The Reformation of the ImageUniversity of Chicago Press, 2004 M05 3 - 494 pages With his 95 Theses, Martin Luther advanced the radical notion that all Christians could enjoy a direct, personal relationship with God—shattering years of Catholic tradition and obviating the need for intermediaries like priests and saints between the individual believer and God. The text of the Bible, the Word of God itself, Luther argued, revealed the only true path to salvation—not priestly ritual and saintly iconography. But if words—not iconic images—showed the way to salvation, why didn't religious imagery during the Reformation disappear along with indulgences? The answer, according to Joseph Leo Koerner, lies in the paradoxical nature of Protestant religious imagery itself, which is at once both iconic and iconoclastic. Koerner masterfully demonstrates this point not only with a multitude of Lutheran images, many never before published, but also with a close reading of a single pivotal work—Lucas Cranach the Elder's altarpiece for the City Church in Wittenberg (Luther's parish). As Koerner shows, Cranach, breaking all the conventions of traditional Catholic iconography, created an entirely new aesthetic for the new Protestant ethos. In the Crucifixion scene of the altarpiece, for instance, Christ is alone and stripped of all his usual attendants—no Virgin Mary, no John the Baptist, no Mary Magdalene—with nothing separating him from Luther (preaching the Word) and his parishioners. And while the Holy Spirit is nowhere to be seen—representation of the divine being impossible—it is nonetheless dramatically present as the force animating Christ's drapery. According to Koerner, it is this "iconoclash" that animates the best Reformation art. Insightful and breathtakingly original, The Reformation of the Image compellingly shows how visual art became indispensable to a religious movement built on words. |
From inside the book
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Page 10
... present - day routines of the school . The image within the apparatus , by contrast , did not double but remained resolutely singular . Luther and his flock , and now I and my students , all stood posed before this one stubborn portrait ...
... present - day routines of the school . The image within the apparatus , by contrast , did not double but remained resolutely singular . Luther and his flock , and now I and my students , all stood posed before this one stubborn portrait ...
Page 11
... present in his effigy . His portrait of the iconoclastically cleansed church interior surrounding the cross divides the world neatly between beholding subjects and beheld objects . Even the tableau of a world - renouncing faith displays ...
... present in his effigy . His portrait of the iconoclastically cleansed church interior surrounding the cross divides the world neatly between beholding subjects and beheld objects . Even the tableau of a world - renouncing faith displays ...
Page 12
... present book rests on the dual premise that images never go away and that they persist and function by being perpetually destroyed . A good example of this comes to us from the Baga people . The Baga , an ethnic group living on the ...
... present book rests on the dual premise that images never go away and that they persist and function by being perpetually destroyed . A good example of this comes to us from the Baga people . The Baga , an ethnic group living on the ...
Page 14
... present book thus intervenes between my two earlier studies of German art . Dealing with works from the later sixteenth century , it picks up a story begun in a chapter on Cranach , in which , under the pressures of iconoclasm ...
... present book thus intervenes between my two earlier studies of German art . Dealing with works from the later sixteenth century , it picks up a story begun in a chapter on Cranach , in which , under the pressures of iconoclasm ...
Page 16
... present work in progress at a variety of venues : the Ashmolean Museum , Swarthmore College , the Centre Pompidou , Stanford University , Columbia University , the University of Wisconsin at Madison , the University of Texas at Austin ...
... present work in progress at a variety of venues : the Ashmolean Museum , Swarthmore College , the Centre Pompidou , Stanford University , Columbia University , the University of Wisconsin at Madison , the University of Texas at Austin ...
Contents
1 Ideas About the Thing | 19 |
A Tragedy for Art? | 27 |
Territorial Battles | 38 |
Appropriations | 52 |
A Reformation Altarpiece | 69 |
CLEANSING 6 Actions | 83 |
Beliefs | 94 |
Fictions | 104 |
Preaching | 252 |
Teaching | 282 |
Ubiquity | 308 |
SACRAMENT 18 From Custom to Rule | 321 |
Behind the Mass | 340 |
The Tables Turned | 362 |
Ministry | 377 |
Church Building | 402 |
Communications | 137 |
The Arrested Gesture | 153 |
THE WORD 11 The Cross | 171 |
The Outstretched Finger | 191 |
A Hidden God? | 201 |
Crude Painting | 212 |
Epilogue | 441 |
445 | |
Photo Acknowledgements | 483 |
484 | |
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Common terms and phrases
action adiaphora Albrecht Dürer altar altarpiece altarpiece's Anonymous apostolic artist Augsburg Confession baptism behold believe Bible biblical blood body bread carved catechism Catholic celebrated centre centurion century choir Christ Christian church pictures cleansing communication Communion confessional congregation Cranach the Elder Cranach the Younger Cranach's altarpiece cross crucifix crucifixion cult death depicted Dessau Dinkelsbühl display doctrine Dürer effigies engraving Eucharist evangelical faith Flacius Friedrich German gesture Gnesio-Lutherans God's word Göding Gospel heart holy icon iconoclasts idolatry idols illus image-breakers images inscription invisible Johann Karlstadt laity Last Supper Lucas Cranach Lutheran Mass Matthias Flacius Melanchthon oil on panel painted painter Passion person portrait preacher preaching predella princes Protestant pulpit Reformation religion religious representation retable rite ritual sacrament sacred saints scene Schweinfurt Scripture secular sermon sola fides space spirit stands Testament things Torgau triptych true understanding viewer visible visual Wittenberg Wittenberg Altarpiece woodcut
References to this book
Back to Nature: The Green and the Real in the Late Renaissance Robert N. Watson,Robert Watson No preview available - 2007 |
Back to Nature: The Green and the Real in the Late Renaissance Robert N. Watson No preview available - 2006 |