Images of Cult and Devotion: Function and Reception of Christian Images in Medieval and Post-Medieval Europe

Medieval pilgrims not only worshipped relics, they also venerated statues and paintings. These images or 'idols' were of particular importance in the day-to-day religion of ordinary people judged superstitious by the Church. These sixteen essays, all well-illustrated, originated at an international symposium held at Sandberg Manor in Jutland in 1994, which focused on cult or devotional images, particularly from Nordic Europe. The contributors discuss a wide range of images, such as Christian reliquaries and pagan idols, letters of indulgence, Norwegian wooden sculptures, illumninations, altarpieces, Church paintings, Danish murals, public pictures in Denmark, images of the Crucifixion and the Virgin Mary, 16th-century Italian Baroque, Reformation images and 17th- and 18th-century Evangelical images of a devotional life. Throughout the images are placed in their social and religious context.