Dictionary Of Women In Religious Art

A self-contained topical dictionary of over 2,000 entries, this reference includes, entries on themes, subjects, motifs, and symbolism associated with women in religious art, and women artists, critics, historians, and saints who influenced the representation of women in religious art. This is a companion volume to "Dictionary of Christian Art". Includes 100 illustrations.

This "rich and appropriate resource for understanding women's cultural history and their place in the religions of the world" ("Worship") provides basic information about not only the images of women in religious art, but about their roles in society. 2,000 entries. 101 halftones.

The present volumes is the result of an international collaboration of researchers who are excellent within their respective fields: interpretation of texts, studies of rites, archaeology, architecture, history of art, and cultural anthropology. They met for two conferences to discuss the significance of rites of ablution, initiation, and baptism and their interpretation in Late Antiquity, Early Judaism, and Early Christianity. The volume establishes a new international standard of research within these fields of scholarship.

This volume offers 37 original essays from leading scholars on the crucial topics, issues, methods, and resources for studying and teaching religion and the arts.

The understanding and enjoyment of a work of art depends as much on the story it depicts as on the artist's execution of it. But what were once biblical or classical commonplaces are not so readily recognizable today. This book relates in a succinct and readable way the themes, sacred and secular, on which the repertoire of Western art is based. Combined here in a single volume are religious, classical, and historical themes, figures of moral allegory, and characters from romantic poetry that appeared throughout paintings and sculpture in Western art before and after the Renaissance. More than just a dictionary, this text places these subjects in their narrative, historical, or mythological context and uses extensive cross-referencing to enhance and clarify the meanings of these themes for the reader. The definitive work by which others are compared, this volume has become an indispensable handbook for students and general appreciators alike. This wholly redesigned second edition includes a new insert of images chosen by the author, as well as a new preface and index to highlight the ideas, beliefs, and social and religious customs that form the background of much of this subject matter.

First Published in 1997. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Revelatory essays on the Mary figures of the Bible.

Katherine of Alexandria was a major object of devotion within medieval Europe, ranking second only to the Virgin Mary in the canon of female saints. Yet despite her undoubted importance, relatively little is known about the significance and function of her cult within the German-speaking territories that stood at the heart of Europe. Anne Simon's study adds a welcome new interdisciplinary perspective to the study of Saint Katherine and the wider ecclesiastical landscape of a medieval Europe poised on the edge of religious change. Taking as a case study the wealthy and politically influential merchant city of Nuremberg, this book draws on a wide variety of textual and visual sources to explore interrelated themes: the shaping of urban space through the cult of Saint Katherine; her role in the moulding and advertising patrician identity and alliances through cultural patronage; and patrician use of the saint to showcase the city's political, economic, cultural and religious importance at the heart of the Holy Roman Empire. Further , the book reveals the construction of exemplarity in Saint Katherine's legend and miracles and their resonance within the context of the city and the Dominican Convent of Saint Katherine, whose nuns came from the same status-aware, confident patrician elite that so loyally supported successive Emperors. Filling a significant gap in current research, the work has much to offer scholars of medieval history, hagiography, art history, German studies, cultural and urban studies. Hence it not only expands our understanding of Saint Katherine's importance in German-speaking territories, but also adds to the picture of her cult in its European perspective.