Elucidating Opposites

مرکز و کتابخانه مطالعات اسلامی به زبان های اروپایی

منو

" Elucidating Opposites "
Dawn Cunningham

Document Type	:	AL
Record Number	:	1081854
Doc. No	:	LA125483
Call No	:	‭10.1163/15685292-02103001‬
Language of Document	:	English
Main Entry	:	Dawn Cunningham
Title & Author	:	Elucidating Opposites [Article]\ Dawn Cunningham
Publication Statement	:	Leiden: Brill
Title of Periodical	:	Religion and the Arts
Date	:	2017
Volume/ Issue Number	:	21/3
Page No	:	309–334
Abstract	:	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.
Descriptor	:	crucifixion
Descriptor	:	Diptych
Descriptor	:	Giotto
Descriptor	:	Mary
Descriptor	:	opposites
Descriptor	:	personification
Descriptor	:	vices
Descriptor	:	virtues
Location & Call number	:	‭10.1163/15685292-02103001‬