Images of Piety: The iconography of traditional religion in late medieval Wales

ISBN-13: 9781841712086 / Angielski / Miękka / 2000 / 174 str.

Gray, Madeleine

Opis

Religious imagery was used to both stimulate what was already known and to communicate new, and often complex theological ideas. Madeleine Gray examines the imagery of medieval Wales found in parish churches, cathedrals and public areas of monastic buildings and explores the dichotomous role in which images held different levels of meaning for an audience with different literacy capabilities. She looks at images of maidenhood, motherhood, sanctity, pity, vice and virtue, and at liturgy and literacy, and the destruction of images.

An interesting and unusual work on a little-explored field of study. By means of the iconographic evidence, the author aims to provide a counterbalance to the traditional studies of medieval welsh piety with their heavy emphasis on poetic material. There are interesting and suggestive divergences between the ideas communicated by literary evidence and those suggested by the surviving visual culture. In considering the importance of visual imagery as evidence for religious beliefs, the part played by imagery in the formation and reinforcement of a distinctive spirituality is not ignored. The work concentrates on surviving images from the ‘golden century’, but patterns of destruction and preservation are identified, including rare works lost through poverty and neglect.