Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Before the Renaissance and Reformation, holy images were treated not as "art" but as objects of veneration which possessed the tangible presence of the Holy. In this magisterial book, Hans Belting traces the long history of the sacral image and its changing role in European culture.

Likeness and Presence looks at the beliefs, superstitions, hopes, and fears that come into play as people handle and respond to sacred

images, and presents a compelling interpretation of the place of the image in Western history.



"A rarity within its genre--an art-historical analysis of iconography which is itself iconoclastic. . . . One of the most intellectually exciting and historically grounded interpretations of Christian iconography." --Graham Howes, Times Literary Supplement



" Likeness and Presence offers the best source to survey the facts of what European Christians put in their churches. . . . An impressively detailed contextual analysis of medieval objects." --Robin Cormack, New York Times Book Review



"I cannot begin to describe the richness or the imaginative grandeur of Hans Belting's book. . . . It is a work that anyone interested in art, or in the history of thought about art, should regard as urgent reading. It is a tremendous achievement."--Arthur C. Danto, New Republic

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• List of Illustrations
• Foreword
• 1 Introduction
• a The Power of Images and the Limitations of Theologians
• b Portrait and Memory
• c The Images' Loss of Power and Their New Role as Art
• 2 The Icon from a Modern Perspective and in Light of Its History
• a The "Painter's Manual of Mount Athos" and Romanticism
• b The Rediscovery of the Icon in Russia
• c Italian Panel Painting as the Heir to the Icon
• d The Discoveries in Rome and at Mount Sinai
• e Problems with a History of the Icon: The Deficiency of a History of Styles
• 3 Why Images? Imagery and Religion in Late Antiquity
• a The Virgin's Icon; Icon Types and Their Meaning
• b The Virgin's Personality in the Making: The Mother of God and the Mother of the Gods
• c Pagan Images and Christian Icons
• d Why Images?
• 4 Heavenly Images and Earthly Portraits: St. Luke's Picture and "Unpainted" Originals in Rome and the Eastern Empire
• a Unpainted Images of Christ and Relics of Touch
• b St. Luke's Images of the Virgin and the Concept of the Portrait
• c Relic and Image in Private and Public Life
• d Early Icons in Papal Rome
• e The Image of the "Hodegetria" in Constantinople
• 5 Roman Funerary Portraits and Portraits of the Saints
• a Pagan and Christian Cults of Images
• b The Origin of Saint's Images
• c Cult Image and Votive Image
• d Funerary Portraits and Icons
• e Idealism and Realism in the Ancient Portrait
• 6 The Imperial Image in Antiquity and the Problem of the Christian Cult of Images
• a The Worship of the Imperial Image
• b The Emperor's Person and the Legal Status of His Image
• c The Military Standard and the Cross as Bearers of Images
• d Images of Christ in State Iconography
• 7 Image Devotion, Public Relations, and Theology at the End of Antiquity
• a Wall Icons in a Roman Church
• b Early Panels in Rome and the Problem of an Iconic Style
• c Image and Politics at the Papal Curia
• d Styles and Conventions of the Early Icon
• e Icons and Politics at the Imperial Court: The Christ Coin
• f Icons and Theological Argument
• 8 Church and Image: The Doctrine of the Church and Iconoclasm
• a The Image in Christendom
• b Byzantine Iconoclasm
• c The Theory of Images and Its Traditions
• d Image and Sign, Icon and Cross
• 9 The Holy Image in Church Decoration and a New Policy of Images
• a The Role of the Imperial Court in the Reintroduction of Images
• b Patriarch Photius in Hagia Sophia
• c New Pictorial Programs in Churches of the Court
• d Church Decoration: An Applied Theory of Images
• e Liturgy and Images in Church Interiors
• 10 Pilgrims, Emperors, and Confraternities: Veneration of Icons in Byzantium and Venice
• a The Emperors
• b Confraternities and Processions
• c Pilgrimages and the Program for Visitors to Hagia Sophia
• d San Marco in Venice and Its Icons
• 11 The "Holy Face": Legends and Images in Competition
• a The "Original" of the Abgar Image and Its Legend
• b The Abgar Image at Constantinople and a New Aesthetics of the Ideal Portrait
• c The Veronica in Rome
• 12 The Iconostasis and the Role of the Icon in the Liturgy and in Private Devotion
• a The Church Interior and the Site of the Images
• b Cross, Gospel Book, and Icon in Church Ritual
• c Votive Images as Instruments of Salvation and as Commemorations of the Donor
• d The Chancel Screen as Iconostasis
• e Calendar Icons and Biographical Icons
• 13 "Living Painting": Poetry and Rhetoric in a New Style of Icons in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries
• a "Icons in the New Style"
• b Aesthetics, Ethics, and Theology
• c Poetic Continuity in a Changin

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

The icon, a representation of an early saint or religious personality, has a complex history. Belting, a professor of art history at the University of Munich who has authored several books on art history (e.g., Image & Its Public in the Middle Ages, Caratzas, 1989), focuses not on the art but the application and interpretation of the icon, offering a detailed examination of its use in early Christianity. The scholarship is excellent, but the book is not for the casual reader. The writing is complicated and difficult to follow, with an in-depth understanding of early Christian history assumed. The notes and appendix include pertinent quotes from medieval theologians. Recommended only for large academic libraries or special collections. (Illustrations and index not seen.)-Karen Ellis, Baldwin Boettcher Lib., Humble, Tex. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

CHOICE Review

When this book appeared in 1990 in German, art historians recognized it as the treatment par excellence of holy images as they functioned from early Christianity down to the Protestant Reformation. Faculty members, anxious to give their students something to read other than tired accounts of styles and "influence," longed for a version in English even while recognizing the size and complexity of the task awaiting its translator. In the meanwhile there appeared David Freedberg's The Power of Images (CH, Jan'90), an equally weighty book but written from a quite different viewpoint. Where Freedberg emphasized psychological responses to pictures over a much wider time span, Belting concentrates on medieval images as lived religious experiences. His learning is massive, his insights into the images' changing circumstances revelatory. Yet his language, especially in the early chapters, is scarcely more accessible than it was in German. Too dense for most students (and, one suspects, many instructors), it will therefore be dipped into as a reference work. Thus, although it is imperative to know what Belting thinks about pictures of this sort, the labor involved in the discovery might deter those most needing this book from the discursive reading that it deserves. Graduate; faculty; general. A. Cutler; Pennsylvania State University, University Park Campus