Illuminating Metalwork - (Sense, Matter, and Medium) by Joseph Salvatore Ackley & Shannon L Wearing (Hardcover)

About the Book

The sumptuous presence of gold and silver is by definition the characteristic that makes a manuscript "illuminated". These metals were often used to depict metalwork objects; such medium-specific representations, laden with semiotic and material

Book Synopsis

The presence of gold, silver, and other metals is a hallmark of decorated manuscripts, the very characteristic that makes them "illuminated." Medieval artists often used metal pigment and leaf to depict metal objects both real and imagined, such as chalices, crosses, tableware, and even idols; the luminosity of these representations contrasted pointedly with the surrounding paints, enriching the page and dazzling the viewer. To elucidate this key artistic tradition, this volume represents the first in-depth scholarly assessment of the depiction of precious-metal objects in manuscripts and the media used to conjure them. From Paris to the Abbasid caliphate, and from Ethiopia to Bruges, the case studies gathered here forge novel approaches to the materiality and pictoriality of illumination. In exploring the semiotic, material, iconographic, and technical dimensions of these manuscripts, the authors reveal the canny ways in which painters generated metallic presence on the page. Illuminating Metalwork is a landmark contribution to the study of the medieval book and its visual and embodied reception, and is poised to be a staple of research in art history and manuscript studies, accessible to undergraduates and specialists alike.

Review Quotes

"Illuminating Metalwork lives up to its title, casting light on the use of metal in a variety of medieval manuscript traditions, enhancing the essays with multiple indices and a generous number of color figures, and bookending the whole with essential background gained from the daily experience of a conservator and a curator. [...] Illuminating Metalwork: Metal, Object, and Image in Medieval Manuscripts's depth and breadth, incorporating new approaches to understanding the ways artisans experimented with materials and techniques and the ways medieval readers took in the world through their books, demonstrate how fruitful that collaboration can be." Elizabeth J. Moodey in: caareviews.org, 21 November 2024

"With its innovative questions about the materiality of codices and manuscript illumination,
recent research has substantially broadened our understanding of medieval book culture.
This volume makes an exceptionally rich contribution to the field by focusing on the wideranging
formal, methodological, and cultural facets of the material gold." Kathrin Müller in: Speculum July 2024

M. Alison Stones, Rivista di storia della miniatura 27 (2023): 175-176

Elizabeth Rice Mattison, The Medieval Review, 8 April 2023

About the Author

Joseph Salvatore Ackley, Wesleyan Univ., Middletown, USA; Shannon L. Wearing, Pontifical Inst. of Mediaeval Studies, Toronto, Canada.