Jerrilynn Dodds’s Visual Histories from Medieval Iberia: Arts and Ambivalence makes a significant contribution to the study of medieval Iberian artistic practices, offering a nuanced reassessment of visual culture in a transcultural context. The book’s primary objective is to explore the fluid artistic interactions between Christians and Muslims on the Iberian Peninsula from the eighth to fourteenth centuries, rejecting rigid historiographical frameworks that impose artificial divisions between these groups. Instead, Dodds proposes an interpretive model grounded in ambivalence, recognizing the complex and often contradictory meanings embedded in artistic production that were simultaneously context-specific and enmeshed in global political and social networks.

The central theme of the book is the transcultural nature of Iberian artistic expression, particularly in the way works of art and architecture were created, adapted, and reinterpreted across religious and political boundaries. The author defines transculturation as a process of cultural transformation through sustained contact, adaptation, and mutual influence, rather than a one-directional imposition of cultural authority. Drawing from Fernando Ortiz’s foundational work, Dodds positions transculturation as a critical framework for understanding medieval Iberian artistic practices, distinguishing it from models of hybridity that imply fixed, stable identities (Ortiz, Cuban Counterpoint: Tobacco and Sugar, Durham: Duke UP, 1995).

Rather than viewing Iberia’s artistic traditions as static or as the product of clearly demarcated confessional identities, Dodds demonstrates how visual culture was shaped by dynamic exchanges and entanglements, often within a context of power imbalances. The author set out to question historiographical models that overstate convivencia (harmonious coexistence), reduce Iberian art to a binary struggle between Christian and Muslim polities, or serve modern nationalistic and economic goals through viewing the Reconquista (the Christian conquest of Muslim territories on the Iberian Peninsula) as a linear, triumphalist narrative. Instead, she argues that medieval Iberia was a landscape of shifting allegiances and permeable identities rather than a stage for an inevitable Christian reclamation. By critically engaging with past scholarship, including her own previous works, Dodds refines and challenges earlier assumptions, making this book a necessary and welcome re-evaluation of established narratives.

The book evolved from the 2021 Slade Lectures at the University of Oxford, where Dodds first articulated her new approach to Iberian visual history as inherently agonistic shaped by both cooperation and contestation. Expanding upon those lectures, this volume presents a series of chronologically organized case studies that illustrate how Iberian artistic production cannot be neatly categorized within traditional historiographical models.

The book is structured around seven thematic chapters. The examples Dodds includes are particularly compelling because they juxtapose key works of art and architecture—such as the Great Mosque of Córdoba and the Cantigas de Santa María—with lesser-known objects and sites—such as the Church of Santa Cruz/Mosque of Ibn al-Hadidi in Toledo—thereby destabilizing conventional narratives that privilege major monuments at the expense of more localized expressions of artistic production and translation. This approach allows her to demonstrate how artistic forms circulated across different cultural and religious spheres, often in ways that resisted the formation or expression of clearly definable identities.

One notable omission in Visual Histories is the absence of Jewish artistic and architectural examples. While Dodds provides a detailed examination of Christian and Muslim interactions, she does not engage with Jewish visual culture or its role within the transcultural framework she advocates. She briefly mentions El Tránsito Synagogue in Toledo but does not analyze it in depth or consider its broader significance within Iberian artistic entanglements. This omission is surprising given her established expertise in the study of Jewish contributions to Iberian visual culture and the Jewish community’s deep integration in medieval Iberian society and engagement in artistic and architectural production. Addressing their visual culture more fully would have reinforced Doods’s central premise of artistic fluidity and entanglement and provided some context for readers familiar with her previous work and allowed for a more fully realized discussion of Iberian artistic interactions.

Dodds’s book is engaging, clear, and accessible, making complex theoretical discussions intelligible without overburdening the reader with jargon. While the book engages with specialized terminology, particularly in discussions of transculturalism and historiography, it does so in a way that is carefully explained and well-contextualized. This book presents the reader with a significant revision of previous scholarship and in some cases, a refutation of Dodds’s own earlier conclusions, particularly regarding terminology and methodological paradigms. She moves away from the terms that have traditionally dominated the discourse, such as convivencia and Mudéjar (the moniker used for Muslims remaining in the Christian kingdoms of Iberia in the later medieval period and a style of art and architecture that reflects the intermixing of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish cultures), which she now considers inadequate for capturing the complexities of cultural exchange. For example, in chapter one, “An Agonistic History of Art,” Dodds critiques binary models that have traditionally framed the field of Iberian visual culture. These approaches were often created specifically for the assessment of Iberian artistic production because of its treatment as peripheral or other to the Western canon. Instead, she argues for a more fluid and ambivalent understanding of artistic interactions. The use of transcultural theories for viewing the examples presented throughout the book demonstrates how the objects and buildings were often polysemous and palimpsestic, simultaneously highlighting and obscuring the ambivalent social, political, and religious interactions underpinning these artworks and architectures. Dodds’s argument builds upon and challenges past studies that have sought to define Iberian visual culture through either syncretic models or stark oppositional frameworks.

For specialists in medieval art and architecture, particularly those working on cross-cultural interactions, this book offers critical insights and a refined theoretical framework that engage with questions of porosity and postcolonialism. However, the complexity of the book’s arguments and its engagement with specialized historiographical debates mean that it is most useful for those already versed in the field. Within the broader scope of scholarship, Visual Histories from Medieval Iberia aligns with recent work on the fluidity of medieval artistic and cultural boundaries, complementing studies on the Mediterranean world and medieval art (David Abulafia, The Great Sea: A Human History of the Mediterranean (2011); Barry Finbarr Flood, Objects of Translation: Material Culture and Medieval “Hindu-Muslim” Encounter (2009); Brian A. Catlos, Kingdoms of Faith: A New History of Islamic Spain (2018); and Barbara Drake Boehm and Melanie Holcomb (eds.), Jerusalem, 1000–1400: Every People Under Heaven (2016)).

One area where the book falls short is in its visual presentation. While it is well-illustrated with numerous images that support its arguments, most of the illustrations are in black and white. This detracts from the overall impact of the book, particularly in discussions of polychrome architectural details, illuminated manuscripts, and material textures that rely on color for their full appreciation.

Moving forward, Dodds’s study raises several critical questions for future research. One pressing avenue of inquiry is how the methodological approach she advocates can be further applied to other regions and periods beyond medieval Iberia. Additionally, her emphasis on ambivalence and artistic entanglement invites further exploration of how these dynamics evolved in the post-medieval period. Her work opens the door for new studies that challenge nationalist historiographies and instead embrace the complexities of quotidian cultural interactions.

Visual Histories from Medieval Iberia: Arts and Ambivalence is an essential text for those studying medieval Iberian art and architecture, offering a critical reassessment of established models and a compelling argument for a more nuanced understanding of transcultural artistic practices. By foregrounding the role of ambivalence in artistic production, Dodds presents a framework that not only reshapes contemporary discourse but also invites future scholars to push beyond rigid historiographical boundaries in their own work.