Author : Margaret J. Madsen-Hernandez
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 478 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (886 download)
Book Synopsis Visualizing Heaven and Earth Communing by : Margaret J. Madsen-Hernandez
Download or read book Visualizing Heaven and Earth Communing written by Margaret J. Madsen-Hernandez and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 478 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Considering Neo-Coptic iconography of the Coptic Orthodox Church art as a religious text, this paper looks at how the imagination of viewer relates with the art to create intertextual spaces. First the history of Coptic visual material culture is reviewed with a consideration of the sources of influence on the development of Coptic art in Late Antiquity. This includes a review of the forms of Coptic visual material culture -- textiles, sculpture, architecture, illustrated manuscripts, and wall painting and an examination of the visual language and grammar of a few select examples. The erratic history and general 'decline' of Coptic visual culture under Islamic rule is also reviewed. A look at the revival of Coptic art in the public sphere in the late Ottoman period highlights the work of Yuhanna al-Armani in Cairo, and the 18th century icon wall painting program of the Monastery of St. Paul. The development of the Neo-Coptic style by Dr. Issac Fanous walks hand in hand with the growing Coptic Diaspora and the transmission of Coptic visual material culture out of Egypt and into the West. The beginnings of a project to document and catalog the icons painted by Dr. Fanous for the Coptic Orthodox Churches of the Los Angeles Diocese is included in this paper. With the forgoing history as the foundation, this paper then applies methodologies of visual literacy to examine Neo-Coptic art as discursive texts of Pauline theology. The use of visual literacy methodologies also suggests that the icons can be 'read' as sociological and cultural texts. A look at how the female figure appears in the icons is considered along with the proposition that Neo-Coptic style works as a cultural icon for the Coptic immigrant. Additionally, it is proposed that further work can be done to use the icon as a tool for examining the religious imagination and the mystical experience.