Cave Refectory Road


Book Description

A new mode of Christian living is springing to life as groups of individuals and families living in the same geographic area or connected virtually share a simple rule of life. Cave, Refectory, Road explores how traditional monastic life is helping to shape a new flowering of Christian community today. It traces the roots of "new monasticism" and draws on the classic elements of monastic life to suggest how this ancient wisdom, learning, and spiritual practice might be reinterpreted for new settings. A handbook for all who are exploring "intentional living," its rich and inspiring teaching is clustered around three themes: The cave: the place of stillness, prayer, and withdrawal that can inspire a new engagement with the mystery of God The refectory: how manastic practices of hospitality can create communities that make a difference in the world The road: how the example of the friars can lead to creative and loving engagement with public life




The Noonday Devil


Book Description

The noonday devil is the demon of acedia, the vice also known as sloth. The word “sloth”, however, can be misleading, for acedia is not laziness; in fact it can manifest as busyness or activism. Rather, acedia is a gloomy combination of weariness, sadness, and a lack of purposefulness. It robs a person of his capacity for joy and leaves him feeling empty, or void of meaning Abbot Nault says that acedia is the most oppressive of demons. Although its name harkens back to antiquity and the Middle Ages, and seems to have been largely forgotten, acedia is experienced by countless modern people who describe their condition as depression, melancholy, burn-out, or even mid-life crisis. He begins his study of acedia by tracing the wisdom of the Church on the subject from the Desert Fathers to Saint Thomas Aquinas. He shows how acedia afflicts persons in all states of life— priests, religious, and married or single laymen. He details not only the symptoms and effects of acedia, but also remedies for it.










"Gendered Perceptions of Florentine Last Supper Frescoes, c. 1350?490 "


Book Description

Despite the large number of monumental Last Supper frescoes which adorn refectories in Quattrocento Florence, until now no monograph has appeared in English on the Florentine Last Supper frescoes, nor has any study examined the perceptions of the original viewers. This study examines the rarely considered effect of gender on the profoundly contextualized perceptions of the male and female religious who viewed the Florentine Last Supper images in surprisingly different physical and cultural refectory environments. In addition to offering detailed visual analyses, the author draws on a broad spectrum of published and unpublished primary materials, including monastic rules, devotional tracts and reading materials, the constitutions and ordinazioni for individual houses, inventories from male and female communities and the Convent Suppression documents of the Archivio di Stato in Florence. By examining the original viewers? attitudes to images, their educational status, acculturated pieties, affective responses, levels of community, degrees of reclusion, and even the types of food eaten in the refectories, Hiller argues that the perceptions of these viewers of the Last Supper frescoes were intrinsically gendered.







The A to Z of Renaissance Art


Book Description

The Renaissance era was launched in Italy and gradually spread to the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, France, and other parts of Europe and the New World, with figures like Robert Campin, Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden, Albrecht DYrer, and Albrecht Altdorfer. It was the era that produced some of the icons of civilization, including Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa and Last Supper and Michelangelo's Sistine Ceiling, Piet^, and David. Marked as one of the greatest moments in history, the outburst of creativity of the era resulted in the most influential artistic revolution ever to have taken place. The period produced a substantial number of notable masters, among them Caravaggio, Donato Bramante, Donatello, El Greco, Filippo Brunelleschi, Masaccio, Sandro Botticelli, Raphael, Titian, and Tintoretto. The result was an outstanding number of exceptional works of art and architecture that pushed human potential to new heights. The A to Z of Renaissance Art covers the years 1250 to 1648, the period most disciplines place as the Renaissance Era. A complete portrait of this remarkable period is depicted in this book through a chronology, an introductory essay, a bibliography, and over 500 hundred cross-referenced dictionary entries on major Renaissance painters, sculptors, architects, and patrons, as well as relevant historical figures and events, the foremost artistic centers, schools and periods, major themes and subjects, noteworthy commissions, technical processes, theoretical material, literary and philosophic sources for art, and art historical terminology.







Historical Dictionary of Renaissance Art


Book Description

It was the era that produced some of the icons of civilization: Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa and Last Supper and Michelangelo's Sistine Ceiling, Piet^, and David. As masterpieces by the likes of Caravaggio, Donato Bramante, Donatello, El Greco, Filippo Brunelleschi, Sandro Botticelli, Raphael, and Titian emerged, new heights of human potential were imagined. The Historical Dictionary of Renaissance Art covers the years 1250 to 1648, the period most disciplines place as the Renaissance Era. A complete portrait of this remarkable period is depicted in this book through a chronology, an introductory essay, a bibliography, and over 500 hundred cross-referenced dictionary entries on major Renaissance painters, sculptors, architects, and patrons, as well as relevant historical figures and events, the foremost artistic centers, schools and periods.




House & Garden


Book Description