Description
A radical reassessment of the role of movement, emotion, and the viewing experience in Gothic sculpture
Gothic cathedrals in northern Europe dazzle visitors with arrays of sculpted saints, angels, and noble patrons adorning their portals and interiors. In this highly original and erudite volume, Jacqueline E. Jung explores how medieval sculptors used a form of bodily poetics-involving facial expression, gesture, stance, and torsion-to create meanings beyond conventional iconography and to subtly manipulate spatial dynamics, forging connections between the sculptures and beholders. Filled with more than 500 images that capture the suppleness and dynamism of cathedral sculpture, often through multiple angles, Eloquent Bodies demonstrates how viewers confronted and, in turn, were addressed by sculptures at major cathedrals in France and Germany, from Chartres and Reims to Strasbourg, Bamberg, Magdeburg, and Naumburg. Shedding new light on the charismatic and kinetic qualities of Gothic sculpture, this book also illuminates the ways artistic ingenuity and technical skill converged to enliven sacred spaces.
About the Author
Reviews
"Eloquent Bodies is exemplary."-Masha Goldin, German Studies Review
Winner of the 2021 Gustav Ranis International Book Prize, sponsored by the MacMillan Center
"This beautifully written, ground-breaking book demands that we rethink fundamentally the ways we look at, study, and teach figural sculpture of the Gothic period."-Joan A. Holladay, The University of Texas at Austin
"Eloquent Bodies is important, original, and engagingly written."-Robert Bork, University of Iowa
Book Information
ISBN 9780300214017
Author Jacqueline E. Jung
Format Hardback
Page Count 340
Imprint Yale University Press
Publisher Yale University Press
Gothic cathedrals in northern Europe dazzle visitors with arrays of sculpted saints, angels, and noble patrons adorning their portals and interiors. In this highly original and erudite volume, Jacqueline E. Jung explores how medieval sculptors used a form of bodily poetics-involving facial expression, gesture, stance, and torsion-to create meanings beyond conventional iconography and to subtly manipulate spatial dynamics, forging connections between the sculptures and beholders. Filled with more than 500 images that capture the suppleness and dynamism of cathedral sculpture, often through multiple angles, Eloquent Bodies demonstrates how viewers confronted and, in turn, were addressed by sculptures at major cathedrals in France and Germany, from Chartres and Reims to Strasbourg, Bamberg, Magdeburg, and Naumburg. Shedding new light on the charismatic and kinetic qualities of Gothic sculpture, this book also illuminates the ways artistic ingenuity and technical skill converged to enliven sacred spaces.
About the Author
Jacqueline E. Jung is associate professor in the Department of the History of Art at Yale University.
Reviews
"Eloquent Bodies is exemplary."-Masha Goldin, German Studies Review
Winner of the 2021 Gustav Ranis International Book Prize, sponsored by the MacMillan Center
Winner of the Karen Gould Prize in Art History,sponsored by Medieval Academy of America
"This beautifully written, ground-breaking book demands that we rethink fundamentally the ways we look at, study, and teach figural sculpture of the Gothic period."-Joan A. Holladay, The University of Texas at Austin
"Eloquent Bodies is important, original, and engagingly written."-Robert Bork, University of Iowa
Book Information
ISBN 9780300214017
Author Jacqueline E. Jung
Format Hardback
Page Count 340
Imprint Yale University Press
Publisher Yale University Press
