Architecture and Affect in the Middle Ages

by Paul Binski

How did people living in the Middle Ages respond to spectacular buildings, such as the Gothic cathedrals? While contemporary scholarship places a large emphasis on the emotional content of Western medieval figurative art, the emotion of architecture has largely gone undiscussed. In a radical new approach, Architecture and Affect in the Middle Ages explores the relationship between medieval buildings and the complexity of experience they engendered. Paul Binski examines long-standing misconceptions about the way viewers responded to medieval architecture across Western Europe and in Byzantine and Arabic culture between late antiquity and the end of the medieval period. He emphasizes the importance of the experience itself within these built environments, essentially places of action, space, and structure but also, crucially, of sound and emotion.
 

264 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 29, 2024

Reviews

[Meagan | The Chapter House · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative read (albeit academic, which is fitting as it stemmed out of lectures delivered at university!) interspersed with beautiful photos! I especially enjoyed looking at the pics and skimming, doing a deeper dive on the topics that particularly interested me.