Embodying Devotion: Multisensory Encounters with Donatello's Crucifix in S. Croce

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-56
Author(s):  
Geraldine A. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Early Modern Europe ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Good Friday ◽  
Five Senses ◽  
Modern Europe

The reception of art is often described in ocularcentric terms, but all five senses could engage devotional objects in late medieval and early modern Europe. This article explores this phenomenon by considering a wooden crucifix with movable arms made by Donatello for the Franciscan church of S. Croce in Florence in the early fifteenth century. It makes new suggestions about the work's original location, its possible patrons, and its functions and reception, especially during the rituals associated with Good Friday. It also reflects on the challenges scholars face when taking a multisensory approach to premodern visual and material culture.

scholarly journals Constructing and Representing Territory in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
State Formation ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Geographical Area ◽  
Formation Processes ◽  
Constitutional History ◽  
Stained Glass ◽  
Early Modern Europe ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Modern Europe

In recent political and constitutional history, scholars seldom specify how and why they use the concept of territory. In research on state formation processes and nation building, for instance, the term mostly designates an enclosed geographical area ruled by a central government. Inspired by ideas from political geographers, this book explores the layered and constantly changing meanings of territory in late medieval and early modern Europe before cartography and state formation turned boundaries and territories into more fixed (but still changeable) geographical entities. Its central thesis is that analysing the notion of territory in a premodern setting involves analysing territorial practices: practices that relate people and power to space(s). The book not only examines the construction and spatial structure of premodern territories but also explores their perception and representation through the use of a broad range of sources: from administrative texts to maps, from stained glass windows to chronicles.

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