The volume investigates the visualization of both ritual and decorative aspects of auspiciousness and protection in the form of celestial characters in art and architecture. In doing so, it covers more than two and a half millennia and a broad geographical area, documenting a practice found in nearly every corner of the world. Its transcultural approach aims at gaining insights into cultural dynamics and consistent networks and defining new historical mindmaps; it examines reciprocal effects and aspects of interwovenness in art and architecture with a view to reconceptualizing their established realms. The collection opens a window on a phenomenon in the history of art and architecture that has never before been considered from this perspective. The book focuses on a transcultural iconography of aerial spirits, goddesses and gods in art history, pursuing a methodologically innovative approach in order to redefine and develop the practice of identification and classification of motifs as a means to understanding meaning, and attempting to challenge the categories defined by academic disciplines.

Inhalt

The Goddess of Victory in Greek and Roman Art.- The Iconography of Zoroastrian Angelology in Sasanian Art and Architecture.- Angels as Agents of Transfer between Hebrew Origins, Byzantium and Western Europe. Marienberg in South Tyrol as a Case Study.- The Dragon in Transcultural Skies: Its Celestial Aspect in the Early and Medieval Islamic World.- Winged Immortals and Heavenly Beings Across the East Asian Skies.- How Celestial Spirits Became Winged in the Architecture of the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal (Sixth to Nineteenth Century).- Solomonic Angels in a Mughal Sky: The Wall Paintings of the Kala Burj at the Lahore Fort Revisited and Their Reception in Later South Asian and Qajar Art.- Ethereal Imagery: Symbolic Attributes in the Art and Architecture of India.- Entangled Visualities: Celestial Beings in Early Twentieth Century Architecture of the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal.- Epilogue.