Image on the Edge
The Margins of Medieval Art
Published on 10. June 2019
Book
Paperback/Softback
192 pages
978-1-78914-006-4 (ISBN)
Description
What do they all mean - the lascivious ape, autophagic dragons, pot-bellied heads, harp-playing asses, arse-kissing priests and somersaulting jongleurs to be found protuding from the edges of medieval buildings and in the margins of illuminated manuscripts? Now available in a new hardback edition, Michael Camille's Image on the Edge explores that riotous realm of marginal art, so often explained away as mere decoration or zany doodles, where resistance to social constraints flourished.
Medieval image-makers focused attention on the underside of society, the excluded and the ejected. Peasants, servants, prostitutes and beggars all found their place, along with knights and clerics, engaged in impudent antics in the margins of prayer-books or, as gargoyles, on the outsides of churches. Camille brings us to an understanding of how marginality functioned in medieval culture and shows us just how scandalous, subversive and amazing the art of the time could be.
Medieval image-makers focused attention on the underside of society, the excluded and the ejected. Peasants, servants, prostitutes and beggars all found their place, along with knights and clerics, engaged in impudent antics in the margins of prayer-books or, as gargoyles, on the outsides of churches. Camille brings us to an understanding of how marginality functioned in medieval culture and shows us just how scandalous, subversive and amazing the art of the time could be.
Reviews / Votes
"a handsome, entertaining account of the peculiar fashion for grotesque, obscene and humorous presences on the margins of medieval illuminateed manuscripts." - Times Higher Education"If the study of medieval art is not to remain an esoteric and elitist discipline then more books like this must be written." - Burlington Magazine
"Camille's polymathic essays undoubtedly will provoke such studies and will expand the field of questions we ask . . . and in this he will have made a valuable contribution." - Oxford Art Journal
"Image on the Edge remains an important and highly readable exploration of an intriguing corner of medieval culture with the power to open up a whole society and its mental worlds to modern readers in an exhilarating, thought-provoking, and original fashion." - Folklore
"This is an interesting book that will make the reader examine manuscripts and sculpture more carefully and understand the Middle Ages more comprehensively . . . It is a book that will broaden your idea of medieval art in an enjoyable way." - Yorkshire Gazette and Herald
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Illustrations
38 illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 138 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-78914-006-4 (9781789140064)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
12/2013
Reaktion Books
€18.99
Available for download
Previous edition
Book
04/1992
Reaktion Books
€39.78
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Person
Before his death in 2002, Michael Camille was Professor of Art History at the University of Chicago. His books include Image on the Edge (Reaktion, 1992), Mirror in Parchment (Reaktion, 1998) and The Gothic Idol: Ideology and Image-Making in Medieval Art (1989).