About the Book
A towering figure in the art world unravels the mystery of the world's most controversial relic.The history of the Christian church is strewn with holy relics and artifacts, none more controversial than the Shroud of Turin, the supposed burial cloth of Christ. In The Holy Shroud Gary Vikan shows that the shroud is not the burial cloth of Jesus, but rather a photograph-like body print of a medieval Frenchman created by a brilliant artist serving the royal court in the time of the Black Death. The Shroud was gifted by King John II to his friend Geoffroi de Charny, the most renowned knight of the Middle Ages, who shortly thereafter died at the disastrous Battle of Poitiers while saving the King's life. Though intended as nothing more than an innocuous devotional image for Geoffroi's newly-built church in the French hamlet of Lirey, it was soon misrepresented.
About the Author
Gary Vikan was director of the Walters Art Museum from 1994 to 2013; from 1985 to 1994 he was the museum's chief curator. Before coming to Baltimore, Gary was senior associate at Harvard's Center for Byzantine Studies at Dumbarton Oaks. A native of Minnesota, he received his BA from Carleton College and his PhD from Princeton University. Gary serves on the Advisory Council on Culture and the Arts of the Salzburg Global Seminar. Has been has been an advisor to the Getty Leadership Institute, Princeton University's Department of Art and Archaeology, and the Center for Applied Neuroaesthetics at Johns Hopkins University.Gary was appointed by President Clinton in 1999 to his Cultural Property Advisory Committee and was knighted by the French Minister of Culture in the Order of Arts and Letters in 2002. He is currently the president the Committee for Cultural Policy and is the incoming president of the Literary Society of Washington, DC. In retirement, Gary writes, lectures, and teaches. His recent books include From the Holy Land to Graceland (2012) , Sacred and Stolen: Confessions of a Museum Director (2016) , and The Holy Shroud: A Brilliant Hoax in the Time of the Black Death (2020) . Gary and Elana live in Baltimore. They have two daughters, Nicole and Sonia, and two grandchildren.
