ART 270 - Making Sacred: Religious Images and Spaces in Asia

Cross-Listed as ASIA 270

This course contemplates the definition of Sacred Art and Sacred Space by focusing on religious visual culture in Asia and examining how intangible concepts of the divine have become tangible in art and architecture. To better understand the multilayered functioning of devotional objects and spaces associated with religious doctrines such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, and Shintoism, the class will explore foundations in iconography and then compare different religious objects and spaces through concepts such as gender, state power, the body, nature, ritual, the grotesque, and death. To account for the shifting meaning of religious icons over time, the class also reflects on how the significance of religious objects changes in the space of a museum. Ultimately, this course allows us to contemplate the multifaceted ways religious beliefs have been visualized and how these manifestations exemplify systems of cultural exchange in Asia. (4 Credits)