Italy 2011, Florence Symposium
Contemporary Sacred Art- Life Sources and Spiritualities
A N I N T E R N A T I O N A L S Y M P O S I U M*
October 18, 2011, Centre for Art and Culture, Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore, Florence, Italy
Sponsored by the Community of Jesus, at the invitation of the Office of Sacred Art of the Archdiocese of Florence.
(* Piazza San Giovanni 7. Simultaneous translation in English and Italian will be provided for all the papers.)
Sacred art is an expression of the paschal mystery, an incarnate rendering of the biblical Word that always proclaims and points to Christ. As such, it emerges from the formative dialogue that takes place between the faith of the individual artists and the identity of the particular Christian community in which the art is created.
The Symposium will explore some of the life sources and spiritual principles that contribute to the process of a community creating art. How do local history, ecclesiology, eschatological vision, the sacred scriptures and sacramental sensibility give birth to artistic style and iconography?
This event, which celebrates the completion of a monumental fresco cycle by the Florentine artist Silvestro Pistolesi in the Community’s church at Orleans, Massachusetts – the Church of the Transfiguration – seeks to stimulate reflection on the bond between Christian worship and art within different historical and religious circumstances.
The specific instance of the monastic Community of Jesus, born within the Reformed tradition but increasingly drawn to Catholic architectural and artistic expressions of its liturgical life, will be a point of departure for papers by European and American artists and scholars, delivered with simultaneous translation at the Cathedral Foundation Art and Culture Centre in Piazza San Giovanni, Florence.
The symposium, scheduled for the feast of the painter-evangelist Saint Luke, will be preceded by a prayer service in the historical Florence Baptistery and will conclude with ecumenical Evening Prayer in the Baptistery. An art exhibit, hosted by the Community of San Leolino in the Chianti area near Florence, will complement the symposium.
Speakers:
Msgr. Timothy Verdon a Canon of Florence Cathedral, is President of the Commission for Ecumenism and Inter-Faith Dialogue of the Archdiocese of Florence and Director of the Office of Sacred Art. An art historian with a Ph.D. from Yale University, Msgr. Verdon has been a Consultant to the Vatican Commission for Church Heritage and a Fellow of the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies (Villa I Tatti). He has published numerous books and articles in the field of sacred art and teaches at the Stanford University study center in Florence.
Jérôme Cottin is a Doctor of Theology at the University of Geneva and at the University Marc-Bloch of Strasbourg. He teaches theology, aesthetics, and communication on the faculty of Protestant theology of Paris. He is on the faculty of theology and religious science at the Catholic Institute of Paris, and is an internationally known author on theology and art.
Marko Rupnik, SJ, is a Slovenian Jesuit, based in Rome and an artist. He has executed mosaic programs at the shrines of Fatima and Lourdes, as well as for a private papal chapel in the Vatican. Director of the Centro Aletti, a Rome meeting place for artists and intellectuals from Western and Eastern Europe, he is a frequent speaker at universities throughout Europe and has received the Slovenian Presidential Freedom Medal. He recently completed mosaics for the chapel of Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut.
Filippo Rossi, a Florentine, was the youngest of the artists invited by Pope Benedict XVI to take part in the international meeting held on 21 November 2009 in the Sistine Chapel. He has exhibited his in major Italian cities and has works in the Maternity Ward Chapel of Careggi Hospital (Florence) and the Catholic chapel of the Meyer Children’s Hospital (Florence). Rossi is one of seven artists invited to submit projects for a new ambo in the Florence Cathedral; with a university degree in art history, he works for the Archdiocese of Florence as Coordinator of the Office of Sacred Art, and teaches courses in studio art and museology for Stanford University in Florence.
Rev. Martin Shannon,CJ, is an Episcopal priest and member of the Community of Jesus, where he works in the areas of liturgy and formation. Having received his M. Div. from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and Ph.D. in Liturgical Studies from the Catholic University of America, Martin also studied monastic sources and early church studies at Princeton Seminary and Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Seminary. He has participated in and presented at a number of conferences on ecumenical communities. His published works include articles for Worship and The American Benedictine Review, and several books including Open Your Heart, and The Church of the Transfiguration: Proclaiming God’s Glory in Wood and Stone.
Rev. Andrew D. Ciferni, O.Praem
Rev. Andrew D. Ciferni, O. Praem is a canon regular of Prémontré (Norbertines) of Daylesford Abbey in Paoli, Pennsylvania, where he is prior, rector of the abbey church and liturgy director. He is also chairman of his Order’s international commission for lay associates. He holds a doctorate in liturgical studies from the University of Notre Dame and is a founding member of the North American Academy of Liturgy and the Catholic Academy of Liturgy.
Registration
All are welcome to attend the symposium. The number of available places at the Centre for Art and Culture is limited however, and it is advisable to pre-register no later than October 6th, contacting Dr Niccolò Torrini, Office of Catechesis Through Art, Archdiocese of Florence, Piazza San Giovanni 3, 50129 Florence (n.torrini@diocesifirenze.it). The registration fee of €10,00 can be paid on October 18.
