These Education Week lectures will open your mind to the ways art and architecture can change you.
The Architecture of the Divine
by Kira Christensen
For some, the word architecture evokes images of clean lines and modern, innovative designs. For others, it may symbolize ancient, ornate buildings that have stood the test of time. However, for the Spanish architect Antoni Gaudí, architecture became something else entirely: organic. On August 20, 2024, Adjunct Professor Natalie Nielson gave a presentation titled “Transforming Space by Faith and Light: Antoni Gaudí’s Sagrada Família,” which dived into the symbolism of Gaudí’s most famous work: the Basílica de la Sagrada Família in Barcelona, Spain.
Cathedrals inspire and invite divinity through their construction and decoration. The Sagrada Família does this through its unconventional architecture, exemplifying how Gaudí combines a blend of architectural styles with art nouveau to create structures more closely resembling natural formations than man-made buildings. Nielson pointed out how Gaudí also incorporates smaller natural details using examples she noticed during her last visit. She said, “[There were] literally bananas on the top of that pinnacle. . . . His idea was inviting nature and what he thought of as the Creator’s creations into his own [creations].”
The entire cathedral incorporates details like these into its three main architectural features: the Nativity facade, the Passion facade, and the nearly completed Glory facade. But beyond just the playful natural elements, Gaudí also incorporated more innately serious elements, like the elaborate stained glass that creates symphonies of colored light inside or the bells that sing heavenly praises when the wind blows through them. “He believed that the church should inspire the feeling of divinity with [Christ’s] infinite qualities and attributes,” Nielson said. “I believe he accomplished that very, very, very well.”
The Divinity of the Gothic Style
by Tessa Swensen
Can we worship God better when our surroundings are beautiful? This question inspired Professor Michael Call’s (17th-Century French Art and Literature) lecture titled “Gothic Architecture’s Sacred Spaces,” given on August 21, 2024. Throughout the entirety of Christianity, the debate of decoration and adornment within religious spaces has been long and, at times, contentious. As the Catholics in the medieval period believed, however, the way a church or cathedral was built could make the space inherently more spiritual.
Originating in France during the 12th century, Gothic architecture emphasized one thing above all: light. Characterized by pointed arches, ribbed vaults, and flying buttresses, the Gothic style aimed to take weight off the walls in order to make the most space possible for windows and let in the most amount of light. “Gothic architecture is a skeletal architecture,” Call explained. “It has bones of stone, and it has walls of glass.” The Catholics believed that light equated to closeness to God, making the Gothic style of architecture not only an aesthetic choice but also a religious one.
Beyond the emphasis of light, Call pointed out how artisans paid special attention to the windows themselves. Made of stained glass, the designs of the windows had many functions beyond their beauty, including depicting patrons of the art and stories from the scriptures. The painstaking detail on each window, Call said, was done “not just for people. This was for God. This was to show their devotion to God and so God can see those details.”
Notre-Dame: “Our Lady”
by Tessa Swensen
On April 15, 2019, the world watched in horror as a fire engulfed the roof of one of the most iconic Catholic sites in the world: the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. In his lecture “Notre-Dame: A History of Paris’s Gothic Cathedral in Stone, Glass, and Fire,” Associate Professor Elliott Wise (Eucharistic and Liturgical Imagery) spoke about the cathedral’s origins, its tumultuous history, and its symbolistic artistry, emphasizing how stone, glass, and fire have each played a role in the lifespan of Notre-Dame.
Before Notre-Dame, Paris’s cathedral was Saint Étienne, located just west of the current site. Construction of Notre-Dame began in 1163, and it was later rededicated to the Virgin Mary that same year. Everything from the scenes carved over the doorways to the stained-glass art is a nod to Christ’s mother. Wise noted, “Just as light shines through a window and enters a space without breaking or altering the window, so also Mary conceived Jesus. Light entered into her womb, and yet . . . she remained a virgin.”
Unfortunately, Notre-Dame was not always held in high regard. During the French Revolution, French revolutionaries were determined to get rid of all evidence of the ancien régime (the “old regime”)—which included getting rid of Roman Catholicism, France’s national religion. Iconoclasm ran rampant, and Notre-Dame suffered greatly until Victor Hugo’s novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame spurred restoration efforts in the 19th century. And, following the 2019 fire, restoration efforts remain ongoing. Thanks to public donations of more than €900 million (about $1 billion), the Cathedral of Our Lady is set to be completed December 2024.
Experience Wonder, Experience Metamorphosis
by Emma Mafi
Scriptures consistently discuss the importance of being transformed, of repenting and changing—a process Assistant Professor Erik Yingling (Mythical and Religious Art) refers to as metamorphosis. In his lecture given on August 23, 2024, titled “‘Be Ye Transformed’: The Art of Metamorphosis and Exaltation in Roman Antiquity,” Yingling uses mythical depictions of metamorphosis in Greek and Roman art to expand on spiritual transformation.
Yingling first described metamorphosis as “a moment of astonishment or wonder or amazement [that will] usually spark some mighty transformation.” He then displayed a mixture of paintings, stone carvings, and engraved images—all of which depict stories of metamorphosis—to give examples of this process in action.
From the Greek myth of Deucalion and Pyrrha—where both individuals throw stones over their shoulders to create children—Yingling said, “Great transformations can happen through small rituals, small habits,” just as the children were slowly formed by tossing imperfect stones to the ground. He explained that this transformation doesn’t come easily, but said, “If you feel the discomfort, if you feel the opposition in all things, know that there’s nothing wrong with you . . . you’re a sculpture taking shape.”
Yingling believes we can experience this same metamorphosis, saying, “God doesn’t promise us we’ll be rich or number one or always get the A, but He does promise us the mighty change. He says that weak things will become strong, strong things good, and good things beautiful.”