Introduction to the Workshop Material
Workshop 1: Crucifixions (14th June 2007)
This first workshop combines two sets of materials that focus on one of the central images of the Passion of Christ: the depiction of the Crucifixion. This forms the thematic link between the materials which otherwise offer their own reinterpretation and transformation of this image.
The material for the first theme illustrates how the image of the crucified Christ embracing the Christian believer (in an Amplexus Christi) is established by Bernard of Clairvaux and subsequently transformed and reinterpreted in different media and historical contexts, ranging from post-Reformation music to nineteenth century painting.
In contrast, the second theme traces the reception of the eleventh-century Volto Santo Crucifix from Lucca throughout Europe, and its subsequent gradual transformation from depicting the Crucifixion of Christ to representing new saints in different geographical areas, e.g. Saint Helper in Scandinavia.
In the light of the general questions of the workshop these two themes could be discussed separately and/or with mutual reference to each other. We welcome further examples from each participant’s area of expertise which may correspond to or work differently from the themes chosen.
Workshop 2: Liturgy and Aesthetics (16th June 2007)
The second workshop focuses on two complexes dealing with medieval rituals that are both deeply rooted in the earliest transmitted Western liturgy: the so-called Liturgical Drama and choral settings of the passion narrative according to John. The earliest, tenth century examples for the former evolve around the visitation of Jesus’s grave on Easter morning in the context of the Easter liturgy later taking up themes connected to other parts of the liturgical calendar, whereas the latter has its origin in the singing of John’s passion account as an integral part of the medieval Good Friday Mass.
Despite their rootedness in medieval liturgy both these genres represent examples where Christian rituals appear to have been subjected to artistic appropriation. Both genres underwent a rich development - liturgical drama primarily through the Middle Ages, the Passion compositions in particular since the Renaissance - and both are traditionally perceived as characterized by a tension between their liturgical origin and aesthetic considerations.
The material for Passion Representations in Liturgical Drama provides three instances from the twelfth century to c. 1600 of how the Passion of Christ was ‘dramatized’. This is intended to illustrate the ways in which these dramatizations bring forth questions about how the underlying ritual and its aesthetic discourse are transformed.
The Rore/Pärt theme is considered as a strong example as to how a highly artificial setting of the liturgical Passion narrative, such as Rore’s composition, carries out the tension between aesthetic sophistication and religious meaning, and how these tensions are transformed and indeed preserved or reinterpreted by a contemporary work such as Pärt’s St John Passion.
As in the first workshop, these two themes could be discussed separately and/or with mutual reference to each other, and we welcome further examples from each participant’s area of expertise from other arts and aesthetic or historical contexts.