Real Presence and Mere Painting on the Counter-Reformation Altar

This article proposes a new paradigm for coordinating altarpiece painting and Eucharistic devotion after Trent. By both accepting the demotion of painting's holy efficacy and the establishment of the Eucharist as the most important sacrament, a new order of priorities on the high altar began to...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Verstegen, Ian 1969- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: The Catholic University of America Press 2023
In: The catholic historical review
Year: 2023, Volume: 109, Issue: 2, Pages: 269-301
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Italy / Catholic church / Tridentinum (1545-1563 : Trient) / Altar-piece / Tabernacle / Iconoclastic controversy
IxTheo Classification:CE Christian art
KAG Church history 1500-1648; Reformation; humanism; Renaissance
KBJ Italy
KCC Councils
KDB Roman Catholic Church
NBP Sacramentology; sacraments
Further subjects:B Altarpieces
B tabernacles
B Efficacy
B Iconoclasm
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Summary:This article proposes a new paradigm for coordinating altarpiece painting and Eucharistic devotion after Trent. By both accepting the demotion of painting's holy efficacy and the establishment of the Eucharist as the most important sacrament, a new order of priorities on the high altar began to develop. Painting in this era could no longer provide an authoritative source of divine matter, and its relational function was increasingly reinforced. However, there was a complex phenomenological and theological accommodation of the divinity and relationality as painting (on the side altars, that is, because the high altar was increasingly reserved for the Host) sought to regain or substitute the presence that came to be associated with the space above the altar. By examining a series of paintings—featuring reproduced sculptures, miraculous images, and visions—one is able to fully appreciate how painting either told stories to arouse devotion or, in order to compete with the Host, to charge the central part of the altarpiece with a holy substitute.
ISSN:1534-0708
Contains:Enthalten in: The catholic historical review
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1353/cat.2023.a899372