Material Devotion in a South Indian Poetic World

front; because they are presented primarily as examples of certain types, the information about particular works is very limited. Consequently, new scholarship regarding individual works of art is mostly absent. The color photographs clarify how the centuries of veneration, oblivion, and both inadvertent and deliberate mistreatment have affected the artefacts – not to mention continuous change in aesthetic values. The eleventh chapter offers an important discussion of this “afterlife,” a perspective which has gained more ground in recent decades, due to the growing scholarly interest in the biographies of religious artefacts. One potential criticism of the book concerns the presentation of the data. While it is understandable that not all the material in Europe has been included, it does raise a question about why, then, to present the numbers and the data so exactly. In chapter 8, entitled “Résumé”, Finland is mentioned as having 31 tabernacle shrines (212), but the subsequent list has only 29 entries, and in fact some of the most prominent examples are missing from that list, e.g. Korppoo Virgin, Pyhtää St Anne, Kalanti St Olaf, and Karjaa St Birgitta. Fragmentary works, apart from a couple of examples, are not presented at all; these include empty tabernacles and sculptures without the shrine – which cover the majority of the “cases” in Finland. Therefore, at least the numbers given for Finland are limited in what they can tell us. More generally, in relation to Finland, it would perhaps have been more logical to discuss the tabernacle shrines in Finnish collections today hand-in-hand with the Swedish material, since both these lands were part of the same kingdom in the Middle Ages, and the material culture was similar. This closeness might not be clear to readers outside the Nordic countries. Documenting and analyzing the material for The Helgonskåp was a vast task, and probably also a rewarding adventure. The long experience of the authors is a necessity for this kind of book to be successful. Peter Tångeberg is a pioneer of technical art history and the conservation of medieval wood sculptures and altarpieces. No doubt his research contributed significantly to the change of the art historical paradigm in the 1980s. Kroesen, in turn, has published widely on religious ritual spaces and objects, concentrating especially on the rich medieval material heritage in the Scandinavian countries and the Iberian Peninsula. Tångeberg and Kroesen offer in their hardback book the most valuable and interesting insights into the visuality, materiality, and multiple contexts of the medieval tabernacle shrines. The publication will be attractive to general readers and experts alike.