Analyzing images and aesthetic treatises, Freedberg (art history, Columbia) sets out historical and anthropological evidence for human responses, ranging from religious to sexual ones, that recur through
the centuries. He gives particular attention to the increasing association of art and religious behavior in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. "This learned and heavy volume should be placed on the shelves of every art historical library." ~ E. H. Gombrich, New York Review of Books. "This is an engaged and passionate work by a writer with powerful convictions
about art, images, aesthetics, the art establishment, and especially the discipline of art history. It is animated by an extraordinary erudition." ~ Arthur C. Danto

Table of Contents 

• • List of Illustrations
  • Preface
  • Introduction
  • 1. The Power of Images: Response and Repression
  • 2. The God in the Image
  • 3. The Value of the Commonplace
  • 4. The Myth of Aniconism
  • 5. Consecration: Making Images Work
  • 6. Image and Pilgrimage
  • 7. The Votive Image: Invoking Favor and Giving Thanks
  • 8. Invisibilia per visibilia: Meditation and the Uses of Theory
  • 9. Verisimilitude and Resemblance: From Sacred Mountain to Waxworks
  • 10. Infamy, Justice, and Witchcraft: Explanation, Sympathy, and Magic
  • 11. Live Images: The Worth of Visions and Tales
  • 12. Arousal by Image
  • 13. The Senses and Censorship
  • 14. Idolatry and Iconoclasm
  • 15. Representation and Reality
  • Abbreviations
  • Notes
  • Bibliography
  • Index