Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Books
  3. The Cross, the Gospels, and the Work of Art in the Carolingian Age
  • Cited by 4
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
March 2019
Print publication year:
2019
Online ISBN:
9781108553636
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108553636
Subjects:
Art, Western Art
Information

Book description

In this book, Beatrice E. Kitzinger explores the power of representation in the Carolingian period, demonstrating how images were used to assert the value and efficacy of art works. She focuses on the cross, Christianity's central sign, which simultaneously commemorates sacred history, functions in the present, and prepares for the end of time. It is well recognized that the visual attributes of the cross were designed to communicate its theology relative to history and eschatology; Kitzinger argues that early medieval artists also developed a formal language to articulate its efficacious powers in the present day. Defined through form and text as the sign of the present, the image of the cross articulated the instrumentality of religious objects and built spaces. Whereas medieval and modern scholars have pondered the theological problems posed by representation, Kitzinger here proposes a visual argument that affirms the self-reflexive value of art works in the early medieval West. Introducing little-known sources, she re-evaluates both the image of the cross and the project of book-making in an expanded field of Carolingian painting.

Reviews

‘Over the past decades, multiple studies have analysed early medieval representations of the Cross, but Beatrice Kitzinger’s fresh approach to the subject sets this book apart from previous publications … Kitzinger’s probing, thoughtful, highly original study stands as a major contribution not only to modern understanding of Carolingian crosses and illuminated gospel books, but to medieval image theory as a whole.’

Celia Chazelle Source: The Burlington Magazine

‘This active component of the iconography is well articulated throughout Kitzinger’s scholarly volume.’

Eric Ramírez-Weaver Source: Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies

Refine List

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

Contents

Contents
References

Metrics

Altmetric attention score

Full text views

Total number of HTML views: 0
Total number of PDF views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

Book summary page views

Total views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

* Views captured on Cambridge Core between #date#. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

Usage data cannot currently be displayed.