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The study of representational art traditionally focusses on what is represented rather than what is missing. Robert Couzin’s Unrepresented: The Suppression of Images in the Middle Ages is a unique study of figures and attributes left out of the picture. Why avoid depicting the dead body of Christ, Muhammad, the reigning emperor or biblical text? What explains changes in the approach to representing heretics and Jews?
Through a series of case studies, this book shows how omissions could reflect strategic decisions based on political designs, social frameworks, religious practices, evolving mentalities and theological doctrines.
Through a series of case studies, this book shows how omissions could reflect strategic decisions based on political designs, social frameworks, religious practices, evolving mentalities and theological doctrines.
Price: $141.00
Pages: 294
Publisher: Brill
Imprint: Brill
Series: Art and Material Culture in Medieval and Renaissance Europe
Publication Date:
27 February 2025
ISBN: 9789004714991
Format: Hardcover
“bleibt es das Verdienst dieser Publikation, auf die Vielfalt, Bedeutung und Tragweite von signifikanten Absenzen in mittelalterlichen Bildkulturen hingewiesen und den mediävistischen Diskurs zur „Macht der Bilder“ um wichtige Beobachtungen und Aspekte bereichert zu haben. ”– Tobias Frese, Heidelberg University, in: 21: Inquiries into Art, History, and the Visual. Beiträge zur Kunstgeschichte und visuellen Kultur 7/2 (2026), 213–218 [DOI: 10.11588/xxi.2026.2.115669]
“Couzin’s Unrepresented is a compelling foray into a unique topic of art history and turns the readers’ attention to an intriguing avenue of study.” – Reed O’Mara, Case Western Reserve University, in: Kunstchronik. Monatsschrift für Kunstwissenschaft 79/5 (2026), 278-284 [DOI: 10.11588/kc.2026.5.115340]
“Couzin’s Unrepresented is a compelling foray into a unique topic of art history and turns the readers’ attention to an intriguing avenue of study.” – Reed O’Mara, Case Western Reserve University, in: Kunstchronik. Monatsschrift für Kunstwissenschaft 79/5 (2026), 278-284 [DOI: 10.11588/kc.2026.5.115340]
Robert Couzin, Ph.D. (2013), University of Toronto, is a second-career medieval art historian. He has published on a broad range of often unorthodox topics, including Right and Left in Early Christian and Medieval Art (Brill, 2021).