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Pentcheva's preferred direction is away from 'lifelikeness' towards the 'living icon', an image that 'was literally 'in-spirited' (empsychos, empnous, from pneo and pneuma, 'to breathe and breath'), receiving human breath and responding with a spectacle of shimmer and glimmer' (p. 122). Her works trace the philosophical and sensual emergence of the living image, the eikon, no longer understood as the flat painted panel of the sixth to ninth centuries, nor only as the metal bas-relief icon that dominated in eleventh-century Constantinople, but rather as the ideas that shaped both. --Paul Stephenson, Oxford Art Journal

Pentcheva's preferred direction is away from 'lifelikeness' towards the 'living icon', an image that 'was literally 'in-spirited' (empsychos, empnous, from pneo and pneuma, 'to breathe and breath'), receiving human breath and responding with a spectacle of shimmer and glimmer' (p. 122). Her works trace the philosophical and sensual emergence of the living image, the eikon, no longer understood as the flat painted panel of the sixth to ninth centuries, nor only as the metal bas-relief icon that dominated in eleventh-century Constantinople, but rather as the ideas that shaped both. --Paul Stephenson, Oxford Art Journal Bissera Pentcheva's book represents a new departure in Byzantine studies; it focuses on relief icons rather than painted icons. The author introduces a long-needed phenomenological approach by studying the conditions of the icons' perceptual experience. The Sensual Icon needs and deserves a discussion of its attempt to link icon aesthetics and icon politics. --Hans Belting In this, far and away the most ambitious new account of the Byzantine icon, Pentcheva explores the powers and limits of visualization. A book sure to have resonance way beyond its field. --Joseph Koerner, Harvard University The Sensual Icon is a dazzling book, rich in content, brilliant in argumentation, and impressively original. Tracing cross-currents of production, perception, and thinking about the sacred icon within a firm historical context, it proposes a radical reconceptualization of the major form of Byzantine artistic expression. A work of flawless scholarship and spirited imagination, The Sensual Icon animates a remarkable artistic legacy and the historical and theological forces that engendered it. Like Hans Belting's Likeness and Presence, it is destined to guide a whole generation's view of medieval art. --Herbert L. Kessler, The Johns Hopkins University The Sensual Icon is a major new contribution to Byzantine art history and will be an important turning point in our understanding of the aesthetics and reception of the icon in Byzantium. --Henry Maguire, The Johns Hopkins University Bissera Pentcheva's stimulating The Sensual Icon: Space, Ritual, and the Senses in Byzantium . . . functions on the cutting edge of art historical method, drawing not only on recent trends in the study of visual and material culture but also [on] anthropology and film theory. . . . This is a volume that will transform the discipline of medieval art. --Rebecca W. Corrie, Studies in Iconography

The Sensual Icon is a major new contribution to Byzantine art history and will be an important turning point in our understanding of the aesthetics and reception of the icon in Byzantium. --Henry Maguire, The Johns Hopkins University Pentcheva's preferred direction is away from 'lifelikeness' towards the 'living icon', an image that 'was literally 'in-spirited' (empsychos, empnous, from pneo and pneuma, 'to breathe and breath'), receiving human breath and responding with a spectacle of shimmer and glimmer' (p. 122). Her works trace the philosophical and sensual emergence of the living image, the eikon, no longer understood as the flat painted panel of the sixth to ninth centuries, nor only as the metal bas-relief icon that dominated in eleventh-century Constantinople, but rather as the ideas that shaped both. --Paul Stephenson, Oxford Art Journal Bissera Pentcheva's stimulating The Sensual Icon: Space, Ritual, and the Senses in Byzantium . . . functions on the cutting edge of art historical method, drawing not only on recent trends in the study of visual and material culture but also [on] anthropology and film theory. . . . This is a volume that will transform the discipline of medieval art. --Rebecca W. Corrie, Studies in Iconography Bissera Pentcheva's book represents a new departure in Byzantine studies; it focuses on relief icons rather than painted icons. The author introduces a long-needed phenomenological approach by studying the conditions of the icons' perceptual experience. The Sensual Icon needs and deserves a discussion of its attempt to link icon aesthetics and icon politics. --Hans Belting In this, far and away the most ambitious new account of the Byzantine icon, Pentcheva explores the powers and limits of visualization. A book sure to have resonance way beyond its field. --Joseph Koerner, Harvard University The Sensual Icon is a dazzling book, rich in content, brilliant in argumentation, and impressively original. Tracing cross-currents of production, perception, and thinking about the sacred icon within a firm historical context, it proposes a radical reconceptualization of the major form of Byzantine artistic expression. A work of flawless scholarship and spirited imagination, The Sensual Icon animates a remarkable artistic legacy and the historical and theological forces that engendered it. Like Hans Belting's Likeness and Presence, it is destined to guide a whole generation's view of medieval art. --Herbert L. Kessler, The Johns Hopkins University

Pentcheva's preferred direction is away from 'lifelikeness' towards the 'living icon', an image that 'was literally 'in-spirited' (empsychos, empnous, from pneo and pneuma, 'to breathe and breath'), receiving human breath and responding with a spectacle of shimmer and glimmer' (p. 122). Her works trace the philosophical and sensual emergence of the living image, the eikon, no longer understood as the flat painted panel of the sixth to ninth centuries, nor only as the metal bas-relief icon that dominated in eleventh-century Constantinople, but rather as the ideas that shaped both. --Paul Stephenson, Oxford Art Journal Bissera Pentcheva's stimulating The Sensual Icon: Space, Ritual, and the Senses in Byzantium . . . functions on the cutting edge of art historical method, drawing not only on recent trends in the study of visual and material culture but also [on] anthropology and film theory. . . . This is a volume that will transform the discipline of medieval art. --Rebecca W. Corrie, Studies in Iconography In this, far and away the most ambitious new account of the Byzantine icon, Pentcheva explores the powers and limits of visualization. A book sure to have resonance way beyond its field. --Joseph Koerner, Harvard University The Sensual Icon is a major new contribution to Byzantine art history and will be an important turning point in our understanding of the aesthetics and reception of the icon in Byzantium. --Henry Maguire, The Johns Hopkins University Bissera Pentcheva's book represents a new departure in Byzantine studies; it focuses on relief icons rather than painted icons. The author introduces a long-needed phenomenological approach by studying the conditions of the icons' perceptual experience. The Sensual Icon needs and deserves a discussion of its attempt to link icon aesthetics and icon politics. --Hans Belting The Sensual Icon is a dazzling book, rich in content, brilliant in argumentation, and impressively original. Tracing cross-currents of production, perception, and thinking about the sacred icon within a firm historical context, it proposes a radical reconceptualization of the major form of Byzantine artistic expression. A work of flawless scholarship and spirited imagination, The Sensual Icon animates a remarkable artistic legacy and the historical and theological forces that engendered it. Like Hans Belting's Likeness and Presence, it is destined to guide a whole generation's view of medieval art. --Herbert L. Kessler, The Johns Hopkins University

Author Information

Bissera V. Pentcheva is Associate Professor of Art History at Stanford University. She is the author of Icons and Power: The Mother of God in Byzantium (Penn State, 2006).

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