Pontius Pilate is one of the Bible's best-known villains--but up until the tenth century, artistic imagery appears to have consistently portrayed him as a benevolent Christian and holy symbol of baptism. For the first time, Pontius Pilate, Anti-Semitism, and the Passion in Medieval Art provides a complete look at the shifting visual and textual representations of Pilate throughout early Christian and medieval art. Colum Hourihane examines neglected and sometimes sympathetic portrayals, and shows how negative characterizations of Pilate, which were developed for political and religious purposes, reveal the anti-Semitism of the medieval period.
 Hourihane indicates that in some artistic renderings, Pilate may have been a symbol of good, and in many, a figure of jurisprudence. Eastern traditions treated Pilate as a saint with his own feast day, but Western accounts from the tenth century changed him from a Roman to a Jew. Pilate became a vessel for anti-Semitism--his image acquired grotesque facial and physical characteristics, and his role in Christ's Passion grew to mythic proportions. By the fifteenth century, however, representations of Pilate came full circle to depict an aged and empathetic administrator.
 Combining a wealth of previously unpublished sources with explorations of art historical developments, Pontius Pilate, Anti-Semitism, and the Passion in Medieval Art puts forth for the first time an encyclopedic portrait of a complex legend.

Pontius Pilate, Anti-Semitism, and the Passion in Medieval Art

Arts & Photography

Hourihane, Colum

History & Criticism

Princeton University Press

Processional crosses were destroyed in such great numbers at the Reformation that we perhaps forget what an important role they once played in community and liturgical life (as they still do in Brittany, Spain, Portugal and many other parts of Catholic Europe). Tracing the form of the processional cross back to specific ceremonies in the sixth-century Byzantine world, Colum Hourihane shows that they had become 'dallye crosses' by the later Middle Ages, objects indispensable to everyday religious observance. Core to the book is a history of the procession itself which was an occasion for clergy and public to join together in festive community events. Processions came to develop their own liturgical status, separate from other ceremonies, and associated with membership of a professional organization or religious fraternity. Large and well-supported processions accompanied the celebration of saints linked to the parish or the definition of parish boundaries, while others were associated with membership of a professional organization or religious fraternity. As well as recreating this lost world of processions, with all their music, banners and colourful vestments, Colum Hourihane's book also catalogues all the crosses currently known to exist in England, whether in museums, priories or parish churches, from the plainest examples to those that represent craftsmanship and art of the highest order. Iconic of Christ's ultimate sacrifice - his death for our sins upon the Cross - and attributed with miraculous powers, these crosses offer a glimpse of a world in which community, religion and landscape are woven together in a complex tapestry of secular, mythic and religious observance.

The Processional Cross in Late Medieval England: The 'Dallye Cross' (Reports of the Research Committee 71)

Society of Antiquaries

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Books by Hourihane, Colum

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

Pontius Pilate, Anti-Semitism, and the Passion in Medieval Art

The Processional Cross in Late Medieval England: The 'Dallye Cross' (Reports of the Research Committee 71)