Caput Johannis in disco : essay on a man's head
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Bibliographic Information
Caput Johannis in disco : essay on a man's head
（Visualising the Middle Ages, v. 8）
Brill, 2012
- : hardback
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Note
Bibliography: p. [225]-246
Includes index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
During the Middle Ages, the head of St John the Baptist was widely venerated. According to the biblical text, John was beheaded at the order of Herod's stepdaughter, who is traditionally given the name Salome. His head was later found in Jerusalem. Legends concerning the discovery of this relic form the basis of an iconographic type in which the head of St John the Baptist is represented as an "object." The phenomenon of the Johannesschussel is the subject of this essay. Little is known about how exactly these objects functioned. How are we to understand this fascination with horror, death and decapitation? What phantasms does the artifact channel?
The present study offers the unique key to the Johannesschussel as artifact, phenomenon, phantasm and medium.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations ...xi
Copyrights ...xix
Acknowledgements ...xxiii
Prologue ...1
1.The narrative ...9
2.The relics ...22
3.The genesis of an artifact ...45
4.The liturgical calendar: performative acts and therapy ...61
5.The sacramental context: water and blood ...83
6.The Andachtsbild: the gaze and the senses ...105
7.The Medusa efffect ...130
8.Skull cult ...143
9.Sacrifijice and dance ...153
10.In utroque: genealogy and foundation ...166
11.In utroque: head and face...184
12.The executioner's arm: painting as blood ...205
13.Epilogue: Nachleben ...211
Bibliography ...225
Index ...247
by "Nielsen BookData"