Vision and Image in Early Christian England (review) (original) (raw)

REVIEWS George Henderson, Vision and Image in Early Christian England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1999) 292 pp., plates. George Henderson’s book examines visual and literary imagery surviving from early Christian England in an attempt to recreate the exemplars available to artists working in England primarily during the seventh century. Although aimed primarily at art historians, Henderson’s work is valuable also to those interested in literary imagery. Throughout Vision and Image Henderson fits English art into the larger framework of late antique continental culture by emphasizing Italy in particular as the source for most of the exemplars in early Christian England. Henderson’s primary interest is to explore the imagery available to artists and to understand how exemplars were adapted or incorpo- rated to meet the visual needs of early Christians in England. For Henderson, early Christian England refers to the first centuries after Augustine’s mission in A . D . 597. H...