The Architecture of the Christian Holy Land: Reception from Late Antiquity through the Renaissance

by Kathryn Blair Moore

Overview

In the absence of the bodies of Christ and Mary, architecture took on a special representational role during the Christian Middle Ages, marking out sites associated with the bodily presence of the dominant figures of the religion. Throughout this period, buildings were reinterpreted in relation to the mediating role of textual and pictorial representations that shaped the pilgrimage experience across expansive geographies. In this study, Kathryn Blair Moore challenges fundamental ideas within architectural history regarding the origins and significance of European recreations of buildings in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Nazareth. From these conceptual foundations, she traces and re-interprets the significance of the architecture of the Holy Land within changing religious and political contexts, from the First Crusade and the emergence of the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land to the anti-Islamic crusade movements of the Renaissance, as well as the Reformation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781316942178
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	02/27/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	143 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Kathryn Blair Moore teaches medieval and Renaissance art history at Texas State University, San Marcos. She received her art historical training at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. Fellowships and grants from the American Council of Learned Societies, the American Academy in Rome, and the University of Hong Kong (where she previously taught) have supported extensive research throughout Europe, Western Asia, and North Africa. Her scholarly work explores the intersection of architectural, pictorial, and textual cultures, with a particular emphasis upon larger religious and political contexts, from pilgrimage to religious wars, that shaped the experience of buildings across Europe and the Mediterranean world.

Table of Contents

Preface; Abbreviations; List of illustrations; Introduction; Part I. The Symbolization of Holy Land Architecture: 1. Fragmentary inscriptions and material presence; 2. Rome and Constantinople; 3. Architectural inscriptions in Adomnán's De Locis Sanctis; 4. Recreations of the Holy Sepulcher and Benedictine monasticism; Part II. Triumphal Restoration and Recreation in the Crusades: 5. The Crusader conquest and triumphal recreation; 6. The restoration of the Temple of Solomon; 7. Recreating the city of Jerusalem; 8. True portraits/true Jerusalems; Part III. The Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land: 9. Formation of the Franciscan Custody; 10. Assisi as a New Jerusalem; 11. Franciscan books on the Holy Land pilgrimage; 12. Signs of Christianity and Islam; Part IV. Imagined Pilgrimages and Crusades in the Renaissance: 13. The ephemeral architecture of Philip the Good's crusading ambitions; 14. The conspicuous nobility of dedication to Holy Land architecture; 15. The Franciscan Order, papacy, and symbolic possession of the Holy Land; 16. Protestant Reformation, Ottoman conquest, and Catholic renewal after 1517; Epilogue; Bibliography; Notes.

Editorial Reviews

'Most significantly, Moore focuses on the varying perceptions about these architectural landmarks over time and the ways they were visualized in different artistic media. Well written, including ample notes, and illustrated with images. Highly Recommended.' J. Pollini, Choice

'The book provides a first attempt at a general synthesis of a topic that was never discussed from a longue durée perspective. The author politely reacts against the tendency, still underlying many art-historical studies following a famous article by Richard Krautheimer, to consider all buildings that came to be described in medieval and early modern sources as inspired by or stemming directly from the Jerusalem Holy Sepulcher and other loca sancta churches as generic, symbolic, or basically inaccurate replicas of their archetypes.' Michele Bacci, The American Historical Review

From the Publisher

06/15/2017
Moore (art history, Texas State Univ.) takes on a complex and far-ranging subject in her study of the changing perceptions in Europe of the architecture of the Christian Holy Land. The focus is not on the buildings so much as the European perception of them, re-creations of the structures in Europe, and the effect these were to have on the architecture in the Holy Land. Moore focuses on structures associated with Christ and the Virgin Mary, which she says have "special status" standing in for their absent bodies. The author notes that perceptions changed over time as Europeans experienced or reacted to the Crusades, the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, the Franciscan custody of sites in the Holy Land, the Reformation, and the Renaissance. Throughout these periods, pilgrimage books were indicators of how the buildings in the Holy Land were viewed and here pilgrims' accounts receive treatment equal to that afforded the buildings. This book is well illustrated, with many photographs by the author. VERDICT A detailed and thorough treatment of a complicated subject. Intended largely for an academic audience but with broad appeal to those in art and architectural history, religious studies, history, archaeology, and other fields.—Amy Trendler, Ball State Univ. Libs., Muncie, IN

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