Michael Camille Image on the Edge (Paperback)

Image on the EdgeMichael CamilleLabel: Reaktion BooksDescription: What do they all mean – the lascivious ape autophagic dragons pot-bellied heads harp-playing asses arse-kissing priests and somersaulting jongleurs to be found protuding from the edges of medieval buildings and in the margins of illuminated manuscripts? Now available in a new hardback edition Michael Camille's Image on the Edge explores that riotous realm of marginal art so often explained away as mere decoration or zany doodles where resistance to social constraints flourished.Medieval image-makers focused attention on the underside of society the excluded and the ejected. Peasants servants prostitutes and beggars all found their place along with knights and clerics engaged in impudent antics in the margins of prayer-books or as gargoyles on the outsides of churches. Camille brings us to an understanding of how marginality functioned in medieval culture and shows us just how scandalous subversive and amazing the art of the time could be.