In 1428; a devastating fire destroyed a schoolhouse in the northern Italian city of Forligrave;; leaving only a woodcut of the Madonna and Child that had been tacked to the classroom wall. The people of Forligrave; carried that print - now known as the Madonna of the Fire - into their cathedral; where two centuries later a new chapel was built to enshrine it. In this book; Lisa Pon considers a cascade of moments in the Madonna of the Fires cultural biography: when ink was impressed onto paper at a now-unknown date; when that sheet was recognized by Forligrave;s people as miraculous; when it was enshrined in various tabernacles and chapels in the cathedral; when it or one of its copies was - and still is - carried in procession. In doing so; Pon offers an experiment in art historical inquiry that spans more than three centuries of making; remaking; and renewal.
#870760 in eBooks 2015-01-29 2015-01-29File Name: B00SWZKQIG
Review
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful. Wonderful images; poor editing and compositionBy A. G. BellBooks like this often contain hidden gems; this one does; at least on several pages. The concept is a bit high-minded; but overall the quality of the images chosen; as well as their significance (admittedly; the latter being open to a very broad interpretation); is well handled.What dissapoints here is the lack of care put into the editing and composition of the work. Why--especially in a book of this size and format--the editors felt it necessary to span multiple pages with images which would otherwise fit unbroken on a single leaf is beyond me. When you take a photograph and print all but one inch of it on one page; leaving the rest hidden in the binding; you destroy the point behind the book; you lose the image. The only way to see complete photos in several cases here is to unbind the book (that is; destroy it) and piece the pages back together.Having known firsthand how unfortunate it is these days that many publishers just dont care about this sort of thing; were I Mr. Paglen (the author); Id be a bit irritated over the layout and execution of an otherwise good work.5 stars for the content; a big zero for how it was unfortunately mis-handled.
