In the Beginning Was the Image: Art and the Reformation Bible

Description

This pioneering study focuses on the decisive contributions of the three leading artists of the Northern Renaissance--Albrecht D�rer, Lucas Cranach the Elder, and Hans Holbein the Younger-- to the printed Bible and to the transformation of ecclesiastical art in the Protestant Reformation. A time of artistic and theological revolution, the Renaissance and Reformation also witnessed a visual reformation of the Bible. In David H. Price's new interpretation, these artists emerge as major reformers in their own right who created a dynamic and innovative visual culture of biblicism. In the Beginning Was the Image explicitly addresses a key paradox of the Bible's new cultural status: as divergent Bible editions and translations shattered the unity of Christianity, new artistic approaches arose to accommodate theological and textual diversity. Rulers and theologians produced new Bibles as foundations for transformative socio-political movements, and their success, according to Price's compelling research, depended on the inventiveness and creativity of these artists. Written in a style designed to be accessible to a broad range of readers, Price's richly nuanced study explores the art of D�rer, Cranach, and Holbein and the biblical iconographies they developed to connect the new biblicism to faith and political authority. Cover In the Beginning Was the Image Copyright Dedication Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments 1 In the Beginning Was the Image: Art and the Renaissance of the Bible 2 The Artist as Biblical Humanist 3 The Artist as Reformer 4 Dürer’s Reformation: Art and Politics of Biblicism 5 Word Made Image: Cranach’s Biblical Iconography 6 Holbein and the Art of the Heterogeneous Bible 7 Epilogue: For the God-​Fearing and the Art-​Loving Notes Bibliography Index