Lecture:
Herbert Kessler
Medieval Art, Johns Hopkins University
The lecture will explore ways in which the Brazen Serpent trope gets mapped onto images of the Crucifixion, from the ninth-century through the twelfth, to trigger the notion of spiritual and carnal curing through the process of looking at art.
A graduate of the University of Chicago (B.A.) and Princeton University (M.F.A. , Ph.D.), Professor Kessler is author of a dozen books on medieval and Byzantine art and culture. Recent research has focused on vision and materiality in medieval art (e.g. Seeing Medieval Art (Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview Press, 2004; Spiritual Seeing: Picturing God’s Invisibility in Medieval Art (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000).) He has taught at the University of Chicago and has been on the faculty of the Johns Hopkins University.