This volume builds upon the new worldwide interest in the global Middle Ages. It investigates the prismatic heritage and eclectic artistic production of Eastern Europe between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries, while challenging the temporal and geographical parameters of the study of medieval, Byzantine, post-Byzantine, and early-modern art. Contact and interchange between primarily the Latin, Greek, and Slavic cultural spheres resulted in local assimilations of select elements that reshaped the artistic landscapes of regions of the Balkan Peninsula, the Carpathian Mountains, and further north. The specificities of each region, and, in modern times, politics and nationalistic approaches, have reinforced the tendency to treat them separately, preventing scholars from questioning whether the visual output could be considered as an expression of a shared history. The comparative and interdisciplinary framework of this volume provides a holistic view of the visual culture of these regions by addressing issues of transmission and appropriation, as well as notions of cross-cultural contact, while putting on the global map of art history the eclectic artistic production of Eastern Europe.

Reads the imagined history of the long term relationship between pagan and Christian through quasi-factual fifteenth-century Middle English writings, from Lydgate's Troy Book to the hagiographies of Bokenham, Barclay and Capgrave and Mandeville's Travels. SHORTLISTED for the 2020 Katharine Briggs Award. Late medieval English culture was fascinated by the figure of the pagan, the ancestor whose religious difference must be negotiated, and by the pagan's idol, an animate artefact. In romances, histories and hagiographies medieval Christians told the story of the pagans, focussing on the absence or presence of pagan material culture in the medieval world to ask whether the pagan era had completely ended or whether it might persist into the Christian present. This book reads the imagined history of the long term relationship between pagan and Christian through quasi-factual fifteenth-century Middle English writings. John Lydgate's Troy Book describes the foundation of a Troy that is at once London's ancestor and a vision for its future; he, John Capgrave and Reginald Pecock consider how pagans were able to build idols that attracted spirits to inhabit them. The hagiographies of Osbern Bokenham, Alexander Barclay, Capgrave and Lydgate describe the confrontation of saint and idol, and the saint's appropriation for Christians of the city the pagans built. Traces of the pagan appeared in the medieval present: Capgrave, Lydgateand John Metham contemplated both extant and lost artefacts; Lollards and orthodox writers disputed whether Christian devotional practice had pagan aspects; and Mandeville's Travels sympathetically imagined how pagans mightexplain themselves. Dr SARAH SALIH is Senior Lecturer in Medieval English, King's College London.

The walls of medieval churches were brightly painted with religious imagery and colourful patterns, and although often shadows of their former selves, these paintings are among the most enigmatic art to survive the Middle Ages. This beautifully illustrated book is an ideal introduction to this fascinating subject. It tells the stories behind the paintings and explains their purpose, the subjects they showed, how they were made and by whom, and what happened to these works of art during and after the enormous upheavals of the Reformation. It also compares and contrasts religious and domestic wall paintings and explores modern approaches to their conservation and care. A comprehensive gazetteer provides an invaluable guide to where the best British examples can be seen. Roger Rosewell is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and a leading expert on medieval wall paintings. He is also the Features Editor of Vidimus, the online magazine about medieval stained glass and a professional lecturer and photographer. Educated at St Edmund Hall, Oxford University, he has also written Stained Glass and The Medieval Monastery for Shire.

Dedicated to Erica Cruikshank Dodd, Art and Material Culture in the Byzantine and Islamic Worlds offers new perspectives on the Christian and Muslim communities of the east Mediterranean from medieval to contemporary times. The contributors examine how people from diverse religious backgrounds adapted to their changing political landscapes and show that artistic patronage, consumption, and practices are interwoven with constructed narratives. The essays consider material and textual evidence for painted media, architecture, and the creative process in Byzantium, Crusader-era polities, the Ottoman empire, and the modern Middle East, thus demonstrating the importance of the past in understanding the present. Contributors: Evanthia Baboula, Lesley Jessop, Anthony Cutler, Jaroslav Folda, John Osborne, Glenn Peers, Annemarie Weyl Carr, Mat Immerzeel, Bas Snelders, Angela Andersen, May Farhat, Marcus Milwright, Rico Franses.

Jerusalem, in her central role for Judaism, Christianity and Islam, became the setting for - or even the protagonist of - oral, written and pictorial narratives. These range from the Bible and Apocrypha, historical and hagiographical texts and legends to accounts of physical, imaginary or spiritual pilgrimage, and related images. Places in and around the city have been associated with narratives and vice versa. This collection of essays discusses the complex entanglements between Jerusalem, as a continuously redefined space, and her narratives, viewed from broad methodological and interdisciplinary perspectives. Studying the manifold ways in which narrative, space and place interact, is fundamental to the understanding of 'loca sancta traditions' and the processes of their location and translocation. Contributors are Shulamit Laderman, Gustav Kuhnel, Serge Ruzer, George Gagoshidze, Alexei Lidov, Bianca Kuhnel, Ariane Westphalinger, Robert Ousterhout, Eva Frojmovic, Katrin Kogman-Appel, Claudia Olk, Ingrid Baumgartner, Pnina Arad, Annette Hoffmann, Gunnar Mikosch, Barbara Baert, Yamit Rachman-Schrire, Robert Schick, Tim Urban, Mila Horky, Silvan Wagner, Rachel Milstein, Anastasia Keshman and Kai Nonnenmacher.

Does the design of the Tabernacle in the wilderness correspond to God's blueprint of Creation? The Christian Topography, a sixth-century Byzantine Christian work, presents such a cosmology. Its theory is based on the "pattern" revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai when he was told to build the Tabernacle and its implements "after their pattern, which is being shown thee on the Mount." (Exod. 25: 40). The book demonstrates, through texts and images, the motifs that link the Tabernacle and Creation. It traces the long chain of transmission that connects the Jewish and Christian traditions from Syria and ancient Israel to France and Spain from the first through the fourteenth century, revealing new models of interaction between Judaism and Christianity.

This volume aims to show through various case studies how the interrelations between Jews, Muslims and Christians in Iberia were negotiated in the field of images, objects and architecture during the Later Middle Ages and Early Modernity. . By looking at the ways pre-modern Iberians envisioned diversity, we can reconstruct several stories, frequently interwoven with devotional literature, poetry or Inquisitorial trials, and usually quite different from a binary story of simple opposition. The book's point of departure narrates the relationship between images and conversions, analysing the mechanisms of hybridity, and proposing a new explanation for the representation of otherness as the complex outcome of a negotiation involving integration. Contributors are: Cristelle Baskins, Giuseppe Capriotti, Ivana Capeta Rakic, Borja Franco Llopis, Francisco de Asis Garcia Garcia, Yonatan Glazer-Eytan, Nicola Jennings, Fernando Marias, Elena Paulino Montero, Maria Portmann, Juan Carlos Ruiz Souza, Amadeo Serra Desfilis, Maria Vittoria Spissu, Laura Stagno, Antonio Urquizar-Herrera.

English Gothic Misericord Carvings: History from the Bottom Up by Betsy Chunko-Dominguez is the first book to move beyond textual dependence and traditional iconographic analysis when examining misericords. It likewise builds the most thorough discussion to date of the relationship between the misericord's several potential audiences - including patron, craftsman, occupant of the seat, and modern viewer. Beyond the bounds of misericord studies, there are implications here for study of the relationship between center and margin in late medieval art; and, indeed, what constitutes 'center' and 'margin' as conceptual realms. Ultimately, this book attempts both to re-integrate the study of misericords into the study of Gothic art in general, and to re-center them in relation to our understanding of late medieval culture.

Byzantium/Modernism features contributions by fourteen international scholars and brings together a diverse range of interdisciplinary essays on art, architecture, theatre, film, literature, and philosophy, which examine how and why Byzantine art and image theory can contribute to our understanding of modern and contemporary visual culture. Particular attention is given to intercultural dialogues between the former dominions of the Byzantine Empire, with a special focus on Greece, Turkey, and Russia, and the artistic production of Western Europe and America. Together, these essays invite the reader to think critically and theoretically about the dialogic interchange between Byzantium and modernism and to consider this cross-temporal encounter as an ongoing and historically deep narrative, rather than an ephemeral or localized trend. Contributors are Tulay Atak, Charles Barber, Elena Boeck, Anthony Cutler, Rico Franses, Dimitra Kotoula, Marie-Jose Mondzain, Myroslava M. Mudrak, Robert S. Nelson, Robert Ousterhout, Stratis Papaioannou, Glenn Peers, Jane A. Sharp and Devin Singh.

Using artifacts as primary sources, this book enables students to comprehensively assess and analyze historic evidence in the context of the medieval period. This new addition to the Daily Life through Artifacts series provides not only the full benefit of a reference work with its comprehensive explanations and primary sources, but also supplies images of the objects, bringing a particular aspect of the medieval world to life. Each entry in Artifacts from Medieval Europe explains and expands upon the cultural significance of the artifact depicted. Artifacts are divided into such thematic categories as domestic life, religion, and transportation. Considered collectively, the various artifacts provide a composite look at daily life in the Middle Ages. Unlike medieval history encyclopedias that feature brief reference entries, this book uses artifacts to examine major aspects of daily life. Each artifact entry features an introduction, a description, an examination of its contextual significance, and a list of further resources. This approach trains students how to best analyze primary sources. General readers with an interest in history will also benefit from this approach to learning that enables a more complete appreciation of past events and circumstances. Provides a single-volume resource for using medieval artifacts to better understand the long-ago past Supplies images of artifacts with detailed descriptions, explanations of significance, and a list of sources for more information, which help students learn how to effectively analyze primary sources Presents a virtual window into many different aspects of medieval society and life, including particular activities or roles-such as farming, weaving, fashion, or being a mason or a knight Includes sidebars within selected entries that explain key terms and concepts and supply excerpts from contemporary sources

This volume offers an overview of Byzantine manuscript illustration, a central branch of Byzantine art and culture. Just like written texts, illustrations bear witness to Byzantine material culture, imperial ideology and religious beliefs, as well as to the development and spread of Byzantine art. In this sense illustrated books reflect the society that produced and used them. Being portable, they could serve as diplomatic gifts or could be acquired by foreigners. In such cases they became "emissaries" of Byzantine art and culture in Western Europe and the Arabic world. The volume provides for the first time a comprehensive overview of the material, divided by text categories, including both secular and religious manuscripts, and analyses which texts were illustrated in Byzantium, and how. Contributors are Justine M. Andrews, Leslie Brubaker, Annemarie W. Carr, Elina Dobrynina, Maria Evangelatou, Maria Laura Tomea Gavazzoli, Markos Giannoulis, Cecily Hennessy, Ioli Kalavrezou, Maja Kominko, Sofia Kotzabassi, Stavros Lazaris, Kallirroe Linardou, Vasileios Marinis, Kathleen Maxwell, Georgi R. Parpulov, Nancy P. Sevcenko, Jean-Michel Spieser, Mika Takiguchi, Courtney Tomaselli, Marina Toumpouri, Nicolette S. Trahoulia, Vasiliki Tsamakda, and Elisabeth Yota.

First translation of two vivid accounts of French thirteenth-century tournaments, rich in detail and an impassioned defence of tournaments and their importance. The Romance of Le Hem and The Tournament at Chauvency are eyewitness accounts of the famous tournaments held in 1278 at Le Hem on the banks of the Somme in north-eastern France, and in 1285 at Chauvency in Lorraine. Written within weeks of the events they describe, they record in vivid detail not only the jousts and the melees but also the entertainments and dramatic interludes which preceded, followed and embellished these festivals of martial sport. As Sarrasin makes clear, theatre as well as jousting, and jousting in the context of enacted stories, were central to what took place at Le Hem, involving elaborate role-play by participants as figures from Arthurian romance. And few medieval accounts of events have such thrilling immediacy as Jacques Bretel's record of Chauvency. He sat in a prime place, on the fourth step of the stand, and the reader sees and hears the action as if sitting at his shoulder - and eavesdrops on conversations, too. He gives remarkable insights into the surprising role played by song, and into how the whole event was perceived and understood. These intriguing works are invaluable source material for scholars not only of medieval chivalry and tournaments but also of festivities and performance.

Interruptions and Transitions: Essays on the Senses in Medieval and Early Modern Visual Culture is an anthology of the most recent works by Barbara Baert, discussing the connection between the experiences of the senses in the medieval and early modern visual culture, the hermeneutics of imagery, and the limits and possibilities of contemporary Art Sciences. The six chapters include Pentecost, Noli me tangere, the woman with an issue of blood, the Johannesschussel, the dancing Salome, and the role of the wind. The reader is shown a medieval and early modern visual culture as a history of artistic solutions, as the fascinating approach between biblical texts, plastic imagination, and the art-scientific metier. This makes him a privileged guest in a unique in-between space where humans and their artistic expression can meet existentially.

The ubiquity of references to dogs in medieval and early modern texts and images must at some level reflect their actual presence in those worlds, yet scholarly consideration of this material is rare and scattered across diverse sources. This volume addresses that gap, bringing together fifteen essays that examine the appearance, meaning, and significance of dogs in painting, sculpture, manuscripts, literature, and legal records of the period, reaching beyond Europe to include cultural material from medieval Japan and Islam. While primarily art historical in focus, the authors approach the subject from a range of disciplines and with varying methodology that ultimately reveals as much about dogs as about the societies in which they lived. Contributors are Kathleen Ashley, Jane Carroll, Emily Cockayne, John Block Friedman, Karen M. Gerhart, Laura D. Gelfand, Craig A. Gibson, Walter S. Gibson, Nathan Hofer, Jane C. Long, Judith W. Mann, Sophie Oosterwijk, Elizabeth Carson Pastan, Donna L. Sadler, Alexa Sand, and Janet Snyder.

Dedicated to the topics of eroticism and sexuality in the visual production of the medieval and early modern Muslim world, this volume sheds light on the diverse socio-cultural milieus of erotic images, on the range of motivations that determined their production, and on the responses generated by their circulation. The articles revise what has been accepted as a truism in existing literature-that erotic motifs in the Islamic visual arts should be read metaphorically-offering, as an alternative, rigorous contextual and cultural analyses. Among the subjects discussed are male and female figures as sexualized objects; the spiritual dimensions of eroticism; licit versus illicit sexual practices; and the exotic and erotic 'others' as a source of sensual delight. As the first systematic study on these themes in the field of Islamic art history, this volume fills a considerable gap and contributes to the lively debates on the nature and function of erotic and sexual images that have featured prominently in broader art-historical discussions in recent decades.

Interested in the ways in which medieval and early modern communities have acted as participants, observers, and interpreters of events and how they ascribed meaning to them, the essays in this interdisciplinary collection explore the concept of beholding and the experiences of individual and collective beholders of violence during the period. Addressing a range of medieval and early modern art forms, including visual images, material objects, literary texts, and performances, the contributors examine the complexities of viewing and the production of knowledge within cultural, political, and theological contexts. In considering new methods to examine the process of beholding violence and the beholder's perspective, this volume addresses such questions as: How does the process of beholding function in different aesthetic conditions? Can we speak of such a thing as the 'period eye' or an acculturated gaze of the viewer? If so, does this particularize the gaze, or does it risk universalizing perception? How do violence and pleasure intersect within the visual and literary arts? How can an understanding of violence in cultural representation serve as means of knowing the past and as means of understanding and potentially altering the present?

Designed as a quick-reference source to the topics, symbols, themes, and stories most frequently found in early Christian, western medieval, and Byzantine art, this work describes topics that include names and narratives drawn from the Bible and apocrypha, the lives of saints, and numerous other textual sources. Authors whose works were frequently illustrated or who were influential on the visual arts are treated, as are selected art historical terms and events of significance for the arts. Cross-references alert readers to alternate titles and related topics, and the majority of entries cite a pictorial example. These are keyed to standard texts for easy viewing access. The dictionary begins with Aaron and ends with Zoomorphic Decoration. This dictionary focuses on the medieval period and the distinctive ways in which the subjects and symbols referenced in the work evolved and developed during the Middle Ages, resulting in a unique overview of the evolution, development, popularity, and transformations that took place in medieval artistic iconography. The introduction provides chronological, thematic, and bibliographic surveys to supplement the 500 individual entries; the bibliography directs the readers to more detailed studies. The work also includes names and topics not always found in art reference sources, for example, authors whose works were frequently illustrated, or who were influential on the visual arts, and historical events of significance for the arts.

Richly illustrated, Early Gothic Column-Figure Sculpture in France is a comprehensive investigation of church portal sculpture installed between the 1130s and the 1170s. At more than twenty great churches, beginning at the Royal Abbey of Saint-Denis and extending around Paris from Provins in the east, south to Bourges and Dijon, and west to Chartres and Angers, larger than life-size statues of human figures were arranged along portal jambs, many carved as if wearing the dress of the highest ranks of French society. This study takes a close look at twelfth-century human figure sculpture, describing represented clothing, defining the language of textiles and dress that would have been legible in the twelfth-century, and investigating rationale and significance. The concepts conveyed through these extraordinary visual documents and the possible motivations of the patrons of portal programs with column-figures are examined through contemporaneous historical, textual, and visual evidence in various media. Appendices include analysis of sculpture production, and the transportation and fabrication in limestone from Paris. Janet Snyder's new study considers how patrons used sculpture to express and shape perceived reality, employing images of textiles and clothing that had political, economic, and social significances.

First modern study devoted to one of the twelfth-century's most enigmatic, influential and fascinating figures. Henry of Blois (d. 1171) was a towering figure in twelfth-century England. Grandson of William the Conqueror and brother to King Stephen, he played a central role in shaping the course of the civil war that characterized his brother's reign. Bishop of Winchester and abbot of Glastonbury for more than four decades, Henry was one of the richest men in the kingdom, and effectively governed the English Church for a time as Papal Legate. Raised and tonsured at Cluny, he was an intimate friend of Peter the Venerable and later saved the great abbey from financial ruin. Towards the end of his life he presided, albeit reluctantly, over the trial of Thomas Becket. Henry was a remarkable man: an administrator of exceptional talent, a formidable ecclesiastical statesman, a bold and eloquent diplomat, and twelfth-century England's most prolific patron of the arts. In the first major book-length study of Henry to be published since 1932, nine scholars explore new perspectives on the most crucial aspects of his life and legacy. By bringing ecclesiastical and documentary historians together with archaeologists and historians of art, architecture, literature and ideas, this interdisciplinary collection will serve as a catalyst for renewed study of this fascinating man and the world in which he operated.

This extensively illustrated book discusses the representation of women in the art of the late Middle Ages in Northern Europe. Drawing on a wide range of different media, but making particular use of the rich plethora of woodcuts, the author charts how the images of women changed during the period and proposes two basic categories - the Virgin and Eve, good and evil. Within these, however, we discover attitudes to sinful, foolish, married and unmarried women and the style and use of these images exposes the full extent of the misogyny entrenched in medieval society. Interesting too is the variety of 'good' women and how they were used to confirm the social position of women throughout different classes. We also learn how women fought back: starting in the margins of manuscripts and them emerging in misericords, we find images of women making fools of men; love triangles; and unequal couples, where the women 'wear the trousers'. With the advent of printing, a whole genre of satirical prints about women snowballed, and the views they express became available for mass consumption. This fascinating and rich study charts this process in a lively and readable way.

This study traces the chequered history of Peter von Danzig, a French caravel which was inadvertently taken over by Gdansk (Danzig). Beata Mozejko charts the fluctuating and often dramatic fortunes of the caravel, from her arrival in Gdansk as a merchantman in 1462 to her demise near La Rochelle in 1475. The author examines the caravel's role as a warship during the Anglo-Hanseatic conflict, and her most famous operation, when she was used by Gdansk privateer Paul Beneke to capture a Burgundian galley with a rich cargo that included Hans Memling's Last Judgement triptych. Using literary and archival sources, Mozejko provides a comprehensive overview and analysis of the information available about the caravel and her colourful career.

A comprehensive and informed analysis explores the startlingly diverse and sophisticated fine arts in the Middle Ages. Materials, Methods, and Masterpieces of Medieval Art provides a comprehensive and detailed analysis of the work done by artists in western Europe during the Middle Ages. Art historian Janetta Rebold Benton uses examples such as the Book of Kells, Bury Saint Edmunds Cross, and the Bayeux Tapestry, and the work of artists such as Jan van Eyck and Giotto to explore the various media available to medieval artists and the ways in which those media were used to create a stunning array of masterworks. Although the visual arts of the Middle Ages were extremely colorful, today much of that color has diminished or disappeared, the pigments and threads faded, the gold abraded, the silver tarnished. Materials, Methods, and Masterpieces of Medieval Art allows these works to sparkle once more.

An extensively illustrated compendium of 45 expertly selected illuminated bibles that transport the reader through 1,000 years of history and across the Christian world. For two millennia the Bible has inspired the creation of art. Within this legacy of remarkable art and beauty, illuminated biblical manuscripts offer some of the best evidence for our understanding of early Christian painting and artistic interpretations of the Bible. Compiled and written by two internationally renowned experts, this beautiful book immerses the reader in the world of illuminated manuscripts of the Bible. Through its pictures we are transported across 1,000 years of history, passing chronologically through many of the major centres of the Christian world. Starting in Constantinople in the East, the journey moves on to Lindisfarne in the North, to imperial Aachen, back to Canterbury, then to Carolingian Tours in western France. Later we view some of the riches of Winchester, Mozarabic Spain, Crusader Jerusalem, the Meuse valley, northern Iraq, Paris, London, Bologna, Naples, Bulgaria, the Low Countries, Rome and Persia. Our journey ends in Gondar, the capital of imperial Ethiopia. Forty-five remarkable books - each a treasure in its own right - provide our itinerary through time and across continents. Together they enable us to explore and revel in the extraordinary art and beauty of illuminated biblical manuscripts, some of the finest but least-known paintings from the Middle Ages.