Enshrining the Sacred: Microarchitecture in Ritual Spaces

“Unlike the real buildings to which they allude—set in the countryside or within cities and occupied by living persons who move about and experience them with all the senses—microarchitectures are comprehended at a glance and frame not the viewer but their own contents. Enshrining the Sacred: Microarchitecture in Ritual Spaces treats a dazzling variety of such miniaturized versions of actual structures, from Ottoman mihrabs to medieval altar tabernacles, Vietnamese ancestral shrines to Tuscan image aediculae, and thirteenth-century Ashkenazi Torah arks to modern Japanese butsudans. In his introduction, Ilia M. Rodov provides theoretical paradigms for comprehending the commonalities among such manifestations. In turn, the authors of the twelve chapters that follow categorize particular manifestations, some providing catalogues of the material for the first time. They show how the domesticated monuments render the sacred apprehensible and present by setting up fictive analogies with the (invisible) sacred archetypes, of which the Jerusalem temple and Holy Sepulcher had (in the sancta sanctorum or Christ's tomb), themselves, comprehended microarchitectures. This volume of exceptional essays reveals the many ways the small-scale reproductions (often made of precious materials) served variously as secure cupboards for such revered objects as idols, scripture, the Host and relics, and lists of deceased ancestors. It explores how they functioned as portals, windows, and mirrors, focused attention to the sacred contents and, through them, intensified devotion to the distant prototypes, even prompting ritual actions including gift-giving. And it offers innumerable fresh insights: Who, for example, would have suspected that the Virgin Mary—God’s tabernacle of incarnation—played an important role not only in Spanish churches but also in Constantinopolitan mosques? The rich and far-reaching collection scrupulously honors each object and individual tradition, but it makes linkages of great interest and importance as well.”
—Herbert L. Kessler, Professor Emeritus, History of Art Department, Johns Hopkins University; Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences

“Embracing multiple religions and cultures from Europe to Asia, this collection of essays innovates in examining the phenomenon of micro-architecture across diverse traditions. Exquisite in its craftsmanship, micro-architecture’s intricate material manifestations did more than provide decorative elaboration or mimic monumental edifices. In framing viewers’ approach to space and place, its myriad forms defined boundaries, provoked wonder, and transformed the experience of those who used the objects and monuments discussed in these pages.”
—Jeffrey F. Hamburger, Kuno Francke Professor of German Art and Culture, Harvard University