Short description:

Examining the history of altar decorations, this study of the visual liturgy grapples with many of the previous theoretical frameworks to reveal the evolution and function of these ritual objects.

Long description:

Examining the history of altar decorations, this study of the visual liturgy grapples with many of the previous theoretical frameworks to reveal the evolution and function of these ritual objects.

Using an interdisciplinary approach, this book uses traditional art-historical methodologies and media technology theory to reexamine ritual objects. Previous analysis has not considered the in-between nature of these objects as deliberate and virtual conduits to the divine. The liturgy, the altarpiece, the altar environment, relics, and their reliquaries are media. In a series of case studies, several objects tell a different story about culture and society in medieval Europe. In essence, they reveal that media and media technologies generate and modulate the individual and collective structure of feelings of sacredness among assemblages of humans and nonhumans.

The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, medieval studies, early modern studies, and architectural history.

Table of Contents:

List of Figures

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1.  There are No Medieval Media? 

Part I  

2. Media, Mediator, And Intercessor: Remembering the Loca Sancta  

3. Mass Media and Liturgical Performance 

Part II  

4. Religious Technology and The Vi?rge Ouvrante  

5. Virtually There: Expounding the Tensions Between Planar and Virtual Space Within the Ghent Altarpiece  

6. Reflections

Bibliography

Index