Binding the Absent Body in Medieval and Modern Art

The absent body is represented in two distinct periods of art: medieval art using the absent body for religious reflection and contemporary art using the absent body from a secular perspective. In this collection, some essays deal broadly with the human condition, such as the abstract notion of the unity or separateness of the mind and body or a need to distance art from the physically idealized body as a comment on the less than ideal nature of contemporary humanity, while other examples deal specifically with a particular body, such as the body of Christ or the body of the artist.