REVIEWS: Theophilus and the Theory and Practice of Medieval Art. Heidi C. Gearhart,. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2017. xvi + 194 pp. + 24 color pls. $94.95

Heidi Gearhart's Theophilus and the Theory and Practice of Medieval Art analyzes the twelfth-century treatise On Diverse Arts (De diversis artibus), an important but puzzling text comprising three books, each with a religious prologue followed by instructions for paintings, stained glass, and metalwork, respectively. Gearhart gives special attention to Theophilus's language in chapter 3, delineating how Theophilus moralizes the making of art by presenting it as a series of choices, comparable to the exercise of free will. In chapter 4 Gearhart also addresses the question of Theophilus's relationship to Roger of Helmarshausen, one of the few known artists of his time. Because an inscription in the Vienna manuscript announces that Theophilus's name is Roger, some scholars have argued that the two men were one and the same.