Hahn, Cynthia (Professor of Art History, Hunter College, Department of Art)

Strange Beauty: Issues in the Making and Meaning of Reliquaries, 400–circa 1204 Hahn, Cynthia (Professor of Art History, Hunter College, Department of Art)

Marc Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [271]-291) and index. Table of Contents: Contents List of IllustrationsPreface Part I: First Things1Introduction2The Reliquary and Its Maker3Relics, Meaning, and Response: Early Christian Reliquaries, Narrative and Not Part II: Shaped Reliquaries4Spolia and Sign, Metaphor and Simile5The Reliquary Cross6Like and Unlike Metaphors7Body-Part Reliquaries: Heads8Body Part Reliquaries: Other Body Parts Part III: A Gathering of Saints: Processions and Treasuries9Reliquaries in Action10Treasuries11Relic Display12A Case Study: Wibald of Stavelot as Patron13The Impact of 1204, the Space of the Ark, and Conclusion NotesBibliographyIndex"Review Quotes: Cynthia Hahn offers a refreshing new synthesis on the topic of medieval reliquaries. She shows that they are a form of representation that mediates religious experience of relics as well as their political and institutional meanings. Engaging both primary sources and current theoretical writings, Hahn s text will be of crucial interest to a broader readership concerned with the material embodiment of the sacred and strategies of representation. Thomas Dale, University of Wisconsin Madison"Review Quotes: Lavishly illustrated in color, this book will be of fundamental importance. J. Oliver, Choice"Publisher Marketing: Reliquaries, one of the central art forms of the Middle Ages, have recently been the object of much interest among historians and artists. Until now, however, they have had no treatment in English that considers their history, origins, and place within religious practice, or, above all, their beauty and aesthetic value. In Strange Beauty, Cynthia Hahn treats issues that cut across the class of medieval reliquaries as a whole. She is particularly concerned with portable reliquaries that often contained tiny relic fragments, which purportedly allowed saints to actively exercise power in the world. Above all, Hahn argues, reliquaries are a form of representation. They rarely simply depict what they contain; rather, they prepare the viewer for the appropriate reception of their precious contents and establish the story of the relics. They are based on forms originating in the Bible, especially the cross and the Ark of the Covenant, but find ways to renew the vision of such forms. They engage the viewer in many ways that are perhaps best described as persuasive or rhetorical, and Hahn uses literary terminology sign, metaphor, and simile to discuss their operation. At the same time, they make use of unexpected shapes the purse, the arm or foot, or disembodied heads to create striking effects and emphatically suggest the presence of the saint."

Contributor Bio:  Hahn, Cynthia Cynthia Hahn is Gulnar K. Bosch Professor of Art History at Florida State University and author of the facsimile edition of the "Passio Kyliani, Psuedo Theotimus, Passio Margaretae . . . Hannover Niedersachsische Landesbibliothek, Ms. I.189" (1988).