Anglo-Saxon Gestures and the Roman Stage

This 1999 book studies the pictorial language of gesture revealed in Anglo-Saxon art, and its debt to classical Rome.

C. R. Dodwell (Author)

9780521661881, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 2 December 1999

246 pages, 99 b/w illus.
23.6 x 16.1 x 2 cm, 0.53 kg

"...Dodwell's book is both a richly suggestive source and a model of rigorous argumentation." Early Drama, Art & Music Review

This 1999 book is concerned with the pictorial language of gesture revealed in Anglo-Saxon art, and its debt to classical Rome. Reginald Dodwell was an eminent art historian and former Director of the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester. In this, his last book, he notes a striking similarity of both form and meaning between Anglo-Saxon gestures and those in illustrated manuscripts of the plays of Terence. He presents evidence for dating the archetype of the Terence manuscripts to the mid-third century, and argues persuasively that their gestures reflect actual stage conventions. He identifies a repertory of eighteen Terentian gestures whose meaning can be ascertained from the dramatic contexts in which they occur, and conducts a detailed examination of the use of the gestures in Anglo-Saxon manuscripts. The book, which is extensively illustrated, illuminates our understanding of the vigour of late Anglo-Saxon art and its ability to absorb and transpose continental influence.

List of plates
Foreword Timothy Graham
Acknowledgements
List of abbreviations
1. The Vatican Terence and its model
2. The classical miniatures and the stage
3. Dramatic gestures in the miniatures
Appendix to chapter 3: the views of Jachmann
4. Anglo-Saxon gestures
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: History of art: Byzantine & Medieval art c 500 CE to c 1400 [ACK]