Strangeness and recognition : mystery and familiarity in Renaissance paintings of Christ / Chloë R. Reddaway

Author:: Reddaway, Chloë R.
Published:: Turnhout : Brepols, [2019]
Copyright Date:: ©2019
Physical Description:: 230 pages : color illustrations, portraits ; 29 cm.

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Series:

Arts and the sacred (Series)

Contents:

The problem and potential of religious language and art -- Naming strangeness -- Recognising Christ -- Strangeness in Renaissance painting -- Unexpected iconography -- Time and place -- Always and nowhere -- Revelation and visions -- Open images.

Summary:

How do you paint a figure who is fully human and fully divine? How do you paint Christ? 'Strangeness and Recognition' takes a fresh look at well-known Renaissance paintings of Christ and shows how surprising and deeply 'strange' they can be. This book brings an imaginative and affective theological perspective to the viewing experience as it explores the twin roles played by 'strangeness' and 'recognition' in responding to the challenge of creating and relating to images of Christ. By confounding expectations and defamiliarising subject matter, the ambiguity and mystery of these paintings disturbs viewers' expectations and reconnects them with the extraordinary mystery of the Incarnation. While neither words nor images can fully describe God, through a questioning, challenging dialogue with paintings, whose visual language disrupts itself, viewers can be brought to the limits of their own understanding and can enter into transformative and personlike relationships with paintings. These personal exchanges lead through estrangement to the rediscovery of the familiar within the strange and the renewed within the familiar, and to the ultimately unspeakable, unpaintable, mystery of the Incarnation.

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ISBN:

9782503581200 hardcover
250358120X hardcover

Bibliography Note:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 209-220) and index.

Endowment Note:

Roy Laurens Bovard Renaissance Fund

View MARC record | catkey: 28916356