Reading Medieval Images: The Art Historian and the Object Book

This unusual anthology focuses attention on art-historical practice. Each of the eighteen distinguished contributors--medievalists specializing in western European, Byzantine, and Islamic art--offers an interpretation of a single object, and in the process demonstrates how art historians go about describing, analyzing, and contextualizing works of art. The essays treat a broad range of artifacts in many media and together present a conspectus of current approaches to visual analysis, speaking to such crucial topics as medieval sign theory, visual rhetoric, replication, mimesis, and cultural interconnections within the medieval world. The volume will serve a wide audience, from specialists in the field to scholars in cognate disciplines to students interested in the craft of art history.Elizabeth L. Sears is Associate Professor of the History of Art, University of Michigan. Thelma K. Thomas is Associate Professor of the History of Art and Associate Curator of the Kelsey Museum, University of Michigan.Read More