Skin Christ. On the Animation, Imitation, and Mediation of Living Skin and Touch in Late Medieval Contact Imagery

• Hans Henrik Lohfert Jørgensen ^[1]
  1. [1] Aarhus University

     Aarhus University

     Dinamarca

     
• Localización: Touching, Devotional Practices, and Visionary Experience in the Late Middle Ages / Pablo Acosta García (ed. lit.), David Carrillo Rangel (ed. lit.), Delfi-Isabel Nieto Isabel (ed. lit.), 2019, ISBN 978-3-030-26029-3, págs. 123-148
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • The Skin Christ is the object, the locus, and the medium of a paradigmatic mode of religious experience in the late Middle Ages, operating within the domain of haptics: touchable and interactive contact imagery, intimate sensory communication, and animated tactile exchange. The cult of skin—the physical archetype of all mediation—is explored through a concept of soft sculpture, exemplified by the Santísimo Cristo de Burgos, a most holy fourteenth-century crucifix acting as a living skin substitute and addressing the contact senses of touched believers in tangible ways. The embodied image encodes and institutes dermis devotion: a palpable practice of skin piety, soft touch, and Christian sensitivity. In this article, dermatology is redefined as a theory of images, media, and materially or corporeally experienced religion.