates about the complex relationship of Christ’s divine and human natures, Greco-Roman and Biblical conceptions of masculine beauty and climate-bound physiognomic marks, the impact of ancient iconography, and the controversial characterizations of the Messiah’s outward appearance in Old Testament prophecies. All this will be seen in a comparative perspective, with hints at analogous conceptualizations of the body in Jewish, Islamic, and Buddhist traditions.

Literature

Büchsel, Martin, Die Entstehung des Christusporträts. Bildarchäologie statt Bildhypnose (Mainz am Rhein, 2003)
Brown, Peter, The Body and Society. Men, Women and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity (New York, 1988)
Bacci, Michele, The Many Faces of Christ. Portraying the Holy in the East and West, 300 to 1300 (London, 2014)
Finney, Paul Corby, The Invisible God: The Earliest Christians on Art (Oxford, 1994)
Obeyesekere, Gananath, Medusa’s Hair: An Essay on Personal Symbols and Religious Experience (Chicago, 1981)
Jensen, Robin Margaret, Face to Face. Portraits of the Divine in Early Christianity (Minneapolis, 2005)

FF:DU2770 Making of Christ's Physiognomy - Course Information

DU2770 The Making of Christ's Physiognomy in Late Antique and Medieval Art

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