Uppsala Universitet, Konstvetenskapliga institutionen, Konstvetenskap

Christina Jensen, jensenkfz@gmail.com

Sakral konst i Renässans och Nutid - En betraktelse av Piero della Francescas "Kristi Dop".

Sacral Art in the Renaissance and Today - A Study of Piero della Francesca´s "Baptism of Christ".

The aim of the study is to examine the relevance of sacral art to modern secular viewers. I have chosen the painting "Baptism of Christ" by Piero della Francesca from the Italian renaissance, since it has a well-known christological theme and narrative. I compare the impact of the painting on a renaissance viewer with the impact on a modern secular viewer. The intention is to find a common ground in these two viewers experiences, the inner signification behind the symbolic expressions in the painting.

The renaissance viewer is rendered against a cultural context of Roman-Catholic theology with gnostic and neo-platonic cogitations. The modern viewer is described in relation to Protestant theology and to a modern existentialist context. In analysing the viewers experiences I use the iconography-iconology method, the hermeneutic theory of play and the theory of the aesthetics of reception. 

In comparing these viewers experiences and using a process of demythologization a considerably older symbolic content emerges. This has a universal relevance and constitute the inner signification behind the symbols in the painting, relevant both for the viewer from the renaissance and for the modern viewer of today, as well as for a far more distant historical viewer. When the symbolic expressions from the Judeo-Palestinian context are excluded from the interpretation universal archetypes elucidates, these have a capacity to influence the modern individuals intellectual and spiritual cogitations.