Disembodied heads in medieval and early modern culture / edited by Barbara Baert, Catrien Santing & Anita Traninger.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Academia Belgica (Rome, Italy)

Royal Dutch Institute.

Baert, Barbara.

Traninger, Anita.

Santing, Catrien.

Series:

Intersections 28.

Intersections ; volume 28

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Head--Social aspects--Congresses.

Head.

Human body--Social aspects--Congresses.

Human body.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (331 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Boston : Brill, 2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Do heads excite a desire to chop them off; a desire to decapitate and take a human life, as anthropologists have suggested? The contributors to this book are fascinated by ‘disembodied heads’, which are pursued in their many medieval and early modern disguises and representations, including the metaphorical. They challenge the question why in medieval and early modern cultures the head was usually considered the most important part of the body, a primacy only contested by the heart for religious reasons. Carefully mapping beliefs, mythologies and traditions concerning the head, the result is an attempt to establish a ‘cultural anatomy’ of the head, which is relevant for cultural historians, art historians and students of the philosophy, art and sciences of the premodern period. Contributors include Barbara Baert, Esther Cohen, Mateusz Kapustka, Arjan R. de Koomen, Robert Mills, Marina Montesano, Scott B. Montgomery, Catrien Santing, Jetze Touber, and Bert Watteeuw.

Contents:

Preliminary Material / Catrien Santing , Barbara Baert and Anita Traninger

Introduction / Catrien Santing and Barbara Baert

Adam’s Skull / Marina Montesano

Talking Heads, or, A Tale of Two Clerics / Robert Mills

The Meaning of the Head in High Medieval Culture / Esther Cohen

Securing the Sacred Head: Cephalophory and Relic Claims / Scott B. Montgomery

The Johannesschüssel as Andachtsbild: The Gaze, The Medium and The Senses / Barbara Baert

Chasing the Caput. Head Images of John the Baptist in a Political Conflict / Mateusz Kapustka

The Self-Portrait ‘En Décapité’: Interpreting Artistic Self-Insertion / Arjan R. de Koomen

Capita Selecta in Historia Sacra. Head Relics in Counter Reformation Rome (ca. 1570–ca. 1630) / Jetze Touber

Framing the Face. Patterns of Presentation and Representation in Early Modern Dress and Portraiture / Bert Watteeuw

‘And I Bear Your Beautiful Face Painted on My Chest’. The Longevity of the Heart as the Primal Organ in the Renaissance / Catrien Santing

Index Nominum / Catrien Santing , Barbara Baert and Anita Traninger.

Notes:

Outcome of a two-day conference held at the Academia Belgica and the Royal Dutch Institute at Rome.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

90-04-25355-6

OCLC:

857365043

Publisher Number:

10.1163/9789004253551 DOI