Summary How did historical images work and interact with their beholders and users? Drawing on the results of an international conference held in Vienna in 2018, this volume offers new perspectives on a central question for contemporary art history. The fourteen authors approach working imagery from the medieval and early modern periods in terms of its production, usage, and reception. They address wide-ranging media?architecture, sculpture, painting, metalwork, stained glass?in similarly wide-ranging contexts: from monumental installations in the most public zones of urban churches to exquisite devotional objects and illuminated books reserved for more exclusive settings. While including research from West European and American institutions, the project also engages with the distinctive scholarly traditions of Eastern Europe and Israel. In all these ways, it reflects the interests of the dedicatee Michael Viktor Schwarz, whose introductory interview lays out the parameters of the subject. TABLE OF CONTENTS How Do Images Work? An Interview with Michael Viktor Schwarz Editors' Introduction PART I: VISUAL ELOQUENCE Can We Grasp Wordless Images? ? Milena Bartlov Gothic Art, Realism and magniloquentia: Thoughts on Erich Auerbach ? Paul Binski The Scaling Turn: Experiencing Late Medieval Artifacts? Assaf Pinkus and Einat Klafter ?Where the Wild Things Are?. Die Wilden Leute des sp ten Mittelalters und der fr hen Neuzeit im Raum des Dekorativen ? Hans K rner Das Kultbild und sein Rahmen: Zur Funktion von Stildifferenzen (zwei schlesische Beispiele aus dem Anfang des 16. Jahrhunderts) ? Romuald Kaczmarek PART II: IMAGERY IN BOOKS In cerchio: Illuminating the Trojan Legend and the Commedia between the Veneto and Naples (with some conjectures on Madrid, BNE, MS 10057) ? Rosa M. Rodr guez Porto Wie die Bilder im Roman d'Alexandre en prose die dubiose Herkunft des Helden diskutieren ? Lieselotte E. Saurma-Jeltsch Bonaventure and Monastic Images of St Elizabeth ? Ivan Ger t PART III: IMAGERY IN SPACE In Praise of the Pigeon: Interpretive Adventures in Naumburg Cathedral ? Jacqueline E. Jung Bilder und Kult als Ausdruck bisch flicher Macht: Berthold von Buchegg und die Katharinenkapelle im Stra burger M nster? Marc Carel Schurr Eye of the Donkey: Visual Strategies on the Choir Threshold of St Laurence's in Nuremberg ? Tim Juckes Bildkonzepte im Widerstreit. Donatellos Judith als ?naturalisierte Allegorie?? Ulrich Pfisterer Inhaltliche Vielfalt durch motivische Zur ckhaltung. Zur Wandmalerei in der camera pape im Papstpalast von Avignon ? Tanja Hinterholz Storia, mito e allegoria: I portali del Santo Sepolcro a Brindisi ? Valentino Pace