The Bronze Object in the Middle Ages

This is a path-breaking contribution to the study of medieval metalwork and to the broader re-evaluation of medieval art.

Ittai Weinryb (Author)

9781107123618, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 18 April 2016

305 pages, 12 b/w illus. 108 colour illus.
26.1 x 18.5 x 1.8 cm, 0.85 kg

'This is a thought-provoking and ambitious study of monumental cast bronze objects produced through the lost wax process during the Middle Ages. Ittai Weinryb examines a wide range of objects and textual sources, and seeks to move beyond the questions of style and Romanitas that have traditionally dominated literature about medieval bronzes. … The study encompasses doors, bells, fountains and figurative sculpture, concentrating mainly on the modern regions of Germany and Italy. The writing is engaging, and the arguments are supported by excellent illustrations.' L. Cleaver, The English Historical Review

This book presents the first full length study in English of monumental bronzes in the Middle Ages. Taking as its point of departure the common medieval reception of bronze sculpture as living or animated, the study closely analyzes the practice of lost wax casting (cire perdue) in western Europe and explores the cultural responses to large scale bronzes in the Middle Ages. Starting with mining, smelting, and the production of alloys, and ending with automata, water clocks and fountains, the book uncovers networks of meaning around which bronze sculptures were produced and consumed. The book is a path-breaking contribution to the study of metalwork in the Middle Ages and to the re-evaluation of medieval art more broadly, presenting an understudied body of work to reconsider what the materials and techniques embodied in public monuments meant to the medieval spectator.

Introduction: of bronze things
1. Making
2. Signification
3. Acting
4. Being
Appendix 1. Adhémar of Chabannes (988–1034)
Appendix 2. Hugh of Fouilloy (c.1096–c.1172)
Appendix 3. On the Benediction of Bells, excerpt from the Gellone Sacramentary.

Subject Areas: History of science [PDX], History of ideas [JFCX], Religion: general [HRA], Medieval history [HBLC1], European history [HBJD], History of art: Byzantine & Medieval art c 500 CE to c 1400 [ACK]