Description du projet
L’art sacré et les sens dans l’Europe médiévale
L’art déplace les regards. Mais la vue est-elle le seul sens que nous utilisons pour l’apprécier? Telle est la question posée par le projet SenSArt, financé par l’UE, qui analysera quantitativement et qualitativement les schémas perceptifs qui ont orienté la réception de l’art sacré. Le projet examinera comment l’art a sollicité ses spectateurs grâce à de multiples apports sensoriels. En se concentrant sur l’Europe du 12e au 15e siècle, il examinera «l’agentivité sensorielle» de l’art, considérant l’art sacré comme un acteur principal capable d’exercer (par stimulation sensorielle ou privation) une agentivité sociale sur son public. En comparant différents groupes sociaux à l’échelle locale, régionale et supranationale, les chercheurs seront en mesure de cartographier phénoménologiquement les expériences à l’échelle européenne. Le projet délimitera les interactions sociales complexes entre les humains, l’art et les sens, ce qui accroîtra notre compréhension de l’Europe médiévale.
Objectif
Is sight the only sense actively involved in the perception of art? This is a crucial question for Western culture, dominated today by the hegemony of vision and the suppression of the other senses. By challenging the current ocularcentric paradigm, and assimilating notions on the cultural values of sensation, SenSArt provides the first examination of medieval sacred art from the unconventional lens of its sensory agency.
Between the 12th and the 15th century Europe underwent an extraordinary artistic evolution and an impressive cultural revitalization, which sparked a reassessment of the role of sensory perception in systems of knowledge and spiritual enlightenment. SenSArt explores and compares different social environments in six selected regions, pursuing three groundbreaking objectives: A) it will analyse quantitatively and qualitatively the perceptual schemes that orientated the reception of sacred art, scrutinizing how art solicited its beholders through multiple sensory inputs; B) it will develop and investigate the new notion of ‘sensory agency’ of art, establishing sacred art as a primary actor capable of exerting, through sensorial stimulation or deprivation, a social agency on its audience; C) it will provide an overall phenomenology of experiences on a European scale, by comparing the diverse patterns that different social groups lived on a local, regional and supranational scale.
SenSArt will achieve its goals by developing a new combined approach at the crossroad of Art History, Philosophy and Text Studies; it will establish a multidisciplinary team of scholars to delve into a comparative set of materials, including normative texts on the senses and works of art.
The project promises to bring about a paradigm shift in our understanding of Medieval Europe. It will shed new light on wide historical, devotional and cultural phenomena, outlining complex networks of social interactions where humans, art and the senses interplayed with each other.
Champ scientifique
Programme(s)
Thème(s)
Régime de financement
ERC-STG - Starting GrantInstitution d’accueil
35122 Padova
Italie