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A fascinating look at the history of the Christian Church as portrayed throughout Western art. This richly illustrated volume argues that, because much of Western art depicts key events, leaders, and practices in the history of the Christian Church, knowledge of that history is critical to gaining a deeper appreciation of many of our great masterpieces."The History of the Church in Art" begins by examining artistic representations of liturgical objects - including altars, crosses, and censers. It then goes on to look at the portrayal of the duties and vestments of a variety of cleric in art; the visual documentation of devotional practices; and important episodes from the Church's history - crusades and pilgrimages, the Inquisition and the Reformation, and power struggles between popes and secular leaders. It concludes with an analysis of the lives and portraits of notable leaders, from Peter and Paul to Thomas More and Pope Paul VI.

Christian saints have been the objects of reverence and fascination throughout the past two millennia. Their likenesses, heroic acts, prayerful lives, and stories of martyrdom have been portrayed frequently in art of diverse media. Without familiarity with the saints and their images and symbols, viewers of art may find it challenging to identify, for example, which saint is represented as a monk with an axe through his head, or a beautiful girl holding a wheel, or a woman carrying her eyes on a plate. From Agatha to Zeno, Francis of Assisi to Mary Magdalene, this is a presentation of the characteristic features of more than 100 saints often encountered in sacred Western art. Each saint is introduced by a practical list of his or her unique attributes. Entries also include notes on the saints' lives and martyrdom and a series of visual references to help the reader recognize these exemplary figures, their histories, and their special devotions. This resource is illustrated with a collection of masterpieces.

This sumptuously illustrated volume analyzes artists' representations of angels and demons and heaven and hell from the Judeo-Christian tradition and describes how these artistic portrayals evolved over time. As with other books in the "Guide to Imagery" series, the goal of this volume is to help contemporary art enthusiasts decode the symbolic meanings in the great masterworks of Western Art. The first chapter traces the development of images of the Creation and the After world from descriptions of them in the Scriptures through their evolution in later literary and philosophical works. The following two chapters examine artists' depictions of the two paths that humans may take, the path of evil or the path of salvation, and the punishments or rewards found on each. A chapter on the Judgment Day and the end of the world explores portrayals of the mysterious worlds between life and death and in the afterlife. Finally, the author looks at images of angelic and demonic beings themselves and how they came to be portrayed with the physical attributes - wings, halos, horns, cloven hooves - with which we are now so familiar.