::Christian visual art and culture of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in the Holy Land have received little scholarly attention, if at all. The Madonna of the Prickly Pear Cactus: Tradition and Innovation in 19th- and 20th-century Christian Art in the Holy Land studies, analyzes, and presents major artistic creations of diverse Christian communities during this period. Furthermore, it demonstrates an extensive corpus of visual images never photographed and published previously. The book is devoted to aspects of the visual art of the Greek-Orthodox and Armenian churches of Jerusalem, and to the mainly twentieth-century artistic endeavors of the Latin Church.
Iconographic investigations and analysis of meanings embodied in the Greek and Armenian painting; and the architecture and painting cycles of the Latin Visitation Church in Ain Karim and the Latin Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth will try to decipher this art as an expression of the attitudes and intentions of the diverse communities of the holy-Land.

Review Quote:

The Catholic Historical Review, January 1, 2012 | Erspamer, Martin

Histara les comptes rendus, 2012 | Einat Segal

Contents: The Madonna of the Prickly Pear Cactus