عنوان

Elucidating Opposites

Number

LA125483

.Language of Text, Soundtrack etc

انگلیسی

Title Proper

Elucidating Opposites

General Material Designation

[Article]

First Statement of Responsibility

Dawn Cunningham

Place of Publication, Distribution, etc.

Leiden

Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.

Brill

Text of Note

A religious diptych provided medieval people with opportunities to access the transcendental and to engage in meditation on spiritual routes to salvation. The binary format of the diptych lent itself to pairings of images that could include oppositions or iconographic contradictions. By manipulating these pairings, artists and patrons could enhance the complexity of the theological messages as well as of the relationship between art and user. Like many Gothic diptychs from Italy, an early-fourteenth-century example by Giotto is comprised of a Crucifixion and a vision of Mary's heavenly court. The celestial group around the Virgin and child includes seven prominent personifications of the virtues. By properly identifying these moral qualities through comparisons with Giotto's other works and by examining the oppositions they possibly addressed, we can elucidate some of the spiritual concerns of the original patron(s) who paid for and engaged with this diptych. A religious diptych provided medieval people with opportunities to access the transcendental and to engage in meditation on spiritual routes to salvation. The binary format of the diptych lent itself to pairings of images that could include oppositions or iconographic contradictions. By manipulating these pairings, artists and patrons could enhance the complexity of the theological messages as well as of the relationship between art and user. Like many Gothic diptychs from Italy, an early-fourteenth-century example by Giotto is comprised of a Crucifixion and a vision of Mary's heavenly court. The celestial group around the Virgin and child includes seven prominent personifications of the virtues. By properly identifying these moral qualities through comparisons with Giotto's other works and by examining the oppositions they possibly addressed, we can elucidate some of the spiritual concerns of the original patron(s) who paid for and engaged with this diptych.

Date of Publication

2017

Physical description

309-334

Title

Religion and the Arts

Volume Number

21/3

International Standard Serial Number

1568-5292

Subject Term

crucifixion

Subject Term

Diptych

Subject Term

Giotto

Subject Term

Mary

Subject Term

opposites

Subject Term

personification

Subject Term

vices

Subject Term

virtues

Dawn Cunningham

Call Number

10.1163/15685292-02103001

Electronic name

p

[Article]

275578

a

Y