Author : Elina Gertsman
Release : 2010
Genre : Art
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : /5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis The Dance of Death in the Middle Ages by : Elina Gertsman

Download or read book The Dance of Death in the Middle Ages written by Elina Gertsman. This book was released on 2010. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Elina Gertsman's multifaceted study introduces readers to the imagery and texts of the Dance of Death, an extraordinary subject that first emerged in western European art and literature in the late medieval era. Conceived from the start as an inherently public image, simultaneously intensely personal and widely accessible, the medieval Dance of Death proclaimed the inevitability of death and declared the futility of human ambition. Gertsman inquires into the theological, socio-historic, literary, and artistic contexts of the Dance of Death, exploring it as a site of interaction between text, image, and beholder. Pulling together a wide variety of sources and drawing attention to those images that have slipped through the cracks of the art historical canon, Gertsman examines the visual, textual, aural, pastoral, and performative discourses that informed the creation and reception of the Dance of Death, and proposes different modes of viewing for several paintings, each of which invited the beholder to participate in an active, kinesthetic experience.