Scribner Seminar Program
Course Description

Graven images: religion between art and idolatry

Instructor(s): Gregory Spinner, Political Science

What makes certain objects sacred? Does placing them in museums de-sacralize them? Who decides what is labeled art? Can art blaspheme? Is it possible to own sacred objects? When should museums return them?

When we consider recent controversies over whether, and how, to return contested objects to the communities from which they came, questions like these multiply. While they have no easy answers, such questions allow us to critically engage what we mean by art and religion. Examining objects from various traditions, some housed in the collection of Skidmore’s Tang Museum, we investigate both sacred materiality and its detractors. Throughout these conversations, we explore a series of conflicting interpretations and consider to what degree colonialist attitudes still inform our sense of who gets to ask (or to answer) our underlying questions.  

Course Offered:

• Fall 2022