Stories in stone

Sample

Ann Saunders

The comprehensive, prize-winning guide introduces the reader, whether visitor or resident, to the unparalleled visual wealth and historical interest contained in London art and architecture. Ann Saunders' lively style, enthusiasm and narrative gift bring her topographical survey to life, enriching it with historical information and with details of the people who built and lived in London. One of the book's great strengths is its thorough and sympathetic treatment of London's suburbs, with their little known wealth of old village centers, medieval churches and fine houses. A great city deserves to be celebrated and this book does its subject proud.

Sample

Roger Sherman Loomis

"The medieval legend of the Grail, a tale about the search for supreme mystical experience, has never ceased to intrigue writers and scholars by its wildly variegated forms: the settings have ranged from Britain to the Punjab to the Temple of Zeus at Dodona; the Grail itself has been described as the chalice used by Christ at the Last Supper, a stone with miraculous youth-preserving virtues, or a vessel containing a man's head swimming in blood. In his classic exploration of the major versions, Roger Sherman Loomis shows how the Grail, once a Celtic vessel of plenty, evolved into the Christian Grail with miraculous powers. Loomis bases his argument on historical examples involving the major motifs and characters in the legends, beginning with the Arthurian legend recounted in the 1180 French poem by Chrétien de Troyes. Loomis's book builds suspense as he proceeds from one puzzle to the next in revealing the meaning behind the legends"--

Sample

Elizabeth C. Parker & Charles T. Little

The walrus-ivory Cloisters Cross, a masterpiece of English Romanesque art, has long been a centerpiece of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Cloisters collection, a separate museum in Fort Tryon Park (New York City) devoted exclusively to the art of the Middle Ages. In fact, ever since its acquisition in 1963, the cross has been the subject of speculation and mystery. The dearth of solid information about its provenance prior to its ownership by a Yugoslav art dealer and restorer has generated a number of tantalizing theories as to its origin, function, and early history, although no one has denied the exceptional quality of its workmanship or the unparalleled complexity of its design. The story of the cross's creation, survival, and meaning is explored in this fascinating book. Of special interest is the sheer number of figures that populate the compact scenes on both sides of the cross, and of biblical passages diligently inscribed on individual scrolls held by Old Testament prophets across its surface. The cross is a tour de force of sculptural artistry, which holds within its small physical scope an iconographic encyclopedia of learning almost unmatched in Medieval Art. This comprehensive study is addressed to the genuinely curious visitor to the Cloisters collection, as well as to the specialized scholar. The authors have included a systematic description of the intricate construction of the cross and an analysis of every detail of its carving. They offer substantial new insights to the findings of previous scholarly research as to possible meanings and context, in terms of both the liturgy and the intellectual milieu of the twelfth century in which it has been placed. The attribution to the abbey of Bury St. Edmunds—the name by which the cross was first known—is discussed at length. In rich and exacting detail the authors reveal, as do the splendid new color photographs by Malcolm Varon, just how the Cloisters Cross, in its imagery and consummate workmanship, bears "witness to a level of erudition and artistry seldom seen in the twelfth century or later." (MET)

Sample

Robert Ousterhout and Leslie Brubaker

A new generation of American medieval art historians explores how sacred images were perceived during the Middle Ages in Byzantium and Europe. Focusing on the relationship between a particular type of medieval art - the sacred image - and its audience, the contributors consider the part played in this relationship by the image's context, whether on the page of a book or on the wall of a building. The book allows the reader to see the fluidity of the sacred image, showing how factors including audience, purpose, and setting affected the form it took. The essays cover a full range of images, including panel paintings, altarpieces, manuscripts, and wall paintings, and a rich variety of socioreligious settings, private, monastic, and imperial. Also examined are the differences between images produced for a single viewer and those produced for communities; images produced for private contemplation or devotion and those that functioned within a liturgical setting; and the varying ways in which sacred images affected women and men, religious and secular communities, rulers and the ruled.