From Minor to Major: The Minor Arts in Medieval Art History (Index of Christian Art #14) (Paperback)
Other Books in Series
This is book number 14 in the Index of Christian Art series.
- #3: Time in the Medieval World: Occupation of the Months and Signs of the Zodiac in the Index of Christian Art (Paperback): Not available to order
- #4: Abraham in Medieval Christian, Islamic, and Jewish Art (Index of Christian Art #4) (Paperback): $38.50
- #8: Between the Picture and the Word: Essays in Commemoration of John Plummer (Index of Christian Art #8) (Hardcover): Not available to order
- #9: Interactions: Occasional Papers (Index of Christian Art #9) (Hardcover): Not available to order
- #10: Romanesque Art and Thought in the Twelfth Century (Index of Christian Art #10) (Hardcover): Not available to order
- #11: Looking Beyond: Visions, Dreams, and Insights in Medieval Art and History (Index of Christian Art #11) (Paperback): Not available to order
- #12: Gothic Art and Thought in the Later Medieval Period: Essays in Honor of Willibald Sauerländer (Index of Christian Art #12) (Paperback): Not available to order
- #13: Insular and Anglo-Saxon Art and Thought in the Early Medieval Period (Index of Christian Art #13) (Paperback): Not available to order
- #15: Patronage, Power, and Agency in Medieval Art (Index of Christian Art #15) (Paperback): $38.50
- #16: Manuscripta Illuminata: Approaches to Understanding Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts (Index of Christian Art #16) (Paperback): Not available to order
Description
Whether we care to admit it or not, we have always distinguished between those arts that we consider superior and the lesser or minor forms. Giorgio Vasari is usually credited with formally structuring the primary nature of architecture, painting, and sculpture in his Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, which was first published in 1568. Even though this division was initially applied to Italian art, it was not long before it gained more widespread currency. All of the other arts--such as ivory carving, glass, enamels, and goldsmiths' work--were lumped together into a secondary group that took on pejorative associations, especially in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Other labels have been used over time to describe these minor arts, and we have spoken of them as the decorative, applied, ornamental, luxury, sumptuous, or even mechanical arts. This collection explores the way in which these minor arts have fought back to gain wider acceptance in our holistic approach to studying the arts of the Middle Ages. No longer considered secondary, they are now firmly incorporated into our studies. This collection, written by some of the most eminent scholars in the field, looks at minor media from a historiographical perspective and shows how they are gaining wider acceptance.
The contributors are David S. Areford, Brigitte Bedos-Rezak, Fr d ric Billiet, Paul Binski, John Cherry, Michael W. Cothren, Thomas E. Dale, Sharon Gerstel, Cynthia Hahn, Jos Koldeweij, Welleda Muller, Alan M. Stahl, Alicia Walker, Laura Weigert, Harald Wolter-von dem Knesebeck, and Kim Woods.
About the Author
Colum Hourihane is Director of the Index of Christian Art, Princeton University.