Devotional Portraiture and Spiritual Experience in Early Netherlandish Painting

Ingrid Falque, Ph.D. (2009), Université catholique de Louvain, is Research Associate of the F.R.S.-FNRS. She is an art historian and has published numerous articles on the various relationships between late medieval images and spirituality in journals (e.g. Speculum, Revue d’histoire ecclésiastique) and edited volumes.

“With Falque’s lucid description of the complex visual language of the paintings, this project will be appreciated by art historians already familiar with the pictorial conventions of the era but it will also serve as an effective lens for scholars in neighboring disciplines – especially those concerned with devotional literature – who seek to explore the participation of the visual arts in theological and devotional discourse.”Mitzi Kirkland-Ives, Missouri State University. In: HNA Reviews, April 2020.“A monumental achievement.”Catherine Levesque, College of William and Mary. In: Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 75, No. 1 (Spring 2022), pp. 213–216.

• AcknowledgementsList of Figures and GraphAbbreviationsNote to the ReaderIntroduction1 Ora pro me: The Forms and Locations of Devotional Portraits in Early Netherlandish Painting1 From the Outside to the Inside: The Location of Portraits within the Physical Spaces of the Work2 Via ad Deum: Devotional Portraiture and the Spiritual Journey1 Spiritual Progress and the Meditative Process in the Medieval Religious Tradition2 The Devotee on the Path3 The Goal of the Spiritual Journey and the Status of the Sacred Space 3 Ascensiones in corde disposuit: Devotional Portraiture and Spiritual Ascent1 Mise en Mots and Mise en Image of the Spiritual Ascent in the Medieval Spiritual Tradition2 The Theme of the Spiritual Ascent in Devotional Literature of the Low Countries in the Late Middle Ages3 Mise en Image of the Spiritual Ascent in Early Netherlandish Painting4 Petrus Christus’ Exeter Madonna, an Emblematic Case of Spiritual Ascent5 The Diptych of Lodovico Portinari and the Visualisation of the Meditative Process4 Eene vergaderinghe van twee personen die comen van diverschen staden: Devotional Portraiture, Union with God and Spiritual Perfection1 The Outcome of the Contemplative Process: Spiritual Perfection, Union with God and the Ghemeine Leven2 Devotional Portraiture and the Visualisation of Spiritual Perfection3 The Van der Burch Triptych of Jan Provoost, an Exemplary Image of Spiritual Perfection5 In spiritualem quandam armoniam: Devotional Portraiture and the Role of Images in the Meditative Process1 The Place of Images in Late Medieval Meditative Theory and Practices2 Geert Grote’s Tractatus de Quattuor Generibus Meditabilium, the Ghemeine Leven and the Status of ImagesConclusionsBibliographyindex