ARTH 1505 Icons: Saints and Sinners

Meets: T/R 12:30PM - 1:45PM, Ruffner Hall 127

Instructor: Fotini Kondyli

Email: fk8u@virginia.edu

Office Hours: Wed 4:00-6:00 PM

Course description:

What can a Byzantine icon do for you?  How can you active it and benefit from its powers? Byzantines strongly believed that sacred objects, such as relics and  icons had power and agency; they could win wars, protect cities, heal sickness and even defy death. In this course  we explore the diverse role of Byzantine icons including their production, function , iconography and aesthetics. Beyond religious practices, we discuss how Byzantines interacted  with icons and transformed them into powerful tools of political propaganda, religious conflict,  self-presentation, redemption and resistance. The course is not limited to the study of wooden panel painting but following the Byzantine meaning of icons as sacred images, we examine a range of artworks such as mosaics, jewelry, textiles etc. While our focus is on the Byzantine period (4^th-15^th  c), we will devote the last weeks thinking about the role of icons in art and religion up to modern times and visiting the icon collection at the Fralin Museum of Art.

There are additional UVa-only syllabus items for this course. Click here to view all the public and UVa-only syllabus items. This link is restricted to UVa-members with Netbadge authentication.