Published in 1848, this two-volume work was received with great praise. During a celebrated career, Anna Brownell Jameson (1794–1860) produced Shakespeare criticism, travel writing, biography, and art history, and was admired by contemporaries such as Mary Shelley and Thomas Carlyle. Taking an aesthetic rather than religious approach, the work is a study of the legends represented in Western art of the Middle Ages, ordered taxonomically. Though Jameson is considered the first professional female art critic, this is a reductive label; she was, rather, one of the great art critics of her age and her work is still of importance to art historians. Volume 1, which is richly illustrated, covers the literary origins of the legends and surveys the representation of angels and archangels, the Four Evangelists, the Twelve Apostles, the Doctors of the Church, and a number of significant saints, including Mary Magdalene.
- ISBN13 9781139343909
- Publish Date 5 May 2013 (first published 19 July 2012)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Cambridge University Press
- Imprint Cambridge University Press (Virtual Publishing)
- Format eBook
- Language English