![]() Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993.īrown, Peter. Translated as Likeness and Presence: A History of the Image before the Era of Art. Several chapters in particular explore the cult of saints and its various materializations: cult and votive images of saints within the context of funerary portraits early and middle Byzantine icons and iconostases and western medieval images of saints as well as icons brought to the west from Byzantium. Among his many in-depth interrogations about the place of image in medieval culture(s) is a set of explorations of images of saints. Beck, 1990.īelting’s masterwork traces the history and transformation of the Christian image through vast temporal and topographical geographies. Bild und Kult: Eine Geschichte des Bildes vor dem Zeitalter der Kunst. A special focus is on the Saint-Amand d’Elnone monastery between 10.īelting, Hans. The book explores the cult of saints in medieval Europe between the 4th and 12th centuries by examining a multitude of hagiographic cycles in manuscripts, stained glass, reliquaries, and metalwork. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1994. The Medieval Cult of Saints: Formations and Transformations. The article focuses on the 11th and 12th centuries, and complicates the concept of what the author calls “the one-dimensional, enthusiastic but docile public” by exploring four instances when public ceremonies produced an effect that was both varied and very distinct from what the sponsors of these ceremonies intended.Ībou-el-Haj, Barbara. “The Audiences for the Medieval Cult of Saints.” Gesta 30.1 (1991): 3–15. Reference works abound that study saints’ attributes as they appear in art, especially in medieval and early modern periods those are arranged as visual encyclopedias accessible to lay readers, such as Giorgi 2003, or indices aimed at specialists, such as Rochelle 1994.Ībou-el-Haj, Barbara. Stained glass proved to be another fruitful area of study, in particular windows dedicated to saints at such churches as Chartres and Bourges, as explored in Manhes-Deremble 1993 or Kemp 1997. One important area of study that has gained currency in the last two decades is an illustrated hagiography (e.g., Hahn 2001), although studies on the subject already appeared in the middle of the 20th century, most notably Wormald 1952. Some studies focus on the foundation of its cult and its subsequent transformation, as in Brown 1981, while others specifically focus on visual production associated with the cult and its reception, as discussed in Abou-el-Haj 1994. ![]() There is a plethora of general studies on the cult of the saints, and the art and patronage associated with them. It does not include sources that treat sacred spaces dedicated to saints-churches, shrines, chapels-as a whole. The following bibliography provides but a sample of key studies that address specific topics with a focus on Western medieval and Byzantine art: images of saints in churches and monasteries art along pilgrimage roads relics and reliquaries and saints and piety. ![]() In other words, to explore a history of medieval art and the cult of saints one would have to write a history of medieval art as a whole. ![]() Saints’ likenesses were fashioned in wood and metal, paint and stone, ivory and textile their lives were narrated and visualized in scores of manuscripts. The faithful undertook pilgrimages to holy shrines in order to secure saints’ help and to petition them with prayer. Countless churches and shrines were dedicated to well-known as well as local saints, their visual programs coalescing around reliquaries that held the bodily remains or contact relics of holy men and women. ![]() Patron saints formed a crucial part of the devotee’s spiritual life, believed to provide intercession, work miracles, and model pious behavior. Between the 5th and 16th centuries, saints and their images grounded Christian belief and shaped its practices. It can be said that medieval art, in great part, is predicated on the engagement with the cult of the saints. ![]()
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