A beautifully illustrated collection of some of the finest examples of liturgical artNo work of art can be fully appreciated if divorced from the culture that produced it. This examination of liturgical objects found in the medieval church treasury assesses their artistic technique and method, placing the objects in the context of medieval liturgical practice and piety. Author Stephen N. Fliegel explores the origins of religious treasuries in late antiquity and their ultimate disappearance as a result of the Reformation, French Revolution, and political upheavals of the early modern period.Resplendent Faith is a richly illustrated compendium of the typical objects found within medieval church treasuries and includes a discussion of their form and function and their significance in the medieval religious service.Fliegel places this survey of the medieval liturgical treasury within its broad historical framework and considers the art representative of the most significant sacral objects produced during the Middle Ages. Supported by exquisite illustrations as well as a glossary and bibliography, Resplendent Faith will appeal to art historians, those interested in the history of religion and liturgical practices, and nonspecialists who appreciate medieval art or religious icons and reliquaries.

Transforming Saints explores the transformation and function of the images of holy females within wider religious, social, and political contexts of Old Spain and New Spain from the Spanish conquest to Mexican independence. The chapters here examine the rise of the cults of the lactating Madonna, St. Anne, St. Librada, St. Mary Magdalene, and the Suffering Virgin. Concerned with holy figures presented as feminine archetypes, images that came under Inquisition scrutiny, as well as cults suspected of concealing indigenous influences, Charlene VillaseNor Black argues that these images would come to reflect the empowerment and agency of women in viceregal Mexico. Her close analysis of the imagery additionally demonstrates artists' innovative responses to Inquisition censorship and the new artistic demands occasioned by conversion. The concerns that motivated the twenty-first century protests against Chicana artists Yolanda LOpez in 2001 and Alma LOpez in 2003 have a long history in the Hispanic world-anxieties about the humanization of sacred female bodies and fears of indigenous influences infiltrating Catholicism. In this context Black also examines a number of important artists in depth, including El Greco, Murillo, Jusepe de Ribera, and Pedro de Mena in Spain and Naples and Baltasar de Echave IbIa, Juan Correa, CristObal de Villalpando, and Miguel Cabrera.

The concept of opposing forces of good and evil expressed in a broad range of moral qualities--virtues and vices--is one of the most dominant themes in the history of Christian art. The complex interrelationship of these moral traits received considerable study in the medieval period, resulting in a vast and elaborate system of imagery that has been largely neglected by modern scholarship. Rich resources for the study of this important subject are made available by this volume, which publishes the complete holdings of the more than 230 personifications of Virtues and Vices in the Index of Christian Art's text files. Ranging from Abstinence to Wisdom and from Ambition to Wrath, and covering depictions of the Tree of Virtues, the Tree of Vices, and the Conflict of Virtues and Vices, this is the largest and most comprehensive collection of such personifications in existence. The catalogue documents the occurrence of these Virtues and Vices in well over 1,000 works of art produced between the fifth and the fifteenth centuries. The entries include objects in twelve different media and give detailed information on their current location, date, and subject.

This extract from the Index of Christian Art's files, the first to be published, is accompanied by six essays devoted to the theme of virtue and vice. They investigate topics such as the didactic function of the bestiaries and the "Physiologus," female personifications in the "Psychomachia of Prudentius," the Virtues in the Floreffe Bible frontispiece, and good and evil in the architectural sculpture of German sacramentary houses. The contributors are Ron Baxter, Anne-Marie Bouche, Jesse M. Gellrich, S. Georgia Nugent, Colum Hourihane, and Achim Timmerman."

Based on a recent exhibition at the Museum of Biblical Art, New York, this This volume discusses the creation of sacred space in the 21st century, examining 28 works by Tobi Kahn including his recent commission for Congregation Emau-El B'ne Jeshrun in Milwaukee. Each work is accompanied by a Meditation by novelist and poet Nessa Rapoport.
From large 6' x 4' canvasses with biomorphic forms to three-dimensional pieces such as the art nouveau-influenced thrones, Kahn's work has a presence that is immediately striking, and his reputation has grown steadily since his inclusion in the Guggenheim's "New Horizons in American Art" show in 1985.
Much of Kahn's art, especially his landscapes, is ambiguously abstract, inviting the viewer to project onto it their own ideas, feelings and desires. Acting as aids to contemplation, they can be seen as building on the work of Romantic artists who sought to capture the majesty of nature and imbue it with divine resonance.

An edition and English translation of 'A Description of the Prayers', one of the few extant works by Ignatius V. Bar Wahib (Patriarch of Antioch from 1293-1333). The text has been taken from a manuscript of the Orthodox Theological Seminary, Kottayam, copied in 1915 from a manuscript of the Konat Library. The treatise offers a description of the external aspects of the canonical prayers, including washing and prostration.