Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SenSArt (The Sensuous Appeal of the Holy. Sensory Agency of Sacred Art and Somatised Spiritual Experiences in Medieval Europe (12th-15th century))
Reporting period: 2021-09-01 to 2023-02-28
Knowledge of how individuals perceive their world is critical to our understanding of societies.
Contemporary Western culture is dominated by a sensory model based on ocularcentrism, i.e. a perceptual bias that ranks vision over the other senses. It is a paradigm born with the Enlightenment and the passage from experiential learning to a scholastic one. It has been further consolidated with the rise of the digital era and the diffusion of digital devices that act mainly through visual stimulation.
By challenging current visiocentric paradigms, and embracing notions on the cultural values of sensation, this multi- and interdisciplinary research project (SenSArt) proposes a ground-breaking comparative investigation that triangulates the senses, sacred art and society in selected major regions across Medieval Europe, corresponding to present-day Germany, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy and England. The project focuses on the 12th-15th centuries, as an age of religious, intellectual and artistic revitalization, when cultural changes sparked a reassessment of the role of sensory perception in society. As a result, the senses were incorporated in a new system of knowledge that embraced both the tangible and the spiritual. New interpretative systems for devotees who used sacred art as a material implement in the act of praying to feel God were codified.
SenSArt argues that works of sacred art were crucial agents in triggering somatised spiritual experiences, prompting a multimodal and multi-sensorial perceptual process. For instance, the tinkling of the gothic bells used to indicate the elevation of the consecrated Host stimulated in the audience mental associations with notions on the apotropaic power of sounds thought to be capable of putting the devil to flight. The bells, therefore, were compelling sensory implements, which reinforced the devotional meaning of the Host as a material manifestation of the presence of Christ and his salvific power within the community.
Consideration of sensation in medieval spirituality hence requires a reassessment of the primacy of vision as a conduit to knowledge and enlightenment, together with a reappraisal of the perceptual mechanisms through which art solicited its beholders.
SenSArt pursues three groundbreaking objectives: A) it surveys and inspects quantitatively and qualitatively, with regard to all the five senses, the perceptual schemes that oriented the reception of sacred art. SenSArt pursues this objective by generating a new methodology grounded on the comparative examination of a wide set of different materials (written sources and works of sacred art). Moreover, SenSArt reintegrates and explores the devotional, moral and social values attached to sensation, hence reappraising the full range of spiritual meanings that the multi-sensorial experience of art had in the age under examination. B) SenSArt develops and investigates the 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. The project accomplishes this objective by analysing comparatively different social groups and the diverse patterns of somatised experience they were educated, allowed, or not permitted, to live. C) SenSArt provides an overall phenomenology of experiences on a European level, by comparing the diverse patterns that different social groups lived on a local, regional and supranational scale, highlighting both specificities and divergences, and connecting them to their causal explanations.
SenSArt will achieve its goals by establishing a fresh, combined approach built upon domains of anthropological, sociological and ethnographic inquiry, as well as broader theoretical and methodological developments situated in historical branches. The research tools are provided by art-historical, historical, philosophical and textual domains.
Contemporary Western culture is dominated by a sensory model based on ocularcentrism, i.e. a perceptual bias that ranks vision over the other senses. It is a paradigm born with the Enlightenment and the passage from experiential learning to a scholastic one. It has been further consolidated with the rise of the digital era and the diffusion of digital devices that act mainly through visual stimulation.
By challenging current visiocentric paradigms, and embracing notions on the cultural values of sensation, this multi- and interdisciplinary research project (SenSArt) proposes a ground-breaking comparative investigation that triangulates the senses, sacred art and society in selected major regions across Medieval Europe, corresponding to present-day Germany, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy and England. The project focuses on the 12th-15th centuries, as an age of religious, intellectual and artistic revitalization, when cultural changes sparked a reassessment of the role of sensory perception in society. As a result, the senses were incorporated in a new system of knowledge that embraced both the tangible and the spiritual. New interpretative systems for devotees who used sacred art as a material implement in the act of praying to feel God were codified.
SenSArt argues that works of sacred art were crucial agents in triggering somatised spiritual experiences, prompting a multimodal and multi-sensorial perceptual process. For instance, the tinkling of the gothic bells used to indicate the elevation of the consecrated Host stimulated in the audience mental associations with notions on the apotropaic power of sounds thought to be capable of putting the devil to flight. The bells, therefore, were compelling sensory implements, which reinforced the devotional meaning of the Host as a material manifestation of the presence of Christ and his salvific power within the community.
Consideration of sensation in medieval spirituality hence requires a reassessment of the primacy of vision as a conduit to knowledge and enlightenment, together with a reappraisal of the perceptual mechanisms through which art solicited its beholders.
SenSArt pursues three groundbreaking objectives: A) it surveys and inspects quantitatively and qualitatively, with regard to all the five senses, the perceptual schemes that oriented the reception of sacred art. SenSArt pursues this objective by generating a new methodology grounded on the comparative examination of a wide set of different materials (written sources and works of sacred art). Moreover, SenSArt reintegrates and explores the devotional, moral and social values attached to sensation, hence reappraising the full range of spiritual meanings that the multi-sensorial experience of art had in the age under examination. B) SenSArt develops and investigates the 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. The project accomplishes this objective by analysing comparatively different social groups and the diverse patterns of somatised experience they were educated, allowed, or not permitted, to live. C) SenSArt provides an overall phenomenology of experiences on a European level, by comparing the diverse patterns that different social groups lived on a local, regional and supranational scale, highlighting both specificities and divergences, and connecting them to their causal explanations.
SenSArt will achieve its goals by establishing a fresh, combined approach built upon domains of anthropological, sociological and ethnographic inquiry, as well as broader theoretical and methodological developments situated in historical branches. The research tools are provided by art-historical, historical, philosophical and textual domains.
In the past 18 months, team members have gathered and examined a wide range of materials pertaining to a multidisciplinary corpus that includes artworks and historical texts.
Before beginning the examination, ground methodological rules, research tools, and definitions needed to be set up. It was, in particular, crucial to establish a clear delineation of what art and texts mean for the project, and what types of artworks and texts are taken into consideration. SenSArt definition of art deliberately combines different categories and include diverse types of objects (pertaining both to the ‘major’ and to the ‘minor’ arts), but also performances, such as paraliturgical dramas and processions, kinetic modes of prayer, and physical interactions between the devotees and the objects. SenSArt examines two main categories of texts: theoretical and normative texts on the senses, that contain the norms that were to shape the sensoria and the interpretive schemes that were to orientate the responses of the audience, as pastoral works and regulatory documents; and texts about the senses in practice, that evoke the point of view and the experience of individuals or groups within society, such as chronicles.
SenSArt multidisciplinary team has carefully selected substantial case-studies that individual team members have considered and explored within a broader interpretive framework. While pursuing individual research paths, team members have collaborated on several topics, mainly connected to: the role of the senses in meditative practices and patterns of affective piety; the impact that the material and aesthetic qualities of artworks had in the devotional experiences of medieval beholders; sensation as a means for the formation of memory and knowledge.
The still preliminary results of the investigation are promising. Team members have presented a total of 26 papers at international conferences, 3 papers have been published already, and a total of 10 contributions have been submitted for publication, 2 of which have been accepted and are forthcoming.
Before beginning the examination, ground methodological rules, research tools, and definitions needed to be set up. It was, in particular, crucial to establish a clear delineation of what art and texts mean for the project, and what types of artworks and texts are taken into consideration. SenSArt definition of art deliberately combines different categories and include diverse types of objects (pertaining both to the ‘major’ and to the ‘minor’ arts), but also performances, such as paraliturgical dramas and processions, kinetic modes of prayer, and physical interactions between the devotees and the objects. SenSArt examines two main categories of texts: theoretical and normative texts on the senses, that contain the norms that were to shape the sensoria and the interpretive schemes that were to orientate the responses of the audience, as pastoral works and regulatory documents; and texts about the senses in practice, that evoke the point of view and the experience of individuals or groups within society, such as chronicles.
SenSArt multidisciplinary team has carefully selected substantial case-studies that individual team members have considered and explored within a broader interpretive framework. While pursuing individual research paths, team members have collaborated on several topics, mainly connected to: the role of the senses in meditative practices and patterns of affective piety; the impact that the material and aesthetic qualities of artworks had in the devotional experiences of medieval beholders; sensation as a means for the formation of memory and knowledge.
The still preliminary results of the investigation are promising. Team members have presented a total of 26 papers at international conferences, 3 papers have been published already, and a total of 10 contributions have been submitted for publication, 2 of which have been accepted and are forthcoming.
In the first stage of the project team members have mainly focused on their case-studies, working on the regions of their examination and/or on the material and textual sources that pertain to their research. During the next stages a comparative, transnational examination will be undertaken. The desired outcome is an overall phenomenology of patterns for each surveyed region, that will be explored with respect to the social dynamics (such as gender-related issues, patterns of inclusion and exclusion) it delineates.
Two other international conferences will be organized by team members in year 3 and 5 of the project. In addition, the team will organize panels at internationally recognized meetings.
This wide-ranging comparative research is expected to generate four volumes (co-edited by different team members), a total of 20 book chapters and journal articles, and a digital archive that will be published on the project website at the end of the research. All publications will appear in Open Access.
SenSArt will also have a significant impact on the promotion policies of European cultural heritage. This aspect is particularly timely, as interactive museums and exhibitions, often based on multi-sensorial experiences and augmented reality, are rapidly growing. SenSArt will thus generate knowledge that will prove useful for the benefit of the general public too.
Two other international conferences will be organized by team members in year 3 and 5 of the project. In addition, the team will organize panels at internationally recognized meetings.
This wide-ranging comparative research is expected to generate four volumes (co-edited by different team members), a total of 20 book chapters and journal articles, and a digital archive that will be published on the project website at the end of the research. All publications will appear in Open Access.
SenSArt will also have a significant impact on the promotion policies of European cultural heritage. This aspect is particularly timely, as interactive museums and exhibitions, often based on multi-sensorial experiences and augmented reality, are rapidly growing. SenSArt will thus generate knowledge that will prove useful for the benefit of the general public too.