Spiritual Seeing


Book Description

How and when, Herbert L. Kessler asks, was the Jewish prohibition against graven images transformed into a Christian imperative to picture God's invisibility once God had taken human form in the body of Jesus Christ?




Face to Face


Book Description

Examining how God and eventually Christ are portrayed in early Christian art, Jensen explores questions of the relationship between art and theology, conflicts over idolatry and iconography, and how the Christological controversies affected the portrayals of Christ. Since much of this art comes from ancient Rome, she places her analysis in the context of the history of Roman portraiture. One hundred photographs enhance the discussion.




Patrons, Authors and Workshops


Book Description

Patrons, Authors and Workshops invokes a cross-disciplinary approach to the study of late medieval books and book production in Paris, from the troubled years of the early fifteenth century onwards. It shows the extent to which such activity was able to flourish even against the backdrop of the endemic struggle between Burgundians and Armagnacs, or the subsequent English invasion which led to Agincourt and the regency of Bedford. Extensive coverage is given to the key role played by the libraire, to the author as scribe or copyist (Christine de Pisan, Jean Lebegue), and also to the development of commercial production under figures such as Jean Trepperel. A section on bibliophiles and their various commissions leads into a group of essays that focus on particular texts and authors, whilst a further section concentrates on what we can discover about the role of the scribe. The volume concludes with four essays offering insights into the work of particular artists and illuminators. The authors include scholars from the UK, France, Greece, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and the USA. Godfried Croenen is Lecturer in French at the University of Liverpool. Peter Ainsworth is Professor of French at the University of Sheffield.




Potential Images


Book Description

In Potential Images Dario Gamboni explores ambiguity in modern art, considering images that rely to a great degree on a projected or imaginative response from viewers to achieve their effect. Ambiguity became increasingly important in late 19th- and early 20th-century aesthetics, as is evidenced in works by such artists as Redon, Cezanne, Gauguin, Ensor and the Nabis. Similarly, the Cubists subverted traditional representational conventions, requiring their viewers to decipher images to extract their full meanings. The same device was taken up in the various experiments leading to abstraction. For example, it was Kandinsky's intention that his work could be interpreted in both figurative and non-figurative ways, and Duchamp's Readymades suggested the radical conclusion that 'it is the beholder who makes the picture'. These invitations to viewers to participate in the process of artistic communication had social and political implications, as they accorded artist and beholder symmetrical, almost interchangeable, roles.




Presence


Book Description

Presence reconsiders the notion of 'presence' in objects. The first book to address the issue directly, it contains a series of case studies covering a broad geographical and chronological range from ancient Greece and the Incas to industrial America and contemporary India, as well as examples from the canon of western European art. The studies reveal the widespread evidence for this striking form of response and allow readers to see how 'presence' is evoked and either embraced or repressed in differing historical and cultural contexts.




Vision, Devotion, and Self-Representation in Late Medieval Art


Book Description

Focuses on one of the most attractive features of late medieval manuscript illumination: the portrait of the book owner at prayer within the pages of her prayer-book.




Image and Relic


Book Description

Revision of the author's thesis (Johns Hopkins University, 1999).




New Testament Apocrypha, vol. 3


Book Description

An expansive compilation of New Testament apocrypha in English translation, featuring fascinating but heretofore unpublished texts. New Testament Apocrypha, vol. 3, continues to unearth the vast diversity of Christian Scripture outside of the traditional canon. This new collection encompasses a broad range of languages—Greek, Church Slavic, Old English, Coptic, and more—and spans centuries, from the formation of the canonical New Testament to the high Middle Ages. The selections here represent some of the least studied apocryphal texts, many of which have not previously received an English translation or a critical edition. Notable newly edited and translated selections include The Martyrdom of Zechariah, The Decapitation of John the Forerunner, The Birth of John, The Revelation about the Lord’s Prayer, and The Dialogue of Mary and Christ on the Departure of the Soul. Each text is accompanied by a robust introduction, bibliography, and notes. Scholars of apocrypha, Scripture, and hagiography from a breadth of disciplines will find this an indispensable reference for their research and teaching. Contributors: Carson Bay, Mark Glen Bilby, Rick Brannan, Christian H. Bull, Slavomir Čéplö, Alexander D’Alisera, J. Gregory Given, Nathan J. Hardy, Brandon W. Hawk, Stephen C. E. Hopkins, Alexander Kocar, Brent Landau, Jacob A. Lollar, Christine Luckritz Marquis, Ivan Miroshnikov, Tobias Nicklas, Samuel Osborn, Stephen Pelle, Bradley Rice, Julia A. Snyder, Janet E. Spittler, James Toma, Péter Tóth, Sarah Veale, J. Edward Walters, Charles D. Wright, Lorne R. Zelyck




The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Studies


Book Description

The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Studies presents discussions by leading experts on all significant aspects of this diverse and fast-growing field. Byzantine Studies deals with the history and culture of the Byzantine Empire, the eastern half of the Late Roman Empire, from the fourth to the fourteenth century. Its centre was the city formerly known as Byzantium, refounded as Constantinople in 324 CE, the present-day Istanbul. Under its emperors, patriarchs, and all-pervasive bureaucracy Byzantium developed a distinctive society: Greek in language, Roman in legal system, and Christian in religion. Byzantium's impact in the European Middle Ages is hard to over-estimate, as a bulwark against invaders, as a meeting-point for trade from Asia and the Mediterranean, as a guardian of the classical literary and artistic heritage, and as a creator of its own magnificent artistic style.