Search results for ""author j. e. a. kroesen""

Throughout the centuries, commemoration of the events happened at Golgotha has been given form and expression in Western European Christian tradition in two different ways: through the visual arts (architecture and sculpture), and within the liturgy. This book gives a diachronic outline of the development of the Holy Sepulchre as a central theme within the tradition of Western European Christianity. Its aim is to cover both representation and function. Two lines are followed in the study, corresponding to these two aspects. The first analyses the historical development of the Holy Sepulchre in its many manifestations from late Antiquity up to the present day, with particular attention to the cultural and historic context. This section is well illustrated with over a hundred photographs (partly in colour) and many ground-plans. The second section consists of an analysis of the use of the Holy Sepulchre throughout the centuries, including a description of the liturgical function of the Easter sepulchre during the Holy Week and Easter, and its role in worship. The final chapter presents the main areas in which various aspects of manifestations and function complement each other.

Read more less

Spain and Portugal possess a wealth of medieval churches, including many with original furnishings. Most outstanding of all is the altarpiece or 'retablo', the epitome of Iberian ecclesiastical art. With its exceptional dimensions, architectural structure and extensive imagery, it became clearly distinct from altarpieces elsewhere in Europe. The retable cannot be understood simply as an artistic genre, but must be viewed in its spatial surroundings and against its religious and socio-cultural background. In the present study, the medieval altarpiece in the Iberian Peninsula is approached as a witness to liturgy, faith and devotion. Part I sketches its morphological development from its origins around 1100 to the end of the Gothic age in the first half of the sixteenth century. Part II analyses the retable in its spatial context, formed by the architecture of the church building and other elements of the interior such as the choir. In Part III the retable is discussed as a means of communication, conveying a message between the patron who commissioned it and the recipients. Both as an art object and as a bearer of imagery, the altar retable played an important part in the staging of liturgy in the medieval church of the Iberian Peninsula.

Read more less

Sacred spaces in contemporary Western culture are subject to a dynamics in which the traditional forms of ritual are increasingly marginalised and new forms emerge. In Western Europe churches are growing empty, whereas new rituals - for instance those surrounding the victims of violence - are gaining prominence and are mediatized in a variety of ways. The destruction of churches, the rise of increasingly multi-religious urban ritual spaces, the remarkable vitality of places of pilgrimage and war cemeteries and the growing popularity of lieux de memoire in general show the changing landscapes of ritual spaces in modern Western culture.This book aims at describing and analyzing the profound changes and developments that are presently taking place. In the main part of this volume the broad field of ritual spaces is explored in contributions on various modern 'sacred places'. The case studies range from traditional places of religious worship, to the Rothko Chapel in Houston, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., and the Berlin Holocaust Memorial; from the Tor Tre Teste Millenium Church in Rome to the Columbine School Shooting Memorial in Colorado, the memorials for Pim Fortuyn and Theo van Gogh and virtual ritual sites. The dynamics of ritual space is further explored in various in-depth essays on the dynamics of space and ritual, musealisation and memorial culture.

Read more less