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Both church and culture seem perplexed by desire and what it says about us as human beings. Amid the increasing freedom to identify with our desires, there remains the perpetual problem of insatiety, coupled with the increasing isolation of a digitalized age. Our cultural and religious impulses become blurred as we seek always a little more, in our hopes that we might finally quiet our ontological restlessness. Rowan Williams, drawing from Augustine, identifies this restlessness as central to understanding ourselves and our relation to God and others. This erotic absence that disallows any premature closure offers not satiety but sacrament, and a place in a body larger than our own. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An editorial is presented which discusses about liturgical music and architecture. It further discusses about music and architecture themselves share in a essential relationship that serves practical as well as theological purposes; construction of sacred buildings, the shape construction of altars and safety of the Eucharistic tabernacle, and the dignity and suitability of the baptistery; and music, particularly Gregorian chant, articulates the actions of the liturgy.

Renowned American protest painter George Tooker's sacramental art opens new perspectives on the relation of the sacramental economy to modern cultural critique. Differing from extant scholarship and taking into account preparatory drawings, this article claims that George Tooker's The Seven Sacraments altarpiece is best understood in continuity with the rest of the artist's protest painting. This interpretation does not diminish the religious or conciliatory significance of Tooker's masterwork but rather draws out its unique voice as a way of protesting the alone-while-together structures of American society. As western societies confront epidemics of loneliness amidst hyper-connectivity, Tooker suggests generative horizons by which sacramental theology might contribute to that conversation—not in posing a simple fix against existential loneliness, but showing forth sacraments as interconnected, graced practices which first and foremost acknowledge loneliness while at the same time denying it the power to be the final word. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Radovi Zavod za povijesne znanosti HAZU u Zaru is the property of Zavod za Povijesne Znanosti HAZU and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The ubiquitous use of the Latin word 'sedilia' to refer to the ritual seats to the south of an altar for the use of the celebrant priest and his assistants has led to the notion that it is an authentic medieval term. This paper shows the results of a survey of documentary references to seats of all kinds in medieval England, and demonstrates that in the medieval period the word sedilia was of no especial distinction, meaning merely 'bench', only gaining its current meaning in the late 18th century. The word was used along with a variety of others to refer to now lost seating in medieval churches, including benches and individual chairs in the chancel as well as seating in the nave. This piece will make some suggestions for the distinctions made in the terminology in medieval documents regarding the different types of seating in churches. To avoid confusion, the word 'sedilia' is italicised when it refers to medieval use of the Latin word, but not when it refers to the modern definition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The basis of the photogrammetric reconstruction of the altar at the monastery / church are 2 historic photos from around 1920's as well as a 3D documentation of the church from terrestrial laser scanning. The point cloud from the laser scan was the starting point for an approximate computation of the interior and exterior orientation of that image that also contains parts of the altar area that still do exist. Using a projection of the recent geometry into the image allowed the analysis of changes of the altar ensemble since the time of image acquisition. Those parts that are still in situ are the origin for further action. Whether fragments and parts should be used further or newly positioned was decided in the next phase of reconstruction process. The focus of the first step of the workflow was at the outlines of the parts in the center of the altar. Using a mono plotting approach and assuming that the profiles are vertical and parallel to each other these object could be definitely compiled. Theses outlines also allowed an approximate determination of the interior and exterior orientation of the second historic photograph in which otherwise the complete connection to the recent altar area was missing. The side parts of the altar showed to be more complicated for reconstruction. The difference in depth of the varying edges could not be distinguished any more in the images. Such, the sequence and form of the different edges was adopted, scaled and transferred from the central part of the altar to the peripheral ones. Using this geometric information it was possible to define the necessary projection planes for the monoplotting restitution of the visible outlines. A concluding rigorous control was accomplished by back projection of the geometry into both historical images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the mid-1990s, devotion to Santa Muerte (Saint Death) became highly visible, not only in Mexico but also in the United States. Its evolution has coincided with the expansion of organized crime, creating the impression that the icon belongs to a coherent "narco-culture." This article contextualizes ritual practices at a single altar in Tepito, a Mexico City neighborhood historically specialized in informal and illegal commerce. Its monthly prayer service, which dates to September 2001, now balances the needs of its congregation with a kind of response to accusations against devotees in the mass media. Ironically, the range of gestures that share Santa Muerte iconography encompasses laments and high-minded indignation over blanket attribution of violent intentions to a popidation, but also a language for making threats. The average devotee is always affected by the likelihood that new acts of violence will be styled as religious. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the treatment of architectural relief sculpture from present-day Turkey and Nigeria along with Pergamon altar and the Benin palace reliefs in Germany-based Berlin museum system's collections. Topics discussed include separation of ethnographic objects from art in the royal collection under leadership of historian Leopold Freiherr von Ledebur, museum for the Pergamon altar designed by real estate developer Fritz Wolff and Royal Museum for Ethnology.

The article presents a report from a November 17-19, 2014 conference in Wittenberg, Germany on the paintings of the Cranach family hosted by the Evangelische Kirche in Mitteldeutschland (EKM) Protestant church of Germany. Topics of presentations delivered included the dating of an altar constructed by the Cranachs, art conservator Konrad Riemann's collection of Cranach artwork, and the retables in the Stephanikirche church in Aschersleben, Germany.

The article discusses a bifolium of dedications of altars and relics at the Christchurch Priory in Twynham, Hampshire, England. Emphasis is given to the document's relevance to Scottish church history and the role of bishops Reginald of Ross, Walter of Whithorn, and Nicholas Meaux, Bishop of the Isles, as suffragans. Other topics include the mobility of bishops, identification of the dedication sites, and Cistercian saints.

An altar table from the former Augustinian church in Fribourg ( Switzerland) was studied by means of neutron and X-ray imaging to investigate the embedded reliquary. The neutron transmission images showed that the sepulcrum contained three objects showing high contrast and high attenuation. As the particles were almost invisible in the X-ray image, it was assumed that they were organic material. Comparative measurements on reference samples of materials possibly contained in such a reliquary (bone, teeth, leather, incense and parchment) suggest that the particles are bone fragments. Besides an assessment of the content, the results from the neutron investigation allowed a proposal of the probable geometry (i.e., shape and dimensions) of the sepulcrum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the first flush of 'ecclesiologically correct' churches in the period 1840-60, the churches of the Scottish Episcopal Church continued to be influenced by the precepts of the ecclesiological movement over the following 50 years. This article is a continuation of the author's article 'The Scottish Episcopal Church and the Ecclesiological Movement 1840-60', in Architectural Heritage, Vol. VIII, 1997, and describes how many of the precepts of the movement, like prominent altars, distinct chancels, orientation of buildings and scholarly gothic, along with screens and side chapels, became mainstream. This was partly due to the dominance of two native-grown architects, Dr Alexander Ross and Sir Robert Rowand Anderson, though many other Scottish architects took up the same ideas and adapted them. As in the earlier period, distinguished English architects were brought in for some commissions. Sir George Gilbert Scott designed the Church's most prestigious buildings in Glasgow and Edinburgh, while Bodley, Slater & Carpenter, Paley & Austin and Pearson, all English, were architects for five other important commissions. After 1900, unlike most other Scottish churches, the demand for new church buildings for the Episcopal Church largely dried up, but when required Sir Ninian Comper and Sir Robert Lorimer, both Scots born in 1864, were used on several projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the practice of wealthy families to endow private chapels and altars at the Camaldolese monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Florence, Italy. Focusing on the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries in particular, the author provides an extensive description of various chapels and the religious themes and figures to whom they were dedicated. These decorations included christological motifs, the cult of the Virgin Mary, and the veneration of early Christian and medieval saints.

Copyright of Art / Umění is the property of Institute of Art History of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article discusses catholic church architecture of historicism in Berlin, Germany. Brief information on the architect Christoph Hehl, who build seven churches in Berlin is presented. Also presented is information on the design of the churches including pictures of the facade, the profile and the interior of the church, as well as information and pictures of different church artifacts that have been restored and are being reused such as a high altar, antique wall paintings, and pulpits, as well as lintels.

The article discusses the restoration and reuse of historical church equipments in Germany. The author mentions that more and more communities are having old church artifacts renovated and reuse them in their churches. Information about specific artifacts from different churches including the St. Aloysius church in Dortmund, St. Laurentius in Erwitte, and the Pfarrkirche Maria Opferung in Hachen, Germany is presented, as well as pictures of the artifacts such as high altars, side altars, and pulpits.

The article focuses on the description made by Christian priest John Chrysostom and teacher Libanius on the Kalendae Ianuariae festival being celebrated every January 1st. Libanius describes the festival having a fire on all altars with the rising smoke of a mixture of wood smoke, an evaporating wine, and burning meat. It states that Chrysostom made a sermons during the festival on January 1, 403, where he protested the acceptance of kalends as festival on same level with Easter. It explores the celebration by Eastern and Western Christians of their opulent New Year festivals. It also discusses the Saint Stephen's festival which reflects on the moments of communal luxuriance.

The article discusses the construction and contracting of the cathedral of Cologne, Germany during the turn of the 19th to 20th century in particular as it regards the contact and cooperation between the competing sculptors Alexander Iven (1854-1934) and Peter Kribben (1851-1927). The two sculptors are known to have collaborated in St. Urusula, Germany before, according to church archives, collaborating on the medieval cathedral in Cologne. Specifics objects of their collaborative work include the Baroque altar of the dome, the renovation of the tomb of bishop Wilhelm von Gennep (d. 1362), and the tomb of bishop Walram von Jülich (d. 1349).

Copyright of Architectus is the property of Oficyna Wydawnicza Politechniki Wroclawskiej and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Espacio, Tiempo y Forma. Serie VII, Historia del Arte is the property of Editorial UNED and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

A selection of natural wonders in the Historia Brittonum folk history includes a seemingly peculiar tale involving a mysterious corpse and a levitating altar. This paper places the tale in the context of early medieval hagiography, and addresses its presence in the wonders listed by suggesting the altar's location and nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Espacio, Tiempo y Forma. Serie VII, Historia del Arte is the property of Editorial UNED and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Acta Historiae Artis Slovenica is the property of Scientific Research Centre of Slovenian Academy of Sciences & Arts and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Opinion remains divided about the meaning and original function of Simone Martini’s early fourteenth century Saint Louis of Toulouse altarpiece, some maintaining that it was primarily a cult image, designed to celebrate the recent canonization of a Franciscan saint, others that it was a dynastic image, justifying Robert of Anjou’s succession to the Neapolitan throne. One way of resolving such an issue would be to establish the painting’s original location. This article explores three possible sites in Naples in terms of different kinds of historical evidence linking these locations with the altarpiece and with the Angevin royal family. It concludes that one of these constitutes the most plausible setting for the Saint Louis of Toulouse altarpiece and that such a location clarifies the relative priorities of politics and piety for this highly prestigious commission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of RACAR: Canadian Art Review / Revue d'art Canadienne is the property of Universities Art Association of Canada / Association d'Art des Universites du Canada and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In 1864 the V&A (then the South Kensington Museum) purchased a large marble altar frame from a dealer in Florence. The quality of the frame identifies it as the product of a leading Florentine sculpture workshop, possibly that of Giuliano da Sangallo at the end of the fifteenth century. Its dimensions indicate that it would have housed a large altarpiece in one of the city's churches. The frame's provenance remains obscure, but this article offers the first critical evaluation of the object based on first-hand examination. Comparisons with similar frames in Florentine churches (surviving and documented) suggest that the V&A frame can be identified as an example of a particular category of monumental altar that was popular in the city in the decades around 1500. This type combined painted panel altarpieces with sculpture, integrating both within impressive architectural superstructures comprising lateral columns, elaborate entablatures, and arched lunettes. Identifiable examples housed altarpieces by Perugino, Lorenzo di Credi, Piero di Cosimo, and Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio, each juxtaposed with tin-glazed terracotta reliefs by the Della Robbia shop. The popularity of these arched frames was relatively short-lived, but their brief heyday provides important evidence for the gathering appreciation of aesthetic integration, formal order and spatial symmetry within Italian church interiors in the years around 1500. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Art / Umění is the property of Institute of Art History of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Art / Umění is the property of Institute of Art History of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Art / Umění is the property of Institute of Art History of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Saint Basil the Great had a permanent presence in the medieval Serbian frescoes, being depicted in one of the most visible places of the Altar area, along with other hierarchs saints, usually in the scene known as "Melismos", or "the Earthly Liturgy". The depiction of Saint Basil's Liturgy from the Church of Saint Sophia from Ohrid, marks the beginning of the idea of representing the lithurgical act as an iconographic theme. The Serbian area was the one which also provided us with the finalised compositional scheme of the theme in discution, scheme which has been serving as a pattern for generations of iconographers. In the medieval Serbian frescoes can be found some of the most famous and valuable depictions of Saint Basil the Great. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Surviving churches and documents are analysed for what they may reveal about the architectural context of the mass in early-medieval Ireland. This shows that there is no evidence to support the widely held view that the congregation stood outside. Instead, the variable but relatively small size of these churches expresses the fact that they served smaller and more diverse communities than their high-medieval successors. The altars in large episcopal and/or monastic churches seem positioned further west than those in relatively small, pastoral churches. In part, this was probably to facilitate relatively complex eucharistic liturgies. Externally defined chancels appear for the first time in the late 11th century AD in response to an increased emphasis on the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Significantly, they occur at a handful of important sites whose clerics and patrons were in direct contact with Lanfranc of Canterbury, a key exponent of this doctrine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the conversion of Christian sarcophagi into altars in Provence, France between the period of the Counter Reformation and the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council. It describes how ancient sarcophagi were clustered in the pilgrimage complexes and resued as reliquaries and altars. It discusses how such displays as part of ritual activities during this period reflected the need of the Roman Catholic Church to resist the Protestant reformation. It also discusses how the display of ancient sarcophagi in a church can shift the viewer's primary response to the object away from historical, antiquarian or aesthetic concerns to issues that are liturgical, which is to focus history, antiquarianism and aesthetics through a ritual.

Deep blue glasses coloured by octahedral Fe2+ cations are often reported as textbook examples of blue pigmentation. However, despite the possibility of laboratory synthesis under reducing conditions, to date there are no well-reported occurrences of their production and use in the past. A thorough historical, ethnographic, mineralogical, and chemico-physical investigation of the ‘smaltini di calcara ’ from several baroque churches in Palermo, Sicily, has revealed that the blue enamels widely used for altar decorations in the 17th and 18th centuries are actually a unique case of ancient blue glasses pigmented by divalent iron cations in distorted octahedral coordination. This mixed-alkali glass was accidentally produced under severely reducing conditions in the local kilns during production of lime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior to the conservation treatment of a late sixteenth-century South-German house altar with seven reverse paintings on glass, technical and scientific research was conducted on the glass substrate, binding media, colourants and metals. Microscopic examination revealed the particularities of the so-called amelierung technique and the glass panel manufacture. For material analysis, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, amino acid analysis, high performance liquid chromatography, as well as micro X-ray fluorescence spectrometry and scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis were applied. The main component of the binder was identified as a heat-treated pine resin (colophony), modified with various softening resins. The red paint layer contains cochineal and small amounts of dragon's blood. The original blue and green areas, which contain smalt and copper resinate, have undergone considerable colour change. The reverse paintings on glass were in a poor state of preservation: due to high moisture (flooding at the museum,) and material degradation, the paint layers were severely delaminated, fractured into hundreds of small paint flakes and partially attached to silver foil and paper backing. The detached paint flakes were transferred back to their original positions on the glass with a fine brush and secured using a hydrocarbon resin. This was followed by the application of microcrystalline wax which achieved a brilliant saturation of the reverse paintings on glass. However, the discolouration remained in the blue and green areas. A photograph of the altar's central panel after the conservation treatment was digitally manipulated to recreate the presumed original tonality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From a comparison of the much-discussed and supposedly epoch-making Neo-Modernist ‘Jubilee church’ in Rome and a new study of John Ninian Comper's church architecture, the article enquires into theologically informed principles of church design and in their light considers some crucial elements in the symbolics of ecclesial space, notably altar, screen, communion rails and tabernacle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

El artículo da una mirada histórica de la Virgen de los Dolores y el altar de Dolores. El artículo habla de México y sus tradiciones durante los siglos XVII, XVIII y XIX. Se describe la construcción de los altares en hogares durante los días sagrados e incluye información sobre las exploraciones arqueológicas.

The article focuses on a Native American Church altar in Caddo County in Oklahoma. It notes that archaeological records have dealt with the ceremonial uses of fire, structures, objects and mounds at Caddo altars yet the appearance and importance of such element are yet to be addressed. The peyote altar, located on the Peter Williams Allotment, is said to be regarded as a Big Moon altar. According to two Native American Church practitioners, the altar may have been last used by Caddo peyote man Francis Williams.

In the last ten years, more than 150 Byzantine churches have been catalogued in present-day Jordan. These churches housed the liturgical life of secular and religious communities, reflecting a variety of cultic behaviours. These churches exhibit a variety of architectural forms and spatial patterns that cross the geographical and ancient ecclesial boundaries. Spatial analysis techniques are applied which give evidence to their intricate organization of space. While choosing six types of churches as examples of local and regional stylistic variations, the study examines the Byzantine liturgical space and placement of liturgical installations: altar, ambo and presider's chair. Using Visibility Graph Analysis and point isovist studies, this paper highlights some of the visual patterns possibly experienced by the assembly members with reference to accessibility and visibility. These studies reveal an evolving chronological pattern of altar placement in the evolving sanctuary structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the use of the liturgical terms Proskomide and prothesis during the preparation of the vessels to perform the Holy Eucharist. The term Proskomide is used to refer to the entire liturgy, while prothesis is defined as the act of preparation. The two words are often interchanged in the liturgical practice. When the bread and wine is transferred to the altar, the Prayer of Proskomide is performed for their consecration.

At the beginning of the fourteenth century, the Carmelites introduced the cult of Corpus Domini to Siena, in an effort to enhance the prestige of their Order. The feast's most conspicuous feature was its procession, winding through the streets of Siena attended by all the city guilds, which ended in the square of the Arte della Lana, the guild of woolworkers, that proudly patronised the Carmelites' feast. For the occasion, the entire square was shaded by wool cloths and adorned with greenery, and at the centre a temporary altar was erected, topped by a huge altarpiece by Sassetta. In fact, by the middle of the fifteenth century, the feast gained such momentum as to be adopted by the city government, its venue then transferred from San Niccolò al Carmine to the cathedral. This paper analyses the monastic, guild and civic significance of the Corpus Domini ritual celebrations. What objectives did the Carmelites, the guild and the city government pursue by participating in this ritual and what message did they convey? Special attention will be given to the procession and the erection of outdoor altars. Comparison with other centres will show what is peculiar to the ritual significance and impact of the Sienese Corpus Domini celebrations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]