VOICES FROM ALTARPIECES: MAKING SENSE OF THE SACRED

The article is a cultural-philosophical response to Ivan Gerat's Legendary Scenes and his art history interpretation of the function of Slovak hagiographic pictorial art of the Late Middle Ages. The thrust is on paintings of Christian ethical extremism, reflected in the principle of imitatio Christi. It led to the deaths of martyrs and saints in the name of the Faith. The preponderance of brutal scenes involving the tortured human body in this period art is examined in detail and it is suggested that these portrayals are disincentives that put off the mass culture beholder. The contextualist art history method employed in Gerat's book is gradually explored, along with its potential to transform the uninterested postmodern beholder into an intelligent beholder and art tourist. Attention is paid to the educational and national branding aspects of Legendary Scenes.