Klappentext

This book shows how text decoration evolved into an innovative form of Reformed visual culture after iconoclasm, and was used to transform church spaces to accommodate Reformed worship. A story of continuity throughout the Reformation appears in the pre-Reformation roots of designs and spatial arrangements of displayed texts, beyond evident and major change. The work is based on a comprehensive inventory of text panels and text paintings installed in churches throughout the Dutch provinces between ca 1575-1800. A North Sea perspective presents text decoration as a universal Protestant phenomenon, which took different forms according to the liturgical and dogmatic requirements of denominations: from English Ten Commandments boards, and catechism altarpieces in churches in the Lutheran Danish Kingdom, to Lutheran text altarpieces that showcase the presence of Calvinism in northwest Germany.