The topic for this seminar will be the icon, a medium that developed in Late Antiquity and that continues to be a major and influential form of painting. We will examine the history, function, theory and meaning of the icon, and will also examine the icon’s influence upon the discourses of Modernism. A more practical aspect of this seminar is that participants will work with the Princeton University Art Museum’s newly acquired collection of icon painter’s preparatory drawings, preparing catalogue entries for a virtual exhibition of this material.
