In the Beginning Was the Image

This pioneering study focuses on the decisive contributions of the three leading artists of the Northern RenaissanceΓÇöAlbrecht D├╝rer, Lucas Cranach the Elder, and Hans Holbein the YoungerΓÇö to the printed Bible and to the transformation of ecclesiastical art in the Protestant Reformation. A time of artistic and theological revolution, the Renaissance and Reformation also witnessed a visual reformation of the Bible. In David H. Price''s new interpretation, these artists emerge as major reformers in their own right who created a dynamic and innovative visual culture of biblicism. In the Beginning Was the Image explicitly addresses a key paradox of the Bible''s new cultural status: as divergent Bible editions and translations shattered the unity of Christianity, new artisticapproaches arose to accommodate theological and textual diversity. Rulers and theologians produced new Bibles as foundations for transformative socio-political movements, and their success, according to Price''s compelling research, depended on the inventiveness and creativity of these artists. Written in a style designed to be accessible to a broad range of readers, Price''s richly nuanced study explores the art of D├╝rer, Cranach, and Holbein and the biblical iconographies they developed to connect the new biblicism to faith and political authority.