The matter of miracles: Neapolitan baroque architecture and sanctity

by Helen Hills, Amelia Jones (Editor), Marsha Meskimmon (Editor)

Overview

This book investigates baroque architecture through the lens of San Gennaro’s miraculously liquefying blood in Naples. This vantage point allows a bracing and thoroughly original rethink of the power of baroque relics and reliquaries. It shows how a focus on miracles produces original interpretations of architecture, sanctity and place which will engage architectural historians everywhere. The matter of the baroque miracle extends into a rigorous engagement with natural history, telluric philosophy, new materialism, theory and philosophy. The study will transform our understanding of baroque art and architecture, sanctity and Naples. Bristling with new archival materials and historical insights, this study lifts the baroque from its previous marginalisation to engage fiercely with materiality and potentiality and thus unleash baroque art and architecture as productive and transformational.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781526100399
Publisher:	Manchester University Press
Publication date:	02/02/2021
Series:	Rethinking Art's Histories
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	672
File size:	107 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Helen Hills is Professor of History of Art at the University of York
Dorothy C. Rowe is Senior Lecturer in History of Art at the University of Bristol

Table of Contents

Introduction: Openings Prologue: The Analogous Relic 1. The Matter of Miracles: San Gennaro's Blood and the Treasury Chapel 2. Blood, Bronze, Vesuvius: Material Transformations 3. Miraculous Witness: Exclusive affects 4. The Machinic Chapel and the Production of Protectors 5. From Prayer to Presence 6. Niche and Saints: Folding the Wall 7. Saints on the Move and the Choreography of Sanctity 8. Holiness and History: Relics and Gender 9. Heads and Bones: Face to face 10. Silver Saints: Between Transformation and Transaction Conclusion: The Miraculous Chance Bibliography

Editorial Reviews

'This book gathers together the results of important, original and ambitious research. [...] from the title on, HH challenges one to read between the lines and to go beyond the appearance of architecture and baroque sanctity. [...] Hills interprets 17C and 18C architecture as a 'machinic', a productive phenomenon and in terms of potential; not the reflection of the will of patron or architect, but a microcosm, an 'assemblage' that through its materiality and physical presence creates relations, worshippers, city, politics and spirituality.'
Annali di architettura

From the Publisher