Abstract
In the late Middle Ages in Europe, religious and secular images played a decisive role in mediating messages. The narrative contained within the pictures was integrated into the 'everyday life' of the period. Thus, it promoted the beholders' identification with the depicted actions and situations. This 'closeness' of the contents of images to their recipients has lead to the idea that the representation of the outer appearance of depicted persons mirrored corresponding conventions and laws of late medieval society. The essay tries to check and prove this hypothesis with the help of computer-supported quantitative analysis of a large amount of Central European Gothic visual sources.
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