An examination of the related themes of lovemaking and image-making in the visual arts of Europe, China, Japan, and Persia.

This volume contains twenty-four essays, which, in their subjects and methodology, pay tribute to the scholarship of Walter S. Melion. The contributions are grouped under three categories: “Devotion,” “Art and Image Theory,” and “Vision and Contemplation.” The Devotion section addresses votive practices, theological theory and polemic literature. The Art and Image Theory section focuses on Jesuit image theory, the reflexive dimension of works, and artists’ reflections on the function of images. Finally, the Vision and Contemplation section discusses the ‘early modern eye’ as a tool for thoughtful, prolonged looking to ascertain visual wit, deception, self-assessment and friendship, sacred and profane allegories.

This book examines how secret knowledge was represented visually in ways that both revealed and concealed the true nature of that knowledge, giving and yet impeding access to it.

In this volume, specialists from different fields present case studies of text-image relationships in the religious field (1400-1700) with a methodological and/or theoretical dimension.

This volume examines how and why many early modern pictures operate in an ekphrastic mode.

This book examines the ways in which spaces and places of solitude were conceived of, imagined, and represented in the late medieval and early modern periods. It explores the spatial, material, and affective dimensions of solitude, which have so far received only scant scholarly attention.