To browse Academia. This research discusses the significance of reliquaries and relic veneration among the lower classes in late medieval Europe. It explores the intricate relationship between sacred artifacts, materials used in their creation, and the religious sentiments they evoked. By analyzing specific relics and the reactions they elicit, the paper underscores the cultural and spiritual dimensions of relic veneration during this period, challenging simplistic views about the gullibility of medieval audiences.
The purpose of this talk is to propose a middle position between relics as mementos occasioning a recollection of a saint and relics as magical objects with their own power to act on physical reality, and to do so by using Neuer Realismus aesthetic theory to suggest that relics, as art, have a certain autonomy of action on the mind of the one who venerates them though not on physical reality.
Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies Their authorship is in question and, for many, their status as art is compromised by their link to religious superstitions.
Above all, they demand the cooperation of the viewer. In contemporary art, these same issues are frequently subject to examination. With recent emphases on the abject, the body, memory and its construction, the meaning of materials and objects, and the participation of the viewer in the creation of the work of art, a fresh look at reliquaries has particular resonance for contemporary artists and audiences. New and different value attributed by English faithful to relics of martyrs between 16th and 17th centuries, and how this change affected the shape of reliquaries.
An innovative interpretation. Christians have often admired and venerated the martyrs who died for their faith, but for a long time thought that the bodies of martyrs should remain undisturbed in their graves. Initially, the Christian attitude toward the bones of the dead, saint or not, was that of respectful distance. The Beginnings of the Cult of Relics examines how this attitude changed in the mid-fourth century.
