Strange Beauty

Contents

List of Illustrations

Preface

Part I: First Things

1 Introduction

2 The Reliquary and Its Maker

3 Relics, Meaning, and Response: Early Christian Reliquaries, Narrative and Not

Part II: Shaped Reliquaries

4 Spolia and Sign, Metaphor and Simile

5 The Reliquary Cross

6 Like and Unlike Metaphors

7 Body-Part Reliquaries: Heads

8 Body Part Reliquaries: Other Body Parts

Part III: A Gathering of Saints: Processions and Treasuries

9 Reliquaries in Action

10 Treasuries

11 Relic Display

12 A Case Study: Wibald of Stavelot as Patron

13 The Impact of 1204, the “Space” of the Ark, and Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index

“What discourses of otherness exist as particular and appropriate to premodernity and not as retrofitted versions of the theoretical frameworks designed to consider these issues for modernity? Addressing this question can profit us beyond the domain of medieval studies. Strange Beauty’s intricate objects offer clues to such possible discourses, expressed visually and poised to train viewers—medieval and modern—in significations that we still seek to understand.”

—Seeta Chaganti, CAA.Reviews