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Devotion Practice and Performative Expression in the Religious Art of...
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Devotion Practice and Performative Expression in the Religious Art of Medieval Europe

A special issue of Religions (ISSN 2077-1444).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2024) | Viewed by 2891

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Barbara Crostini

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Guest Editor
Department of Linguistics and Philology, Uppsala University, S-751 26 Uppsala, Sweden
Interests: image and text in Greek manuscripts; Byzantine iconoclasm; theories of visuality; East–West relations; biblical and patristic topics; the interdisciplinary study of Psalms; Dura Europos
Dr. Vlad Bedros

E-Mail Website
Co-Guest Editor
Department of History and Theory of Art, National University of Arts, 010773 Bucharest, Romania
Interests: late byzantine art; post-byzantine art: performativity of images; cultural hybridity; liminality

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

European identity is deeply embedded in the production of religious art, broadly conceived as any form of material expression of faith. Considering recent research on the senses in the Middle Ages, materiality, and emotions, this Special Issue of Religions turns to an examination of the relation between performative devotions and art by considering the beholder as a faithful subject as well as an ordinary person whose real life situations bring them into contact with a spiritual need. On the one hand, one can consider the ‘museification’ of churches constructed as spaces in which artists’ (and architects’) works contributed to enhancing the encounter of the visitor with the divine. The parallels between such churches and modern art galleries bring out the potential for ‘speaking’ to viewers through art as a means of initiating a spiritual dialogue. On the other hand, medieval images also conveyed the performative devotional experience of the congregation. This aspect may be understood quite literally as memorializing through painting local feasts and special devotions, as well as miraculous events at the fringes of such experiences. The framework for the current exploration is set by the two iconoclasms, the eighth-century Byzantine/Carolingian and the sixteenth-century Reformation. What, in medieval artistic practice, was considered dangerous or objectionable is not merely what was theologically motivated, but also what idea of religion transpired both in using churches as places for artistic mediation to the divine, and in allowing art to witness the devotional performative practices which themselves came under attack as legitimate avenues to the experience of God’s living presence.

Dr. Barbara Crostini
Dr. Vlad Bedros
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • medieval art
  • materiality
  • performance
  • devotion
  • museum studies
  • iconoclasm
  • Byzantium

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 7892 KiB  
Article
The St. Honoré Portal at Amiens Cathedral and Its Reception
by Gili Shalom
Religions 2024, 15(5), 536; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15050536 - 26 Apr 2024
Viewed by 306
Abstract
This article discusses the depictions of healings on the St. Honoré portal at Amiens Cathedral (post-1240) and the visual strategies by which its viewers were invited to participate in the saint’s cult. I contend that the carved figures who gaze or gesture beyond [...] Read more.
This article discusses the depictions of healings on the St. Honoré portal at Amiens Cathedral (post-1240) and the visual strategies by which its viewers were invited to participate in the saint’s cult. I contend that the carved figures who gaze or gesture beyond the borders of the tympanum invited the active participation of a broad audience of spectators: male and female, young and old, rich and poor, clerical and lay, and disabled and hale. Moreover, I argue that by referencing both the saint’s vita and more contemporary miracle accounts, the sculptures negotiated between the historical past and the Gothic present, allowing the viewers to share in the hope for a miraculous cure. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Devotion Practice and Performative Expression in the Religious Art of Medieval Europe)
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27 pages, 80026 KiB  
Article
Wrathful Rites: Performing Shefokh ḥamatkha in the Hileq and Bileq Haggadah
by Elina Gertsman and Reed O’Mara
Religions 2024, 15(4), 451; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15040451 - 2 Apr 2024
Viewed by 666
Abstract
This essay explores a remarkable manuscript, the so-called Hileq and Bileq Haggadah (Paris, BnF Ms. Hébreu 1333), illuminated in southern Germany in the fifteenth century. Our focus, in particular, is on the image that accompanies the Shefokh ḥamatkha prayer, an invocation of God’s [...] Read more.
This essay explores a remarkable manuscript, the so-called Hileq and Bileq Haggadah (Paris, BnF Ms. Hébreu 1333), illuminated in southern Germany in the fifteenth century. Our focus, in particular, is on the image that accompanies the Shefokh ḥamatkha prayer, an invocation of God’s vengeance upon nonbelievers. Here, we posit the role of the Shefokh ḥamatkha folio within the context of the Hileq and Bileq Haggadah, suggesting that its prominent position and extravagant visual program involve the reader–viewer in a performative scenario that inflects the meaning of the other images in the book as well as the enactment of the Seder ritual itself. The messianic import of the folio is underscored by its enactive language, both visual and oral, and predicated on the emotional communities that coalesced around the Passover ritual in the later Middle Ages. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Devotion Practice and Performative Expression in the Religious Art of Medieval Europe)
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14 pages, 375 KiB  
Article
Sacred Theatres: Listening to Homilies and Experiencing the Holy Beauty in 9th- and 10th-Century Byzantine Churches
by Cao Gu
Religions 2023, 14(12), 1460; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14121460 - 25 Nov 2023
Viewed by 881
Abstract
Although John Chrysostom is critical of the theatre, delivering a homily was never a tiresome monologue of the preacher in Byzantium; it was a theatrical performance combining text-reading and multiple ceremonies, during which spaces, lights, and materials were manipulated to create marvellous spectacles [...] Read more.
Although John Chrysostom is critical of the theatre, delivering a homily was never a tiresome monologue of the preacher in Byzantium; it was a theatrical performance combining text-reading and multiple ceremonies, during which spaces, lights, and materials were manipulated to create marvellous spectacles and enslave the audience spiritually and emotionally. At times, orators described the physical features of the venues where they spoke, as did Leo VI the Wise for two newly founded churches and Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus for the second most important church of the Empire, the Holy Apostles. But in most cases, the performance aspect of their speeches could only be known indirectly from two ceremonial handbooks, Kletorologion and De Ceremoniis. It is also necessary to indicate that the spectacles in homilies were not always real and present; they sometimes came to exist in listeners’ minds through picturesque descriptions (ekphraseis) and fictional figures (ethopoiiai) composed by preachers. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Devotion Practice and Performative Expression in the Religious Art of Medieval Europe)
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