Illustrations Introduction 1. Matter 2. Making 3. Spirit 4. Book 5. Church 6. Life (and Death) 7. Performance 8. Seeing Notes Photo Credits Index
Overall, Herbert L. Kessler has done a wonderful job of addressing his subject: seeing medieval art. Rich with examples and images, his text traces not only the contexts in which medieval art was utilized but the ways in which it was incorporated into medieval thought and practice, and the way it was intended to be seen. -- Thomasine Bartlett, University of New Orleans Experts and non-experts alike will find much to delight and challenge them in Kessler's rich embroidery of text and image. -- Mary Carruthers, Erich Maria Remarque Professor of Literature, New York University This innovative and deeply learned survey of the current state of medieval art history, organized enticingly according to eight of the issues that have engaged specialists most fruitfully over the past 15 years, is a stunning achievement. Lively in tone, interdisciplinary in approach, ecumenical in focus, afire with important insights on virtually every page, and packed with up-to-date bibliography, Herbert Kessler's newest work shows us better than any other book I know why medieval art matters-and how our own seeing of it has grown evermore interesting. I urge experts and general enthusiasts alike to read this book now. -- Peter Low, Williams College Finally, a sophisticated 'introduction' to medieval art focused on issues and ideas that will be an eye-opener for students, scholars, and general readers alike! Drawing on a vast range of sources and scholarship, Kessler paints with a broad brush, but with a fine eye for telling detail. Clear, concise, and compelling, this superlative synthesis ignores shibboleths, stakes out new ground, and provides a bracing reminder of why the Middle Ages remain central to any history of visual experience and the artistic imagination. -- Jeffrey F. Hamburger, Harvard University
Herbert L. Kessler's most recent books are (with Johanna Zacharias) Rome 1300: On the Path of the Pilgrim (Yale University Press) and Spiritual Seeing: Picturing God's Invisibility in Medieval Art (University of Pennsylvania Press). He is a professor of medieval art at Johns Hopkins University, Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America since 1991, and Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1995.
This innovative and deeply learned survey of the current state of medieval art history, organized enticingly according to eight of the issues that have engaged specialists most fruitfully over the past 15 years, is a stunning achievement. Lively in tone, interdisciplinary in approach, ecumenical in focus, afire with important insights on virtually every page, and packed with up-to-date bibliography, Herbert Kessler's newest work shows us better than any other book I know why medieval art matters-and how our own seeing of it has grown evermore interesting. I urge experts and general enthusiasts alike to read this book now. - Peter Low, Williams College
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