num_pages: 540
description: The founder of Manichaeism Mani (216-274/277 CE) not only wrote down his teachings to prevent their adulteration but also created a set of paintings the Book of Pictures to be used in the context of oral instruction. That pictorial handscroll and its later editions became canonical art for Mani's followers for a millennium afterwards. This richly illustrated study systematically explores the artistic culture of religious instruction of the Manichaeans based on textual and artistic evidence. It discusses the doctrinal themes (soteriology prophetology theology and cosmology) depicted in Mani s canonical pictures. Moreover it identifies 10th-century fragments of canonical picture books as well as select didactic images adapted to other non-canonical art objects (murals hanging scrolls mortuary banners and illuminated liturgical manuscripts) in Uygur Central Asia and Tang-Ming China.
language: None
title: Mani's Pictures: The Didactic Images of the Manichaeans from Sasanian Mesopotamia to Uygur Central Asia and Tang-Ming China
publisher: Brill