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The Catholic Church answered Reformation-era contestations of the cult of images in a famous decree of the Council of Trent (1563). Art in Dispute revisits this response by focusing on its antecedents rather than its consequences. The mid-sixteenth century saw, besides new scholarship on Byzantine doctrines, heated debates about neo-scholastic interpretations. Disagreement, suppressed at Trent but re-emerging soon afterwards, centered on the question whether religious images were solely signs referring to holy subjects or also sacred objects in their own right. It was a debate with major implications for art theory and devotional practice.
The volume contains editions and translations of texts by Martín Pérez de Ayala, Matthieu Ory, Jean Calvin, Ambrogio Catarino Politi, and Iacopo Nacchianti, along with a previously unknown draft of the Tridentine decree.
The volume contains editions and translations of texts by Martín Pérez de Ayala, Matthieu Ory, Jean Calvin, Ambrogio Catarino Politi, and Iacopo Nacchianti, along with a previously unknown draft of the Tridentine decree.
Price: $188.00
Pages: 416
Publisher: Brill
Imprint: Brill
Series: Brill’s Studies on Art, Art History, and Intellectual History
Publication Date:
02 December 2021
ISBN: 9789004421288
Format: Hardcover
“[...] the value of Art in Dispute is undeniable. It is a necessary reference for graduate students and scholars in early modern religious history and art history. For art historians, the book opens avenues to consider the potential impact these debates had on sacred style during these respective periods.”
Anne H. Muraoka, Old Dominion University. In: Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 76, No. 4 (Winter 2023), pp. 1478–1480.
“Wietse de Boer’s superb book delves into the intense mid-sixteenth-century debates among Catholic scholars, about sacred images. […] I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in the early modern image debate. De Boer enriches our understanding of the heterogeneous opinions and intense discussions among leading Catholic theologians before, during, and after 1563.”
Jeffrey Chipps Smith, University of Texas, Austin. In: Church History, Vol. 91, No. 4 (December 2022), pp. 925–926.
“[…] a distinguished contribution to recent attempts to put the Council of Trent (1543–1563) in its proper place […]. This book is essential reading not only for art historians but also for anyone interested in how and why the Roman Catholic church after Trent managed to save visual images “as the language of new devotional or meditative practices” (130)”.
Simon Ditchfield, University of York. In: Journal of Modern History, Vol. 96. No. 4 (December 2024), pp. 980–981.
“De Boer setzt einen neuen Standard […] und leistet einen zentralen Beitrag zur aktuellen Reflexion über den medialen und ontologischen Status von Bildern.”
Theresa Gatarski, Bayerisches Nationalmuseum. In: Kunstchronik, Vol. 75, No. 12 (December 2022), pp. 609–614.
“essential contribution”
Ralph Dekoninck, Université catholique de Louvain. In: Francia-Recensio, 2023/2.
“Conducted with uncommon erudition and philological rigor – the author excels in the art of detecting intellectual connections […] Wietse de Boer’s work not only restores an important page in the history of the cult of images in the West, but this page constitutes a missing link […] between two periods which academic divisions tend to separate all too often.” (translated from the French)
Nicolas Balzamo, University of Neuchâtel. In: Revue d’Histoire Ecclésiastique, Vol. 120, Nos. 1–2 (2025), pp. 388–391.
Anne H. Muraoka, Old Dominion University. In: Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 76, No. 4 (Winter 2023), pp. 1478–1480.
“Wietse de Boer’s superb book delves into the intense mid-sixteenth-century debates among Catholic scholars, about sacred images. […] I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in the early modern image debate. De Boer enriches our understanding of the heterogeneous opinions and intense discussions among leading Catholic theologians before, during, and after 1563.”
Jeffrey Chipps Smith, University of Texas, Austin. In: Church History, Vol. 91, No. 4 (December 2022), pp. 925–926.
“[…] a distinguished contribution to recent attempts to put the Council of Trent (1543–1563) in its proper place […]. This book is essential reading not only for art historians but also for anyone interested in how and why the Roman Catholic church after Trent managed to save visual images “as the language of new devotional or meditative practices” (130)”.
Simon Ditchfield, University of York. In: Journal of Modern History, Vol. 96. No. 4 (December 2024), pp. 980–981.
“De Boer setzt einen neuen Standard […] und leistet einen zentralen Beitrag zur aktuellen Reflexion über den medialen und ontologischen Status von Bildern.”
Theresa Gatarski, Bayerisches Nationalmuseum. In: Kunstchronik, Vol. 75, No. 12 (December 2022), pp. 609–614.
“essential contribution”
Ralph Dekoninck, Université catholique de Louvain. In: Francia-Recensio, 2023/2.
“Conducted with uncommon erudition and philological rigor – the author excels in the art of detecting intellectual connections […] Wietse de Boer’s work not only restores an important page in the history of the cult of images in the West, but this page constitutes a missing link […] between two periods which academic divisions tend to separate all too often.” (translated from the French)
Nicolas Balzamo, University of Neuchâtel. In: Revue d’Histoire Ecclésiastique, Vol. 120, Nos. 1–2 (2025), pp. 388–391.
Wietse de Boer, Ph.D. (1995) is Professor of History at Miami University. His research focuses on Italian early-modern religious and cultural history. His publications include The Conquest of the Soul: Confession, Discipline, and Public Order in Counter-Reformation Milan (Brill, 2001).