Visual Constructs of Jerusalem (Cultural Encounters in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages) - Softcover

Bianca Kuhnel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 2503551041 ISBN 13: 9782503551043

Publisher: Brepols Publishers, 2015

Synopsis

The special position of Jerusalem among the cities of the world stems from a long history shared by the three Abrahamic religions, and the belief that the city reflected a heavenly counterpart. Because of this unique combination, Jerusalem is generally seen as extending along a vertical axis stretching between past, present, and future. However, through its many 'earthly' representations, Jerusalem has an equally important horizontal dimension: it is represented elsewhere in all media, from two-dimensional maps to monumental renderings of the architecture and topography of the city's loca sancta.

In documenting the increasing emphasis on studying the earthly proliferations of the city, the current book witnesses a shift in theoretical and methodological insights since the publication of The Real and Ideal Jerusalem in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Art in 1998. Its main focus is on European translations of Jerusalem in images, objects, places, and spaces that evoke the city through some physical similarity or by denomination and cult - all visual and material aids to commemoration and worship from afar. The book discusses both well-known and long-neglected examples, the forms of cult they generate and the virtual pilgrimages they serve, and calls attention to their written and visual equivalents and companions. In so doing, it opens a whole new vista onto the summa of representations of Jerusalem.

About this title

Review:

"...this volume is an important milestone to which a wide variety of scholars -- all those with an interest in medieval or early modern art and medieval or early modern Christianity -- will undoubtedly be turning frequently and for a very long time." --Elizabeth Lapina, The Medieval Review, 15.10.04

About this edition

• Publisher: Brepols Publishers
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 2503551041
• ISBN 13: 9782503551043
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 492
• Editor: Bianca Kuhnel, Galit Noga-banai, Hanna Vorholt