Michele Bacci
Il pennello dell'Evangelista.
Storia delle immagini sacre attribuite a san
Luca
[The Evangelist's
Paintbrush.
A history of Sacred Images Attributed to St
Luke]
Pisa, ETS,
1998, Piccola Biblioteca GISEM 14
ISBN 88-467-0123-2
In the course of ages Orthodox and Catholic traditions
celebrated St Luke the Evangelist not only as a physician, but
also as a good painter of true-to-life portraits of Christ and
the Virgin Mary. Such a legend, after its first occurrence in
Byzantium during the Iconoclastic controversies, gave birth to a
wide number of venerated images claiming to be autographs by the
Saint's hand: such a phaenomenon developed in the course of eight
centuries (from the 11th through the 18th) and involved almost
all the ancient Christian cultures, from Byzantium to Spain
including Northern Europe and Ethiopia.
This book illustrates the most meaningful stages of the history
of 'St. Luke's images', pointing out its vicissitudes in Orthodox
and other Eastern Christian traditions, as well as in the Western
world, from the Middle Ages to nowadays.
