Overview

The elusive rationale for the Brescia Casket, an ivory reliquary carved in northern Italy ca. 390, has long tantalized scholars. In The Key to the Brescia Casket, Dr. Catherine Brown Tkacz reveals that the secret to its meaning lies in exegetical typology-the interpretation of Old Testament people and events as prefiguring the Messiah. Typology, Tkacz argues, underlies the sophisticated program of the ivory box, which features an unusually full depiction of the Passion. Among the fifty-nine carvings on the Brescia Casket, most of them depicting biblical events, are five scenes of the Passion, more than any other monument prior to this time period. These are arranged in historical order, which is also rare in fourth-century Christian art. Tkacz contends that the Casket is in effect a visual sermon on the unity of the Bible's two testaments, an important theological issue of the time. This wonderfully illustrated and rigorously interdisciplinary volume, funded by a grant from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, grounds the typological program of the Brescia Casket in fourth-century thought. In so doing, it suggests the real possibility that typology is more important for the understanding of Early Christian art than has previously been appreciated.

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Art historians have, for the first time, an encyclopedic treatment of this reliquary, to which critics today assign pride of place among early Christian ivory carvings. In chapter one the reader is provided with descriptions and pictures of all the carved surfaces, and an ingenious appendix Table of Identifications repeats all thirty-three registers, the fifteen extant medallions, and all nine panels and locates each in its proper site on a sketch of the casket. The comprehensiveness and the design of this appendix make it more satisfactory for study than a visit to the Museo Civico in Brescia where the casket is displayed. * The Heythrop Journal * [H]elpful to both the specialized scholar as well as someone new to the subject.... [T]he book reflects a growing acknowledgment among scholars that there existed a close affinity between theological ideas and artistic representation in the early Christian world. * Religious Studies Review *

Helpful to both the specialized scholar as well as someone new to the subject... [T]he book reflects a growing acknowledgment among scholars that there existed a close affinity between theological ideas and artistic representation in the early Christian world. - Religious Studies Review, January 2003 Art historians have, for the first time, an encyclopedic treatment of this reliquary, to which critics today assign pride of place among early Christian ivory carvings. In chapter one the reader is provided with descriptions and pictures of all the carved surfaces, and an ingenious appendix Table of Identifications repeats all thirty-three registers, the fifteen extant medallions, and all nine panels and locates each in its proper site on a sketch of the casket. The comprehensiveness and the design of this appendix make it more satisfactory for study than a visit to the Museo Civico in Brescia where the casket is displayed. - The Heythrop Journal

Helpful to both the specialized scholar as well as someone new to the subject.... [T]he book reflects a growing acknowledgment among scholars that there existed a close affinity between theological ideas and artistic representation in the early Christian world. - Religious Studies Review, January 2003 Art historians have, for the first time, an encyclopedic treatment of this reliquary, to which critics today assign pride of place among early Christian ivory carvings. In chapter one the reader is provided with descriptions and pictures of all the carved surfaces, and an ingenious appendix Table of Identifications repeats all thirty-three registers, the fifteen extant medallions, and all nine panels and locates each in its proper site on a sketch of the casket. The comprehensiveness and the design of this appendix make it more satisfactory for study than a visit to the Museo Civico in Brescia where the casket is displayed. - The Heythrop Journal

Author Information

Catherine Brown Tkacz is an independent scholar living in Spokane, Washington. She previously served as Project Manager and Assistant Editor for the Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium Project at Dumbarton Oaks, has been published in numerous journals, and serves on the editorial board of Traditio.

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