The author is Helen Gould Sheppard Professor of Art History emerita at New York University, Institute of Fine Arts , and a leading authority on English medieval manuscript illumination. This volume brings together twenty-eight of Professor Sandler's studies, focusing on illustrated manuscripts produced in England in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, particularly on the illuminated psalters. They are arranged under four headings, 'Marginalia and Word Imagery,' 'Devotional, Visionary and Self-Images,' 'Illustrated Encyclopedias and Scholarly Texts,' and 'Studies of Individual Manuscripts, Artists and Themes.' The marginal illustrations in the psalters are a topic of particular interest, and there are a number of iconographic studies derived from this material. A second section features essays that look at the effect of manuscript imagery on its viewing, reading, and meditating audience. The third section deals with the illustrated encyclopedias of the period, particularly the Omne bonum , a fourteenth-century manuscript compiled and written by James le Palmer, a scribe in the London Exchequer. A final section deals with a number of manuscripts from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, in particular East Anglian works such as the Peterborough and Ramsey Psalters.

An interdisciplinary study of one of the most important monuments in Islamic artThe Nasrid builders of the Alhambra the best-preserved medieval Muslim palatial city were so exacting that some of their work could not be fully explained until the invention of fractal geometry. Their design principles have been obscured, however, by the loss of all archival material. This book resolves that impasse by investigating the neglected, interdisciplinary contexts of medieval poetics and optics and through comparative study of Islamic court ceremonials. This reframing enables the reconstruction of the underlying, integrated aesthetic, focusing on the harmonious interrelationship between diverse artistic media architecture, poetry and textiles in the experience of the beholder, resulting in a new understanding of the Alhambra.Key FeaturesIllustrated in colour throughoutTakes an inter-medial approach integrating the study of poetic inscriptions, textiles and court ceremonial into the discussion of architectureInter-disciplinary, combining art history, optics and literary studiesCase studies explore specific, relatively neglected spaces within the AlhambraInformed by both medieval and contemporary theoryConsiders the most recent technical analyses to distinguish clearly original elements

In this beautifully written book, Georges Duby, one of France's greatest medieval historians, returns to one of the central themes of his work - the relationship between art and society. He traces the evolution of artistic forms from the fifth to the fifteenth century in parallel with the structural development of society, in order to create a better understanding of both.

Duby traces shifts in the centres of artistic production and changes in the nature and status of those who promoted works of art and those who produced them. At the same time, he emphasizes the crucial continuities that still gave the art of medieval Europe a basic unity, despite the emergence of national characteristics. Duby also reminds us that the way we approach these artistic forms today differs greatly from how they were first viewed. For us, they are works of art from which we expect and derive aesthetic pleasure; but for those who commissioned them or made them, their value was primarily functional - gifts offered to God, communications with the other world, or affirmations of power - and this remained the case throughout the Middle Ages.

This book will be of interest to students and academics in medieval history and history of art.

At the height of the Victorian period, a passion for the Gothic style swept England and spread far beyond. Gothic architecture, associated with the social and cultural ideals of the Middle Ages, was seen as a means of remaking the modern world. In this lucid exposition, Chris Brooks unravels the layers of meaning that Gothic held for its many reinventors, from the political uses of Gothic history in the seventeenth century to Barry and Pugin's Houses of Parliament in the mid-nineteenth. Yet the Gothic revival is not just manifest in buildings continually recreated; it has taken the form of poetry and fiction, of painting and sculpture, of movies and video games, of Gothic music and Gothic punk. This is the first book to deal comprehensively with the whole scope of the Gothic Revival.

David--the greatest king of Israel, the founder of Jerusalem, and one of the pivotal figures of the Old Testament--was a rich source of inspiration for artists and their patrons throughout the medieval world. Regarded as a direct ancestor of Jesus, the "sweet psalmist of Israel" appears in countless works of art, from the Dura Europus paintings to the many illuminated psalters of the later medieval period. These depictions of David are as varied as they are numerous. He appears, among other roles, as musician, author, warrior, lover, shepherd, politician, worshipper, father, king, refugee, and mourner. This volume is the first comprehensive survey of the vast profusion of David images in both Byzantium and the West, providing an authoritative guide to the entire range of medieval depictions. With over 5,000 entries organized into more than 240 recognizable episodes from his richly illustrated life, the catalogue includes all of the David entries in the Index of Christian Art's card files and database.

The objects catalogued here range in date from the third to the fifteenth century, and represent fourteen different media, including frescoes, ivories, manuscripts, stained glass, sculpture, mosaics, and textiles. Each entry gives detailed information on the object's current location, date, and primary subject. The catalogue is enhanced by over a hundred photographs illustrating a wide range of episodes from David's life. An index allows the reader to browse the medieval world geographically for images of David still in situ, and the modern world for objects in museums, libraries, and other collections. The volume also includes an extensive bibliography on David in Early Christian, Byzantine, and Western medieval art.

This is the first of two volumes that contains all of Professor Kitzinger's major essays on the art of Late Antiquity, accompanied by a new preface and a comprehensive index. The volume is divided into two sections; the first on Late Antique art includes: The story of Joseph on a Coptic textile; Notes on Coptic sculpture; Studies on late antique and Byzantine floor mosaics, including examples in Antioch and Bethlehem; The Cleveland marbles; Christian imagery and many more. The second section on Byzantine art includes: The Hellenistic heritage in Byzantine art; Byzantium and the West in the second half of the 12th century; The role of miniature painting in mural decoration; Artistic patronage in early Byzantium, and others.

This volume makes available Professor Jolivet-Levy's papers on the art of Byzantine Cappadocia published over the last twenty years. They deal mainly with wall-paintings, a field in which the author has specialized. In its richness and "diversity, the archaeological documentation preserved in Cappadocia provides important evidence for the society and religious life of the Byzantine province (subsequently, from the end of the 11th century, part of the Seljuk sultanate of Rum). Although often little known to art historians, these monuments are of great importance for the history of Byzantine art, in particular for the period of the ninth and tenth centuries. French text.

Where do we go after we die? This book traces how the European Middle Ages offered distinctive answers to this universal question, evolving from Antiquity through to the sixteenth century, to reflect a variety of problems and developments. Focussing on texts describing visions of the afterlife, alongside art and theology, this volume explores heaven, hell, and purgatory as they were imagined across Europe, as well as by noted authors including Gregory the Great and Dante. A cross-disciplinary team of contributors including historians, literary scholars, classicists, art historians and theologians offer not only a fascinating sketch of both medieval perceptions and the wide scholarship on this question: they also provide a much-needed new perspective. Where the twelfth century was once the 'high point' of the medieval afterlife, the essays here show that the afterlives of the early and later Middle Ages were far more important and imaginative than we once thought.

This is a systematic publication of the approximately 20 Byzantine churches with wall-paintings which have survived destruction in the province of Rethymnon, Crete. They date from ca. 1000 A.D. to the fifteenth century. Most were decorated during the Palaeologan era, when the island was occupied by the Venetians (1211-1669 A.D). These monuments are little known to the scholarly world. The style and iconographic programme of each church is investigated, as well as the iconography of the scenes. Special attention is paid to rare and unique iconographic subjects, e.g., a full cycle of the Akathistos and a cycle of the Life of St. John the Evangelist. Certain themes prompt an examination of the degree of western influence on iconography and style. The wall-paintings of Rethymnon significantly enrich our knowledge of Byzantine art, especially that of the late Palaeologan era. Alongside local artists, who worked in a provincial style, we find painters who applied the styles that were in vogue in the great Byzantine artistic centres of Macedonia, Mistra and Constantinople itself. This can be explained by the immigration of artists from the major centres. A few are known to us by name. This publication is the first of four volumes on the churches in the nomos of Rethymnon, which will include the provinces of Mylopotamos, Amari and Agios Basileios. There are over 400 plates, many in colour.

Early-medieval Irish fine metalwork is generally agreed to be one of the high points of achievement in European decorative arts. In the corpus of finds from the 7th to the 10th centuries are many masterpieces of the goldsmith's art some are personal ornaments, many are objects made for the service of the Church. The corpus of metalwork has been greatly expanded in recent years by new finds and by re-examination of older discoveries and major international exhibitions have won a new understanding of the significance of this material. A series of papers by Michael Ryan recording many new finds and analysing their significance are republished in this volume. Dr. Ryan, formerly Keeper of Irish Antiquities at the National Museum of Ireland, is Director of the Chester Beatty Library and Honorary Professor in the Department of Art History, Trinity College, Dublin.

Il Colloquio Internazionale tra dottorandi e dottori di ricerca (RACTA) si pone come obiettivo fornire una panoramica completa degli studi riguardanti l'archeologia tardoantica e cristiana, la storia dell'arte, la storia e la letteratura paleocristiana condotti da giovani studiosi provenienti da tutto il mondo. RACTA vuole essere anche un momento di condivisione di idee e di confronto con ricercatori e specialisti di diverse discipline che possono aggiungere valore alle singole ricerche. La varieta dei temi affrontati dai 23 relatori di questa seconda edizione e trattata secondo un approccio metodologico interdisciplinare, a conferma delle infinite relazioni possibili tra le diverse discipline archeologiche, storiche, storico-artistiche e letterarie e a rafforzare l'orientamento multidisciplinare dato al Colloquio sin dalla sua prima edizione.

The Virgin Mary embodied power rather than maternal tenderness in the Byzantine world. Known as the Mother of God, she became a guarantor of military victory and hence of imperial authority. In this pioneering book, Bissera Pentcheva connects the fusion of Marian cult and imperial rule with the powers assigned to images of this All Holy woman.

Drawing upon a wide range of sources and images, from coins and seals to monumental mosaics, Pentcheva demonstrates that a fundamental shift in Byzantine cult--from relics to icons--took place during the late tenth century. Further, she shows that processions through the city of Constantinople provided the context in which Marian icons emerged as centerpieces of imperial claims to divine protection.

Pentcheva breaks new ground, contending that devotion to Marian icons should be considered a much later development than is generally assumed. This new perspective has important implications not only for the history of imperial ritual but also for understanding the creation of new Marian iconography during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

Centered upon fundamental questions of art, religion, and politics, Icons and Power makes a vital contribution to the entire field of medieval studies. It will be of interest as well to all those concerned with the cult of Mary in the Christian traditions of the East and West.

The central theme of the articles reproduced in these two volumes is the role of the visual arts and architecture in the cultural interaction between medieval societies, Christian and Muslim, in the eastern Mediterranean. Visual forms of production and communication amongst Christian communities themselves, and between Christian and Muslim, are discussed within their specific social and political contexts. Placing the emphasis on areas which passed between Christian and Muslim raises questions of the formation of identities as well as the relationship of the periphery to the centre. Focusing on the areas of Egypt, Syria and Palestine in relation to Byzantium, Islam, and the West provides a framework for consideration of particular issues, especially the identity of particular communities. The core of the work considers the period between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries, when these areas were at the centre of eastern Mediterranean politics, and seeks to interpret little known evidence in the light of political and cultural circumstances with an interdisciplinary approach as its starting point. Vol. I features papers on the legacy of Byzantine art, and the medieval Christian art of Egypt. Vol. II covers the Christian art of Medieval Syria, and the art of the Crusader states.

This monumental work provides a comprehensive analytical history of the Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Umayyad, and Early Abbasid mosaics in the Holy Land, spanning the second century b.c.e. to the eighth century c.e. Previous general studies of the Holy Land mosaics have focused on specific collections; in Mosaics of Faith, Rina Talgam sets out to demonstrate how mosaic art constructed cultural, religious, and ethnic identities in eras that shaped the visual expressions of three monotheistic religions. Her examination of the mosaics in a pivotal area of the eastern Mediterranean sharpens and refines our understanding of the region’s societies and their ideologies, institutions, and liturgies. Covering almost one thousand years of mosaic production, Mosaics of Faith offers an unprecedented view of the evolution of floor decorations from the Hellenistic to the Roman periods, in the transition from Roman to Early Byzantine art, and in the persistence of Byzantine traditions under Umayyad rule. More than other corpora of ancient mosaics, those from the Holy Land have generated greater awareness of the intricate visual exchanges between paganism, Judaism, Samaritanism, Christianity, and Islam. Talgam examines the mosaics’ formal qualities in conjunction with the religious and cultural contexts within which they were produced and with which they had a profound, multidimensional dialogue.

In spite of all the changes in our values and beliefs, the art of the Middle Ages still speaks to us across the centuries. Not only do the great cathedrals remain, many with their spectacular decorations and stained glass, but also a rich treasure trove of paintings, manuscript illuminations, tapestries, sculpture and jewelry. This study encompasses the whole period from Early Christian to late Gothic, the whole of Europe from Ireland to Byzantium, and the whole range of art and architecture. The connections between art and society are particularly stressed, as are the ways in which artistic techniques - such as those used in metalwork and textiles - determined what was produced. Comprehensive and accessible, as well as lavishly illustrated, this is the ideal introduction to a subject that is both visually exciting and profoundly significant to Western culture.

This volume bring together John Beckwith's papers on medieval and Byzantine art. They focus on those subjects which the author made his own, Coptic and Byzantine "textiles, Western European and Constantinopolitan ivory carving, and Byzantine metalwork. A final section includes a number of studies on cultural diffusion, from Islam and Byzantium to Western Europe, in the early Middle Ages.

This book by Professor Spatharakis is a study of the origin and development of a new iconographic type within the late Byzantine period, that of the left-handed Evangelist. Although mainly confined to manuscript illumination, it also takes account of the surviving depictions of the Evangelists in mosaic and fresco on the walls of the churches built during this period. The author examines the appearance of this new type of Evangelist portrait at the beginning of the fourteenth century, and how it came to be sufficiently influential to replace the tenth-century models used by the artists of this period. He investigates how long this new fashion lasted, and the subsequent influence of the left-handed Evangelist in later Byzantine art. This leads on to the question of whether the artists were content to follow older models, or were actively participating in the creation of fresh groupings. The isolation of the archetype, the contemporary parallels, and the subsequent influence of the group of Evangelist portraits examined in this study is based not only on iconographic similarities but on a detailed examination of the individual types. This work makes a significant contribution to our knowledge of Palaeologan iconography, and the working methods of the artists who were responsible for its creation.

Civilizations of great diversity have succeeded each other or co-existed in Eastern Turkey, and most of them have left monuments of high quality. Hittite, Urartian, Hellenistic, Roman, Syrian, Byzantine, Armenian, Arab, Seljuk and Ottoman, their remains are all represented in the region. These include some of the most important sites in Near Eastern archaeology, in regions in and near the heartland of the Hittite and Urartian cultures. The Hellenistic cities reflect the introduction of a new civilization, and the Roman and Byzantine empires included all or part of the region, with the prosperous feudal states of Georgia and Armenia on their borders. Besides the Byzantine, three great East Christian monastic traditions, Syrian, Georgian and Armenian, flourished here from the late fourth century onwards, and their monuments have left a permanent mark on the landscape. The Seljuk invasion, followed by the more recent period of Ottoman rule, led to the imposition of a new culture on the region, and its reflection in the monuments. Some of the finest Seljuk buildings are in Eastern Turkey, and the buildings of the Turkish states east of the Seljuk empire form much of the early history of Turkish architecture. The independent Greek empire of Trebizond and two of the four Crusader states lay in Eastern Turkey. The lands of the empires and the smaller medieval states were heavily fortified, and their castles and other fortifications are now spread over the region. The cultural diversity of its inheritance has made Eastern Turkey one of the most fascinating regions for archaeological and art-historical research. These four volumes provide the first comprehensive guide to all of the important historical sites of the region, the result of eight years of travel and research. The monuments are dealt with by geographical location, including a full description of each site, and details on how it can be reached. In the case of the more important monuments, a full bibliography of earlier work is provided. The ample provision of photographs and plans enhances the value of the author's detailed descriptions.

This study analyzes late medieval paintings of personified death in Bohemia, arguing that Bohemian iconography was distinct from the body of macabre painting found in other Central European regions during the same period. The author focuses on a variety of images from late medieval Bohemia, examining how they express the imagination, devotion, and anxieties surrounding death in the Middle Ages.

The study of the early art of England can be frustrating for scholars, as the destruction by iconoclasm and neglect was very thorough in certain regions. This volume seeks to aid those studying the early art, including relics and musical iconography, of Coventry, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwick, and other Warwickshire locations. Accompanied by 71 illustrations and 2 maps, the subject lists found within provide information from records and antiquarian accounts that should prove invaluable in visualizing the dimensions of the iconography of both lost and extant early art from the region.