Wonder, Magic and the Fantastical Margins: Medieval Visual Culture and Cinematic Special Effects

Abstract

What are the nature and power of special effects that induce such strong reactions in cinema spectators, and is it possible to find an analog to this contemporary fascination in the visual culture of the Middle Ages? This article contends that spectators during the medieval period may have responded to fantastical, supernatural, phantasmagorical, miraculous, satanic, or spectacular images with a similar sense of awe and wonder as contemporary viewers of cinematic special effects. Proposing a reconsideration of the pre-history of cinematic special effects, the author suggests that the allure of cinematic special effects is broader than the historical experience of cinema, and that image-makers were exploiting the embodied modes of viewing offered by special effects far earlier than the invention of motion pictures.