Questions about Popular Piety, Modes of Visual Perception, St. Francis’ Body as Image, and Embodied Perception!

Discussion Questions about Popular Piety and Modes of Visual Perception, St. Francis’ Body as Image, and Embodied Perception

 

1. What are the reasons for the neglect of images in the 15^th and 16^th centuries according to Scribner?
2. What is the role of the viewer vis a vis the Trout woodcut?
3. Why is the IHS woodcut an all-purpose devotional aid?
4. What are the characteristics of active images?
5. What does Scribner mean by the sacramental gaze?
6. How did the discoveries of Roger Bacon and Alberti impact contemporaries ways of seeing?
7. What does the author mean by the sanctifying gaze?
8. What is Belting’s formula for the transmission of images? Do you agree with him?
9. In what way is St. Francis a “re-embodied” image of God?
10. What were the challenges facing visual artists in depicting St. Francis?
11. Discuss the idea of image as incorporation.
12. Why are the wounds of St. Francis images in two respects?
13. What is the iconization of the body and does it hurt?
14. Was the body viewed as a pictorial medium?
15. Do you think the rays emanating from the wounds of the seraph to St. Francis reflect contemporary optical theory?
16. What are carnal formulae in Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy of art?
17. How does Merleau-Ponty’s apprehension of meaning differ from say that outlined in the Ad. Heren.?
18. How does Merleau-Ponty define an artist?
19. In what way does art have social consequences?
20. What is the relationship of art to perception according to Merleau-Ponty?