Intellectual Culture in Medieval Scandinavia, c. 1100–1350
View publication
Book Series
Disputatio, vol. 32
Medieval Art at the Intersection of Visuality and Material Culture
Studies in the ‘Semantics of Vision’
Raphaèle Preisinger (ed)
- Pages: 247 p.
- Size:156 x 234 mm
- Illustrations:25 b/w, 7 col., 1 tables b/w.
- Language(s):English
- Publication Year:2021
- € 80,00 EXCL. VAT RETAIL PRICE
- ISBN: 978-2-503-58153-8
- Hardback
- Available
- € 80,00 EXCL. VAT RETAIL PRICE
- ISBN: 978-2-503-58154-5
- E-book
- Available
By according equal importance to theoretical accounts of vision and cultural practices of seeing, the articles in this book contribute to the ongoing shift in the fields of art history and medieval history from considerations of vision to those of visuality.
Review(s)
“Overall, the contributions provide important insights into medieval visualities, especially western, Christian ones.” (Patricia Blessing, in The Medieval Review, 22.06.01)
“This is a fascinating and enjoyable book, full of stimulating insights. I would recommend it to anyone seeking to understand the nature of late medieval religiosity.” (Lola Sharon Davidson, in Parergon, 39/2, 2022, p. 168)
« On doit (…) reconnaître à ce volume le mérite d’avoir croisé l’histoire de l’art à l’histoire du visuel en s’interrogeant non seulement sur ce qui était vu, mais aussi sur la manière dont cela était vu et, plus largement, perçu. Il propose une esthétique de la réception qui ne limite pas la visualité médiévale à un phénomène d’optique ou de vision, mais l’envisage comme un spectre capable de conférer des sens hétérogènes, parfois contradictoires, au terme « voir ». Au sein d’une entreprise collective dans laquelle l’œil et l’acte de voir fondent chaque réflexion sur des objets et des modèles iconographiques, l’étude des œuvres nourrit ainsi l’histoire de la visualité, et réciproquement. » (Naïs Virenque, dans Le Moyen Âge, 129/1, 2024, p. 270)
Summary
Over the last two decades the historiography of medieval art has been defined by two seemingly contradictory trends: a focus on questions of visuality, and more recently an emphasis on materiality. The latter, which has encouraged multi-sensorial approaches to medieval art, has come to be perceived as a counterpoint to the study of visuality as defined in ocularcentric terms.
Bringing together specialists from different areas of art history, this book grapples with this dialectic and poses new avenues for reconciling these two opposing tendencies. The essays in this volume demonstrate the necessity of returning to questions of visuality, taking into account the insights gained from the ‘material turn’. They highlight conceptions of vision that attribute a haptic quality to the act of seeing and draw on bodily perception to shed new light on visuality in the Middle Ages.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgements, List of Illustrations
Colour Plates
Introduction: A Return to Medieval Visuality after the Material Turn — RAPHAÈLE PREISINGER
‘Visual Piety’ and Visual Theory: Was There a Paradigm Shift? — BERTHOLD HUB
Fortress of Form, Robber of Consciousness: Theorizing Visuality in Islam — WENDY M. K. SHAW
De spiritu et anima: The Cistercians, the Image, and Imagination — JENS RÜFFER
The Liveliness of the Methexic Image — BISSERA V. PENTCHEVA
Radiance and Image on the Breast: Seeing Medieval Jewellery — SILKE TAMMEN
Reliquaries and the Boundaries of Vision: Relics, Crystals, Mirrors and the ‘Vision Effect’ — CYNTHIA HAHN
Channelling the Gaze: Squints in Late Medieval Screens — TINA BAWDEN
Index
