Altar and the Altarpiece: Sacramental Themes in Early Netherlandish Painting Book

This is a 7" x 9.25" soft cover book - a valuable title - 1948 Stated First Edition. Black covers with Jesus on cross color illustration on front. From back cover: "The altarpieces of Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden, and Hans Memling have been praised over the centuries for the brilliance of their color and their fascination with realistic detail. Their Original liturgical functions, however, have often been ignored. Thee radiant works, created in an age of overwhelming religious intensity, were ecclesiastical objects that explained the riturals celebrated at the altars they adorned. Instead of approaching fifteenth-century painting in the Netherlands from the traditional viewpoint of stylistic development, this book concentrates on the major religious themes of the period. Through selected examples, it demonstrates how these exquisite paintings dramatized the Mass for the worshiper. This provocative study of a still enigmatic field will appeal to anyone interested in early Netherlandish painting, Christian iconography, or the climax of late medieval piety."Read More