What shape should a church have, and how should it be decorated?  What symbols or scenes from the Bible would you feature, and how would you portray Jesus?  What do your answers to these questions say about your understanding of Jesus and theology?  Attempting to answer these questions will take us deep into the study of Christian art.

In this course we will study buildings, paintings, and sculptures in Italy and France that artists over the centuries have created to embody their understanding of the Christian faith. We'll situate the works in various eras of art and architecture, ask what they reveal about how the artists understood the gospel, and consider the influence of these works on our understanding of the Christian faith.

We will go from studying the earliest Christian art in the catacombs to the radically new way of seeing ushered in by the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists.  Our primary texts will include some of the most famous churches and museums in the world: the Duomo and the Uffizi in Florence; St. Peter's and the Vatican Museums in Rome; Notre Dame and the Louvre in Paris. Additional areas of study will be the art of the Early Church (the catacombs and Ravenna), Gothic architecture and stained glass in France (Chartres, Bourges, Paris), the Italian Renaissance (Ghiberti and Brunelleschi) and High Renaissance (Michelangelo and Raphael), and the flowering of the Baroque in Rome (Caravaggio, Bernini, Borromini), besides days spent studying art in wonderful towns like Assisi, Siena, and Orvieto.

Don't mistake this course as merely a guided tour. A thorough knowledge of the sites and texts will be required on papers and examinations. In addition, each student will design her or his own review of the masterpieces of the Christian faith.

What do we read for class?

Rather than books you will carry with you, the class uses a reader posted on Canvas, with focused readings and worksheets for each site we visit. The goal of the preparatory reading is so that when you look, you see more, when you listen, you hear more, and when you speak, you have more to say. But the reading is never a substitute for our direct encounter with the art, otherwise we could teach the class here in Moraga. Some of the posted images are so we can go deeper in analysis of some topics than you might be able to see with the naked eye. In addition to the reader, we will read significant sections of Andre Vauchez’ Francis of Assisi: The Life and Afterlife of a Medieval Saint, Paul Robert Walker’s The Feud That Sparked the Renaissance: How Brunelleschi and Ghiberti Changed the Art World, and Philip Ball’s Universe of Stone: Chartres Cathedral and the Invention of the Gothic.

How often do we meet?

Though we have lots of free time, we meet much more regularly than the typical Jan Term class. The total class time will exceed a regular on-campus Jan Term class in about one week. Sometimes we will go six or seven days in a row, with the occasional afternoon or morning off. Apart from the scheduled free days, there will rarely, if ever, be a day when we meet for only two-and-a-half hours like an on-campus class. We will usually be involved in class activities in both the morning and the afternoon. That said, I also try to make sure you have enough free time to make each city your own, to pursue ideas which fascinate you, etc. For the most part, I believe in leisurely lunch breaks, but not much time for snacks apart from a quick cup of coffee. Then again, the Italian coffee is amazing.

What are “classes” like?

We have never had a formal “class” in the sense of meeting together in a classroom for a lecture or seminar discussion. Our classes are in the museums and churches that we are studying. Much of the class’ richness will come from your being in the presence of the works of art we are enjoying, wrestling with, and trying to understand. We talk about the art while looking directly at it, we discuss the buildings while being in them, walking around them, or climbing their domes and towers.

A typical morning might have us leave the hotel at 8:45 and then spend about three hours studying a church – albeit with a coffee break. It might involve you studying the church closely on your own for about an hour, the group getting together to share reflections and raise questions, a mini-lecture about what we have seen in its historical context, followed by a second look at the building in a tour-like fashion. That initial study of the church on your own is crucial in the learning process and the formation of your own vision.

After a leisurely lunch break, we are back in “class” again that afternoon, this time in a museum or often skipping from church to church, just to look at one or two paintings in each. With the day done, our thoughts turn to where we should go to dinner.

How much will we see?

Though we will see a lot, we have to be selective. Our emphasis is on quality and depth of analysis, not quantity: quality works of art and architecture, and depth in the thoroughness in which we analyze them. This intense focus and our dedication of time will separate what we do from tours that look at the same sites. Indeed, academic study of a work of art begins in those minutes after a regular tourist has grown restless and moved on. Virtually any church we enter will be worth our studying for at least a couple of hours, if not longer. Some students think we see too much and wish we could slow down even more. Others think that we spend too much time with each piece of art and wish we would go at a quicker pace. This class ends up spending more focused time on what we study than any tour. Some of the great works we see are not on the typical tourist trail. Though many know of Bernini’s work in St. Peter’s, far fewer know his small church on the Quirinale, let alone give it extended study. Few tourists have explored the works of Bernini’s greatest rival Borromini. His masterpieces, San Carlino and St. Ivo’s, are some of the world’s best kept architectural secrets, though known well by every major architect practicing today. Likewise, though many people go to Chartres, far fewer are familiar with the cathedral in Bourges. And I know of no tour groups that ever stop at places like Saint Étienne du Mont -- but what a jewel they are missing!

Attendance:

Unless you are ill or explicitly excused, everyone is expected to be there for each class meeting, though we might create some optional tours and outings.

Participation:

Your participation is crucial for a vibrant class and a way for you to demonstrate your commitment to the class and your classmates. (We all profit when our classmates are prepared and participate thoughtfully. We all suffer when our classmates are not prepared and do not participate thoughtfully.) Throughout the class, all students will be involved in questions, discussion, and assessment of the art we are studying, and in the museums, we will often be giving each other tours of the works that stand out to us.

Although assessing class participation is more impressionistic than grading a test or a paper, this rubric demonstrates the beginning of a means of assessment:

A = always participates in discussions and conversations; always demonstrates evidence of having done the required reading and paid attention to the discussion; asks thoughtful questions concerning the art and the lectures; demonstrates open and fair mindedness; respects the materials and questions of others; demonstrates ability to reason carefully and to grasp logical argument and errors; is not afraid to demonstrate what he/she does not understand by asking questions; enjoys friendly, intellectual combat; does not attempt to dominate discussion.

B = frequent participation in discussions and conversations; frequently demonstrates evidence of having done the required reading; doesn't usually ask questions but is usually able to respond thoughtfully to questions; demonstrates open and fair mindedness; respects the materials and questions of others; demonstrates good ability to answer straight forward questions, but less ability to reason carefully and to handle logical argument and detect logical errors.

C = participates little; has not shown consistent evidence of having done the required readings well; demonstrates average ability to reason verbally.

D = irregular participation. Minimal evidence of significant quality preparation before class. Displays marginal comprehension of the material.

F = insufficient quality participation to merit academic credit.

Basis for final grade

• Regular preparation, quality of active daily participation, and special presentations, including assignments due before we leave. (23%);

• Special project (32%);

• Final exam (45%).

NOTE: Pass/Fail grading is not an option for this or any travel course.

A detailed description of the final project and sample copies of previous final exams will be supplied in advance.  In addition, review questions on full editions of the itinerary will note questions likely to appear on the final exam.  There are no surprises, and students can be working on parts of the final project and exam throughout the class.

• Students will be able to reflect on works of art and architecture and discuss the theological interpretation of them in light of other interpretations of the same theme.

• Students will be able to describe and analyze the “theological universe” created by architects and artists in such buildings as the cathedral of Chartres, the basilicas of Ravenna, St. Peter’s in Rome, and some of the small churches designed by Bernini and Borromini.

• Students will be able to explain the theological insights in the religious paintings of artists like Caravaggio, Fra Angelico, Delacroix, or even an atheist like David.

• Students will be able to compare, contrast, and assess the major gothic cathedrals of France with use of the technical vocabulary terms of architecture, charting the directions that we saw gothic architecture going, for instance, from the Romanesque facets of the west façade of Chartres, to the flowering of gothic in Chartres and Bourges, to Sainte-Chapelle, and Chartres’ Vendome chapel, o the late gothic churches like Saint-Étienne-du-Mont, started in the late fifteenth century with its façade not being completed until the seventeenth century.

• Students will be able to explain how studying a church is often like being an archaeologist, sometimes in terms of literal excavations, other times in sorting out layers of renovations and changes in style.  Students will be able to use both types of “layers” to outline the architectural and artistic history of what we encountered in several churches and show how this kind of knowledge (of what items comes from what era) enhances an appreciation of the church.

• Students will be able to review the religious use of stained glass from a variety of perspectives such as style, composition, period, theme, subject, and typology with particular examples in Bourges and Chartres.

• Students will be able to differentiate various periods and styles of art and architecture.

• Students will be able to identify by sight the work of several artists and explain how the particular work in question fits in that artist’s overall corpus.

• Students will not only be able to identify particular biblical scenes in art, but they will also be able to analyze how artists interpret the scenes they depict.

• Students will understand how the episodes chosen for depiction, and how they are depicted, reveal the artist’s and/or patron’s understanding of the gospel.

• Students will be able to recognize various portraits of Jesus in the gospels and describe how those different perspectives have been expressed in art.

• Students will recognize a host of saints and be able to explain the reasoning behind the iconographic symbols you would expect to find with them.

• Students will be able to compare, contrast, and evaluate various artistic interpretations of the creation, the flood, the annunciation, the last supper, the crucifixion, and several other biblical episodes and Christian themes.

• Students will be able to explain the theological insights in the religious paintings of artists like Caravaggio, Fra Angelico, Delacroix, or even an atheist like David.