Cart
Free US shipping over $10
Proud to be B-Corp

The Living Icon in Byzantium and Italy Paroma Chatterjee (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor)

The Living Icon in Byzantium and Italy By Paroma Chatterjee (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor)

The Living Icon in Byzantium and Italy by Paroma Chatterjee (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor)


$130.09
Condition - New
Only 2 left

Summary

This is the first book to explore the development and significance of the vita icon. Through the aesthetic and religious history of the vita icon, Paroma Chatterjee investigates the shared problems of the Orthodox East and the Latin West concerning visual representation and the very definition of sanctity.

The Living Icon in Byzantium and Italy Summary

The Living Icon in Byzantium and Italy: The Vita Image, Eleventh to Thirteenth Centuries by Paroma Chatterjee (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor)

This is the first book to explore the emergence and function of a novel pictorial format in the Middle Ages, the vita icon, which displayed the magnified portrait of a saint framed by scenes from his or her life. The vita icon was used for depicting the most popular figures in the Orthodox calendar and, in the Latin West, was deployed most vigorously in the service of Francis of Assisi. This book offers a compelling account of how this type of image embodied and challenged the prevailing structures of vision, representation and sanctity in Byzantium and among the Franciscans in Italy between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries. Paroma Chatterjee uncovers the complexities of the philosophical and theological issues that had long engaged both the medieval East and West, such as the fraught relations between words and images, relics and icons, a representation and its subject, and the very nature of holy presence.

The Living Icon in Byzantium and Italy Reviews

'Paroma Chatterjee's book presents a precise and intelligent study of the vita icons of saints produced in Italy and in Byzantium. Her readings of these distinctive works are informed by current discussions in the literature and by broader theoretical concerns. As such, this is a book that builds a scrupulous and articulate case for a fluid and dynamic understanding of the icon.' Charles Barber, Princeton University
' a thoughtful, nuanced, theoretically sophisticated, and provocative study that will challenge the reader.' Anne Derbes, Hood College

About Paroma Chatterjee (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor)

Paroma Chatterjee is Assistant Professor of the History of Art at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Her research has been supported by a Dumbarton Oaks Junior Fellowship, a Samuel H. Kress Travel Fellowship, a Mellon dissertation writing fellowship, a Penn Humanities Forum postdoctoral fellowship, and a post-doctoral fellowship at the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America. Her work has appeared in, or is forthcoming from, the Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, Art History, Word and Image, Dumbarton Oaks Papers, the Oxford Art Journal and RES: The Journal of Anthropology and Aesthetics.

Table of Contents

Introduction: the metaphor of the 'living icon'; 1. The saint in the text; 2. The saint in the image; 3. 'Wrought by the finger of God'; 4. Depicting Francis' secret; Epilogue: Francis in Constantinople.

Additional information

NPB9781107034969
9781107034969
1107034965
The Living Icon in Byzantium and Italy: The Vita Image, Eleventh to Thirteenth Centuries by Paroma Chatterjee (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor)
New
Hardback
Cambridge University Press
2014-03-17
297
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a new book - be the first to read this copy. With untouched pages and a perfect binding, your brand new copy is ready to be opened for the first time

Customer Reviews - The Living Icon in Byzantium and Italy