Slide Images for August 31

 Mont Sainte-Odile Abbey also known as  Hohenburg Abbey

Alsase, France

Abbey built 1050

Illuminations from Hortus Deliciarum

Herrad of Landsberg

c. 1167-1185

Illuminations from Scivias

Hildegard of Bingen

1142-52

To the Trinity be praise!

God is music, God is life

that nurtures every creature in its kind.

Our God is the song of the angel throng

and the splendor of secret ways

hid from all humankind,

But God our life is the life of all.

Laus Trinitati

Hildegard of Bingen

12th Century

Terms of the Day for August 31

• Hortus Deliciarum – a medieval manuscript compiled by Herrad of Landsberg at the Hohenburg Abbey. It was an illuminated encyclopedia, begun in 1167 as a pedagogical tool for young novices at the convent. It is the first encyclopedia that was evidently written by a woman. It was finished in 1185, and was one of the most celebrated illuminated manuscripts of the period. 
• Scivias (Know the Ways of the Lord) – is an illustrated work by Hildegard of Bingen, completed in 1151 or 1152, describing 26 religious visions she experienced. The title comes from the Latin phrase "Scito vias Domini" ("Know the Ways of the Lord"). The book is illustrated by 35 miniature illustrations, more than that are included in her two later books of visions.

Slide Images for August 29

Illustration from The Beatus Apocalypse of Gerona

Spain

975

The Bayeux Tapestry

Normandy, France

c. 1086

 “Ælfgyva and the Cleric”

from The Bayeux Tapestry Normandy, France

c. 1086

Gospel Book of the Abbess Hitda

Showing the Abbess offering her Gospel Book to the cloister’s patron, St. Walburga

c. 1020

 Page from German Psalter from Augsburg

Claricia

c. 1200

German Psalter from Augsburg (detail)

Claricia

c. 1200

Terms of the Day for August 25

• The Middle Ages (Medieval Era) – a period of European history that lasted from the 5th until the 15th centuries. It began with the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, and was followed by the Renaissance.  The era is marked by the rising influence of the Catholic church, the development of feudal governments, and many wars and plagues.
• Feudalism – a set of legal and military customs in medieval Europe that flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries, which, broadly defined, was a system for structuring society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labor.
• Convent – a community of priests, religious brothers, religious sisters, or nuns, or the building used by the community, particularly in the Roman Catholic Church.  Most often the term refers to a “nunnery”, specifically a community of women.
• Abbess – the female superior, or mother superior, of a community of nuns, often an abbey.  In feudal Germany, Abbesses were often official women with control of small provinces.
• The Bayeux Tapestry – an embroidered cloth—not an actual tapestry—nearly 230 ft long, which depicts the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England concerning William, Duke of Normandy and Harold, Earl of Wessex, later King of England, and culminating in the Battle of Hastings.

Slide Images for August 26

The Lives of the Artists

Giorgio Vasari

1550

 The Last Supper

Tintoretto

c. 1592-1594

 Portrait of an Old Man with Boy

Marietta Robusti

1585

Self Portrait
Marietta Robusti
1580

 Tintoretto Painting His Dead Daughter

Leon Cogniet

1843

The Happy Couple

Judith Leyster

1630

 The Jolly Toper

Judith Leyster

1629

 The Jolly Topper

Frans Hals or Judith Leyster

c. 1628-30

 Napoleon Crossing the Alps

Jacques-Louis David

1801

Young Woman Drawing

Marie-Denise Villers

1803

 Portrait of Dublin-Tornelle

Adélaïde Labille-Guiard

c. 1799

Portrait of Antonio Bruni

Césarine Davin-Mirvault

1804

Terms of the Day for August 26

• Attribution – in art history, the explicit or formal acknowledgment of authorship to a singular artist.
• Provenance – the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.
• Connoisseur – a person who has a great deal of knowledge about the fine arts or an expert judge in matters of taste.   In the fine arts, a connoisseur is considered an in-depth expert on a particular artist’s life and work, and can therefore make attributions.

Terms of the Day for August 24

• Western Culture – a term used very broadly to refer to a heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, belief systems, political systems, and specific artifacts and technologies that have some origin or association with Europe. The term has come to apply to countries whose history is strongly marked by European immigration, colonization, and influence and is not restricted to the continent of Europe.
• Patriarchy – a social system in which males are the primary authority figures central to social organization, occupy roles of political leadership, moral authority and control of property, and where fathers hold authority over women and children. It implies the institutions of male rule and entails female subordination.
• Binary Opposition – the system by which, in language and thought, two theoretical opposites are strictly defined and set off against one another. It is the contrast between two mutually exclusive terms, such as on and off, up and down, left and right.
• Individual Inspired Genius – the model or concept of art being the product of one person’s inspiration rather than a collaborative craft.

Course Syllabus

Click below for the full text of the course syllabus: