Illuminating metalwork : metal, object, and image in Medieval manuscripts / edited by Joseph Salvatore Ackley and Shannon L. Wearing.

Berlin : De Gruyter, [2022]

©2022

xiii, 530 pages : color illustrations (chiefly color), facsimiles, map ; 25 cm.

The presence of gold, silver, and other metals is a hallmark of decorated manuscripts, the very characteristic that makes them "illuminated"? Medieval artists often used metal pigment and leaf to depict metal objects both real and imagined, such as chalices, crosses, tableware, and even idols; the luminosity of these representations contrasted pointedly with the surrounding paints, enriching the page and dazzling the viewer. To elucidate this key artistic tradition, this volume represents the first in-depth scholarly assessment of the depiction of precious-metal objects in manuscripts and the media used to conjure them. From Paris to the Abbasid caliphate, and from Ethiopia to Bruges, the case studies gathered here forge novel approaches to the materiality and pictoriality of illumination. In exploring the semiotic, material, iconographic, and technical dimensions of these manuscripts, the authors reveal the canny ways in which painters generated metallic presence on the page.

Metal, object, and image in Medieval manuscripts

Online version: Illuminating metalwork. Berlin ; Boston : Walter de Gruyter GmbH, [2022]

English

August 01, 2022

Includes bibliographical references (pages 463-504) and indexes.