"Tree Of Jesse Iconography In Northern Europe In The Fifteenth And Sixteenth Centuries | Visual Studies

This book is the first detailed investigation to focus on the late medieval use of Tree of Jesse imagery traditionally a representation of the genealogical tree of Christ. In northern Europe from the mid-fifteenth to the early sixteenth centuries it could be found across a wide range of media. Yet as this book vividly illustrates it had evolved beyond a simple genealogy into something more complex which could be modified to satisfy specific religious requirements. It was also able to function on a more temporal level reflecting not only a clerical preoccupation with a sense of communal identity but a more general interest in displaying a family’s heritage continuity and/or social status. It is this dynamic and polyvalent element that makes the subject so fascinating. |Tree of Jesse Iconography in Northern Europe in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries | Visual Studies