Likeness and Presence

Before the Renaissance and Reformation, holy images were treated not as

"art" but as objects of veneration which possessed the tangible presence

of the Holy. In this magisterial book, Hans Belting traces the long

history of the sacral image and its changing role in European culture.

Likeness and Presence looks at the beliefs, superstitions, hopes,

and fears that come into play as people handle and respond to sacred

images, and presents a compelling interpretation of the place of the

image in Western history.

"A rarity within its genre--an art-historical analysis of iconography

which is itself iconoclastic. . . . One of the most intellectually

exciting and historically grounded interpretations of Christian

iconography." --Graham Howes, Times Literary Supplement

"Likeness and Presence offers the best source to survey the facts of

what European Christians put in their churches. . . . An impressively

detailed contextual analysis of medieval objects." --Robin Cormack,

New York Times Book Review

"I cannot begin to describe the richness or the imaginative grandeur of

Hans Belting's book. . . . It is a work that anyone interested in art,

or in the history of thought about art, should regard as urgent reading.

It is a tremendous achievement."--Arthur C. Danto, New Republic