The Meditative Art

"The meditative art. Studies in the Northern devotional print, 1550-1625" asks how and why printed images were utilized as instruments of Christian meditation and contemplation. The book consists of an introductory essay on meditative image-making, followed by nine case studies focusing on various prints and print series produced in the Low Countries, that offered templates for visually-based processes of soulformation anchored in the imitation of Christ. Engraved by such masters as Philips Galle, Hendrick Goltzius, Boëtius à Bolswert, and Jan, Hieronymus, and Antoon Wierix, among others, these prints served to mobilize the votary's sensitive and intellective faculties, harnessing them to the task of restoring the soul's likeness to Christ the Word made flesh.