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  3. The Cross, the Gospels, and the Work of Art in the Carolingian Age
  • Cited by 6
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    • Publisher:
      Cambridge University Press
      Publication date:
      15 March 2019
      04 April 2019
      ISBN:
      9781108553636
      9781108428811
      DOI:
      https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108553636
      Dimensions:
      (253 x 177 mm)
      Weight & Pages:
      0.98kg, 322 Pages
      Dimensions:
      Weight & Pages:
      • Subjects:
      Art, Western Art
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    Subjects:
    Art, Western Art
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    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

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