You have set off on a pilgrimage. To what location will you journey (Conques, France), and what object will be the focus of your veneration? Write a 6-8 page travelogue analyzing and contextualizing the holy object you have selected (Reliquary of Sainte Foy) in terms of form, content, and the viewer’s experience. Your travelogue should include descriptions of 4-6 days prior to arrival and culminate at the destination with a description and analysis of the experience seeing the holy object. In addition to your daily notations and text analysis of the object, you must include at least 3 maps or sketches of what you saw and did.
Questions to consider as you write: 1. Who was the intended audience for this work and where was it displayed? Public? Private? 2.How often was it visible? How large or small is it? How do these elements affect the object’s meaning? 3.What was the experience like for a medieval pilgrim to see this holy object? What other elements (objects, buildings, rural/urban street layout, lighting, etc.) were in place that influence how one experienced seeing it? Don’t forget to consider the route itself! (Santiago de Compostela) 4. Who was the patron? How are their influences evident in the work? If the patron is unknown, what type of person do you think commissioned the object? What evidence supports your hypothesis? 5. What was the intended function of the work? If unknown, based on what you do know, why do you think it was made? What visual clues support your conclusions? 6. How is this work similar to, or different from, other objects of the same type? 7. What is the medium of your holy object, and how is it applied? 8. Why did the artist employ this medium? (I.e., why did he/she make the work from marble instead of bronze, mosaic instead of fresco, etc.?) 9. What new vocabulary terms have you learned this semester that can be applied to this work? 10. What formal elements do you see in this object that are characteristic of medieval period in general? 11. What works have we studied in class have similar formal elements to your work?
