Pious Journeys ― Christian Devotional Art and Practice in the Later Middle Ages and Renaissance

In their ongoing search for divinity, Western European Christians followed many different paths to a personal connection with the eternal, including the intimacies of private prayer, the spectacle of the Mass, and the veneration of saintly relics. Along the way, art objects and artifacts served as companions, guides, and comforts. The essays in this catalogue consider the central role objects and images played in these spiritual journeys. They investigate imagery's critical role in the development of personal devotions, in the organization of liturgical worship, and in practices surrounding the institution of the Eucharist and the cult of saints.

Linda Seidel is professor of art history at the University of Chicago. She is the author of Legends in Limestone: Lazarus, Gislebertus, and the Cathedral at Autun and coauthor with Katherine Taylor of Looking to Learn: Visual Pedagogy at the University of Chicago, both available from the University of Chicago Press.