Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice book in great condition. Pages in excellent condition. No notes or highlighting. Very slight tan to page edges. Gift message in front. See images. Fantastic book.

About the book >.>.> Art for private devotion or ‘props in an intimate theatre of spirituality’ as Henk van Os characterizes it includes some of the most extraordinary as well as the most beautiful objects created in the Late Middle Ages. Selecting the best preserved and most interesting examples of devotional art made in Europe in the two centuries before the Reformation in silver and gold in wood on parchment or paper but particularly in paint on panel – Henk van Os dramatically draws aside the veil on the prayer and meditation ‘exercises’ which the clergy and high-placed laity once practiced using these objects as an aid towards their passionately desired goal of communion with Jesus. Recently it has been recognised that medieval women (particularly nuns denied the priests’ privilege of handling God’s Body) led the ‘avantgarde’ in Late Medieval spirituality. Addressing this and other issues The Art of Devotion at last makes available to the public a readable modern well informed perspective on medieval religious art and iconography. It covers fundamental attitudes to images the connection between art relics and visions the relationship of public and private art the r?le of local saints and religious movements such as the Netherlandish ‘devotio moderna’ – all so as to bring alive the instruments (now called art) of a vanished world of touching faith. These images were often literally touched. or dressed besides being seen and prayed to. Indeed they were a practical purpose- ful and heartwarming part of everyday life. as this book explains with humour insight and sympathy as well as scholarly knowledge. (MP)