The Devotional Eye: Pre-Modern and Modern Experiments in Slow Looking

Speakers

• Dr Alixe Bovey FSA FRHistS, Head of Research, the Courtauld Institute of Art.
• Dr Matthew Rothaus Moser, Lecturer in Theology at Loyola University Maryland, USA. 

Organised by: Professor Ben Quash (King’s College London) and Dr Scott Nethersole (The Courtauld Institute of Art)

In this pairing of papers, we will explore the ways in which visual art might serve and support particular kinds of devotional reading.  Alixe Bovey will draw on her expertise in the art and culture of the Middle Ages, with special interests in illuminated manuscripts and visual storytelling, to discuss how this has been so historically. She will look particularly at Books of Hours. Matthew Moser will look at how this classical practice of holy reading might find new forms in the present, developing a ‘modest constructive proposal’ for contemporary theological aesthetics by practising lectio divina with the Genesis frontispiece of the Saint John’s Bible. He will explore how such a strategy for ‘reading’ an image can open up to theological interpretation without betraying its integrity as an art form.

There will be time for discussion and questions following the papers. The event will be concluded by an informal reception.

About the seminar series

The seminar on Sacred Traditions and the Arts is a joint venture between the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at King’s and The Courtauld. It seeks to place researchers in dialogue who are working on any aspect of the sacred and visual culture. It is open to all scholars and students who have an interest in exploring the intersections of religion and art regardless of period, geography or tradition.

This event is open to all and free to attend. No registration is required.