About “Mani's pictures”
A 2015 non-fiction work by Zsuzsanna Gulácsi examines the artistic culture of the Manichaeans, focusing on the religious instruction of their followers. The book explores the visual elements of Mani’s teachings, including the Book of Pictures, a set of paintings created by Mani to support oral instruction. These images became central to Manichaean worship and remained influential for a millennium. The study analyzes doctrinal themes such as soteriology and cosmology as depicted in the canonical pictures. It also investigates 10th-century fragments of picture books and adapted images found on murals, hanging scrolls, and other art objects in Uygur Central Asia and Tang-Ming China. The work draws on both textual and artistic evidence to provide a comprehensive view of Manichaean visual culture.
Book details
- First published
- 2015