<div>Before the Renaissance and Reformation, holy images were treated not as <br>"art" but as objects of veneration which possessed the tangible presence <br>of the Holy. In this magisterial book, Hans Belting traces the long <br>history of the sacral image and its changing role in European culture. <br><i>Likeness and Presence</i> looks at the beliefs, superstitions, hopes, <br>and fears that come into play as people handle and respond to sacred <br>images, and presents a compelling interpretation of the place of the <br>image in Western history.<br><br>"A rarity within its genre--an art-historical analysis of iconography <br>which is itself iconoclastic. . . . One of the most intellectually <br>exciting and historically grounded interpretations of Christian <br>iconography." --Graham Howes, <i>Times Literary Supplement</i><br><br>"<i>Likeness and Presence</i> offers the best source to survey the facts of <br>what European Christians put in their churches. . . . An impressively <br>detailed contextual analysis of medieval objects." --Robin Cormack, <br><i>New York Times Book Review</i><br><br>"I cannot begin to describe the richness or the imaginative grandeur of <br>Hans Belting's book. . . . It is a work that anyone interested in art, <br>or in the history of thought about art, should regard as urgent reading. <br>It is a tremendous achievement."--Arthur C. Danto, <i>New Republic</i><br><br><br></div>