Description
Book SynopsisExplore the rich history and influence of Christian art from Antiquity to the present day.
Michelle Brown traces the rich history of Christian art, crossing boundaries to explore how art has reflected and stimulated a response to the teachings of Christ, and to Christian thought and experience across the ages.
Embracing much of the history of art in the West and parts of the Middle East, Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australasia, Michelle considers art of the earliest Christians to the modern day. Featuring articles by invited contributors on subjects including Icons; Renaissance Florence; Rubens and the Counter-Reformation; Religious Folk Art; Jewish Artists; Christian Themes; Making the St John’s Bible, and Christianity and Contemporary Art in North America, Christian Art is an ideal survey of the subject for all those interested in the world’s artistic heritage.
• Comprehensive and authoritative text from the Early Christian period to the modern day
• Wide international coverage
• Feature articles on special subjects by a team of experts from around the world
Table of ContentsIntroduction
What is Christian Art?
1. The Art of the Earliest Christians
Judaic and Graeco-Roman Roots
2. In the Sign of the Cross
Constantine and the Entry of Christianity into the Social Mainstream
3. Martyrs and Mosaics
The Early Churches of Italy
4. The Christian Orient
The Christian Art of Palestine, Armenia, Georgia and Syria
5. Out of Africa
The Art of the Churches of Coptic Egypt, Ethiopia and Nubia
6. The New Rome
Emperor Justinian and Early Byzantine Art
7. The Art of Orthodoxy
Byzantium and the Iconic Tradition
Icons: An Icon Writer’s Perspective (Revd Regan O’Callaghan)
8. The Rise of Islam
Islam and Christian Art
Christian Art in Muslim Contexts (Professor Sheila S. Blair and Professor Jonathan M. Bloom)
9. Barbarians!
Art and the Re-conversion of the West
10. The Art of Imperialism
Art in the Carolingian and Ottonian Empires
‘Words Passed Down’: Carolingian Pictures of Translation and Transmission (Professor Herbert L. Kessler)
11. Roods, Rituals and Christian Rule
Later Anglo-Saxon Art and the Benedictine Reform
12. Romanesque
Pilgrims, Crusaders and European Style
Monastic Aesthetics and the Rise of Gothic Art (Professor Conrad Rudolph)
13. Gothic
14. Italian Gothic
Art and the Seeds of Rebirth
Christian Art and the Italian City-State (Dr Griffith Mann)
15. The Cultural Life of the Italian City-States
Humanists, Artists and the Rise of the Renaissance
Manuscripts, Humanism and Patronage in Renaissance Florence (Dr Mark Evans)
16. The Italian High Renaissance
Madonnas, Popes and Princes
Brazen Images and Sounding Brass: The Significance and Use of Bronze in Christian Contexts (Dr Victoria Avery)
17. The Northern Renaissance
Merchants and Mysteries
18. Keeping Your Head in Times of Change
Reformation, Resistance and the Rise of Protestantism
The Dispute on Images During the Reformation and Counter-Reformation (Professor Iole Carlettini)
19. Venice the Serene
Mercantile Meditation and the Cost of Sublime Art
From Counter-Reformation to Baroque: Aspects of the Arts in Rome (Professor Daniela Gallavotti Cavallero)
20. Protestantism and the Catholic Counter-Reformation
Domestic Piety, Mannerism and the Theatricality of the Baroque
Rubens and the Theatre of the Counter-Reformation: Biblical Imagery made Flesh (Professor Michelle P. Brown)
21. The Age of Enlightenment
Rationalism, Neo-Classicism and the New Imperialism
The Rise of the Study of the History of Christian Art (Professor Nancy Netzer)
22. Mysticism and Romanticism Reborn
Blake, the Ancients and the Art of Nonconformity
Permission, Prohibition, Patronage and Methodism: A Denomination Engages with Art (Dr Peter Forsaith)
23. Faith and the Origins of North American Art
A New Eden
Religious Folk Art (Professor Virginia Raguin)
24. Industrial Innovation, Aesthetic Nostalgia
Romanticism, Pre-Raphaelitism and the Rediscovery of Medievalism
25. Art for a New Age
The Realists, Impressionists and Symbolists
26. The Shock of the New
Mechanization, Expressionism, Spiritual Realism and the Origins of Abstraction
Jewish Artists, Christian Themes (Emily D. Bilski)
27. The Impact of Modernity
Destruction, Creation, Abstraction
28. The Impact of the Second World War29. The Journey Continues
Earth Art: Landscape, Art and Eco-Theology
30. Innovation and Tradition
Searching for the Spiritual in Contemporary Art
The Scribe Speaks: Making the St John’s Bible (Donald Jackson)
31. Quo Vadis?
Where do we go from here?
Christianity and Contemporary Art in North America: The CIVA Case Study (Dr James Romaine)
32. Some Concluding Thoughts
References
Glossary
