The concept of the medieval city is fixed in the modern imagination, conjuring visions of fortified walls, towering churches, and winding streets. In Riemenschneider in Rothenburg, Katherine M. Boivin investigates how medieval urban planning and artistic programming worked together to form dynamic environments, demonstrating the agency of objects, styles, and spaces in mapping the late medieval city. Using altarpieces by the famed medieval artist Tilman Riemenschneider as touchstones for her argument, Boivin explores how artwork in Germany’s preeminent medieval city, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, deliberately propagated civic ideals. She argues that the numerous artistic pieces commissioned by the city’s elected council over the course of two centuries built upon one another, creating a cohesive structural network that attracted religious pilgrims and furthered the theological ideals of the parish church. By contextualizing some of Rothenburg’s most significant architectural and artistic works, such as St. James’s Church and Riemenschneider’s Altarpiece of the Holy Blood, Boivin shows how the city government employed these works to establish a local aesthetic that awed visitors, raising Rothenburg’s profile and putting it on the pilgrimage map of Europe. Carefully documented and convincingly argued, this book sheds important new light on the history of one of Germany’s major tourist destinations. It will be of considerable interest to medieval art historians and scholars working in the fields of cultural and urban history.

The Matter of Mimesis offers a rich and interdisciplinary perspective on how and why we use materials to copy, from the human body to the entire cosmos, from prehistory to the present day.

A revelatory exploration of wood's many material, ecological, and symbolic meanings in the religious art of medieval Germany "A rewarding study that is full of new insights."--Jeremy Warren, Art Newspaper In late medieval Germany, wood was a material laden with significance. It was an important part of the local environment and economy, as well as an object of religious devotion in and of itself. Gregory C. Bryda examines the multiple meanings of wood and greenery within religious art--as a material, as a feature of agrarian life, and as a symbol of the cross, whose wood has resonances with other iconographies in the liturgy. Bryda discusses how influential artists such as Matthias Grünewald, known for the Isenheim Altarpiece, and the renowned sculptor Tilman Riemenschneider exploited wood's multivalent nature to connect spiritual themes to the lived environment outside church walls. Exploring the complex visual and material culture of the period, this lavishly illustrated volume features works ranging from monumental altarpieces to portable pictures and offers a fresh understanding of how wood in art functioned to unlock the mysteries of faith and the natural world in both liturgy and everyday life.

The first English-language book to comprehensively discuss the history and methodology of conserving medieval polychrome wood sculpture. Medieval polychrome wood sculptures are highly complex objects, bearers of histories that begin with their original carving and adornment and continue through long centuries of repainting, deterioration, restoration, and conservation. Abundantly illustrated, this book is the first in English to offer a comprehensive overview of the conservation of medieval painted wood sculpture for conservators, curators, and others charged with their care. Beginning with an illuminating discussion of the history, techniques, and meanings of these works, it continues with their examination and documentation, including chapters on the identification of both the wooden support and the polychromy itself—the paint layers, metal leaf, and other materials used for these sculptures. The volume also covers the many aspects of treatment: the process of determining the best approach; consolidation and adhesion of paint, ground, and support; overpaint removal and surface cleaning; and compensation. Four case studies on artworks in the collection of The Cloisters in New York, a comprehensive bibliography, and a checklist to aid in documentation complement the text.

Riemenschneider in Situ presents the newest research on the work of one of the most famous late medieval and early Renaissance sculptors, Tilman Riemenschneider. Moving beyond questions of style, date, and workshop practice, this volume investigates the sculptor's programs across the south German region of Franconia that survive in situ, within the particular contexts for which they were designed and in which they were originally experienced. In shifting the focus from fragmentary pieces in museum collections to extant installations in their original church settings, the volume contributes to a wave of scholarship interested in reanimating medieval artistic ensembles by considering them as complex visual environments. Together, the authors-conservators, museum professionals, and art historians-provide an essential and overdue study of Riemenschneider's best-preserved pieces, while also making an important, collaborative addition to the broader discipline of pre-modern art history.

This book, consisting a series of papers written by experts in their respective fields of specialization, will provide a comprehensive coverage of renewable energy technologies, such as wind, wave and solar thermal energy. Other industrial terms like photovoltaic systems, biomass, distributed generations and small hydro power systems are also discussed and further elaborated upon. The Handbook of Renewable Energy Technology will be of great practical benefit to professionals, scientists and researchers in the relevant industries, and will be of interest to those of the general public wanting to know more about renewable energy technologies.

This volume offers unparalleled coverage of all aspects of art and architecture from medieval Western Europe, from the 6th century to the early 16th century. Drawing upon the expansive scholarship in the celebrated 'Grove Dictionary of Art' and adding hundreds of new entries, it offers students, researchers and the general public a reliable, up-to-date, and convenient resource covering this field of major importance in the development of Western history and international art and architecture.