Faces of Power and Piety

Erik Inglis

Faces of Power and Piety is the second in the Medieval Imagination series of small, affordable books that draw on manuscript illuminations in the collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum and the British Library. Each volume focuses on a particular theme to provide an accessible introduction to the imagination of the medieval world.

The faces featured in this volume include portraits of both illustrious historical figures and celebrated contemporaries. They reveal that medieval artists often disregarded their subjects' physical appearance in favor of emphasizing qualities such as power and piety. Faces of Power and Pietyalso looks at the development of portraiture in the modern sense during the Renaissance, when likeness became an important component of portrait painting. An exhibition of the same name was on view at the J. Paul Getty Museum August 12 through October 26, 2008.

Erik Inglis teaches medieval art history at Oberlin College in Ohio.