The eye of the beholder? Beauty and ugliness in the crucifixion imagery of the late Middle Ages

Abstract

This reflection, formulated in response to an article by the historian Sara Lipton, argues that the perceived dialectic between beauty and ugliness in crucifixion imagery was understood in the late Middle Ages, by some at least, not as a problem to be resolved nor a barrier to be overcome but rather as a mystery to be entered into. Following Aquinas, the article concludes with the observation that an image’s beauty is to be found in a faithful comprehension of its proper purpose, the ability to perceive beauty in a crucifix therefore becoming a comment on the viewer rather than the image.