Click here to get the answers to the most commonly asked RBL questions.

Review of Biblical Literature Blog

Illuminating Luke: Volume 3: The Passion and Resurrection Narratives in Italian Renaissance and Baroque Painting
Hornik, Heidi J. and Mikeal C. Parsons

London: T&T Clark, 2008 pp. xiv + 178. $39.95

Description: The strength of this study lies in the combination of expertise in biblical studies and art history. This book's methodology is both historical and hermeneutical. Each chapter begins with an overview of the biblical passage, noting significant rhetorical features and the overarching theological argument. Next, the selected work of art is contextualized by a brief biography of the artist, placing the work within the artist’s own oeuvre, discussing what is known of the patronage of the specific image, and discussing important social, political, and religious factors that may facilitate our understanding of the painting. A formal and iconographic analysis (which also briefly traces the visual and literary sources and precedents for the work) is followed by a comparison between the biblical scene and the work of art, noting the ways in which the artist’s (or patron’s) cultural context has provided a basis for the “textual expansion” of the biblical story, that is, adding material not found in the story itself but which, given the social, religious, and historical context of the artist, is a natural extension of the story.

Subjects: Bible, New Testament, Synoptic Gospels, Luke, Literature