This unusual anthology focuses attention on art-historical practice. Each of the eighteen distinguished contributors--medievalists specializing in western European, Byzantine, and Islamic art--offers an interpretation of a single object, and in the process demonstrates how art historians go about describing, analyzing, and contextualizing works of art. The essays treat a broad range of artifacts in many media and together present a conspectus of current approaches to visual analysis, speaking to such crucial topics as medieval sign theory, visual rhetoric, replication, mimesis, and cultural interconnections within the medieval world. The volume will serve a wide audience, from specialists in the field to scholars in cognate disciplines to students interested in the craft of art history. Elizabeth L. Sears is Associate Professor of the History of Art, University of Michigan. Thelma K. Thomas is Associate Professor of the History of Art and Associate Curator of the Kelsey Museum, University of Michigan.

Reviews

"A compelling conspectus of exemplary case-studies that demonstrates the variety and vitality of current scholarship on medieval art. Much more than the sun of its parts, this fine collection will further the lively exchange and debate found in its pages. . . . A model for other publications of its kind."
---Jeffery Hamburger, Harvard University