Revelation in Christianity means the divine disclosure of events that are otherwise inaccessible to human beings. But if no one was present to see them happen, how can the faithful know what they looked like? Since the late Middle Ages, images have worked in various ways with sacred texts, such as the Bible, the Lives of Saints, and devotional books, in bringing miracles and mythic events into visually accessible form. The works of artists have also aided the interpretation of difficult texts, such as prophetic and apocalyptic books of the Bible. In this study, David Morgan examines the art of seeing things and explores how art has played a key role in the creative production and interpretation of visions and apparitions. Traversing a long stretch of historical development, he offers new insights into a significant cultural history of European Christianity from the late Middle Ages to the twentieth century.

‘In this book, the eminent scholar of ‘material religion' David Morgan tackles that most immaterial of religious experiences: Christian revelation. Ranging comfortably through high and low European art of diverse media from the late Middle Ages to the twentieth century, he reveals the intricate connections among these physical images, interior images of memory, imagination, fantasies, and dreams, and the ambiguously situated images of visions, apparitions, and hallucinations. His lively text evokes a culture in which not only art, spirituality, and Biblical interpretation but even Cold-War politics and psychoactive drugs can play a part.'

James Clifton - Curator, Renaissance and Baroque Painting, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

‘Just as he memorably redefined the ways, means and significance of Christian vision and materiality in previous books, in this compelling new study, David Morgan has taken up vision's provocative sister-revelation. Contrary to any promise of direct access to divine truth, or the common conception of it as momentary, fleeting, chaotic and unexpected, Morgan argues that a revelatory event is culturally created and performed.  He insists one must query ‘what was revealed, why it was revealed, and how it was revealed' in order to understand revelation's reception, impact, and place in culture.

Cynthia Hahn - Professor of Art History, Hunter College