Hans Belting's 'La vraie image, croire aux images?' Published by Gallimard

Gallimard has published a new translation of Hans Belting's 'La vraie image, croire aux images?' in the Folio Essais collection, alongside a reissue of his earlier work 'L'Histoire de l'art est-elle finie?' Originally released by Jacqueline Chambon in 1989, the new book examines the truth of images through case studies spanning late antiquity to the Reformation. Belting positions this volume as the third part of a broader project on Christian Western representation, following 'Image et culte' and 'Pour une anthropologie des images'. The work explores why humans create images, arguing that images reveal the functioning of the human psyche and its role in culture and belief. Belting traces the power of images from early Christianity to contemporary digital screens, drawing on Régis Debray and Jean Baudrillard for modern analysis. He focuses on the 'true image' of the Holy Face (Veronica's veil) and the theological arguments developed in Byzantine Christianity to justify the incarnation of God in images. The book discusses iconoclasm as a conflict between images and signs, where iconoclasts replaced religious images with the cross. Belting asserts that religious belief in images is an inescapable anthropological phenomenon, and the key question is how belief is produced. The analysis covers the invention of terms like 'acheiropoietos' by Saint Paul and the relationship between the Eucharist and images. Thierry Davila provides commentary.