The Christian canon of scripture, known as the New Testament, excluded many of the Church's traditional stories about its origins. Although not in the Bible, these popular stories have had a powerful influence on the Church's traditions and theology, and a particularly marked effect on visual representations of Christian belief. This book provides a lucid introduction to the relationship between the apocryphal texts and the paintings, mosaics, and sculpture in which they are frequently paralleled, and which have been so significant in transmitting these non-Biblical stories to generations of churchgoers.
Biography
David R. Cartlidge is Professor Emeritus of Religion at Maryville College, Tennessee, USA. Keith Elliot is Professor of New Testament Textual Criticism at the University of Leeds, UK.
'[This] tough and prodigiously learned, and amply illustrated, [book considers] ... subjects of immediate importance not only to art historians, but also to all concerned with the roots of Christianity.' - Pamela Tudor-Craig, Church Times
'The book forms a highly accessible guide to the main apocryphal sources for Christian iconography ... [it] is very well written, simply structured, and has informative illustrations.' - Andrew Spira, Reviews in Religion and Theology' ... an important document for all lovers of Christian art.' - Nouvelle Revue Thélogique
' ... it is superbly illustrated with over a 100 plates and has evidently been a labour of love. It is a book which will stimulate and open up new avenues for the student in search of Christian origins.' - Koninklijke Brill NV
'The entire work, by text and illustration, demonstrates the influence of the New Testament apocrypha on art from the third or fourth century down to the sixteenth ...' - The Heythrop Journal
