This is the third opportunity that CIVA members and friends will have had to explore how the artist has served the church in France through the
centuries.

For a pdf version of the brochure click on the pdf icon to the right. For additional tour information contact Ed Knippers, 703-527-5934, ecknippers@aol.com

Starting with four nights in Nice, those on the tour will explore such major sites as the Matisse Chapel and the Musée National Message Biblique Marc Chagall. The Maeght Foundation housing many of the brightest lights of 20th Century art such as Braque, Miró, Kandinsky, Giacometti, Bonnard, and Léger will also be visited.

"We have designed the tour to include the most important monuments of our previous trips yet have added some new sights of importance to our theme," said Edward Knippers, the tour host and director. "Picasso's monumental War and Peace decoration in the vaulted chapel of the Chateau-Musee de Vallauris has been added to this year's tour as has the Chapelle Notre-Dame de Jerusalem, the last building designed by Jean Cocteau. We have also added the Saint Roseline Chapel that is part of an 11th Century abbey. It is now a place of pilgrimage with 20th Century decorations."

Ancient sites will also be visited, such as the Roman ruins at Arles and Nîmes. The 12th Century Cathedral of St. Lazarus at Autum and the Basilica of St. Mary Magdalene at Vézeley are also in the itenerary. Matthias Grünewald's Isenheim Altar in Colmar is another highlight of the tour as is a visit to the 15th Century hospital at Beaune with its large polyptych of the Last Judgement by Roger van der Weyden. Yet the modern works of 20th
Century artists are never far away. These ancient sites will be
interspersed with the church of Sacré-Coeur at Audincourt, with its Léger and Bazaine windows, and le Corbusier's 1955 ecclesiastical monument at Ronchamp.

"The little Chapel of All Grace at Plateau d'Assy might well be worth the whole trip for those interested in the Sacred Art Movement of the 20th Century," adds Sandra Bowden, the other tour host. "It houses some of the most important decorative and fine arts to be found in the modern church. The Rouault windows alone are enough to make the rather difficult trip up
the mountain near Mount Blanc. Yet The Artist and the French Church offers this and Paris, too"

While the ministry of Christ took place in Palestine, Asia Minor can justly be described as its cradle. Here the Apostles Paul and John preached and taught and the churches were recipients of their epistles. Here the Cappadocian Fathers, Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa and Gregory of Nazianzus completed the Trinitarian doctrine of the early church. Here all seven of the great Ecumenical Councils were held. Visually, even in the early centuries, the church left symbols, architecture, frescoes and mosaics.

The art and architecture of the Greeks and Romans filled the cities to which St. John wrote in the Book of Revelation. The early church left tangible remains of its presence in many of those cities. In Sardis, there is not only an elaborate synagogue, but also a Christian basilica. In Ephesus, there is the great Church of St. Mary, where the Council of Ephesus was held in 451AD, and also the great Church of St. John.

Cappadocia is famous not only for its theology, but also for its incredible topography, with churches carved out of the rock and decorated with frescoes rich in biblical scenes and symbols, which remain vivid even today.

While Asia Minor was indeed the cradle of Christianity, the Ottoman Turks gradually advanced over the Byzantine Empire. In the process, it also saw transformations of Islam within its midst. Konya is the home of the irenic Sufi branch of Islam (not to be confused with either Shiites or Sunis). With the fall of the Ottoman Empire after WW I, Turkey became a secular state under Ataturk, with Ankara as its capital.

No artist could go to Ankara without visiting the Museum of Anatolian Culture (also known as the Archaeological Museum or Hittite Museum—some names don’t translate easily). Its collection spans Paleolithic to Classical times, all housed in a ten domed former covered bazaar of the fifteenth century.

While Constantinople fell to the Ottomans in 1453, the art and architecture of the Byzantine Empire can still be found in Istanbul. Preeminent is the great church of Hagia Sophia with its exquisite mosaics, for over a thousand years the largest church in Christendom. Nearby is the great basilica of Hagia Irene. Of great artistic importance is the double nave church of Chora with its mosaic life cycle of Christ in its esonarthex and narthex, more mosaics in one nave, and the other, with a fresco series beginning with Old Testament scenes and culminating in a magnificent apse fresco of the resurrection.

The architectural glories of Constantinople were such that they were copied by the Ottomans in the Blue Mosque and that of Suleman the Magnificent, to name just two outstanding examples. The wealth of the Ottoman Empire can also be partially experienced in the Topkapi Palace, and the more recent Dolambache Palace.

However, Christianity has not been extinguished in Turkey. The Ecumenical Patriarch, in the person of His All Holiness, Bartholomew, continues to guide the Orthodox Church from this city. On our last two tours we have been honored to have had an audience with this gracious leader of Orthodoxy. On this visit we will have the opportunity to worship in his Cathedral.

As on all of our seminars, persons are urged to share their areas of interest and expertise as they relate to any aspect of the tour. The rich fund of knowledge found on these tours is welcomed by our personable, attractive, highly educated professional Turkish guide, Ms. Tansu Uygun, as well as by myself.

Rome will be the site for an overseas seminar in Christian art and architecture sponsored by Christians in the Visual Arts and Overseas Connects, a continuing education program of Western Theological Seminary. The seminar is organized and conducted by Dr. Donald J. Bruggink—his seventeenth to Rome. Bruggink, a historical theologian, also spent a year in Rome studying Christian iconography and architecture. Participants in the seminar are encouraged to share their knowledge and insight in either a formal, or informal way.

Beauty and Meaning
The approach will bechronological, investigating how the art and architecture of the church reflected and influenced the Christian understanding and practice of the faith. After a brief encounter with art and architecture as reflections of the pre-Christian religions of the Etruscans and Romans, we will continue with…

There is currently no information for this area ...