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Reflecting the diverse interests of Jean-Michel Spieser, his colleagues, students and friends contribute papers focused on topics ranging from the changing role of the apse and the layout of late antique basilicas to holy relics said to have been brought from Constantinople. Many of the articles address the nature and impact of specific media - goldsmiths' work, ivory and ceramics - while a group of highly original, broader studies is devoted to such larger issues as ritual display in the ten...

For quite a long time medieval works were not always recognized as art. They found their way into useums only with resistance, at first even as proof of their inferiority. Creating suitable presentations of these works remains a challenge for curators and collections to this day. This analysis of presentation methods, in the context of exhibitions, traces how museums have treated the Middle Ages from the early modern period to the present, and investigates a change in perception towards medieval...

The title is an allusion to the description by Suger, Abbot of St. Denis, of the men of the Auvergne. Suger depicts "that old pride" in a chapter of his Deeds of Louis the Fat, which chronicles the arrival of King Louis VI in the region (1122 and 1126), to succor Eimeric I, the Bishop of Clermont, obliged to flee his episcopal town after its seizure by the Count of Auvergne. The citation provides a frame of reference for the subject of this study: the Auvergnat laity and its relations with the C...

The late Donald King (d. 1998) was the founding father of textile studies in England. His knowledge of the technology and history of textiles of all periods across many lands remains unsurpassed. An erudite and yet modest scholar, he did much to promote the academic understanding of textiles, both in this country and abroad. His role as Keeper of Textiles in the Victoria and Albert Museum, allowed first-hand technical analysis of a large number of medieval and later textiles over a very wide ran...

In her study of the relationship between art and its theological, liturgical and literary background in Byzantium, Dr. Gavrilovic has devoted a great deal of attention to the medieval state of Serbia, where, in the process of a strong cultural influence, Byzantine art had taken deep root and was practised with much vigour and individuality. Serbia's position on the north-western flank of the Empire, in the proximity of the city of Salonika, assured an uninterrupted contact with Byzantine masters...

Fortunate circumstances led to the survival of the late thirteenth- and early fourteenth-century high altar furnishings from the former Premonstratensian monastery in Altenberg on the Lahn. This special exhibition at the Städel Museum reunites various elements of this unique ensemble – now at home in notable museums and collections from St. Petersburg to New York – for the very first time since the dissolution of the convent in 1803. The religious and artistic nucleus of the monastery was the re...

This is the first monograph and proper study on Francesco Noletti (c.1611-54), called il Maltese (and popularly known as Francesco Fieravino). He is one of the most significant yet enigmatic artists in the study of still-life painting of the Roman seicento. His work encapsulates the spirit of the 'baroque still-life', primarily through a typology of 'carpet paintings' that he popularized in Rome during the 1640s and early 1650s. Francesco Noletti is credited to have significantly imprinted theat...

This is a stunning tour through eight centuries of manuscript illumination. Known for their stunning displays of artistry and technique, Italian illuminated manuscripts have long been coveted by collection around the world. The J. Paul Getty Museum holds the most recently formed institutional collection of its kind in the United States, yet it spans more than eight centuries and reflects many of the extraordinary achievements of the Italian tradition. Made up of whole manuscripts as well as leav...

Providing a comprehensive and accessible orientation to the field of medieval manuscript studies, this lavishly illustrated book by Raymond Clemens and Timothy Graham is unique among handbooks on paleography, codicology, and manuscript illumination in its scope and level of detail. It will be of immeasurable help to students in history, art history, literature, and religious studies who are encountering medieval manuscripts for the first time, while also appealing to advanced scholars and genera...

Across the nine thematic chapters of Experiencing Medieval Art, renowned art historian Herbert L. Kessler considers functional objects as well as paintings and sculptures; the circumstances, processes, and materials of production; the conflictual relationship between art objects and notions of an ineffable deity; the context surrounding medieval art; and questions of apprehension, aesthetics, and modern presentation. He also introduces the exciting discoveries and revelations that have revolutio...

The painted panels made for use in Byzantine and Orthodox churches and for prayers at home are perhaps the most effective and enduring form of religious art ever developed, and also perhaps one of the most mysterious. The peaceful, clear imagery found within them can be appreciated on both a religious and a secular level. This book will look at icons in the context of the history of Christianity and examine all aspects of the production and power of this distinctive art form. Based on an analysi...

The essays collected in this book were delivered at the XLII Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, held in London in 2009 to accompany the exhibition Byzantium 330-1453, at the Royal Academy. The exhibition was one of the most ambitious and complex exhibitions ever mounted at the Royal Academy, as well as one of the most popular, and the overall aim of the book is to reflect on the exhibition of Byzantine art, both as an academic and popular exercise, and through the choice and discussion of in...

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. I...

The Sistine Chapel enchants the visitor by the splendid harmony it radiates as a concept fully realised, by the unmatched artistic qualities of the individual works, the profound ideas that govern the planning of the paintings and the splendid, robust and lively figures created by Michelangelo and other artists. In this book, jointly produced by the Musei Vaticani and Libreria Editrice Vaticana, the chapel' s paintings are examined in relation to the theological interpretations prevailing in tha...

Les contributions reunies dans cette publication ont ete presentees au colloque organise les 5 et 6 septembre 2003 a l'Universite catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, dans le cadre de la participation de l'Institut orientaliste (et plus particulierement du Centre d'etudes sur Gregoire de Nazianze) au projet international Rinascimento Virtuale. Digitale Palimpsestforschung. Rediscovering written records of a hidden European cultural heritage. Ce projet, mis en place sous la direction du Prof....

With its rich symbolism, complex narrative, and stunning imagery, the Apocalypse, or Revelation of John, is arguably the most memorable book in the Christian Bible. In Apocalypse Illuminated, Richard Emmerson explores how this striking visionary text is represented across seven centuries of medieval illustrations. Focusing on twenty-five of the most renowned illustrated Apocalypse manuscripts, from the earliest extant Carolingian ones produced in the ninth century to the deluxe Apocalypse made...