The Cross, the Gospels, and the Work of Artexplores the power of pictorial representation in the Carolingian period{\textemdash}a time when the nature and status of images within the Church was the subject of intense interest and debate. While much scholarly attention has concentrated, as medieval writers did, on the theological problem of images as a material crutch, I propose a counter-current vested in visual argument. Through a focus on the role and character of the cross in the highly charged genre of gospel illumination, the book demonstrates the instrumentality attributed to images and manufactured objects within artworks themselves.
The cross stood at a singular intersection of past, present and future in the early medieval period. In its multivalent nature, the cross{\textquoteright} status as the Church{\textquoteright}s central sign reflected the Church{\textquoteright}s own position at the crossroads of ages, simultaneously commemorating sacred history, functioning in the present day, and preparing for Judgment and the end of time. While well-recognized visual attributes of the cross communicate its theology relative to eschatology and the Passion, I argue that a formal language also developed specifically to articulate concepts of presence and efficacy in the manufactured sign. As the sign of the present, as well as the future and the past, the cross could then be used to comment on the value of other artworks in its form as an image. The argument proceeds through close attention to strategies of pictorial composition and the architecture of artworks{\textemdash}primarily illuminated manuscripts. It presents a balance of widely known and rarely published examples, mostly from the Frankish lands of the late eighth{\textendash}early tenth centuries, examining the project and priorities of book-making in light of a broader conception of art{\textquoteright}s work in the early medieval west.
}, year = {2019}, publisher = {Cambridge University Press}, address = {Cambridge and New York}, language = {eng}, }