Postcolonial theories have transformed literary, historical and cultural studies over the past three decades. Yet the study of medieval art and visualities has, in general, remained Eurocentric in its canon and conservative in its approaches. 'Postcolonising', as the eleven essays in this volume show, entails active intervention into the field of medieval art history and visual studies through a theoretical reframing of research. This approach poses and elicits new research questions, and tests how concepts current in postcolonial studies - such as diaspora and migration, under-represented artistic cultures, accented art making, displacement, intercultural versus transcultural, hybridity, presence/absence - can help medievalists to reinvigorate the study of art and visuality. Postcolonial concepts are deployed in order to redraft the canon of medieval art, thereby seeking to build bridges between medievalist and modernist communities of scholars. Among the varied topics explored in the volume are the appropriation of Roman iconography by early medieval Scandinavian metalworkers, multilingualism and materiality in Anglo-Saxon culture, the circulation and display of Islamic secular ceramics on Pisan churches, cultural negotiation by Jewish minorities in Central Europe and the Iberian peninsula, Holy Land maps and medieval imaginative geography, and the uses of Thomas Becket in the colonial imaginary of the Plantagenet court.

Foreshadowing the Reformation argues that paintings are the history of ideas in visual form. It follows, therefore, that if we are to fully understand and appreciate the late Medieval and Renaissance paintings of great Northern European artists such as Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden, we need to investigate the religious and spiritual beliefs and practices of the time. It has been quite fashionable in Medieval and Renaissance Art History over recent decades largely to ignore the contemporary religious context and to concentrate instead on the part played by economics in the creation of works of art. Much has been made, for example, of the costs of materials, the role of markets, international trade and the commissioning process-all of which are undoubtedly important. This book looks to redress this balance through its description and analysis of religious and spiritual ideas, and by offering new, exciting and radical insights about some of the paintings, altarpieces and sculptures that were created. This book argues that there was a symbiotic relationship between those artistic and spiritual worlds and that by bringing the insights from those worlds together we can get a much richer appreciation of medieval life.

A Short Medieval Reader contains the essential primary sources for exploring the Middle Ages in depth. Designed to both complement the sixth edition of A Short History of the Middle Ages and be used on its own, this book provides comprehensive readings ranging from Iceland to Egypt and from England to Iraq. Each source is clearly dated, and its original language is specified to remind students of the extraordinary diversity that existed in the Middle Ages. Introductions to each source supply the necessary context and are followed by questions to guide the reader. Annotations and explanations are provided. A Short Medieval Reader offers a feast for inquiring minds, priced for a student's budget.

This book explores the range of images in Byzantine art known as donor portraits. It concentrates on the distinctive, supplicatory contact shown between ordinary, mortal figures and their holy, supernatural interlocutors. The topic is approached from a range of perspectives, including art history, theology, structuralist and post-structuralist anthropological theory, and contemporary symbol and metaphor theory. Rico Franses argues that the term 'donor portraits' is inappropriate for the category of images to which it conventionally refers and proposes an alternative title for the category, contact portraits. He contends that the most important feature of the scenes consists in the active role that they play within the belief systems of the supplicants. They are best conceived of not simply as passive expressions of stable, pre-existing ideas and concepts, but as dynamic proponents in a fraught, constantly shifting landscape. The book is important for all scholars and students of Byzantine art and religion.

Although perspective has long been considered one of the essential developments of Renaissance painting, this provocative new book shifts the usual narrative back centuries, showing that medieval sculptors were already employing knowledge of optical science, geometry, and theories of vision in shaping the beholder's experience of their work. Meticulous visual analysis is paired with close readings of medieval texts in examining a series of important relief sculptures from northern and central Italy dating from the twelfth through the fourteenth centuries, including the impressive sculptural programs at the cathedrals of Modena and Ferrara, and the pulpits by Giovanni and Nicola Pisano at Pisa and Pistoia. Demonstrating that medieval sculptors orchestrated the reception of their intended religious and political messages through the careful manipulation of points of view and architectural space, Christopher R. Lakey argues that medieval practice was well informed by visual theory and that the concepts that led to the codification of linear perspective by Renaissance painters had in fact been in use by sculptors for hundreds of years.

The Wilton Diptych is a comprehensive account of one of England's greatest surviving medieval treasures, now in the collection of The National Gallery, London. The painting depicts King Richard II (1367-1400) being presented to the Virgin Mary and Christ by John the Baptist and two English Kings, revered as saints. The brilliant color and lavish use of gold give it the appearance of a luxury object, yet its primary function was religious, as an altarpiece for the king's private devotions. The author analyzes the iconography, historical context, style, materials, and techniques used to create this precious work, and discusses the likely identity of the artist and the possible evidence that this picture was known to and referenced by William Shakespeare in his play Richard II. Further study of the intricate detail, varied techniques, and decorative effects shows connections to French metalwork and manuscript illumination, while newly commissioned photography reveals exquisite details unseen by the naked eye. Published by National Gallery Company/Distributed by Yale University Press

This volume and its companion gather a wide range of readings and sources to enable us to see and understand what monsters show us about what it means to be human. The first volume introduces important modern theorists of the monstrous, with a brief introduction to each reading, setting the theorist and theory in context, and providing background and guiding questions. The selection of readings in Classic Readings on Monster Theory is intended to provide interpretive tools and strategies to use to grapple with the primary sources in the second volume - Primary Sources on Monsters - which brings together some of the most influential and indicative monster narratives from the West. Taken together, these volumes allow us to witness the consistent, multi-millennium strategies the West has articulated, weaponized, and deployed to exclude, disempower, and dehumanize a range of groups and individuals within and without its porous boundaries.

Richly-illustrated consideration of the meaning of the carvings of non-human beings, from centaurs to eagles, found in ecclesiastical settings. Representations of monsters and the monstrous are common in medieval art and architecture, from the grotesques in the borders of illuminated manuscripts to the symbol of the "green man", widespread in churches and cathedrals. These mysterious depictions are frequently interpreted as embodying or mitigating the fears symptomatic of a "dark age". This book, however, considers an alternative scenario: in what ways did monsters in twelfth-century sculpture help audiences envision, perhaps even achieve, various ambitions? Using examples of Romanesque sculpture from across Europe, with a focus on France and northern Portugal, the author suggests that medieval representations of monsterscould service ideals, whether intellectual, political, religious, and social, even as they could simultaneously articulate fears; he argues that their material presence energizes works of art in paradoxical, even contradictory ways. In this way, Romanesque monsters resist containment within modern interpretive categories and offer testimony to the density and nuance of the medieval imagination. KIRK AMBROSE is Associate Professor & Chair, Department of Art and Art History, University of Colorado Boulder.

Embroidered in 1885-1886, Reading's version of the famous Bayeux Tapestry is a faithful, full-length replica of the original except in a few beguiling details. True to the principles of the Arts and Crafts movement, its Victorian makers in the Leek Embroidery Society, matched their materials, colours and techniques to those of the eleventh century nuns thought to have created the original. The result is an extraordinarily vibrant reproduction, important in its own right and on permanent display in a purpose-built gallery in Reading Museum. Scene-by-scene, read through the story of the succession to the English throne by first Harold and then William the Conqueror. Find out why the Duke of Normandy had a claim to be King of England and what the original purpose of the tapestry may have been. Discover how Victorian society's values affected the replica and how it came to reside in Reading, so fittingly close to the ruins of the Abbey built by William's youngest son, Henry I.

This volume and its companion gather a wide range of readings and sources to enable us to see and understand what monsters show us about what it means to be human. The first volume introduces important modern theorists of the monstrous, with a brief introduction to each reading, setting the theorist and theory in context, and providing background and guiding questions. The selection of readings in Classic Readings on Monster Theory is intended to provide interpretive tools and strategies to use to grapple with the primary sources in the second volume - Primary Sources on Monsters - which brings together some of the most influential and indicative monster narratives from the West. Taken together, these volumes allow us to witness the consistent, multi-millennium strategies the West has articulated, weaponized, and deployed to exclude, disempower, and dehumanize a range of groups and individuals within and without its porous boundaries.

During the European Middle Ages, diagrams provided a critical tool of analysis in cosmological and theological debates. In addition to drawing relationships among diverse areas of human knowledge and experience, diagrams themselves generated such knowledge in the first place. In Diagramming Devotion, Jeffrey F. Hamburger examines two monumental works that are diagrammatic to their core: a famous set of picture poems of unrivaled complexity by the Carolingian monk Hrabanus Maurus, devoted to the praise of the cross, and a virtually unknown commentary on Hrabanus's work composed almost five hundred years later by the Dominican friar Berthold of Nuremberg. Berthold's profusely illustrated elaboration of Hrabnus translated his predecessor's poems into a series of almost one hundred diagrams. By examining Berthold of Nuremberg's transformation of a Carolingian classic, Hamburger brings modern and medieval visual culture into dialog, traces important changes in medieval visual culture, and introduces new ways of thinking about diagrams as an enduring visual and conceptual model.

An enlightening, accessible guide to understanding and appreciating European art from the Middle Ages How to Read Medieval Art introduces the art of the European Middle Ages through 50 notable examples from the Metropolitan Museum's collection, which is one of the most comprehensive in the world. This handsomely illustrated volume includes multi-panel altarpieces, stained glass windows, wooden sculpture, as well as manuscript illuminations, and features iconic masterworks such as the Merode Altarpiece, Unicorn Tapestries, and The Belles Heures of Jean de France, duc de Berry. Formal explorations of individual works, chosen to exemplify key ideas crucial to understanding medieval art, are accompanied by relevant information about the context in which they were created, conveying the works' visual nuances but also their broader symbolic meaning. Superb color illustrations further reveal the visual and conceptual richness of medieval art, providing the reader with a deeper understanding of the history and iconography of this pivotal era. Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art / Distributed by Yale University Press

The history of Naples is dotted with priests enchanted by the Mystery of Christmas, such as saints like Cajetan of Thiene, Joseph Calasanzio, and Alphonse Maria De' Liguori. This book is about Fr Edgar Vella Neapolitan crib which knows its success mainly to three factors: light, form, and colour, that, fused together, reveal the infinite love of God towards humanity to the point of taking the form of man and being born poor among the poor, to redeem all in the same manner: the rich, the powerful, the underprivileged, the marginated, the afflicted, the suffering, the downtrodden. This form of craftsmanship of the highest artistic value has always attracted the most varied personalities: from princes to sovereigns, from bankers to merchants, from prelates to humble priests, from devotees to unbelievers, but, above all, it has created a dazzling and fable-like atmosphere that leaves both adults and children enchanted, and makes them live in paradise for the moment. In the early 1990s Fr Edgar acquired his first crib figures at antique markets in London, among which a Madonna by Lorenzo Mosca, a St Joseph by Nicola Somma, and a rustic figure by Genzano, truly lucky acquisitions. By time other acquisitions followed and, through meticulous observation, analysis, and research, other important names of crib sculptures from the Settecento came forth: Francesco Viva, Giuseppe De Luca, other pieces by Lorenzo Mosca, Giuseppe Gori, Francesco and Camillo Celebrano, Salvatore Franco, Nicola and Aniello Ingaldi, Francesco Cappiello. Many crib figures are to be dated to the setting of the various workshops that emerged in eighteenthcentury Naples, some of which of extreme importance, such as that of Giuseppe Sanmartino, the caposcuola of Neapolitan sculpture. Fr Edgar's collection has grown throughout these years until it has reached a substantial number of figures. This fact gave rise to the need of exhibiting the collection to the general public and to communicate the joy of owning such works of art.

Street corners, guild halls, government offices, and confraternity centers contained paintings that made the city of Florence a visual jewel at precisely the time of its emergence as an international cultural leader. This book considers the paintings that were made specifically for consideration by lay viewers, as well as the way they could have been interpreted by audiences who approached them with specific perspectives. Their belief in the power of images, their understanding of the persuasiveness of pictures, and their acceptance of the utterly vital role that art could play as a propagator of civic, corporate, and individual identity made lay viewers keenly aware of the paintings in their midst. Those pictures affirmed the piety of the people for whom they were made in an age of social and political upheaval, as the city experimented with an imperfect form of republicanism that often failed to adhere to its declared aspirations.

A single, monumental mappa mundi (world map), made around 1300 for Hereford Cathedral, survives intact from the Middle Ages. As Marcia Kupfer reveals in her arresting new study, this celebrated testament to medieval learning has long been profoundly misunderstood. Features of the colored and gilded map that baffle modern expectations are typically dismissed as the product of careless execution. Kupfer argues that they should rightly be seen as part of the map's encoded commentary on the nature of vision itself. Optical conceits and perspectival games formed part of the map's language of vision, were central to its commission, and shaped its display, formal design, and allegorical fabric. These discoveries compel a sweeping revision of the artwork's intellectual and art-historical genealogy, as well as its function and aesthetic significance, shedding new light on the impact of scientific discourses in late medieval art. Published for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art

An examination of the fabrics, garments and cloth of the Iberian Middle Ages, bringing out in particular the international context. The Medieval Iberian Peninsula, encompassing various territories which make up present-day Spain and Portugal, was an ethnic and religious melting pot, comprising Christian, Jewish and Muslim communities, each contributing to a vibrant textile economy. They were also defined and distinguished by the material culture of clothing and dress, partly dictated by religious and cultural tradition, partly imposed by rulers anxious to avoid cross-ethnic relationships considered undesirable. Nevertheless, textiles, especially magnificent Islamic silks, crossed these barriers. The essays in this volume offer the first full analysis of Iberian textiles from the period, drawing on both material remains and historical documents, supported by evidence from contemporary artwork. Chapters cover surviving textiles, many of them magnificent silks; textile industries and trade; court dress and its use as a language of power and patronage; the vast market in utilitarian textiles for lower-status clothing and furnishings; and Muslim and Jewish dress. It also considers Arabic and Jewish texts as sources of information on textiles and the Arabic garment-names which crossed into Spanish. Particular emphasis is given to the the different ethnicities of Iberia and their influences on the use and trade of garments (both precious and common-place) and textiles.