Pygmalion’s Power
eBook - PDF

Pygmalion’s Power

Romanesque Sculpture, the Senses, and Religious Experience

  1. English
  2. PDF
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

Pygmalion’s Power

Romanesque Sculpture, the Senses, and Religious Experience

About this book

Pushed to the height of its illusionistic powers during the first centuries of the Roman Empire, sculpture was largely abandoned with the ascendancy of Christianity, as the apparent animation of the material image and practices associated with sculpture were considered both superstitious and idolatrous. In Pygmalion's Power, Thomas E. A. Dale argues that the reintroduction of architectural sculpture after a hiatus of some seven hundred years arose with the particular goal of engaging the senses in a Christian religious experience.

Since the term "Romanesque" was coined in the nineteenth century, the reintroduction of stone sculpture around the mid-eleventh century has been explained as a revivalist phenomenon, one predicated on the desire to claim the authority of ancient Rome. In this study, Dale proposes an alternative theory. Covering a broad range of sculpture types—including autonomous cult statuary in wood and metal, funerary sculpture, architectural sculpture, and portraiture—Dale shows how the revitalized art form was part of a broader shift in emphasis toward spiritual embodiment and affective piety during the late eleventh and twelfth centuries.

Adding fresh insight to scholarship on the Romanesque, Pygmalion's Power borrows from trends in cultural anthropology to demonstrate the power and potential of these sculptures to produce emotional effects that made them an important sensory part of the religious culture of the era.

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Yes, you can access Pygmalion’s Power by Thomas E. A. Dale in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Art & Art General. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Table of contents

  1. COVER front
  2. Copyright Page
  3. Table of Contents
  4. List of Illustrations
  5. Preface
  6. Introduction
  7. Notes to Introduction
  8. Chapter 1: Living Statues: The Crucifix and Throne of Wisdom
  9. Notes to Chapter 1
  10. Chapter 2: The Naked and the Nude: From Theological Ideal to Sexual Fantasy
  11. Notes to Chapter 2
  12. Chapter 3: Sculpted Portraits: Convention and Real Presence
  13. Notes to Chapter 3
  14. Chapter 4: Beautiful Deformity and Deformed Beauty: The Monstrous and Deformed
  15. Notes to Chapter 4
  16. Chapter 5: Renewing the Temple: Loving Stones and Embodied Theophanies
  17. Notes to Chapter 5
  18. Conclusion
  19. Notes to Conclusion
  20. Notes
  21. Bibliography
  22. Index