The strength of this study lies in the combination of expertise in biblical studies and art history. This book's methodology is both historical and hermeneutical. Each chapter begins with an overview of the biblical passage, noting significant rhetorical features and the overarching theological argument. Next, the selected work of art is contextualized by a brief biography of the artist, placing the work within the artist's own oeuvre, discussing what is known of the patronage of the specific image, and discussing important social, political, and religious factors that may facilitate our understanding of the painting. A formal and iconographic analysis (which also briefly traces the visual and literary sources and precedents for the work) is followed by a comparison between the biblical scene and the work of art, noting the ways in which the artist's (or patron's) cultural context has provided a basis for the "textual expansion" of the biblical story, that is, adding material not found in the story itself but which, given the social, religious, and historical context of the artist, is a natural extension of the story.

Illuminating Luke, Volume 3: The Passion and Resurrection Narratives in Italian Renaissance and Baroque Painting

Arts & Photography

Hornik, Heidi J.

Parsons, Mikeal C.

History & Criticism

Bloomsbury T&T Clark

This book examines visual representations of the public ministry of Christ in scenes unique to the Gospel of Luke. Scenes depicting the birth, suffering, and crucifixion of Christ no doubt dominated the visual repertoire of medieval and renaissance artists. Nonetheless, the miracles and teachings of Jesus also inspired numerous depictions, not only during the period of the earliest Christian art but continuing throughout the Italian Renaissance and Baroque periods. The book demonstrates how this "visual exegesis" might enrich our understanding of Luke's Gospel and at the same time inform the contemporary faith community's interpretation of Scripture. Each of these chapters begins with an overview of the biblical passage and its subsequent interpretation, noting significant rhetorical features and the overarching theological argument of the text, as well as outlining a brief summary of its subsequent interpretation in the ecclesiastical literature. Next, the selected work of art is lent context by giving a brief biography of the artist, placing the work within the artist's own oeuvre, discussing what is known of the patronage of the specific mage, and exploring important social, political and religious factors which may facilitate our understanding of the painting. A stylistic and iconographic analysis is followed by brief hermeneutical reflections about how this visual interpretation might inform the church's reading of Scripture. Illuminating Luke will appeal broadly to students of the Bible and the history of Christian art. Scholars and students interested in the history of biblical interpretation will benefit from this book. Likewise, educated laypersons and pastors will find in its pages rich resources for theological reflection

Illuminating Luke, Volume 2: The Public Ministry of Christ in Italian Renaissance and Baroque Painting

T&T Clark

The Acts of the Apostles Through the Centuries (Wiley Blackwell Bible Commentaries)

Charting the theological and cultural potency of Acts across the timespan of Christian history, this work of profound scholarship reveals the full extent of the New Testament book's religious, artistic, literary, and political influence. <ul> <li>Reveals the influence of Acts at key turning points in the history of the Christian church</li> <li>Traces the rich and varied artistic and cultural heritage rooted in Acts, from music to literature</li> <li>Analyzes the political significance of the book as a touchstone in the church's external relations</li> <li>Provides detailed commentary on the exegesis of Acts down the centuries</li> </ul>

Religion & Spirituality

Christian Books & Bibles

Wiley/Blackwell

Charting the theological and cultural potency of Acts across the timespan of Christian history, this work of profound scholarship reveals the full extent of the New Testament book’s religious, artistic, literary, and political influence. <ul>
<li>Reveals the influence of Acts at key turning points in the history of the Christian church</li> <li>Traces the rich and varied artistic and cultural heritage rooted in Acts, from music to literature</li> <li>Analyzes the political significance of the book as a touchstone in the church’s external relations</li> <li>Provides detailed commentary on the exegesis of Acts down the centuries</li> </ul>

Contemporary Christians interact with art very differently than Christians of centuries past. Christian art was never intended for mere enjoyment, but was used to express the most important features of Christian faith and to suggest models for Christian practices. In The Art of Christian Reflection, art historian Heidi Hornik reconnects art to ethics, beauty to behavior, and form to function in classical artwork.
Over eighty different pieces of art―paintings, sculptures, and architecture―are the subject of Hornik’s careful analysis and commentary, which highlights the ethical implications inherent to each work. Specifically, Hornik explores how art may foster Christian virtues such as forgiveness, patience, and generosity. Hornik also discusses art’s influence on moral issues such as racism, prisons, violence, poverty, and environmentalism as well as historic Christian praxes such as prayer, work, Bible study, and worship.
 The Art of Christian Reflection paints the church’s art as not only a courageous witness to the truth and reality of the gospel, but as an act of discipleship. It reveals the ethics of works not associated with the church but of value to contemporary Christians. Art can lead the faithful who reflect on it to become not only "hearers" and "seers" of the Word―but "doers" as well.

The Art of Christian Reflection

Baylor University Press

Written by a biblical scholar in collaboration with an art historian, Illuminating Luke: The Infancy Narrative in Italian Renaissance Painting demonstrates just how much those two disciplines have to say to one another today. Through their close readings of famous paintings illustrating stories from Luke, the authors ask: How did Renaissance artists and their patrons understand the gospel? And what traditions of faith guided them in translating biblical text and Church tradition into paint? The answers to those questions are unfolded within a rich context of meaning, that provides a unique access to these ageless retellings of the stories of Christ’s infancy—while illuminating the profound heritage of spirituality that Italian Renaissance artists embodied in their work.

Illuminating Luke: The Infancy Narrative in Italian Renaissance Painting

Religious

This book examines Michele Tosini's critical role in 16th-century Mannerist art in Florence. Tosini was well-trained, well-educated, and well-liked, and created a highly productive workshop environment that not only succeeded but thrived in one of the most competitive ages of artistic production in the history of art. To date, the scholarship executed on Tosini (Carlo Gamba in 1928; Sydney Freedberg in 1974) has produced a plethora of misunderstandings about Tosini's role in the Florentine artistic community. The verdict that Tosini was a "hack" painter who could make his works look like those of more "established" painters in order to get commissions, and that he was an uneducated "second-rate" painter who could not formulate complex iconographical programs, is at odds with the evidence presented in this current research. Tosini was much more than just "the right man in the right place at the right time." He not only promoted Mannerism, but was part of its process; indeed, the formation of the Accademia del Disegno took place at the height of his artistic career. Given his business acumen it is perhaps understandable that misunderstandings have arisen. To borrow from William Wallace, Tosini can legitimately be thought of as "Genius as Entrepreneur." Michele Tosini and the Ghirlandaio Workshop in Cinquecento Florence is essential reading for all students of Late Renaissance / Mannerist art history.

Michele Tosini and the Ghirlandaio Workshop in Cinquecento Florence

Liverpool University Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Hornik, Heidi J.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Hornik, Heidi J.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Hornik, Heidi J.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Illuminating Luke, Volume 3: The Passion and Resurrection Narratives in Italian Renaissance and Baroque Painting

Illuminating Luke, Volume 2: The Public Ministry of Christ in Italian Renaissance and Baroque Painting

The Acts of the Apostles Through the Centuries (Wiley Blackwell Bible Commentaries)

The Acts of the Apostles Through the Centuries (Wiley Blackwell Bible Commentaries)

The Art of Christian Reflection

Illuminating Luke: The Infancy Narrative in Italian Renaissance Painting

Michele Tosini and the Ghirlandaio Workshop in Cinquecento Florence