Kunst und Konfession in der Frühen Neuzeit – serie

An introduction to the dispute about religious art conducted in France from the beginning of the sixteenth century until the end of the eighteenth century. The debate involved not only Catholic and Protestant theologians, but also lay writers who tried to replace dogmatic Christianity with the ‘religion of reason’ invented by the philosophes. A recurrent theme in the majority of statements in this discussion is a contention that religious images must not be perceived as ‘portraits of God’, but that they should be seen merely as ‘separated signs’, detached from their invisible prototype; signs that only remind the faithful about God.French writers favoured restraint in shaping paintings and sculptures, fearing that otherwise works of art might excessively fascinate viewers with their sophisticated appearance, or might too profoundly move the emotions of the faithful. Christianity was for these writers above all a religion of the Word, and they considered images merely as a pastoral aid intended for ‘simpletons’ who either could not read or were unable to grasp the teachings of the catechism or the message of simple homilies. So, these writers approached religious art with reservations. Yielding to the above theoretical assumptions, the makers of religious art in seventeenth-century France achieved a high level of workmanship, characterized by noble simplicity and purity, only to succumb to the banality of schematic solutions in the following century, as they were unwilling to exert themselves in a domain that was becoming increasingly disregarded by the elites.

As part of a detailed introduction to the post-Reformation church topography of Norway, some 140 epitaphs preserved in all parts of Norway from the period 1550 to 1700 are documented with illustrations, descriptions and short biographies. In addition to numerous illustrations of the epitaphs, the volume contains transcriptions of all inscriptions as well as their translation into English.The epitaph genre was particularly popular in post-Reformation Lutheranism (unlike in the Reformed areas of Europe) - as it was in Norway. In addition to a comprehensive introduction to the cultural, social and geographical context of epitaphs, the volume offers a detailed insight into the (self-)representation of the elites who commissioned these epitaphs. It also names the most important artists who were entrusted with the production of the epitaphs in Norway.The main part of the volume is a detailed presentation of the surviving epitaphs in Norway's four early modern bishoprics. Pictorial motifs, inscriptions and biographical studies are included in the interpretation.