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The Many Faces of Christ: Portraying the Holy in the East and West, 300 to 1300
Contributor(s): Bacci, Michele (Author)
ISBN: 1780232683     ISBN-13: 9781780232683
Publisher: Reaktion Books
OUR PRICE:   $54.45  
Product Type: Hardcover
Published: August 2014
Qty:
Temporarily out of stock - Will ship within 2 to 5 weeks
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Art | Subjects & Themes - Religious
- Religion | Christianity - History
Dewey: 704.948
Physical Information: 1" H x 6.5" W x 9.3" (1.90 lbs) 256 pages
Themes:
- Religious Orientation - Christian
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:
Thanks to current portrayals of Jesus of Nazareth, we are apt to think of him as having long hair and a short beard. But, the holy scriptures do not describe Christ's physiognomy, and his representations are inconsistent in early Christian and medieval arts. How did this long-haired archetype come to be accepted in the late ninth century as the standard iconography of the Son of God? To answer this question, The Many Faces of Christ examines the complex historical and cultural dynamics underlying the making and final establishment of Christ's image between late antiquity and the early Renaissance.

Taking into account a broad spectrum of iconographic and textual sources, Michele Bacci describes the process of creating Christ's image against the backdrop of ancient and biblical conceptions of beauty and physicality as indicators of moral, ascetic, or messianic qualities. He investigates the increasingly dominant role played by visual experience in Christian religious practice, which promoted belief in the existence of ancient documents depicting Christ's appearance, and he shows how this resulted in the shaping of portrait-like images that were said to be true to life. With glances at analogous progressions in the Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, and Taoist traditions, this beautifully illustrated book will be of interest to specialists of Late Antique, Byzantine, and medieval studies, as well as anyone interested in the shifting, controversial conceptions of the historical figure of Jesus Christ.

Contributor Bio(s): Bacci, Michele: - Michele Bacci is professor of medieval art history in the Faculty of Humanities and director of the Medieval Institute at Fribourg University, Switzerland. He is the author or editor of seven books published in Italian.