How Do Images Work?

Strategies of Visual Communication in Medieval Art

Edited by Christine Beier Edited by Tim Juckes Edited by Assaf Pinkus

Book cover: How Do Images Work?

Extent: 248, 248 pages

Publisher: Brepols Publishers

Subjects: Art & Art History, Early Modern & Renaissance Studies, Medieval Studies

Language: English

Hardback (Published)

(March 2022)

ISBN: 9782503595870

Price: $125.00

In stock

This anthology examines the workings of historical imagery in fourteen essays, offering fresh perspectives from leading researchers on a wide range of medieval and early modern artworks in a similarly wide range of functional contexts.


How did historical images work and interact with their beholders and users? Drawing on the results of an international conference held in Vienna in 2018, this volume offers new perspectives on a central question for contemporary art history. The fourteen authors approach working imagery from the medieval and early modern periods in terms of its production, usage, and reception. They address wide-ranging media–architecture, sculpture, painting, metalwork, stained glass–in similarly wide-ranging contexts: from monumental installations in the most public zones of urban churches to exquisite devotional objects and illuminated books reserved for more exclusive settings. While including research from West European and American institutions, the project also engages with the distinctive scholarly traditions of Eastern Europe and Israel. In all these ways, it reflects the interests of the dedicatee Michael Viktor Schwarz, whose introductory interview lays out the parameters of the subject.

  • Edited by Christine Beier
  • Edited by Tim Juckes
  • Edited by Assaf Pinkus