Böcker av Beate Fricke

Creation imagery in manuscripts made in the Middle Ages becomes a locus for visual experimentation as well as the expression of ideas about creativity in artistic endeavors. It links medieval ideas about creation, and the characteristic of the Divine Creator and the act of creation with themes in medieval thought about the work of medieval artists, by examining representations of divine creation and illustrations of the creation stories in Genesis. Case studies from manuscripts illuminating the creation dating from the eleventh to the fourteenth century (Junius 11/The Cædmon Manuscript, Roda Bible & Ripoll Bible, Bible moralisées, Hamburg Bible, Holkhalm Bible) reveal self-reflective moments of medieval artists relating artistic invention and theological debates about creation. The author identifies traces of the artists' thinking in their own work and then contextualizes those visual cues within the context of philosophical arguments about the creation of the world. The author considers how Western medieval artists, in inventing original illuminations and experimenting with new representational modes, suggest potential analogies between their own work, God's acts of creation, and nature's generative force.

"Holy Smoke: Censers Across Cultures" befasst sich mit dem Einsatz von wohlriechendem Räucherwerk in religiösen Kontexten. Die Kontaktaufnahme mit dem Göttlichen durch duftenden Rauch findet sich weltweit in allen geschichtlichen Epochen, Religionen und Kulturen.Der Duft schwelenden Räucherwerks durchweht jede Tradition, sei sie polytheistisch oder monotheistisch, im Alten Orient ebenso wie im mittelalterlichen Europa. Räuchergefäße sind als sakrale Kultgegenstände allgegenwärtig, und das weltweit. Nun werden sie anhand von Fallstudien in den Kontext anderer sakraler Artefakte eingebunden. Rituelle Abläufe, die bei der Erforschung von Glauben, Kunst und Kult lange Zeit eine untergeordnete Rolle spielten, gewinnen hierdurch vermehrt an Bedeutung. Hieraus soll ein besseres Verständnis für den Stellenwert erwachsen, den die Weltreligionen sensorischen Reizen bei der Vertiefung ihrer Gebetspraktiken einräumen.Als Besonderheit ist die Publikation in Kohlepapier eingeschlagen und setzt damit den Buchinhalt in Szene. Beim Auspacken entsteht so für jedes Exemplar eine individuelle und einzigartige Einbandgestaltung des Leinens.

New perspectives on early globalisms from objects and imagesTales Things Tell offers new perspectives on histories of connectivity between Africa, Asia, and Europe in the period before the Mongol conquests of the thirteenth century. Reflected in objects and materials whose circulation and reception defined aesthetic, economic, and technological networks that existed outside established political and sectarian boundaries, many of these histories are not documented in the written sources on which historians usually rely. Tales Things Tell charts bold new directions in art history, making a compelling case for the archival value of mobile artifacts and images in reconstructing the past. In this beautifully illustrated book, Finbarr Barry Flood and Beate Fricke present six illuminating case studies from the sixth to the thirteenth centuries to show how portable objects mediated the mobility of concepts, iconographies, and techniques. The case studies range from metalwork to stone reliefs, manuscript paintings, and objects using natural materials such as coconut and rock crystal. Whether as booty, commodities, gifts, or souvenirs, many of the objects discussed in Tales Things Tell functioned as sources of aesthetic, iconographic, or technical knowledge in the lands in which they came to rest. Remapping the histories of exchange between medieval Islam and Christendom, from Europe to the Indian Ocean, Tales Things Tell ventures beyond standard narratives drawn from written archival records to demonstrate the value of objects and images as documents of early globalisms.

Explores the political, religious, and social contexts of the publics depicted and relate this shift to the rise of perspectival representation.