Author: Director of Index of Medieval Art Pamela A Patton
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780271090566
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
Book Description
This volume assesses how current approaches to iconology and iconography break new ground in understanding the signification and reception of medieval images, both in their own time and in the modern world. Framed by critical essays that apply explicitly historiographical and sociopolitical perspectives to key moments in the evolution of the field, the volume's case studies focus on how iconographic meaning is shaped by factors such as medieval modes of dialectical thought, the problem of representing time, the movement of the viewer in space, the fragmentation and injury of both image and subject, and the complex strategy of comparing distant cultural paradigms. The contributions are linked by a commitment to understanding how medieval images made meaning; to highlighting the heuristic value of new perspectives and methods in exploring the work of the image in both the Middle Ages and our own time; and to recognizing how subtle entanglements between scholarship and society can provoke mutual and unexpected transformations in both. Collectively, the essays demonstrate the expansiveness, flexibility, and dynamism of iconographic studies as a scholarly field that is still heartily engaged in the challenge of its own remaking. Along with the volume editors, the contributors include Madeline H. Caviness, Beatrice Kitzinger, Aden Kumler, Christopher R. Lakey, Glenn Peers, Jennifer Purtle, and Elizabeth Sears.
Iconography Beyond the Crossroads
Author: Director of Index of Medieval Art Pamela A Patton
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780271090566
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
Book Description
This volume assesses how current approaches to iconology and iconography break new ground in understanding the signification and reception of medieval images, both in their own time and in the modern world. Framed by critical essays that apply explicitly historiographical and sociopolitical perspectives to key moments in the evolution of the field, the volume's case studies focus on how iconographic meaning is shaped by factors such as medieval modes of dialectical thought, the problem of representing time, the movement of the viewer in space, the fragmentation and injury of both image and subject, and the complex strategy of comparing distant cultural paradigms. The contributions are linked by a commitment to understanding how medieval images made meaning; to highlighting the heuristic value of new perspectives and methods in exploring the work of the image in both the Middle Ages and our own time; and to recognizing how subtle entanglements between scholarship and society can provoke mutual and unexpected transformations in both. Collectively, the essays demonstrate the expansiveness, flexibility, and dynamism of iconographic studies as a scholarly field that is still heartily engaged in the challenge of its own remaking. Along with the volume editors, the contributors include Madeline H. Caviness, Beatrice Kitzinger, Aden Kumler, Christopher R. Lakey, Glenn Peers, Jennifer Purtle, and Elizabeth Sears.
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780271090566
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
Book Description
This volume assesses how current approaches to iconology and iconography break new ground in understanding the signification and reception of medieval images, both in their own time and in the modern world. Framed by critical essays that apply explicitly historiographical and sociopolitical perspectives to key moments in the evolution of the field, the volume's case studies focus on how iconographic meaning is shaped by factors such as medieval modes of dialectical thought, the problem of representing time, the movement of the viewer in space, the fragmentation and injury of both image and subject, and the complex strategy of comparing distant cultural paradigms. The contributions are linked by a commitment to understanding how medieval images made meaning; to highlighting the heuristic value of new perspectives and methods in exploring the work of the image in both the Middle Ages and our own time; and to recognizing how subtle entanglements between scholarship and society can provoke mutual and unexpected transformations in both. Collectively, the essays demonstrate the expansiveness, flexibility, and dynamism of iconographic studies as a scholarly field that is still heartily engaged in the challenge of its own remaking. Along with the volume editors, the contributors include Madeline H. Caviness, Beatrice Kitzinger, Aden Kumler, Christopher R. Lakey, Glenn Peers, Jennifer Purtle, and Elizabeth Sears.
Iconography Beyond the Crossroads
Author: Pamela A. Patton
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271093013
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 241
Book Description
This volume assesses how current approaches to iconology and iconography break new ground in understanding the signification and reception of medieval images, both in their own time and in the modern world. Framed by critical essays that apply explicitly historiographical and sociopolitical perspectives to key moments in the evolution of the field, the volume’s case studies focus on how iconographic meaning is shaped by factors such as medieval modes of dialectical thought, the problem of representing time, the movement of the viewer in space, the fragmentation and injury of both image and subject, and the complex strategy of comparing distant cultural paradigms. The contributions are linked by a commitment to understanding how medieval images made meaning; to highlighting the heuristic value of new perspectives and methods in exploring the work of the image in both the Middle Ages and our own time; and to recognizing how subtle entanglements between scholarship and society can provoke mutual and unexpected transformations in both. Collectively, the essays demonstrate the expansiveness, flexibility, and dynamism of iconographic studies as a scholarly field that is still heartily engaged in the challenge of its own remaking. Along with the volume editors, the contributors include Madeline H. Caviness, Beatrice Kitzinger, Aden Kumler, Christopher R. Lakey, Glenn Peers, Jennifer Purtle, and Elizabeth Sears.
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271093013
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 241
Book Description
This volume assesses how current approaches to iconology and iconography break new ground in understanding the signification and reception of medieval images, both in their own time and in the modern world. Framed by critical essays that apply explicitly historiographical and sociopolitical perspectives to key moments in the evolution of the field, the volume’s case studies focus on how iconographic meaning is shaped by factors such as medieval modes of dialectical thought, the problem of representing time, the movement of the viewer in space, the fragmentation and injury of both image and subject, and the complex strategy of comparing distant cultural paradigms. The contributions are linked by a commitment to understanding how medieval images made meaning; to highlighting the heuristic value of new perspectives and methods in exploring the work of the image in both the Middle Ages and our own time; and to recognizing how subtle entanglements between scholarship and society can provoke mutual and unexpected transformations in both. Collectively, the essays demonstrate the expansiveness, flexibility, and dynamism of iconographic studies as a scholarly field that is still heartily engaged in the challenge of its own remaking. Along with the volume editors, the contributors include Madeline H. Caviness, Beatrice Kitzinger, Aden Kumler, Christopher R. Lakey, Glenn Peers, Jennifer Purtle, and Elizabeth Sears.
The Iconography of Malcolm X
Author: Graeme Abernethy
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
ISBN: 0700619208
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 304
Book Description
From Detroit Red to El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, the man best known as Malcolm X restlessly redefined himself throughout a controversial life. His transformations have appeared repeatedly in books, photographs, paintings, and films, while his murder set in motion a series of tugs-of-war among journalists, biographers, artists, and his ideological champions over the interpretation of his cultural meaning. This book marks the first systematic examination of the images generated by this iconic cultural figure—images readily found on everything from T-shirts and hip-hop album covers to coffee mugs. Graeme Abernethy captures both the multiplicity and global import of a person who has been framed as both villain and hero, cast by mainstream media during his lifetime as “the most feared man in American history,” and elevated at his death as a heroic emblem of African American identity. As Abernethy shows, the resulting iconography of Malcolm X has shifted as profoundly as the American racial landscape itself. Abernethy explores Malcolm’s visual prominence in the eras of civil rights, Black Power, and hip-hop. He analyzes this enigmatic figure’s representation across a variety of media from 1960s magazines to urban murals, tracking the evolution of Malcolm’s iconography from his autobiography and its radical milieu through the appearance of Spike Lee’s 1992 biopic and beyond. Its remarkable gallery of illustrations includes reproductions of iconic photographs by Richard Avedon, Eve Arnold, Gordon Parks, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and John Launois. Abernethy reveals that Malcolm X himself was keenly aware of the power of imagery to redefine identity and worked tirelessly to shape how he was represented to the public. His theoretical grasp of what he termed “the science of imagery” enabled him both to analyze the role of representation in ideological control as well as to exploit his own image in the interests of black empowerment. This provocative work marks a startling shift from the biographical focus that has dominated Malcolm X studies, providing an up-to-date—and comprehensively illustrated—account of Malcolm’s cultural afterlife, and addressing his iconography in relation to images of other major African American figures, including Martin Luther King, Jr., Angela Davis, Kanye West, and Barack Obama. Analyzing the competing interpretations behind so many images, Abernethy reveals what our lasting obsession with Malcolm X says about American culture over the last five decades.
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
ISBN: 0700619208
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 304
Book Description
From Detroit Red to El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, the man best known as Malcolm X restlessly redefined himself throughout a controversial life. His transformations have appeared repeatedly in books, photographs, paintings, and films, while his murder set in motion a series of tugs-of-war among journalists, biographers, artists, and his ideological champions over the interpretation of his cultural meaning. This book marks the first systematic examination of the images generated by this iconic cultural figure—images readily found on everything from T-shirts and hip-hop album covers to coffee mugs. Graeme Abernethy captures both the multiplicity and global import of a person who has been framed as both villain and hero, cast by mainstream media during his lifetime as “the most feared man in American history,” and elevated at his death as a heroic emblem of African American identity. As Abernethy shows, the resulting iconography of Malcolm X has shifted as profoundly as the American racial landscape itself. Abernethy explores Malcolm’s visual prominence in the eras of civil rights, Black Power, and hip-hop. He analyzes this enigmatic figure’s representation across a variety of media from 1960s magazines to urban murals, tracking the evolution of Malcolm’s iconography from his autobiography and its radical milieu through the appearance of Spike Lee’s 1992 biopic and beyond. Its remarkable gallery of illustrations includes reproductions of iconic photographs by Richard Avedon, Eve Arnold, Gordon Parks, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and John Launois. Abernethy reveals that Malcolm X himself was keenly aware of the power of imagery to redefine identity and worked tirelessly to shape how he was represented to the public. His theoretical grasp of what he termed “the science of imagery” enabled him both to analyze the role of representation in ideological control as well as to exploit his own image in the interests of black empowerment. This provocative work marks a startling shift from the biographical focus that has dominated Malcolm X studies, providing an up-to-date—and comprehensively illustrated—account of Malcolm’s cultural afterlife, and addressing his iconography in relation to images of other major African American figures, including Martin Luther King, Jr., Angela Davis, Kanye West, and Barack Obama. Analyzing the competing interpretations behind so many images, Abernethy reveals what our lasting obsession with Malcolm X says about American culture over the last five decades.
The Met
Author: Jonathan Conlin
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231556179
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 316
Book Description
New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the world’s greatest cultural institutions. Its holdings encompass a vast range—including paintings, sculptures, costumes, instruments, and arms and armor—and span millennia, from ancient Egypt and Greece to Islamic art to European Old Masters and modern artists. How did the Met amass this trove, and what do the experiences of the people who bought, restored, catalogued, visited, and watched over these works tell us about the museum? This book is a groundbreaking bottom-up history of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, exploring both its triumphs and its failings. Jonathan Conlin tells the stories of the people who have shaped the museum—from curators and artists to museumgoers and security guards—and the communities that have made it their own. Highlighting inequalities of wealth, race, and gender, he exposes the hidden costs of the museum’s reliance on “robber barons” and oligarchs, the exclusionary immigration policies that influenced the foundation of the American Wing, and the obstacles faced by women curators. Drawing on extensive interviews with past and current staff, Conlin brings the story up to the present, including the museum’s troubled 150th anniversary in 2020. As the Met faces continued controversy, this book offers a timely account of the people behind an iconic institution and a compelling case for the museum’s vision of shared human creativity.
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231556179
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 316
Book Description
New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the world’s greatest cultural institutions. Its holdings encompass a vast range—including paintings, sculptures, costumes, instruments, and arms and armor—and span millennia, from ancient Egypt and Greece to Islamic art to European Old Masters and modern artists. How did the Met amass this trove, and what do the experiences of the people who bought, restored, catalogued, visited, and watched over these works tell us about the museum? This book is a groundbreaking bottom-up history of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, exploring both its triumphs and its failings. Jonathan Conlin tells the stories of the people who have shaped the museum—from curators and artists to museumgoers and security guards—and the communities that have made it their own. Highlighting inequalities of wealth, race, and gender, he exposes the hidden costs of the museum’s reliance on “robber barons” and oligarchs, the exclusionary immigration policies that influenced the foundation of the American Wing, and the obstacles faced by women curators. Drawing on extensive interviews with past and current staff, Conlin brings the story up to the present, including the museum’s troubled 150th anniversary in 2020. As the Met faces continued controversy, this book offers a timely account of the people behind an iconic institution and a compelling case for the museum’s vision of shared human creativity.
The Lives and Afterlives of Medieval Iconography
Author: Art History Specialist at the Index of Medieval Art Henry D Schilb
Publisher: Penn State University Press
ISBN: 9780271086217
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 232
Book Description
What does the study of iconography entail for scholars active today? How does it intersect with the broad array of methodological and theoretical approaches now at the disposal of art historians? Should we still dare to use the term "iconography" to describe such work? The seven essays collected here argue that we should. Their authors set out to evaluate the continuing relevance of iconographic studies to current art-historical scholarship by exploring the fluidity of iconography itself over broad spans of time, place, and culture. These wide-ranging case studies take a diversity of approaches as they track the transformation of medieval images and their meanings along their respective paths, exploring how medieval iconographies remained stable or changed; how images were reconceived in response to new contexts, ideas, or viewerships; and how modern thinking about medieval images--including the application or rejection of traditional methodologies--has shaped our understanding of what they signify. These essays demonstrate that iconographic work still holds a critical place within the rapidly evolving discipline of art history as well as within the many other disciplines that increasingly prioritize the study of images. This inaugural volume in the series Signa: Papers of the Index of Medieval Art at Princeton University demonstrates the importance of keeping matters of image and meaning--regardless of whether we use the word "iconography"--at the center of modern inquiry into medieval visual literature. In addition to the editors, the contributors to this volume are Kirk Ambrose, Charles Barber, Catherine Fernandez, Elina Gertsman, Jacqueline E. Jung, Dale Kinney, and D. Fairchild Ruggles.
Publisher: Penn State University Press
ISBN: 9780271086217
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 232
Book Description
What does the study of iconography entail for scholars active today? How does it intersect with the broad array of methodological and theoretical approaches now at the disposal of art historians? Should we still dare to use the term "iconography" to describe such work? The seven essays collected here argue that we should. Their authors set out to evaluate the continuing relevance of iconographic studies to current art-historical scholarship by exploring the fluidity of iconography itself over broad spans of time, place, and culture. These wide-ranging case studies take a diversity of approaches as they track the transformation of medieval images and their meanings along their respective paths, exploring how medieval iconographies remained stable or changed; how images were reconceived in response to new contexts, ideas, or viewerships; and how modern thinking about medieval images--including the application or rejection of traditional methodologies--has shaped our understanding of what they signify. These essays demonstrate that iconographic work still holds a critical place within the rapidly evolving discipline of art history as well as within the many other disciplines that increasingly prioritize the study of images. This inaugural volume in the series Signa: Papers of the Index of Medieval Art at Princeton University demonstrates the importance of keeping matters of image and meaning--regardless of whether we use the word "iconography"--at the center of modern inquiry into medieval visual literature. In addition to the editors, the contributors to this volume are Kirk Ambrose, Charles Barber, Catherine Fernandez, Elina Gertsman, Jacqueline E. Jung, Dale Kinney, and D. Fairchild Ruggles.
Out of Bounds
Author: Pamela A. Patton
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271095857
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 461
Book Description
Where are the limits of medieval art as a field of study? What happens when conventionally trained art historians disregard the chronological, geographical, or cultural parameters that both direct and protect their scholarship? Beginning with Thelma K. Thomas and Alicia Walker’s acute assessment of the need for a “medieval art history for now,” the essays in Out of Bounds ask what happens when the study of medieval art disregards boundaries that it once obeyed. The volume focuses on questions surrounding the production of knowledge and on how scholarly investigation beyond the conventional thematic boundaries of medieval art history is changing, demonstrating how the field can address the ethics of scholarship today by positing a global turn in response to growing demands for socially responsible medieval studies. Collectively, the contributors demonstrate how “going out of bounds” can transform modern understanding of the people, traditions, and relationships that gave rise to medieval works. As such, this book argues for the necessity of reshaping scholarly discourse about the nature and significance of medieval art and generates fresh scholarly interpretations and important new critical tools for teaching and researching the Middle Ages. The contributors to this volume are Suzanne Conklin Akbari, Michele Bacci, Jill Caskey, Eva Frojmovic, Sarah M. Guérin, Christina Maranci, Alice Isabella Sullivan, Thelma K. Thomas, Michele Tomasi, and Alicia Walker.
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271095857
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 461
Book Description
Where are the limits of medieval art as a field of study? What happens when conventionally trained art historians disregard the chronological, geographical, or cultural parameters that both direct and protect their scholarship? Beginning with Thelma K. Thomas and Alicia Walker’s acute assessment of the need for a “medieval art history for now,” the essays in Out of Bounds ask what happens when the study of medieval art disregards boundaries that it once obeyed. The volume focuses on questions surrounding the production of knowledge and on how scholarly investigation beyond the conventional thematic boundaries of medieval art history is changing, demonstrating how the field can address the ethics of scholarship today by positing a global turn in response to growing demands for socially responsible medieval studies. Collectively, the contributors demonstrate how “going out of bounds” can transform modern understanding of the people, traditions, and relationships that gave rise to medieval works. As such, this book argues for the necessity of reshaping scholarly discourse about the nature and significance of medieval art and generates fresh scholarly interpretations and important new critical tools for teaching and researching the Middle Ages. The contributors to this volume are Suzanne Conklin Akbari, Michele Bacci, Jill Caskey, Eva Frojmovic, Sarah M. Guérin, Christina Maranci, Alice Isabella Sullivan, Thelma K. Thomas, Michele Tomasi, and Alicia Walker.
Medieval Art, Modern Politics
Author: Brigitte Buettner
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3111436829
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 332
Book Description
Medieval Art, Modern Politics is an innovative volume of twelve essays by international scholars, prefaced by a comprehensive introduction. It examines the political uses and misuses of medieval images, objects, and the built environment from the 16th to the 20th century. In case studies ranging from Russia to the US and from catacombs, mosques, cathedrals, and feudal castles to museums and textbooks, it demonstrates how the artistic and built legacy has been appropriated in post-medieval times to legitimize varied political agendas, whether royalist, imperial, fascist, or colonial. Entities as diverse as the Roman papacy, the Catholic Church, local arts organizations, private owners of medieval fortresses, or organizers of exhibitions and publishers are examined for the multiple ways they co-opt medieval works of art. Medieval Art, Modern Politics enlarges the history of revivalism and of medievalism by giving it a uniquely political twist, demonstrating the unavoidable (but often ignored) intersection of art history, knowledge, and power.
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3111436829
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 332
Book Description
Medieval Art, Modern Politics is an innovative volume of twelve essays by international scholars, prefaced by a comprehensive introduction. It examines the political uses and misuses of medieval images, objects, and the built environment from the 16th to the 20th century. In case studies ranging from Russia to the US and from catacombs, mosques, cathedrals, and feudal castles to museums and textbooks, it demonstrates how the artistic and built legacy has been appropriated in post-medieval times to legitimize varied political agendas, whether royalist, imperial, fascist, or colonial. Entities as diverse as the Roman papacy, the Catholic Church, local arts organizations, private owners of medieval fortresses, or organizers of exhibitions and publishers are examined for the multiple ways they co-opt medieval works of art. Medieval Art, Modern Politics enlarges the history of revivalism and of medievalism by giving it a uniquely political twist, demonstrating the unavoidable (but often ignored) intersection of art history, knowledge, and power.
Medieval Art, Modern Politics
Author: Brigitte Buettner
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 311143687X
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 478
Book Description
Medieval Art, Modern Politics is an innovative volume of twelve essays by international scholars, prefaced by a comprehensive introduction. It examines the political uses and misuses of medieval images, objects, and the built environment from the 16th to the 20th century. In case studies ranging from Russia to the US and from catacombs, mosques, cathedrals, and feudal castles to museums and textbooks, it demonstrates how the artistic and built legacy has been appropriated in post-medieval times to legitimize varied political agendas, whether royalist, imperial, fascist, or colonial. Entities as diverse as the Roman papacy, the Catholic Church, local arts organizations, private owners of medieval fortresses, or organizers of exhibitions and publishers are examined for the multiple ways they co-opt medieval works of art. Medieval Art, Modern Politics enlarges the history of revivalism and of medievalism by giving it a uniquely political twist, demonstrating the unavoidable (but often ignored) intersection of art history, knowledge, and power.
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 311143687X
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 478
Book Description
Medieval Art, Modern Politics is an innovative volume of twelve essays by international scholars, prefaced by a comprehensive introduction. It examines the political uses and misuses of medieval images, objects, and the built environment from the 16th to the 20th century. In case studies ranging from Russia to the US and from catacombs, mosques, cathedrals, and feudal castles to museums and textbooks, it demonstrates how the artistic and built legacy has been appropriated in post-medieval times to legitimize varied political agendas, whether royalist, imperial, fascist, or colonial. Entities as diverse as the Roman papacy, the Catholic Church, local arts organizations, private owners of medieval fortresses, or organizers of exhibitions and publishers are examined for the multiple ways they co-opt medieval works of art. Medieval Art, Modern Politics enlarges the history of revivalism and of medievalism by giving it a uniquely political twist, demonstrating the unavoidable (but often ignored) intersection of art history, knowledge, and power.
Iconography at the Crossroads
Author: Princeton University. Dept. of Art and Archaeology. Index of Christian Art
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 9780691032122
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 249
Book Description
As art historians draw increasingly from such cognate fields as literary theory and anthropology for new modes of inquiry, scholars in fields as diverse as music and the history of medicine are turning to images in art as sources of information for their respective disciplines. Focusing on the role of iconography in this cross-fertilization, these papers examine how students of the Middle Ages and Renaissance search for meaning in the subject matter of works of art. Art historians as well as scholars from other disciplines provide a broad spectrum of approaches to icongraphic research and to the methodological and theoretical issues involved. These papers were presented at a conference sponsored by the Index of Christian Art in Princeton in 1990. The contributers to this volume are Howard Mayer Brown, Michael Camille, John V. Fleming, Craig Harbison, Michael Ann Holly, Wolfgang Kemp, Herbert L. Kessler, V. A. Kolve, Marilyn Aronberg Lavin, Irving Lavin, Henry Maguire, Keith Moxey, Ynez Viole O'Neill, H. Colin Slim, and Richard C. Trexler.
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 9780691032122
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 249
Book Description
As art historians draw increasingly from such cognate fields as literary theory and anthropology for new modes of inquiry, scholars in fields as diverse as music and the history of medicine are turning to images in art as sources of information for their respective disciplines. Focusing on the role of iconography in this cross-fertilization, these papers examine how students of the Middle Ages and Renaissance search for meaning in the subject matter of works of art. Art historians as well as scholars from other disciplines provide a broad spectrum of approaches to icongraphic research and to the methodological and theoretical issues involved. These papers were presented at a conference sponsored by the Index of Christian Art in Princeton in 1990. The contributers to this volume are Howard Mayer Brown, Michael Camille, John V. Fleming, Craig Harbison, Michael Ann Holly, Wolfgang Kemp, Herbert L. Kessler, V. A. Kolve, Marilyn Aronberg Lavin, Irving Lavin, Henry Maguire, Keith Moxey, Ynez Viole O'Neill, H. Colin Slim, and Richard C. Trexler.
The Icons of Their Bodies
Author: Henry Maguire
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691050074
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 240
Book Description
The Byzantines surrounded themselves with their saints, invisible but constant companions, who were made visible by dreams, visions, and art. The composition and presentation of this imagined gallery followed a logical structure, a construct that was itself a collective work of art created by Byzantine society. The purpose of this book is to analyze the logic of the saint's image in Byzantium, both in portraits and in narrative scenes. Here Henry Maguire argues that the Byzantines gave to their images differing formal characteristics of movement, modeling, depth, and differentiation, according to the tasks that the icons were called upon to perform in the all-important business of communication between the visible and the invisible worlds. The book draws extensively on sources that have been relatively little utilized by art historians. It considers both domestic and ecclesiastical artifacts, showing how the former raised the problem of access by lay men and women to the supernatural and fueled the debates concerning the role of images in the Christian cult. Special attention is paid to the poems inscribed by the Byzantines upon their icons, and to the written lives of their saints, texts that offer the most direct and vivid insight into the everyday experience of art in Byzantium. The overall purpose of the book is to provide a new view of Byzantine art, one that integrates formal analysis with both theology and social history.
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691050074
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 240
Book Description
The Byzantines surrounded themselves with their saints, invisible but constant companions, who were made visible by dreams, visions, and art. The composition and presentation of this imagined gallery followed a logical structure, a construct that was itself a collective work of art created by Byzantine society. The purpose of this book is to analyze the logic of the saint's image in Byzantium, both in portraits and in narrative scenes. Here Henry Maguire argues that the Byzantines gave to their images differing formal characteristics of movement, modeling, depth, and differentiation, according to the tasks that the icons were called upon to perform in the all-important business of communication between the visible and the invisible worlds. The book draws extensively on sources that have been relatively little utilized by art historians. It considers both domestic and ecclesiastical artifacts, showing how the former raised the problem of access by lay men and women to the supernatural and fueled the debates concerning the role of images in the Christian cult. Special attention is paid to the poems inscribed by the Byzantines upon their icons, and to the written lives of their saints, texts that offer the most direct and vivid insight into the everyday experience of art in Byzantium. The overall purpose of the book is to provide a new view of Byzantine art, one that integrates formal analysis with both theology and social history.