Skip to content
Register Sign in Wishlist

The Bronze Object in the Middle Ages

£42.99

Award Winner
  • Date Published: November 2020
  • availability: Available
  • format: Paperback
  • isbn: 9781107559103

£ 42.99
Paperback

Add to cart Add to wishlist

Other available formats:
Hardback, eBook


Looking for an inspection copy?

This title is not currently available on inspection

Description
Product filter button
Description
Contents
Resources
Courses
About the Authors
  • This book presents the first full length study in English of monumental bronzes in the Middle Ages. Taking as its point of departure the common medieval reception of bronze sculpture as living or animated, the study closely analyzes the practice of lost wax casting (cire perdue) in western Europe and explores the cultural responses to large scale bronzes in the Middle Ages. Starting with mining, smelting, and the production of alloys, and ending with automata, water clocks and fountains, the book uncovers networks of meaning around which bronze sculptures were produced and consumed. The book is a path-breaking contribution to the study of metalwork in the Middle Ages and to the re-evaluation of medieval art more broadly, presenting an understudied body of work to reconsider what the materials and techniques embodied in public monuments meant to the medieval spectator.

    • Provides a concise overview of the use of bronze in sculpture in the Middle Ages
    • Explores how people in the Middle Ages responded to new ideas and technologies
    • Represents major rethinking about the place of efficacy, agency and animation in medieval art
    Read more

    Awards

    • Winner, 2017 ICMA Annual Book Prize, International Center of Medieval Art

    Reviews & endorsements

    'Ittai Weinryb's The Bronze Object in the Middle Ages gives us a study that comes close to being the gleeful opposite of a whistlestop tour of the masterpieces of medieval sculpture in bronze, for all that it examines a number of them en passant, and in a way it is only the choice of the word 'object' that ever so slightly gives the game away. For while statues may just about qualify as objects, things such as doors, fonts, fountains, reliquaries, bells and even mechanical clocks and other automata more truly fit the bill, and they soon emerge as the main heroes here.' David Ekserdjian, The Arts Newspaper

    'Ittai Weinryb's The Bronze Object in the Middle Ages thus signals a welcome, provocative, occasionally challenging, and decidedly fruitful addition to the field. A corpus-specific survey it is not. Instead, Weinryb offers a sustained and many-faceted meditation on how bronze objects, broadly defined, were conceived, perceived, and experienced; how they interacted with their environments and their communities; how they embodied marvelous technologies and different practices of knowledge - in short, how the bronze object was significant.' Joseph Salvatore Ackley, CAA Reviews

    '… [A]mbitious in scope and philosophical and imaginative in its realization. … both provocative and stimulating of further study along unexpected avenues of thought.' Cathy Oakes, History

    'Ittai Weinryb has written an absorbing and stimulating book about the multivalent meanings of bronze in the Middle Ages and how those meanings are expressed in items created through the lost-wax bronze casting technique. … the book's ambition, the originality of its approach, the richness of its arguments, and the verve with which it is written will undoubtedly ensure its lasting significance for anyone interested in medieval objects, bronze or otherwise.' Douglas Brine, The Medieval Review

    'It is rarely said of an art historical study that it not only contributes interesting details to a specialized topic but also has the potential to change our awareness and understanding of the field.' Gerhard Lutz, Speculum

    'This is a thought-provoking and ambitious study of monumental cast bronze objects produced through the lost wax process during the Middle Ages. Ittai Weinryb examines a wide range of objects and textual sources, and seeks to move beyond the questions of style and Romanitas that have traditionally dominated literature about medieval bronzes. … The study encompasses doors, bells, fountains and figurative sculpture, concentrating mainly on the modern regions of Germany and Italy. The writing is engaging, and the arguments are supported by excellent illustrations.' L. Cleaver, The English Historical Review

    See more reviews

    Customer reviews

    Not yet reviewed

    Be the first to review

    Review was not posted due to profanity

    ×

    , create a review

    (If you're not , sign out)

    Please enter the right captcha value
    Please enter a star rating.
    Your review must be a minimum of 12 words.

    How do you rate this item?

    ×

    Product details

    • Date Published: November 2020
    • format: Paperback
    • isbn: 9781107559103
    • length: 318 pages
    • dimensions: 254 x 176 x 16 mm
    • weight: 0.608kg
    • contains: 12 b/w illus. 108 colour illus.
    • availability: Available
  • Table of Contents

    Introduction: of bronze things
    1. Making
    2. Signification
    3. Acting
    4. Being
    Appendix 1. Adhémar of Chabannes (988–1034)
    Appendix 2. Hugh of Fouilloy (c.1096–c.1172)
    Appendix 3. On the Benediction of Bells, excerpt from the Gellone Sacramentary.

  • Author

    Ittai Weinryb, Bard Graduate Center, New York
    Ittai Weinryb is an Assistant Professor at the Bard Graduate Center, New York.

    Awards

    • Winner, 2017 ICMA Annual Book Prize, International Center of Medieval Art

Related Books

Sorry, this resource is locked

Please register or sign in to request access. If you are having problems accessing these resources please email lecturers@cambridge.org

Register Sign in
Please note that this file is password protected. You will be asked to input your password on the next screen.

» Proceed

You are now leaving the Cambridge University Press website. Your eBook purchase and download will be completed by our partner www.ebooks.com. Please see the permission section of the www.ebooks.com catalogue page for details of the print & copy limits on our eBooks.

Continue ×

Continue ×

Continue ×
warning icon

Turn stock notifications on?

You must be signed in to your Cambridge account to turn product stock notifications on or off.

Sign in Create a Cambridge account arrow icon
×

Find content that relates to you

Join us online

This site uses cookies to improve your experience. Read more Close

Are you sure you want to delete your account?

This cannot be undone.

Cancel

Thank you for your feedback which will help us improve our service.

If you requested a response, we will make sure to get back to you shortly.

×
Please fill in the required fields in your feedback submission.
×