Months before Alma Lopez's digital collage Our Lady was shown at the Museum of International Folk Art in 2001, the museum began receiving angry phone calls from community activists and Catholic leaders who demanded that the image not be displayed. Protest rallies, prayer vigils, and death threats ensued, but the provocative image of la Virgen de Guadalupe (hands on hips, clad only in roses, and exalted by a bare-breasted butterfly angel) remained on exhibition.

Highlighting many of the pivotal questions that have haunted the art world since the NEA debacle of 1988, the contributors to Our Lady of Controversy present diverse perspectives, ranging from definitions of art to the artist's intention, feminism, queer theory, colonialism, and Chicano nationalism. Contributors include the exhibition curator, Tey Marianna Nunn; award-winning novelist and Chicana historian Emma Perez; and Deena Gonzalez (recognized as one of the fifty most important living women historians in America).

Accompanied by a bonus DVD of Alma Lopez's I Love Lupe video that looks at the Chicana artistic tradition of reimagining la Virgen de Guadalupe, featuring a historic conversation between Yolanda Lopez, Ester Hernandez, and Alma Lopez, Our Lady of Controversy promises to ignite important new dialogues.

Performing the Visual explores the practice of wall painting in China from a new perspective. Relying on rare, virtually unpublished drawings on Buddhist themes from a long-hidden medieval library in western China, the author analyzes the painters' pictorial strategies. She also examines the financial accounting of Buddhist temples, providing practical information that ninth- and tenth-century critics ignored: how artists were paid and when, the temple's role as mediator between patrons and artists, and the way painters functioned outside the monastic system, working in guilds and secular academies affiliated with local government. Based on the careful study of hundreds of inaccessible wall paintings at Dunhuang, arguably Asia's largest and most important Buddhist site, the author shows that although critics celebrated spontaneous feats with brush and ink, artists at Dunhuang were heavily dependent on concrete tools such as sketches in the preparation of wall painting.

After 1500, as Catholic Europe fragmented into warring sects, evidence of a pagan past came newly into view, and travelers to distant places encountered deeply unfamiliar visual cultures, it became ever more pressing to distinguish between the sacred image and its opposite, the 'idol'. Historians and philosophers have long attended to Reformation charges of idolatry - the premise for image-breaking - but only very recently have scholars begun to consider the ways that the idol occasioned the making no less than the destruction. The present book focuses on how idols and ideas about them matter for the history of early modern objects produced around the globe, especially those created in the context of an exchange or confrontation between an 'us' and a 'them'. Ranging widely within the early modern period, the volume contributes to the project of globalizing the study of European art, bringing the continent's commercial, colonial, antiquarian, and religious histories into dialogue. Its studies of crosses, statues on columns, wax ex-votos, ivories, prints, maps, manuscripts, fountains, banners, and New World gold all frame Western 'art' simultaneously as an idea and as a collection of real things, arguing that it was through the idol that object-makers and writers came to terms with what it was that art should be, and do.

The rise of the mendicant orders in the later Middle Ages coincided with rapid and dramatic shifts in the visual arts. The mendicants were prolific patrons, relying on artworks to instruct and impress their diverse lay congregations. Churches and chapels were built, and new images and iconographies developed to propagate mendicant cults. But how should the two phenomena be related? How much were these orders actively responsible for artistic change, and how much did they simply benefit from it? To explore these questions, Art and the Augustinian Order in Early Renaissance Italy looks at art in the formative period of the Augustinian Hermits, an order with a particularly difficult relation to art. As a first detailed study of visual culture in the Augustinian order, this book will be a basic resource, making available previously inaccessible material, discussing both well-known and more neglected artworks, and engaging with fundamental methodological questions for pre-modern art and church history, from the creation of religious iconographies to the role of gender in art.

This sixth of seven volumes devoted to the Adages in the Collected Works of Erasmus completes the translation and annotation of the more than 4000 proverbs gathered and commented on by Erasmus in his Adagiorum Chiliades (Thousands of Adages, usually known more simply as the Adagia). This volume's aim, like that of the others, is to provide a fully annotated, accurate, and readable English version of Erasmus' commentaries on these Greek and Latin proverbs, and to show how Erasmus continued to expand this work, originally published in 1508, until his death in 1536. An indication of Erasmus' unflagging interest in classical proverbs is that almost 500 of the 951 adages translated in this volume did not make their first appearance until the edition of 1533. Following in the tradition of meticulous scholarship for which the Collected Works of Erasmus is widely known, the notes to this volume identify the classical sources and illustrate how the content of his commentaries on the adages often reflects Erasmus' scholarly and editing interests in the classical authors at a particular time. The work was highly acclaimed and circulated widely in Erasmus' time, serving as a conduit for transmitting classical proverbs into the vernacular languages, in which many of the proverbs still survive to this day.

There can be many obstacles to faith. As Art Lindsley says, "Lewis knew what it was like not to believe. He struggled with many doubts along the way to faith. Since he was an ardent atheist until age thirty-one, Lewis's experience and education prepared him to understand firsthand the most common arguments against Christianity." As a scholar and teacher of literature at Oxford, Lewis confronted many questions: Aren't all religions just humanly invented myths? Doesn't evil in the world indicate an absence of any personal or loving God? Why should what is true for one person be true for me, especially when it comes to religion? How can anyone claim that one religion is right? Why follow Jesus if he was just another good moral teacher? This book provides a readable introduction to Lewis's reflections on these and other objections to belief in Jesus Christ and the compelling reasons why Lewis came to affirm the truth of Christianity. Art Lindsley is a helpful and reliable guide to the voluminous and sometimes challenging writings of Lewis for both seekers and those who want to grasp their own faith more deeply.

For more than a thousand years, Eastern Christians have used their hands and hearts to create icons, proclaiming God s reality in a visible and breathtakingly beautiful way. This ancient art is enjoying a renewed interest in the West, as people of faith create icons and use them to meditate on mysteries for which there are no words.

A Brush with God is a guide to painting icons and using them in prayer. Written with warmth and energy, it describes the history of icons and examines why they ve been a spiritual tool for so many centuries. Written from a uniquely Western perspective, the book guides artists from novices to professionals through the process of icon painting, using traditional techniques but employing contemporary materials. Included are eight full-color plates of the artist s icons. "

This book explores the ways in which medieval Christians sought to memorialize the deceased: with tombs, cenotaphs, altars and other furnishings connected to a real or symbolic burial site. Reverent memorial for the dead was the inspiration for the production of a significant category of artworks during the Middle Ages - artworks aimed as much at the laity as at the clergy, and intended to maintain, symbolically, the presence of the dead. Memoria, the term that describes the formal, liturgical memory of the dead, also includes artworks intended to house and honour the deceased. A dozen essays analyze strategies for commemoration from the 4th - 15th century: the means by which human memory could be activated or manipulated through the interaction between monuments, their setting, and the visitor. Building upon from the growing body of literature on memory in the Middle Ages, the collection focuses on the tomb monument and its context as a complex to define what is to be remembered, to fix memory, and to facilitate recollection. The papers were originally presented at the 1994 meetings of the College Art Association, the International Congresses of Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, and the University of Leeds, England, in 1995.

For millennia, art has been religious - even in times and places when there was no word for 'art'. Then, in the Renaissance, it became possible for art to glorify the artist, making viewers think more of his skills than of the subjects he portrayed. The modern artist faces a more complex dilemma - one that no art historian has talked about until now. Can contemporary art say anything about spirituality? Is contemporary art is spiritual? What might it mean to say that the art you make expresses your spiritual belief? The Impossibility of Transcendence is about the curious disconnect between spirituality and current art. This book will enable you to walk into a museum and talk about the spirituality that is or is not visible in the art you see.

In Late Antique Images of the Virgin Annunciate Spinning: allotting the scarlet and the purple, Catherine Gines Taylor traces the way early Christians assimilated the symbolism of spinning into images of the Annunciation. Taylor offers an art historical and interdisciplinary look at the earliest images of Mary spinning, underscoring the iconographic model of idealized matronage consistent with lay piety and the cult of Mary. The personal and domestic nature of this motif is evidence toward popular Mariological devotion that preceded the exclusive, semi-divine presentation of the Theotokos, and stands in contrast with traditional ascetic models for Mary.

The Christian canon of scripture, known as the New Testament, excluded many of the church's traditional stories about its origins. Although not in the Bible, these popular stories have had a powerful influence on the church's traditions and theology, and a particularly marked effect on visual representations of Christian belief. This book provides a lucid introduction to the relationship between the apocryphal texts and the paintings, mosaics, and sculpture in which they are frequently paralleled, and which have been so significant in transmitting these non-Biblical stories to generations of churchgoers.

The Christian canon of scripture, known as the New Testament, excluded many of the church's traditional stories about its origins. Although not in the Bible, these popular stories have had a powerful influence on the church's traditions and theology, and a particularly marked effect on visual representations of Christian belief. This book provides a lucid introduction to the relationship between the apocryphal texts and the paintings, mosaics, and sculpture in which they are frequently paralleled, and which have been so significant in transmitting these non-Biblical stories to generations of churchgoers.

'Quid est sacramentum?' Visual Representation of Sacred Mysteries in Early Modern Europe, 1400-1700 investigates how sacred mysteries (in Latin, sacramenta or mysteria) were visualized in a wide range of media, including illustrated religious literature such as catechisms, prayerbooks, meditative treatises, and emblem books, produced in Italy, France, and the Low Countries between ca. 1500 and 1700. The contributors ask why the mysteries of faith and, in particular, sacramental mysteries were construed as amenable to processes of representation and figuration, and why the resultant images were thought capable of engaging mortal eyes, minds, and hearts. Mysteries by their very nature appeal to the spirit, rather than to sense or reason, since they operate beyond the limitations of the human faculties; and yet, the visual and literary arts served as vehicles for the dissemination of these mysteries and for prompting reflection upon them. Contributors: David Areford, AnnMarie Micikas Bridges, Mette Birkedal Bruun, James Clifton, Anna Dlabackova, Wim Francois, Robert Kendrick, Aiden Kumler, Noria Litaker, Walter S. Melion, Lars Cyril Norgaard, Elizabeth Pastan, Donna Sadler, Alexa Sand, Tanya Tiffany, Lee Palmer Wandel, Geert Warner, Bronwen Wilson, and Elliott Wise.

The full beauty and depth of 500 years of Sikh culture is explored in this lavishly illustrated collection of essays on the religion's art and literature. The collection is accompanied by more than 100 black-and-white photos and 24 color plates depicting the finest Sikh art, some of it reproduced for the first time.
Sikh culture emerged with the dawn of the modern age in a land that was a thoroughfare of invading armies, ideas, religions, and arts from the East and West. The poetry of scriptures, the illustrated life stores of Guru Nanak, the paintings from various early artistic schools and regions, the dazzling treasures of the Sikh Kingdoms, the romantic artworks of visiting European dignitaries, and the serenity of Sikh sacred architecture all provide doorways to this heroic and revolutionary faith. Journal excerpts, new translations of early twentieth-century poetry, popular poster art, and a depiction of the 1984 storming of the Golden Temple, add depth and originality to this fully accessible volume. Often overlooked, the importance of art, poetry and literature is crucial to our understanding of Sikh religions. Together this collection of remarkable essays and exquisite art illustrates the impact and value of Sikh culture-with its blend of tolerance, egalitarianism and rational mysticism-in the Modern Age.

The Neolithic period, when agriculture began and many monuments - including Stonehenge - were constructed, is an era fraught with paradoxes and ambiguities. Students of prehistory have long found the highly theoretical interpretations of the period perplexing and contradictory. Starting in the Mesolithic and carrying his analysis through to the late Bronze Age, Richard Bradley sheds light on this complex period and the changing consciousness of these prehistoric peoples. The book studies the importance of monuments tracing their history from their first creation to over 6000 years later. Part one discusses how monuments first developed and their role in developing a new sense of time and space among the inhabitants of prehistoric Europe. Other features of the prehistoric landscape - such as mounds and enclosures - across continental Europe are also examined. Part two studies how such monuments were modified and reinterpreted to suit the changing needs of society through a series of detailed case studies.

The Neolithic period, when agriculture began and many monuments - including Stonehenge - were constructed, is an era fraught with paradoxes and ambiguities. Students of prehistory have long found the highly theoretical interpretations of the period perplexing and contradictory. Starting in the Mesolithic and carrying his analysis through to the late Bronze Age, Richard Bradley sheds light on this complex period and the changing consciousness of these prehistoric peoples. The book studies the importance of monuments tracing their history from their first creation to over 60000 years later. Part one discusses how monuments first developed and their role in developing a new sense of time and space among the inhabitants of prehistoric Europe. Other features of the prehistoric landscape - such as mounds and enclosures - across continental Europe are also examined. Part two studies how such monuments were modified and reinterpreted to suit the changing needs of society through a series of detailed case studies.

In Crosses of Many Cultures: Designs for Applique, Joyce Mori provides historical explanations along with easy-to-understand instructions and line drawings for twenty international cross designs for applique.

The final two volumes in the CWE contain an edition and translation of Erasmus's poetry. For Erasmus scholars this work affords the first opportunity to evaluate and analyse Erasmus' poems in English. And for those interested in Renaissance and Reformation poetry in general, these offer an intriguing look at the work of one of the towering figures of the period writing in a genre that was, for him, unusual. The annotations include a path-breaking commentary piece by Harry Vredeveld on Erasmus' most famous poem, `Poem on the Trouble of Old Age.' Another important feature is the appearance of the original Latin of each poem alongside the English translation.

The magnificent bronze doors of Hildesheim Cathedral, the ivory, gold, enameled, and bejeweled book covers made to contain superbly illuminated manuscripts, the startling reliquary caskets made in the shape of the part of the body supposed to be contained within them-these and other sacred objects were contained within church treasuries and cloisters in the early Middle Ages in Europe. This beautiful book traces the development of these so-called Minor Arts and the major role they played alongside the other pictorial arts and architectural sculpture of the period. Although it is impossible to establish a strict chronology of this period, since styles evolved concurrently and with varying speed across diverse regions of Europe, Peter Lasko has established an object-based chronology that enables him to trace the developments of these styles. In addition, he describes the personalities, stylistic traits, and influence of some of the great craftsmen whose names are briefly recorded in cathedral treasury records. He surveys the sacred arts from Scandinavia to Spain and from Italy to England, examining the impact of English art on the court of Charlemagne and investigating external influences on English art both before and after the Norman Conquest. Lasko records the wide range of opinions on style and method and also explicates his own; his comprehensive survey of craftsmanship alters previous assumptions about chronologies, creates new groupings of materials, and reassesses stylistic sources.

Last year (1925) the Olaus Petri Endowment greatly honoured the author by inviting him to deliver a few lectures on Origen at the University of Upsala. It was agreed that they should be published and we now offer them to the public exactly as they were delievered. There could be no question of expounding the entire thought of Origen in eight conferences. We have been compelled to pass over more than one important doctrine - for instance, his ideas on the Gnosis. Still less was it possible to set forth in these lectures the enormous mass of documents upon which our exposition of the theology of Origen is based.

The studies in which history of art and theatre are considered together are few, and none to date investigate the evolution of the representation of clouds from the early Renaissance to the Baroque period. This book reconsiders the origin of Italian Renaissance and Baroque cloud compositions while including the theatrical tradition as one of their most important sources. By examining visual sources such as paintings, frescos and stage designs, together with letters, guild-ledgers, descriptions of performances and relevant treatises, a new methodology to approach the development of this early modern visuality is offered. The result is an historical reconstruction where multiple factors are seen as facets of a single process which led to the development of Italy's visual culture. The book also offers new insights into Leonardo da Vinci's theatrical works, Raphael's Disputa, Vasari's Lives, and Pietro da Cortona's fresco paintings. The Spectacle of Clouds, 1439-1650 examines the different ways Heaven has been conceived, imagined and represented from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century, crossing over into the fields of history, religion and philosophy.