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Wax Legs and Iron Eyes: Votive Practices from the Middle Ages to the Present Day

69.99 €
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Wax Legs and Iron Eyes: Votive Practices from the Middle Ages to the Present Day
69.99 €
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In this book, historians Mikhail Maizuls, Sergei Zotov, and Dmitry Antonov describe how the exchange of gifts between people and higher powers was organized in the West and in Russia, how church spaces were transformed into archives of miracles, portrait galleries, and even cabinets of curiosities. Since the Middle Ages, many Christian churches have been filled with waxen feet and hands, silver eyes, iron cows, figurines of babies, and ancient shackles and suits of armor. Nearby hung paintings depicting the sick in bed, ships battling the waves, or travelers being attacked by bandits. Such objects are called ex-votos, or votives. These are gifts to God and the saints that believers brought, and still bring, to seek their help or to thank them for a miracle. Votives, from peasant handicrafts to the lavish gifts of sovereigns, are important witnesses to history. They speak of the illnesses, misfortunes, or hopes of specific people, and at the same time allow us to trace large-scale shifts in the history of religion, art, and medicine.
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