Conrad Rudolph | University of California, Riverside (original) (raw)
Books by Conrad Rudolph
The Mystic Ark is a forty-two page description of the most complex work of art from the enti... more The Mystic Ark is a forty-two page description of the most complex work of art from the entire Middle Ages: a painting also known as The Mystic Ark. The purpose of the painting was to serve as the basis of a series of brilliant lectures undertaken by Hugh--who was considered to be the leading theologian of Europe during his life--from around 1125 to 1130 at Saint Victor, a Parisian abbey of Augustinian canons, whose school, along with those of Notre-Dame and Ste-Geneviève, acted as the predecessor of the University of Paris. The purpose of the text (which I have translated from the Latin) was to enable others outside of Saint Victor--teachers, advanced students, scholars, monks, canons--to undertake similar discussions themselves by providing the information necessary to produce the image. Containing all time, all space, all matter, all human history, and all spiritual striving, this highly political image dealt with a series of crucial cultural issues in the education of society's elite during one of the great periods of intellectual change in Western history. Essentially a visualization of Hugh's summa-like systematic theology, De sacramentis, the multiplication and systematization of imagery in The Mystic Ark bridged the gap between literature's potential for complex expression and such expression in large-scale public art, an achievement that led to the creation of the Gothic portal: the major means of public communication apart from the spoken word, and the most significant, fully indigenous expression of Northern European, public figural art of the Middle Ages.
Hugh of Saint Victor's Mystic Ark: Illustrations: http://mysticark.ucr.edu. This site presents a collection of images of The Mystic Ark that repeat in greater visual detail the same illustrations published in my study The Mystic Ark: Hugh of Saint Victor, Art, and Thought in the Twelfth Century for those who would like to study the image of The Mystic Ark more closely than is possible with the printed illustrations.
In the medieval sources, works of art are rarely referred to, let alone described in any detail.... more In the medieval sources, works of art are rarely referred to, let alone described in any detail. When they are mentioned, it is seldom with more than a word or phrase, at the most a sentence. Hugh of Saint Victor's Mystic Ark is a forty-two page description of what seems to be the most complex single work of art of the entire Middle Ages, a fundamentally political painting also known as The Mystic Ark, making both the text and the painting among the most unusual sources we have for an understanding of medieval artistic culture and its polemical context.
The Mystic Ark is known to have arisen from a series of brilliant lectures given by Hugh--considered to be the leading theologian of Europe during his life--sometime from 1125 to early 1130 at Saint Victor, a house of Augustinian canons in Paris whose school was a predecessor of the University of Paris. Because of the immense difficulty of its text, The Mystic Ark has been almost completely ignored by art historians and often misunderstood by other scholars. Generally speaking, it has been seen as a "step-by-step" set of instructions that were rarely or even never used to create an actual painting, the text being meant to be read strictly as a work of ekphrasis (the verbal evocation of an imaginary work of art) or as a memory aid in order to conjure up a purely mental image.
"First, I Find the Center Point": Reading the Text of Hugh of Saint Victor's The Mystic Ark (American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, forthcoming 2004) corrects this neglect and misunderstanding through a study of the nature of the text of The Mystic Ark as a necessary first step in a larger study. It acts as a literal analysis for the non-literal conclusions of this larger study, The Mystic Ark: Hugh of Saint Victor, Art, and Thought in the Twelfth Century (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge and New York, forthcoming 2013) (1258 typescript pages), in which I analyze the context and meaning of the painting of The Mystic Ark and demonstrate how it formed a crucial stage in the conceptual development of the Gothic portal, perhaps the most significant fully indigenous expression of Northern European, public figural art of the Middle Ages.)
My approach to the problem in Center Point is three pronged. First, through close study of the text, I show that The Mystic Ark is not a work of literature properly speaking but a reportatio (something similar to class notes) by one of Hugh's students, although Hugh himself very much remains its author. Recognition of this previously unrecognized aspect goes a long way in clarifying many difficulties of the text that previous authors were at pains to explain. Second, I refute a large and impossibly complex body of opinions that has arisen to explain the relation between the painting of The Mystic Ark, the different recensions of The Mystic Ark, and The Moral Ark (a related treatise by Hugh). In place of those tortuous arguments, I provide straightforward explanations for these relationships through analysis of the textual tradition and historical context of The Mystic Ark. And third, having established The Mystic Ark as a reportatio and explained the relation of the painting and the various texts, I address the nature and immediate function of the text of The Mystic Ark, clearly establishing that a painting of The Mystic Ark originally existed at Saint Victor, probably in the form of a wall painting, an image I believe was painted by Hugh himself. I show that, although the text of The Mystic Ark was not an actual "step-by-step" set of instructions, its purpose was to enable scholars outside of Saint Victor to undertake similar lectures and discussions based upon a reconstruction of the painting. Since the major themes of the painting were the subjects of contemporary controversies such as the history of salvation, creation, neoplatonism, and the place of science in the education of society's intellectual elite, my conclusions demonstrate that The Mystic Ark--of which enough manuscript copies survive to indicate that it was the medieval equivalent of a best seller--served as a major and novel statement in the current intellectual controversies of the mid-twelfth century, a time of great intellectual and cultural change.
In the end, Center Point clarifies generations of confusion surrounding The Mystic Ark. It reveals the striking role that a complex image could play in the spiritual and intellectual controversies of the day. And it sets the stage for my future book on this amazingly popular image and text that, together, form one of the most important sources we have for medieval art in its social context.
Hugh of Saint Victor's Mystic Ark: Illustrations: http://mysticark.ucr.edu. This site presents a collection of images of The Mystic Ark that repeat in greater visual detail the same illustrations published in my study The Mystic Ark: Hugh of Saint Victor, Art, and Thought in the Twelfth Century for those who would like to study the image of The Mystic Ark more closely than is possible with the printed illustrations.
Pilgrimage to the End of the World: The Road to Santiago de Compostela (University of Chicago Pre... more Pilgrimage to the End of the World: The Road to Santiago de Compostela (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2004; hardcover and paperback editions).
With the sole exception of warfare, pilgrimage to some especially holy site or to the relics of some miracle-working saint was the single greatest adventure a person could have for over a thousand years of Western culture. Almost inexplicably, one of the great medieval pilgrimages, the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, not only continues to this day but is currently undergoing a remarkable renewal of interest in Europe and in the United States. In Pilgrimage to the End of the World: The Road to Santiago de Compostela, I recount my own experiences in undertaking this grueling medieval pilgrimage on foot from Le Puy in south-central France to Santiago in northwestern Spain--a journey of two and a half months and a thousand miles.
The book is composed of four parts, each with a distinctly different aim.
Unlike most other accounts of the pilgrimage, the core of this book (the second chapter) is not a day-by-day description of the journey but a series of reflections on a number of different levels of what is, ultimately, the internal experience for many. It is an attempt to evoke the texture of the pilgrimage, to evoke some of the impressions and feelings that I and others have had on it, and, to a certain extent, an attempt to bridge the chasm between modernity and this inherently pre-modern experience. It takes up a variety of different aspects of the pilgrimage through descriptions and personal anecdotes that range from the serious to the humorous: the astonishingly beautiful scenery; the people along the way; the complex layering of history that was and still is such an integral part of the pilgrimage; the great physical hardships of pain, hunger, thirst, exposure to the elements, and general deprivation of comfort and all that's familiar; and the effect that these extreme physical conditions had in inducing a mental state that sensed time, distance, and personal experiences in a way that is totally foreign to contemporary culture.
Because this book is meant to kindle the interests of a broad public, I have bracketed my account of the internal experience of the pilgrimage between two other parts. The first side of this bracket (the first chapter) provides a necessary historical basis from which to understand the pilgrimage. In writing this, I have tried to present the historical pilgrimage from the perspective of the experience of the medieval pilgrim as much as the medieval sources would allow. The other side of the bracket consists of the third and fourth chapters. The third chapter addresses what might be called the external experience of the pilgrimage through photographs of the country encountered along the way, including the towns, people, churches, and other ancient sites that are such an important part of the pilgrimage. The fourth chapter might be called the reality of the road: pretty much everything a person might need to know and do in order to take the first step on the pilgrimage road--and the second.
Pilgrimage to the End of the World: The Road to Santiago de Compostela is a reflection on the multi-faceted experience that the pilgrimage is: a process of movement, of change, of the confrontation of cultures, the confrontation of insider and outsider, and the relation of all this to a deep and profound layering of historical cultures, including the present one. It articulates one of the central experiences in the formation of pre-modern Western culture in a way that is essentially a work of public history.
The illuminated copy of Gregory the Great's Moralia in Job made at the famous reform monastery o... more The illuminated copy of Gregory the Great's Moralia in Job made at the famous reform monastery of Cîteaux in Burgundy around 1111 is one of the most familiar but least understood illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages. It is so well-known because of its striking illuminations of seemingly gratuitous violence and daily life. It is poorly understood because these have largely been taken at face value. This lack of comprehension has come about because of an unawareness on the art theoretical level of exactly how spirituality and politics operate in the artistic process in this particular manuscript and how this specific form of spirituality legitimized a very intimate and, at first glance, undisciplined attitude on the part of the artist toward his subject.
A copy of one of the most widespread and influential texts of medieval monastic culture, the Cîteaux Moralia has also been used by such scholars as Meyer Schapiro as evidence for the claim that the monstrous imagery of the Middle Ages was an imagery of "unbridled, often irrational fantasy," entirely independent of the text and of any specific meaning. Unbridled and irrational its images may be. But they are not independent of either the text or specific meaning. The brilliance of these illuminations and an undercurrent of thematic consistency that may be detected in them cry out from hiding, as it were, that, like an obscure event from Scripture, there is potentially another level of meaning beyond what has so far met the eyes of modern viewers.
Close analysis of these illuminations reveals a gradual transformation from conventional and textually unrelated images of the beginning of the manuscript (the famous frontispiece is an exception, having been added later) to largely unique and textually based ones further on, something that indicates a change in attitude toward the illuminated initial on the part of the artist only after production had begun, by no means part of the original conception.
More specifically, what seems to have happened was that after initially illuminating this patristic work in a conventional and unexceptional manner in the illuminations of the prefatory matter and Books One through Three, the artist began in the initials to Books Four through Seven to internalize Gregory's exegetical attitude--although only in a visually and conceptually incipient way. This happened, significantly, only after an important methodological statement in the opening passage of Book Four, the culmination of similar statements in Gregory's prefatory letter and Books One and Two: "He who examines the literality (textum) and fails to recognize the sense (sensum) of the holy word provides himself not so much with knowledge as he confuses himself with ambiguity." In Books Eight through Thirty-five the artist introduced visual complexity into his expressions of the literality and sense of the text, and combined this with an effective visual vocabulary of violence and daily life, both of which are in deep response to the text and the direct result of the artist's assimilation of Gregory's exegetical method into his work.
Indeed, the fundamental dynamics of the manuscript's conception and character indicate how the scenes of seemingly gratuitous violence and seemingly straightforward daily life are in fact the product of Gregory's demand that one "become" what one reads--in this case, the artist internalizing the exegetical method of Gregory himself. In the same way that Gregory found it acceptable to analyze a line or even a word of text out of context, according to modern sensibilities, so the artist was quite willing to do the same, often with reference to the contemporary monastic polemics of reform. The end result was the exegetical spiritualization of the first generation experience, the visual expression of Gregory's exegetical method. It is in this sense, that of Gregory's methodology--his urging the reader (in the Cîteaux Moralia, the artist) to go beyond the text to the "truer" sense of what was being read and to become what one reads--that one must view the initials of the Cîteaux Moralia. However, since the creative process is not to become but to cause to become, in using the Moralia in Job as a spiritual exercise the artist--or rather the monk-artist, a person who was one of the potential specialized readers of this text in a way that was typically not the case for secular artists at the time--transformed what he had read into artistic expressions of his own spiritual struggle and daily life, recognizing both "what was monstrous and what was beautiful," what pertained to the animal and what pertained to the human, and what pertained to both as embodied in the figure of the semihomo that is so common in the pages of the manuscript, semihomines being creatures that are part human and part beast and that are central to concept of spiritual violence that imbues the illuminations of the Cîteaux Moralia.
More than a straightforward analysis of these illuminations, this study also reveals a great deal about a number of art historical questions common to many other medieval artworks, shedding its light on such issues as the question of meaning in some monstrous and violent imagery of a seemingly ornamental character, the supposed direct observation of nature and daily life for their own sake, the apparent intrusion of the secular upon the sacred, and, inevitably, the role of the artist in all this. It does this despite, or perhaps because of, the fact that iconographically it is largely a unique work. And this leads to the issue of how a unique illuminated manuscript like this might have come about in the first place: in this case the result of an unusually intimate relation between text and image, or more precisely, between text, artist, and image, that was fundamentally conditioned by contemporary monastic politics and polemics--the latter being gone into in detail and with very specific application to the initials. These issues, together with the questions of what, individually, the illuminations of the Cîteaux Moralia mean and why, as a whole, they appear in the text of this particular patristic work at this particular time of monastic reform constitute the core of this study.
Finally, the imagery of the Cîteaux Moralia is analyzed in light of medieval theories of lectio divina, meditatio, and progressing levels of spiritual advancement--securely placing it within this theoretical framework in a way that both reveals the basis of its conceptual attraction and its ultimate spiritual/political failure in the context of twelfth-century monastic polemics and artistic culture.
The key to understanding the illuminations of the Cîteaux Moralia consists primarily of three things, without even one of which it could never have taken its present form: the explicit and implicit methodology of the text of the Moralia in Job itself; the general vocabulary of violent spiritual struggle and the polemics of contemporary monastic culture; and the idiosyncratic element of the individual who responded to the first in the visual vocabulary of the second. The result was a series of initials of a creativity and exuberance not often found in manuscript illumination before or since. Perhaps the most violent illuminated manuscript of Romanesque monastic culture, it presents a visual exegesis of Gregory's text that is intimately bound up with Cistercian reform politics and polemics, and that provides an intriguing view into Cistercian self-conception at a decisive moment in their history.
In Artistic Change at St-Denis: Abbot Suger's Program and the Early Twelfth-Century Controversy ... more In Artistic Change at St-Denis: Abbot Suger's Program and the Early Twelfth-Century Controversy over Art (Princeton University Press, 1990), I apply the conclusions of my earlier study of the social theory of medieval art as presented in The "Things of Greater Importance": Bernard of Clairvaux's Apologia and the Medieval Attitude Toward Art (University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 1990) to a complex and previously only partially understood case--that is, I test the practicality of my earlier study. The art program of the monastery of Saint-Denis, just outside Paris, under Abbot Suger (1122-1151) is of enormous importance in the history of art, being considered to be the origin of Gothic architecture, sculpture, and stained glass. Suger's writings, upon which I base my study, are among the most famous in the history of art. In applying the issues of the early twelfth-century controversy over art to this program, it becomes clear that the situation at Saint-Denis was more complex than previously thought. For example, rather than being the artistic expression of centuries-old Pseudo-Dionysian light mysticism, as has been believed, it can be shown that the artistic change initiated at Saint-Denis was a middle-ground reaction to the current controversy over art, especially to the criticism that art acted as a spiritual distraction to the monk. And far from being the product of the personal idiosyncrasies of Suger, as has often said, the well known obscurity of the art of Saint-Denis was an intentional obscurity whose purpose was to provide an art so complex that it could be used as a justification of monastic art in its claim to function on the same level as scriptural study, which was unquestioned as a legitimate monastic pursuit. It was in this sense that Suger wrote that his art was "accessible only to the litterati"--and not to the visiting illiterate pilgrim--previous scholarship not realizing that, in the vocabulary of early twelfth-century monasticism, litteratus is a technical term referring to the literate choir monk. At the same time, however, I also show that Suger's claim can be fully understood only with recognition of the inherent contradiction that these same artworks were in fact fully accessible visually, if not intellectually, to the visiting illiterate lay pilgrim as well--a contradiction of which Suger was fully aware. My conclusions, which have become broadly accepted, have fundamentally changed our view of the best-known moment of artistic change in medieval art history.
Of all the human endeavors of the more than one thousand years of Western medieval culture, no s... more Of all the human endeavors of the more than one thousand years of Western medieval culture, no single aspect looms so large in the mind of modern man as that of medieval art. Yet despite the vast number of studies that have been undertaken to explain one aspect or another of medieval art, very few have attempted to explain in a non-aesthetic or non-theological way that issue which is so fundamental to a complete understanding of the artistic complexities of the Middle Ages--the medieval attitude toward art.
In this book, I attempt to lay the foundation for just such an understanding, refracted through the greatest artistic controversy to occur in the West prior to the Reformation, and through the most important document of that controversy--indeed, the most important source we have for the medieval attitude toward art--Bernard of Clairvaux's Apologia ad Guillelmum (1125).
Bernard of Clairvaux was the most articulate spokesman of the historical constant of the medieval opposition to the use of religious art (virtually all of the greatest art before the Late Middle Ages was religious). In this study, I address a number of the more pressing artistic issues affecting frontline art of the early twelfth century as articulated in Bernard's Apologia. As presented in this study--which is securely anchored in both the monastic literary tradition and contemporary political, social, and economic concerns--the discussion of Bernard's "things of greater importance" follows a sequence from the economic base of monastic art production (the investment in art to attract donations) to the artistic means by which this was carried out (the sensory saturation of the holy place), to the reception of excessive art on the part of the general public (the equation between excessive art and holiness), to external social objections (art as being in opposition to the care of the poor), and finally to the internal spiritual objections of monasticism (art as a spiritual distraction to the monk). Central to this social theory of medieval art is the concept of the justification of art, the limits of acceptable art, and the question of just what actually constituted excessive art. This study shows that art, the absence of art, or the degree of art in the Middle Ages should no longer be seen simply as the result of the ability to acquire or the desire to avoid art. This book comprises the most thorough social-theoretical study of medieval art as it actually functioned in society, and its implications for the art of both the Romanesque and Gothic periods, whose transition Bernard's life spans, are significant.
This study is accompanied by an English translation and an extensive commentary on the Apologia.
This formerly out-of-print book is now available again in print at: https://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/1655.html
A Companion to Medieval Art: Romanesque and Gothic in Northern Europe, Blackwell Companions in Ar... more A Companion to Medieval Art: Romanesque and Gothic in Northern Europe, Blackwell Companions in Art History, 2nd ed. (Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, 2019) (a collection of thirty-nine original essays from leading and upcoming scholars in the field, each historiographically analyzing one of a systematic and editorially determined range of subjects in the development of Romanesque and Gothic art history; eleven new essays were added to the revised original thirty essays of the first edition; this includes my introductory essay, "A Sense of Loss: An Overview of the Historiography of Romanesque and Gothic Art").
1. Introduction
A Sense of Loss: An Overview of the Historiography of Romanesque and Gothic Art
Conrad Rudolph
2. Artifex and Opifex – The Medieval Artist
Beate Fricke
3. Vision
Cynthia Hahn
4. Materials, Materia, "Materiality"
Aden Kumler
5. Reception of Images by Medieval Viewers
Madeline H. Caviness
6. Narrative, Narratology, and Meaning
Suzanne Lewis
7. Formalism
Linda Seidel
8. Gender and Medieval Art
Brigitte Kurmann-Schwarz
9. Gregory the Great and Image Theory in Northern Europe During the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries
Herbert L. Kessler
10. Iconography
Shirin Fozi
11. Art and Exegesis
Christopher G. Hughes
12. Whodunit? Patronage, the Canon, and the Problematics of Agency in Romanesque and Gothic Art
Jill Caskey
13. Collecting (and Display)
Pierre Alain Mariaux
14. The Concept of Spolia
Dale Kinney
15. The Monstrous
Thomas E. A. Dale
16. Making Sense of Marginalized Images in Manuscripts and Religious Architecture
Laura Kendrick
17. Definitions and Explanations of the Romanesque Style in Architecture from the 1960s to the Present Day
Eric Fernie
18. Romanesque Sculpture in Northern Europe
Colum Hourihane
19. Modern Origins of Romanesque Sculpture
Robert A. Maxwell
20. The Historiography of Romanesque Manuscript Illumination
Adam Cohen
21. The Study of Gothic Architecture
Stephen Murray
22. France, Germany, and the Historiography of Gothic Sculpture
Jacqueline Jung
23. Gothic Manuscript Illustration: The Case of France
Anne D. Hedeman
24. “Specially English”: Gothic Illumination c.1190 to the Early Fourteenth Century
Kathryn A. Smith
25. From Institutional to Private and from Latin to the Vernacular: German Manuscript Illumination in the Thirteenth Century
Michael Curschmann
26. Glazing Medieval Buildings
Elizabeth Pastan
27. Toward a Historiography of the Sumptuous Arts
Brigitte Buettner
28. Reliquaries
Cynthia Hahn
29. East Meets West: The Art and Architecture of the Crusader States
Jaroslav Folda
30. Gothic in the Latin East
Michalis Olympios
31. Art and Liturgy in the Middle Ages
Eric Palazzo
32. Architectural Layout: Design, Structure, and Construction in Northern Europe
Marie-Thérèse Zenner
33. Sculptural Programs
Bruno Boerner
34. The Art and Architecture of Female Monasticism
Jeffrey F. Hamburger
35. Cistercian Architecture
Peter Fergusson
36. Art and Pilgrimage: Mapping the Way
Paula Gerson
37. "The Scattered Limbs of the Giant": Recollecting Medieval Architectural Revivals
Tina Waldeier Bizzarro
38. Medieval Art Collections
Janet Marquardt
39. The Modern Medieval Museum
Michelle P. Brown
Papers by Conrad Rudolph
Studies in Iconography , 2023
Conrad Rudolph, "Astrological Theory and Elite Knowledge in Non-Elite Public Art: Order in the Zo... more Conrad Rudolph, "Astrological Theory and Elite Knowledge in Non-Elite Public Art: Order in the Zodiacal Archivolt at Vézelay," Studies in Iconography 44 (2023) 1-30.
The great sculpted portals of the Middle Ages were perhaps the leading form of public visual media of the time, and their cycles of the Zodiac and Months were staples of large-scale public art in Europe for centuries. The appearance of these cycles at Sainte-Madeleine at Vézelay (c. 1120–1132) is the earliest in cyclical form in Europe (the configuration found in macrocosmic/microcosmic images). In this important manifestation, there are a number of apparent irregularities that scholars have traditionally dismissed as "mistakes." However, these irregularities can be shown to have been caused by an application of the medieval theory of zodiacal melothesia, a recognition of which leads to not only a deeper understanding of the role of science in medieval works of art but also of the desire for complexity in the object/viewer dynamic that brought the previously scientific cycle into mainstream public art at Vézelay in the first place.
“Signing Dynamics of the Signature Rocks,” co-written with the Americanist Jason Weems, Great Plains Quarterly 43 (2023) 115-155.
“Signing Dynamics of the Signature Rocks” establishes more clearly than has been done the charac... more “Signing Dynamics of the Signature Rocks” establishes more clearly than has been done the character of a significant but not yet fully explained phenomenon of one of the most iconic episodes in the history of the United States. From 1839 to the 1870s, approximately 400,000 Euro-Americans made the overland passage from the Missouri River to the Pacific, leaving behind hundreds of thousands of signatures inscribed onto the immense rock formations that were often used as landmarks along the way--the signature rocks--one rock alone being said in 1860 to have 40,000 to 50,000 signatures. Most trail historians have noted the practice and generally taken it for granted, seeing only a mindset inclined toward what might be called straightforward graffiti or “ego.” However, the fact that mass signing is not found elsewhere in the expansionist culture of the time but only in what was known then as “Indian Country” suggests a deeper motivation, at least for some, for this unique social manifestation.
Strongly based on primary sources and visual images from within emigrant culture, this study concludes that mass signing was motivated by a number of cultural dynamics of self-assertion, most notably a sense of trespassing (manifested as simple fear, an awareness of consumption of Indian resources, and/or a sense of contributing to the destruction of the traditional Indian way of life as a result of this consumption), a sense of participation in a great historical movement (whether manifest destiny or a more general sense of a great moment in history of the country), “vainglory” (a superficial awareness of the individual’s own achievements in crossing the continent), and, for the vast majority, the dynamic of tourism (viewing the great landmarks not just through the lens of traditional “curiosity” but now also loosely motivated by the Romantic ideas of landscape and the sublime). At the same time, though in a limited way, the signature rocks became sites of emigrant-Indian contention, with now one side and now another overwriting the inscriptions of the other.
The Cambridge Guide to the Architecture of Christianity, 2022
"The Architectural Metaphor in Western Medieval Artistic Culture: From the Cornerstone to The Mys... more "The Architectural Metaphor in Western Medieval Artistic Culture: From the Cornerstone to The Mystic Ark," The Cambridge Guide to the Architecture of Christianity, ed. Richard A. Etlin, et al., 2 v. (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2022; completed and in press since 2009 [sic]) v. 1, p. 380-390.
In "The Architectural Metaphor in Western Medieval Artistic Culture: From the Cornerstone to The Mystic Ark," I identify and analyze the source texts for the use of architectural metaphor in medieval culture, and trace their use up through the twelfth century to most ambitious use of architectural metaphor anywhere in the West up until that time: Hugh of Saint Victor's Mystic Ark. Despite the widespread use of architectural metaphor, no one has ever written on the subject before, to the best of my knowledge.
The earliest appearance of architectural metaphor in the Bible is a strictly literary one. That is, it is highly unlikely that it was part of any broader contemporary artistic culture, that it affected the conception, creation, use, or understanding of works of visual art and architecture of its time. It was only the Christian tendency toward sermonizing that brought about the ever-increasing elaboration of the architectural metaphor from the simple to the complex, from the cornerstone to The Mystic Ark; and that allowed the architectural metaphor to permeate the boundaries of Scripture and scriptural writing to become a visual image itself; as, for example, in The Mystic Ark. This visual state of the architectural metaphor is, perhaps, more effective than the verbal state in exercising the intrinsic dynamic of the metaphor in that it goes beyond the literal reference or exegetical reading to engage the reader/listener/viewer and compel him or her to actively participate in the intellectual exchange of the artistic experience. This is because the mind of the participant must commit itself to a further level of engagement in the dynamic of the metaphor by the very necessity of identifying the metaphor as such in the first place.
The paper concludes by asking if architectural metaphors were operative in such medieval works of art as the image of Francis holding up the church in The Dream of Innocent III in the church of San Francesco in Assisi, the piers of the cloister of the monastery of Moissac, the eighth canon table of the Ebbo Gospels, the House of Heaven and in the House of Hell of the tympanum of Sainte-Foi at Conques, certain scenes of the Tower of Babel, the façade of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris, and the main east-west axis of the abbey church of Saint-Denis, from the Infancy Window to west central portal.
"'In It, You Will Look for Nothing That You Will Not Find': An Overview of Hugh of Saint Victor's Mystic Ark," La cultura dei Vittorini e la letteratura medievale, ed. Corrado Bologna and Carlo Zacchetti (Edizioni della Normale, Pisa, 2022) 317-327., 2022
Conrad Rudolph "'In It, You Will Look for Nothing That You Will Not Find': An Overview of Hugh of... more Conrad Rudolph
"'In It, You Will Look for Nothing That You Will Not Find': An Overview of Hugh of Saint Victor's Mystic Ark," La cultura dei Vittorini e la letteratura medievale, ed. Corrado Bologna and Carlo Zacchetti (Edizioni della Normale, Pisa, 2022) 317-327.
In the medieval sources, works of art are rarely referred to, let alone described in any detail. When they are mentioned, it is seldom with more than a word or a phrase, at the most a sentence. Almost completely ignored by art historians because of the immense difficulty of its text, Hugh of Saint Victor's Mystic Ark is a 42-page description of the most complex individual work of figural art of the entire Middle Ages, a painting also known as The Mystic Ark, making both the text and the painting among the most unusual sources we have for an understanding of medieval visual culture. The purpose of the painting of The Mystic Ark was to serve as the basis of a series of brilliant lectures undertaken by Hugh from around 1125 to 1130 at Saint Victor. The purpose of the text was to enable others outside of Saint Victor to undertake similar discussions themselves by providing the information necessary to produce the image. However, the four Arks that make up The Mystic Ark--the essential characteristic of The Mystic Ark--have never been central to any sustained analysis. This study, based on the four Arks, presents an overview of this complex image, an image that depicts all time, all space, all matter, all human history, and all spiritual striving, and that provided a middle-ground worldview in the face of radical intellectual change.
Conrad Rudolph, "Oliva and Gaulli’s Program at the Gesù and the Jesuit Conception of the End of the History of Salvation," in two parts: Part 1, Artibus et Historiae 85 (XLIII) (2022) 305-335; Part 2, Artibus et Historiae 86 (XLIII) (2022) 87-120., 2022
The dome, pendentive, nave, and apse frescoes painted by Giovanni Battista Gaulli in the Gesù, t... more The dome, pendentive, nave, and apse frescoes painted by Giovanni Battista Gaulli in the Gesù, the mother church of the Jesuit Order, are among the most stunning of all Baroque ceiling paintings in Rome (1672-1683). Commissioned by Gian Paolo Oliva, the eleventh superior general of the Order, previous scholarship has been primarily concerned with issues of their influence and with the identification of the many figures in these paintings, paying little attention to the actual meaning of the three works, and even less to their meaning as a unified program. My concern in this paper is with the meaning of these frescoes, both individually and as a unified whole. At first glance, the whole is visually overwhelming, an effect that obscures the underlying program and discourages close analysis of the content. But after careful study of the individual parts, Oliva’s program starts to emerge and Gaulli’s whole begins to make sense. And what that whole presents to the observer is the Jesuit view of progress toward the end of time as a great battle under the standard of Christ, a great battle whose final victory is expressed by means of a strongly unified conceptual dynamic put forth in the dome (Part 1) through the macrocosmic entry of Christ into his kingdom of the community of the saved at the beginning of the end of the history of salvation, and in the nave (Part 2) through the microcosmic entry of Jesus into his kingdom of the individual soul throughout the course of the history of salvation.
More specifically, the programs of the dome and nave are complex and cannot be reduced to a number of simple sections. However, both conceptually and compositionally, the dome is organized into four quadrants: the east quadrant, with the Trinity and Virgin (basic Church doctrine and Church tradition, justification, intercession, Mariology); the north quadrant, with Ignatius of Loyola (the Jesuit emphasis on the counter reformation, the Jesuits in the history of salvation); the south quadrant, with Francis Xavier (the Jesuit emphasis on missions); and the west quadrant, with the three choirs of martyrs, virgins, and confessors (Church tradition, the cult of saints, the continuity of Early Christian martyrs and Jesuit martyrs, Church doctrine on the eucharist). The situation is similar with the program of the nave fresco, that it is complex and cannot be reduced to simple sections. But it, too, is both conceptually and compositionally organized into a number of groups, now based on the traditional exegetical understanding of the compositionally prominent Three Magi and their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh: the north group, gold (Jesus as king), the south group, frankincense (Jesus as God), and the east group, myrrh (Jesus as human). The nave fresco also carries recurrent themes of the cult of relics, especially blood-relics, the exceptionalism and authority of Rome, and contemporary spirituality. It “concludes” with a depiction of the fallen being shut up in hell at the end of time. The apse, not part of the original program, depicts the reward of those who fought and won under the standard of Christ: heaven, depicted as the eternal praise of God (in the form of the lamb of the Apocalypse).
In the end, Oliva and Gaulli’s program is nothing less than the visualization of the Jesuit worldview, of Jesuit spirituality, and of the Jesuit claim in the culture wars of the seventeenth century, phrased in terms of a distinctly Jesuit conception of the end of the history of salvation.
Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 85 (2022) 520-549, 2022
Richard Caton Woodville’s 1848 painting War News from Mexico made while a student at the Kunstak... more Richard Caton Woodville’s 1848 painting War News from Mexico made while a student at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf, is one of the most iconic American images from before the Civil War (1861-1865). Traditionally, it has been seen as little more than a genre painting of American life by the noted genre painter, an idealized depiction of the American "middling sort" (an extended, upwardly mobile version of the middle class today). But what has gone completely unnoticed is that Woodville systematically adapted every single figure and the basic composition from an even better known painting from a more noted genre painter to produce his work, the 1822 Chelsea Pensioners (receiving war news from Waterloo) by David Wilkie. What has also gone unnoticed is that War News from Mexico is not at all an idealized depiction of the American middling sort, but rather a rigorous critique of explosive social and political situation in the United States on the verge of the American Civil War.
Whereas Chelsea presents an idealized depiction of the British "common sort," one that acts to "reinforce an hierarchical status quo," according to the British scholar David H. Solkin, War News, perhaps because of Woodville's perspective from the Revolutions of 1848 in Germany, presents a critical, even edgy view of American democracy and its middling sort. If Woodville's adaptation of Chelsea for an American context (reception of the war news of the Mexican-American War) meant Americanizing it, Americanizing it meant "democratizing" it. However, in general, far from simply being a question of "celebrating" the right of each adult white male to express his own political opinion through the democratic process, War News presents American democracy in all of its complexity with respect to the crossroads at which the nation found itself as a result of the imminent impact of the Mexican-American War (the admission of new Southern states) on that inherent contradiction within American democracy: slavery. Specifically with regard to Chelsea, the democratization of War News meant a replacement of the British common sort (none of whom in Chelsea would have had the right to vote until 1918) with the American middling sort (all of whom, except the African American and the woman, would have had the right to vote in national elections by the time of War News). It meant the distinct absence of a universal affirmation of the war news that is the ostensible subject of the image, completely contrary to its source, Chelsea. And it meant a representation that was not only not idealizing like Chelsea but that was explicitly self-critical, from the implication of an impending national crisis brought about by a failure of true democratic ideals to unsophisticated behavior and tobacco juice spit out on the floor.
It was an unsettling tale for those of Woodville's contemporaries who cared to read closely, one in which serious challenges to American democracy--old political ideals versus new expansionism, human rights versus states' rights, freedom versus slavery--were not hidden under the glad tidings of victorious war news from afar. Rather, brought to a head by the Mexican-American War, these smoldering political issues were deftly phrased in the tale told by Woodville of the democratized reception of war news from Mexico, a tale whose conclusion could be contemplated by understanding contemporaries only with the greatest foreboding.
Speculum 96 (2021) 601-661, 2021
The tympanum of the central narthex portal of Sainte-Madeleine at Vézelay is considered to be on... more The tympanum of the central narthex portal of Sainte-Madeleine at Vézelay is considered to be one of the greatest works of public figural art of the Middle Ages. The current consensus is that its main subject is the Pentecost, along with the related Mission and a reference to the Ascension, though a minority of scholars see it as referring to the contemporary social/political order at Vézelay or to a web of religious symbolism. Most scholars have ignored the four undulating components that are evenly distributed through the four quadrants of the tympanum proper or tried to explain them in ways that do not take into consideration their basic unity. But once we recognize that these four components represent the four elements (fire, air, water, earth), we see that the main components of the tympanum (the peoples of the world/the zodiac and months/Christ) function as the mundus/annus/homo of a neoplatonic macro/microcosm, with the fully divine and fully human Christ in the center and with an image of the Magdalene (no longer extant) at his feet, the purpose of which was to encourage the pilgrim to model himself or herself on Christ or, if this was not possible, on the Magdalene. This was a work of art so intentionally complex that its intended audience could not possibly have understood it to any appreciable degree except through a guide, who both mediated the work of art and allowed the complexity that required mediation, in the process facilitating institutional control in the non-elite participation in elite spirituality.
This study changes our understanding of medieval sculpted portals--perhaps the major medium of public visual culture and communication--in general in that, whereas before, we thought of these great programs of public art as directed toward the public visually and passively, now, we should understand at least some of them as also conceived as "verbally" and actively directed through the vehicle of guide mediation. Such interaction was, no doubt, a significant part of why these great works of public art were made, why so much of the limited resources of the institutions in question were expended upon them. The pilgrim now saw more than he or she did before, perhaps feeling that he or she had become an "initiate" and integrated into the spiritual life of the place in however ideological a way.
"The Evidence of the Training of Tour Guides in the Middle Ages," in ed. Julian Luxford, Tributes to Paul Binski: Studies in Gothic Art, Architecture, and Ideas (Brepols/Harvey Miller, Turnhout/London, 2021) 398-411., 2021
The Evidence of the Training of Tour Guides in the Middle Ages Conrad Rudolph "The Evidence of th... more The Evidence of the Training of Tour Guides in the Middle Ages
Conrad Rudolph
"The Evidence of the Training of Tour Guides in the Middle Ages," in ed. Julian Luxford, Tributes to Paul Binski: Studies in Gothic Art, Architecture, and Ideas (Brepols/Harvey Miller, Turnhout/London, 2021) 398-411.
Abstract
Very generally speaking, the greatest manifestation of medieval popular spirituality was the pilgrimage, whose basis, the localization of the holy, engendered expectations of some great experience on the part of a typically illiterate public. In order to address these expectations, recognition of the popular perception that increased levels of art indicated the presence of the holy often led elite institutions in control of the holy places to establish lavish and complex art programs, programs whose complexity was then commonly mediated for the illiterate pilgrims by on-site guides representing the institutions. This practice not only gave these elite institutions the opportunity to engage with the non-elite public in the pilgrimage as an expression of popular spirituality (as well as taking part in the lucrative sacred economy of the pilgrimage), it also allowed them to shape their identities and claims as institutions to this vast audience through art in a highly controlled way. [For more on this, see my "The Tour Guide in the Middle Ages: Guide Culture and the Mediation of Public Art," Art Bulletin 100 (2018) 36-67.]
Specifically with regard to the training of guides, while it would be only natural to assume that they would receive some type of training, like those in any other occupation at the time, the vast majority of guide training was presumably oral and so has left no trace. In the few written vestiges of guide culture discussed in this essay--some for public display and some for individual reading, some general and some more specialized--we have evidence from the vicars choral of York and Guillaume de Saint-Pair that explicitly indicates that the knowledge expected of an on-site guide was not something that was simply absorbed in the course of daily life at one of these institutions but was expected to be acquired through some sort of additional learning provided in one way or another by the institutions themselves. And, from the vicars choral, we have further evidence that this learning--this training--could be both formal and required, and that at least some of it might come from texts of undeniably dual purpose, such as the York tabula. Using these few vestiges of guide training to suggest the likely if hypothetical training of such a guide, this person would have been expected to be well versed in the history of the place (pre-foundation to the present), its claims and assertions of privilege, its relics, its significant burials, its art--the literal subject matter of presumably all works of art and sometimes even the elite content (the exegetical meaning) of at least some, possibly even in the context of larger artistic programs--its architecture, its architectural history, and the location and certain specifics of all this, apparently sometimes as part of a larger tour of the institution (for example, the extended tour of the cloister of Christ Church) and sometimes as a more focused presentation (e.g., the typological windows as conveyed by the clerk of the high altar shrine of Christ Church).
Ultimately, the on-site guide was part of a complex infrastructure and his mediation was part of the natural way of experiencing works of art--part of the object-viewer dynamic--for many in the middle ages. Ephemeral by nature, medieval on-site guide culture has been completely forgotten and evidence of it almost completely lost. But it can still be reconstructed, in however limited a way, from these vestiges and, by recognizing its unique role, contribute to a better understanding of medieval artistic culture.
Victorine Restoration: Essays on Hugh of St Victor, Richard of St Victor, and Thomas Gallus, ed. Robert J. Porwoll and David Allison Orsbon (Brepols, Turnhout, 2021; completed and in press since 2014) 123-146, 2021
Conrad Rudolph "'In Its Extraordinary Arrangement': Hugh of Saint Victor, the History of Salvatio... more Conrad Rudolph
"'In Its Extraordinary Arrangement': Hugh of Saint Victor, the History of Salvation, and the World Map of The Mystic Ark," Victorine Restoration: Essays on Hugh of St Victor, Richard of St Victor, and Thomas Gallus, ed. Robert J. Porwoll and David Allison Orsbon (Brepols, Turnhout, 2021; completed and in press since 2014) 123-146.
Hugh of Saint Victor's Mystic Ark is a Latin manuscript that gives general instructions on how to make an image of all time, all space, all matter, all human history, and all spiritual striving. This image was meant to be repeated again and again in order to serve as the subject of a months-long course that presented a middle-ground worldview in the face of perceived threats from the new, neo-platonically based critical learning of School (University) culture at an important time in the history of Western intellectual development (original image and course 1125-1130, Paris). In this study, I expand upon the discussion from my book, The Mystic Ark, of one of the most prominent and crucial components of The Mystic Ark: the world or world map.
This map is perhaps the earliest significant example of a map with Jerusalem at its center, it has the earliest executed oval earth of which I'm aware, and it incorporates the earliest Last Judgment that is part of a map. But its real interest lies in the way in which the actual specifics of the map are engaged with the Ark of the Flood that forms the core of this image, in a way, even activated by the Ark, resulting in a cartographical image of previously unrivalled conception.
Among other things, The Mystic Ark presents an elaborate visual summary of the entire history of salvation from the beginning until the end of time, an image that is nothing less than a visual capsulization of Hugh's most original theological theory as expressed in his great written systematic theology, De sacramentis: the works of creation and the works of restoration. The works of creation consist of the world with all its "elements" as manifested during the six days of creation that culminated in the Fall of Adam and Eve--that is, the alienation of humankind from its creator. The works of restoration comprise the Incarnation of the Word (that is, Christ) with all its "sacraments" as manifested during the six ages of the history of salvation (the six ages that constitute human history from Adam to the end of time)--works that will restore humankind to its creator. Central to this world-view as put forth in the image of The Mystic Ark is the depiction of the earth as the stage for the history of salvation, with the Ark proper acting as an image of both the Church throughout time and of the progression of time itself (as specifically stated in the text of The Mystic Ark), and with the focal point of all this being Christ as the Lamb of God in the central cubit of the Ark proper. It is the fundamental pervasion of this dynamic of the history of salvation throughout the image of The Mystic Ark--the map, the Ark, the cosmos, the figure of Christ--that makes its map so different from other contemporary maps, which may, in a less concerted way, also refer to the history of salvation.
Other themes that are taken up are the "extraordinary arrangement" of the Ark--to quote a contemporary witness--as manifested in Hugh's theory of an east-west spatial-temporal progression of events throughout history (translatio spiritualitatis and, to a lesser extent, translatio imperii); the manner in which the actual specifics of the map of The Mystic Ark are engaged with the Ark proper--in a way, even activated by the Ark proper; and Hugh's desire "to show not things and not the images of things, but rather their significations--not those that the things themselves signify, but those that are signified," or, put another way, his desire to show not Egypt or the geographical depiction of Egypt, but rather "ignorance," which is what the word "Egypt" was thought to mean etymologically and so exegetically. That is, he wanted to show not the geographical reality, but the spiritual reality.
In the end, the map of The Mystic Ark is nothing less than the centerpiece of a fully articulated world-view directly aimed at (and appropriating) the more prestigious (and secular) neoplatonic thought of the time, a newly perceived threat that was arising out of the same School culture in which and for which The Mystic Ark was created, and from whose standard academic imagery it borrows.
Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians , 2019
The Cistercian abbey church plan with its flat east end--the famous "Bernardine plan"--is one of... more The Cistercian abbey church plan with its flat east end--the famous "Bernardine plan"--is one of the most distinctive and written about church plans of all of medieval architecture, and has traditionally been thought to owe its origins to the architectural standards of Bernard of Clairvaux (the leading ecclesiastical politician of Europe) and to the overriding concern of simplicity. However, this view appears to have largely come about from the influence of modern architecture on modern scholars. Instead, it can be shown by reading this plan--in conjunction with the Cluniac apse-echelon plan and the well-known pilgrimage plan--through the monastic sacred economy, through a close understanding of contemporary accounts, and especially with reference to current monastic architectural theory (particularly regarding materials, craftsmanship, and public access), that the "Bernardine plan" is not really by Bernard at all but is better thought of as "the classic Cistercian plan," a compromise plan of lower spiritual standards, aimed at a broader institutional acceptance.
One of the great premises of medieval popular religion was the localization of the holy, the ess... more One of the great premises of medieval popular religion was the localization of the holy, the essential principle of the pilgrimage. At the same time, there was a widespread equation between excessive art and holiness. One result of these complementary dynamics was that many pilgrims felt that the localization of the holy was indicated by an elevated artistic environment, an attitude that was used at times by religious institutions at some holy sites to meet the expectations of some great experience on the part of the tens and even hundreds of thousands of visitors who are recorded as having annually visited these places. At the high point of the pilgrimage (11th-12th centuries), almost all of these pilgrims had no or only very little formal education. And so the question arises, given the important role of art in the lived experience, how was this often complex form of visual media negotiated in this unique intersection of high culture and the non-elite in actual practice? In other words, what provided the crucial interface for a largely uneducated public and the often phenomenally expensive art programs that had been created almost entirely for their benefit, practically speaking? Or, put another way still, was there such a thing as a "tour guide" in the Middle Ages?
This study investigates the medieval "tour guide" or, perhaps better, it investigates guide culture. Toward this end, I ask such questions as was there a "tour guide" in the Middle Ages, that is, is there evidence for an artistic component within medieval guide culture? If so, what was the precedent for this? What was its relation to artistic culture in general and pilgrimage culture in particular? Is there any evidence of guide support, such as guide training or guide aids? What can we say about the range of artistic culture addressed by medieval guides and, in this regard, what sort of information did they convey? Who were these guides and what social groups did they address? Did they act to maintain--consciously or unconsciously--the traditional social distance between the spiritual elite and the non-elite? And how does all this affect our conception of medieval artistic culture, broadly speaking?
Medieval guide culture and its mediating dynamic, ephemeral by nature, have been largely overlooked. But at least something--even if little more than an awareness--of this culture may be recovered. The evidence suggests that it was an active factor in the transmission of particular categories of knowledge and claims, and strongly affected both the object-viewer dynamic and the social context of medieval public art. And in this, the guide, variously understood, was often the principal mediator between the ordinary visitor and the sometimes incredibly lavish and complex art programs--between the public and the public work of art--of the Middle Ages.
FACES 2.0 is a face recognition application based on a method of machine learning known as deep ... more FACES 2.0 is a face recognition application based on a method of machine learning known as deep neural networking. Funded by the Kress Foundation (with initial work funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities), it is designed to automatically test the degree of probability of a shared identification between different works of portrait art--that is, non-photographic portraits that are subject to the subjectivity of artistic interpretation. When used correctly with good images, it has the potential to match what is known with a given unknown--something that is unlikely to be accidental--and yields results that may be considered probable. In this, FACES has the potential to provide previously unnoticeable or unconfirmable information by contributing categories of quantifiable data for researchers to factor into their own analyses.
The FACES website will be available sometime in January, 2018: http://faces.ucr.edu
FACES (Faces, Art, and Computerized Evaluation Systems) is a project that, after two years of re... more FACES (Faces, Art, and Computerized Evaluation Systems) is a project that, after two years of research support from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), has established proof of concept for the application of face recognition technology to works of portrait art. In the application of face recognition technology to photographed human faces, a number of difficulties are inherent in a real or perceived alteration of appearance of the face through variations in facial expression, age, angle of pose, and so on. With works of portrait art, not only do all these problems pertain, but these works also have their own additional challenges. Most notably, portrait art does not provide what might be called a photographic likeness but rather one that goes through a process of visual interpretation on the part of the artist. After establishing the initial parameters of the application of this technology, the main goal of FACES has been to test the ability of the FACES algorithm to restore lost identities to works of portrait art, something our research has shown is clearly feasible.
Our work has also suggested a number of other potential applications, both using the FACES algorithm and employing basic concept of FACES in an altered form.For example an altered form of the technology used in FACES might also be used to study a wide range of other applications such as adherence or non-adherence to widely recognized artistic canons, formal or informal; the identification of variations in the practice of an individual artist (over time, with different subjects, with different genres, after exposure to external influences, and so on); probable bodies of work of anonymous artists; difference in larger bodies of works (art historical "big data"); and even to detect the change of masons in medieval building.
FACES was conceived of by myself and I am Project Director and Principal Investigator. The FACES project is a collaboration of the humanities (art history) and the sciences (computer science). This article, of which I am the author, presents FACES from the point of view of the humanities, that is, how this technology generally works, what the parameters of its application to portrait art are at this time, what its advantages are, and so on. The computer science basis of the study has appeared in a leading computer science journal [Ramya Srinivasan, Conrad Rudolph, and Amit Roy-Chowdhury, "Computerized Face Recognition in Renaissance Portrait Art," Signal Processing Magazine 32:4 (July 2015) 85-94]. These two papers are meant to operate as a pair.
The Mystic Ark is a forty-two page description of the most complex work of art from the enti... more The Mystic Ark is a forty-two page description of the most complex work of art from the entire Middle Ages: a painting also known as The Mystic Ark. The purpose of the painting was to serve as the basis of a series of brilliant lectures undertaken by Hugh--who was considered to be the leading theologian of Europe during his life--from around 1125 to 1130 at Saint Victor, a Parisian abbey of Augustinian canons, whose school, along with those of Notre-Dame and Ste-Geneviève, acted as the predecessor of the University of Paris. The purpose of the text (which I have translated from the Latin) was to enable others outside of Saint Victor--teachers, advanced students, scholars, monks, canons--to undertake similar discussions themselves by providing the information necessary to produce the image. Containing all time, all space, all matter, all human history, and all spiritual striving, this highly political image dealt with a series of crucial cultural issues in the education of society's elite during one of the great periods of intellectual change in Western history. Essentially a visualization of Hugh's summa-like systematic theology, De sacramentis, the multiplication and systematization of imagery in The Mystic Ark bridged the gap between literature's potential for complex expression and such expression in large-scale public art, an achievement that led to the creation of the Gothic portal: the major means of public communication apart from the spoken word, and the most significant, fully indigenous expression of Northern European, public figural art of the Middle Ages.
Hugh of Saint Victor's Mystic Ark: Illustrations: http://mysticark.ucr.edu. This site presents a collection of images of The Mystic Ark that repeat in greater visual detail the same illustrations published in my study The Mystic Ark: Hugh of Saint Victor, Art, and Thought in the Twelfth Century for those who would like to study the image of The Mystic Ark more closely than is possible with the printed illustrations.
In the medieval sources, works of art are rarely referred to, let alone described in any detail.... more In the medieval sources, works of art are rarely referred to, let alone described in any detail. When they are mentioned, it is seldom with more than a word or phrase, at the most a sentence. Hugh of Saint Victor's Mystic Ark is a forty-two page description of what seems to be the most complex single work of art of the entire Middle Ages, a fundamentally political painting also known as The Mystic Ark, making both the text and the painting among the most unusual sources we have for an understanding of medieval artistic culture and its polemical context.
The Mystic Ark is known to have arisen from a series of brilliant lectures given by Hugh--considered to be the leading theologian of Europe during his life--sometime from 1125 to early 1130 at Saint Victor, a house of Augustinian canons in Paris whose school was a predecessor of the University of Paris. Because of the immense difficulty of its text, The Mystic Ark has been almost completely ignored by art historians and often misunderstood by other scholars. Generally speaking, it has been seen as a "step-by-step" set of instructions that were rarely or even never used to create an actual painting, the text being meant to be read strictly as a work of ekphrasis (the verbal evocation of an imaginary work of art) or as a memory aid in order to conjure up a purely mental image.
"First, I Find the Center Point": Reading the Text of Hugh of Saint Victor's The Mystic Ark (American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, forthcoming 2004) corrects this neglect and misunderstanding through a study of the nature of the text of The Mystic Ark as a necessary first step in a larger study. It acts as a literal analysis for the non-literal conclusions of this larger study, The Mystic Ark: Hugh of Saint Victor, Art, and Thought in the Twelfth Century (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge and New York, forthcoming 2013) (1258 typescript pages), in which I analyze the context and meaning of the painting of The Mystic Ark and demonstrate how it formed a crucial stage in the conceptual development of the Gothic portal, perhaps the most significant fully indigenous expression of Northern European, public figural art of the Middle Ages.)
My approach to the problem in Center Point is three pronged. First, through close study of the text, I show that The Mystic Ark is not a work of literature properly speaking but a reportatio (something similar to class notes) by one of Hugh's students, although Hugh himself very much remains its author. Recognition of this previously unrecognized aspect goes a long way in clarifying many difficulties of the text that previous authors were at pains to explain. Second, I refute a large and impossibly complex body of opinions that has arisen to explain the relation between the painting of The Mystic Ark, the different recensions of The Mystic Ark, and The Moral Ark (a related treatise by Hugh). In place of those tortuous arguments, I provide straightforward explanations for these relationships through analysis of the textual tradition and historical context of The Mystic Ark. And third, having established The Mystic Ark as a reportatio and explained the relation of the painting and the various texts, I address the nature and immediate function of the text of The Mystic Ark, clearly establishing that a painting of The Mystic Ark originally existed at Saint Victor, probably in the form of a wall painting, an image I believe was painted by Hugh himself. I show that, although the text of The Mystic Ark was not an actual "step-by-step" set of instructions, its purpose was to enable scholars outside of Saint Victor to undertake similar lectures and discussions based upon a reconstruction of the painting. Since the major themes of the painting were the subjects of contemporary controversies such as the history of salvation, creation, neoplatonism, and the place of science in the education of society's intellectual elite, my conclusions demonstrate that The Mystic Ark--of which enough manuscript copies survive to indicate that it was the medieval equivalent of a best seller--served as a major and novel statement in the current intellectual controversies of the mid-twelfth century, a time of great intellectual and cultural change.
In the end, Center Point clarifies generations of confusion surrounding The Mystic Ark. It reveals the striking role that a complex image could play in the spiritual and intellectual controversies of the day. And it sets the stage for my future book on this amazingly popular image and text that, together, form one of the most important sources we have for medieval art in its social context.
Hugh of Saint Victor's Mystic Ark: Illustrations: http://mysticark.ucr.edu. This site presents a collection of images of The Mystic Ark that repeat in greater visual detail the same illustrations published in my study The Mystic Ark: Hugh of Saint Victor, Art, and Thought in the Twelfth Century for those who would like to study the image of The Mystic Ark more closely than is possible with the printed illustrations.
Pilgrimage to the End of the World: The Road to Santiago de Compostela (University of Chicago Pre... more Pilgrimage to the End of the World: The Road to Santiago de Compostela (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2004; hardcover and paperback editions).
With the sole exception of warfare, pilgrimage to some especially holy site or to the relics of some miracle-working saint was the single greatest adventure a person could have for over a thousand years of Western culture. Almost inexplicably, one of the great medieval pilgrimages, the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, not only continues to this day but is currently undergoing a remarkable renewal of interest in Europe and in the United States. In Pilgrimage to the End of the World: The Road to Santiago de Compostela, I recount my own experiences in undertaking this grueling medieval pilgrimage on foot from Le Puy in south-central France to Santiago in northwestern Spain--a journey of two and a half months and a thousand miles.
The book is composed of four parts, each with a distinctly different aim.
Unlike most other accounts of the pilgrimage, the core of this book (the second chapter) is not a day-by-day description of the journey but a series of reflections on a number of different levels of what is, ultimately, the internal experience for many. It is an attempt to evoke the texture of the pilgrimage, to evoke some of the impressions and feelings that I and others have had on it, and, to a certain extent, an attempt to bridge the chasm between modernity and this inherently pre-modern experience. It takes up a variety of different aspects of the pilgrimage through descriptions and personal anecdotes that range from the serious to the humorous: the astonishingly beautiful scenery; the people along the way; the complex layering of history that was and still is such an integral part of the pilgrimage; the great physical hardships of pain, hunger, thirst, exposure to the elements, and general deprivation of comfort and all that's familiar; and the effect that these extreme physical conditions had in inducing a mental state that sensed time, distance, and personal experiences in a way that is totally foreign to contemporary culture.
Because this book is meant to kindle the interests of a broad public, I have bracketed my account of the internal experience of the pilgrimage between two other parts. The first side of this bracket (the first chapter) provides a necessary historical basis from which to understand the pilgrimage. In writing this, I have tried to present the historical pilgrimage from the perspective of the experience of the medieval pilgrim as much as the medieval sources would allow. The other side of the bracket consists of the third and fourth chapters. The third chapter addresses what might be called the external experience of the pilgrimage through photographs of the country encountered along the way, including the towns, people, churches, and other ancient sites that are such an important part of the pilgrimage. The fourth chapter might be called the reality of the road: pretty much everything a person might need to know and do in order to take the first step on the pilgrimage road--and the second.
Pilgrimage to the End of the World: The Road to Santiago de Compostela is a reflection on the multi-faceted experience that the pilgrimage is: a process of movement, of change, of the confrontation of cultures, the confrontation of insider and outsider, and the relation of all this to a deep and profound layering of historical cultures, including the present one. It articulates one of the central experiences in the formation of pre-modern Western culture in a way that is essentially a work of public history.
The illuminated copy of Gregory the Great's Moralia in Job made at the famous reform monastery o... more The illuminated copy of Gregory the Great's Moralia in Job made at the famous reform monastery of Cîteaux in Burgundy around 1111 is one of the most familiar but least understood illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages. It is so well-known because of its striking illuminations of seemingly gratuitous violence and daily life. It is poorly understood because these have largely been taken at face value. This lack of comprehension has come about because of an unawareness on the art theoretical level of exactly how spirituality and politics operate in the artistic process in this particular manuscript and how this specific form of spirituality legitimized a very intimate and, at first glance, undisciplined attitude on the part of the artist toward his subject.
A copy of one of the most widespread and influential texts of medieval monastic culture, the Cîteaux Moralia has also been used by such scholars as Meyer Schapiro as evidence for the claim that the monstrous imagery of the Middle Ages was an imagery of "unbridled, often irrational fantasy," entirely independent of the text and of any specific meaning. Unbridled and irrational its images may be. But they are not independent of either the text or specific meaning. The brilliance of these illuminations and an undercurrent of thematic consistency that may be detected in them cry out from hiding, as it were, that, like an obscure event from Scripture, there is potentially another level of meaning beyond what has so far met the eyes of modern viewers.
Close analysis of these illuminations reveals a gradual transformation from conventional and textually unrelated images of the beginning of the manuscript (the famous frontispiece is an exception, having been added later) to largely unique and textually based ones further on, something that indicates a change in attitude toward the illuminated initial on the part of the artist only after production had begun, by no means part of the original conception.
More specifically, what seems to have happened was that after initially illuminating this patristic work in a conventional and unexceptional manner in the illuminations of the prefatory matter and Books One through Three, the artist began in the initials to Books Four through Seven to internalize Gregory's exegetical attitude--although only in a visually and conceptually incipient way. This happened, significantly, only after an important methodological statement in the opening passage of Book Four, the culmination of similar statements in Gregory's prefatory letter and Books One and Two: "He who examines the literality (textum) and fails to recognize the sense (sensum) of the holy word provides himself not so much with knowledge as he confuses himself with ambiguity." In Books Eight through Thirty-five the artist introduced visual complexity into his expressions of the literality and sense of the text, and combined this with an effective visual vocabulary of violence and daily life, both of which are in deep response to the text and the direct result of the artist's assimilation of Gregory's exegetical method into his work.
Indeed, the fundamental dynamics of the manuscript's conception and character indicate how the scenes of seemingly gratuitous violence and seemingly straightforward daily life are in fact the product of Gregory's demand that one "become" what one reads--in this case, the artist internalizing the exegetical method of Gregory himself. In the same way that Gregory found it acceptable to analyze a line or even a word of text out of context, according to modern sensibilities, so the artist was quite willing to do the same, often with reference to the contemporary monastic polemics of reform. The end result was the exegetical spiritualization of the first generation experience, the visual expression of Gregory's exegetical method. It is in this sense, that of Gregory's methodology--his urging the reader (in the Cîteaux Moralia, the artist) to go beyond the text to the "truer" sense of what was being read and to become what one reads--that one must view the initials of the Cîteaux Moralia. However, since the creative process is not to become but to cause to become, in using the Moralia in Job as a spiritual exercise the artist--or rather the monk-artist, a person who was one of the potential specialized readers of this text in a way that was typically not the case for secular artists at the time--transformed what he had read into artistic expressions of his own spiritual struggle and daily life, recognizing both "what was monstrous and what was beautiful," what pertained to the animal and what pertained to the human, and what pertained to both as embodied in the figure of the semihomo that is so common in the pages of the manuscript, semihomines being creatures that are part human and part beast and that are central to concept of spiritual violence that imbues the illuminations of the Cîteaux Moralia.
More than a straightforward analysis of these illuminations, this study also reveals a great deal about a number of art historical questions common to many other medieval artworks, shedding its light on such issues as the question of meaning in some monstrous and violent imagery of a seemingly ornamental character, the supposed direct observation of nature and daily life for their own sake, the apparent intrusion of the secular upon the sacred, and, inevitably, the role of the artist in all this. It does this despite, or perhaps because of, the fact that iconographically it is largely a unique work. And this leads to the issue of how a unique illuminated manuscript like this might have come about in the first place: in this case the result of an unusually intimate relation between text and image, or more precisely, between text, artist, and image, that was fundamentally conditioned by contemporary monastic politics and polemics--the latter being gone into in detail and with very specific application to the initials. These issues, together with the questions of what, individually, the illuminations of the Cîteaux Moralia mean and why, as a whole, they appear in the text of this particular patristic work at this particular time of monastic reform constitute the core of this study.
Finally, the imagery of the Cîteaux Moralia is analyzed in light of medieval theories of lectio divina, meditatio, and progressing levels of spiritual advancement--securely placing it within this theoretical framework in a way that both reveals the basis of its conceptual attraction and its ultimate spiritual/political failure in the context of twelfth-century monastic polemics and artistic culture.
The key to understanding the illuminations of the Cîteaux Moralia consists primarily of three things, without even one of which it could never have taken its present form: the explicit and implicit methodology of the text of the Moralia in Job itself; the general vocabulary of violent spiritual struggle and the polemics of contemporary monastic culture; and the idiosyncratic element of the individual who responded to the first in the visual vocabulary of the second. The result was a series of initials of a creativity and exuberance not often found in manuscript illumination before or since. Perhaps the most violent illuminated manuscript of Romanesque monastic culture, it presents a visual exegesis of Gregory's text that is intimately bound up with Cistercian reform politics and polemics, and that provides an intriguing view into Cistercian self-conception at a decisive moment in their history.
In Artistic Change at St-Denis: Abbot Suger's Program and the Early Twelfth-Century Controversy ... more In Artistic Change at St-Denis: Abbot Suger's Program and the Early Twelfth-Century Controversy over Art (Princeton University Press, 1990), I apply the conclusions of my earlier study of the social theory of medieval art as presented in The "Things of Greater Importance": Bernard of Clairvaux's Apologia and the Medieval Attitude Toward Art (University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 1990) to a complex and previously only partially understood case--that is, I test the practicality of my earlier study. The art program of the monastery of Saint-Denis, just outside Paris, under Abbot Suger (1122-1151) is of enormous importance in the history of art, being considered to be the origin of Gothic architecture, sculpture, and stained glass. Suger's writings, upon which I base my study, are among the most famous in the history of art. In applying the issues of the early twelfth-century controversy over art to this program, it becomes clear that the situation at Saint-Denis was more complex than previously thought. For example, rather than being the artistic expression of centuries-old Pseudo-Dionysian light mysticism, as has been believed, it can be shown that the artistic change initiated at Saint-Denis was a middle-ground reaction to the current controversy over art, especially to the criticism that art acted as a spiritual distraction to the monk. And far from being the product of the personal idiosyncrasies of Suger, as has often said, the well known obscurity of the art of Saint-Denis was an intentional obscurity whose purpose was to provide an art so complex that it could be used as a justification of monastic art in its claim to function on the same level as scriptural study, which was unquestioned as a legitimate monastic pursuit. It was in this sense that Suger wrote that his art was "accessible only to the litterati"--and not to the visiting illiterate pilgrim--previous scholarship not realizing that, in the vocabulary of early twelfth-century monasticism, litteratus is a technical term referring to the literate choir monk. At the same time, however, I also show that Suger's claim can be fully understood only with recognition of the inherent contradiction that these same artworks were in fact fully accessible visually, if not intellectually, to the visiting illiterate lay pilgrim as well--a contradiction of which Suger was fully aware. My conclusions, which have become broadly accepted, have fundamentally changed our view of the best-known moment of artistic change in medieval art history.
Of all the human endeavors of the more than one thousand years of Western medieval culture, no s... more Of all the human endeavors of the more than one thousand years of Western medieval culture, no single aspect looms so large in the mind of modern man as that of medieval art. Yet despite the vast number of studies that have been undertaken to explain one aspect or another of medieval art, very few have attempted to explain in a non-aesthetic or non-theological way that issue which is so fundamental to a complete understanding of the artistic complexities of the Middle Ages--the medieval attitude toward art.
In this book, I attempt to lay the foundation for just such an understanding, refracted through the greatest artistic controversy to occur in the West prior to the Reformation, and through the most important document of that controversy--indeed, the most important source we have for the medieval attitude toward art--Bernard of Clairvaux's Apologia ad Guillelmum (1125).
Bernard of Clairvaux was the most articulate spokesman of the historical constant of the medieval opposition to the use of religious art (virtually all of the greatest art before the Late Middle Ages was religious). In this study, I address a number of the more pressing artistic issues affecting frontline art of the early twelfth century as articulated in Bernard's Apologia. As presented in this study--which is securely anchored in both the monastic literary tradition and contemporary political, social, and economic concerns--the discussion of Bernard's "things of greater importance" follows a sequence from the economic base of monastic art production (the investment in art to attract donations) to the artistic means by which this was carried out (the sensory saturation of the holy place), to the reception of excessive art on the part of the general public (the equation between excessive art and holiness), to external social objections (art as being in opposition to the care of the poor), and finally to the internal spiritual objections of monasticism (art as a spiritual distraction to the monk). Central to this social theory of medieval art is the concept of the justification of art, the limits of acceptable art, and the question of just what actually constituted excessive art. This study shows that art, the absence of art, or the degree of art in the Middle Ages should no longer be seen simply as the result of the ability to acquire or the desire to avoid art. This book comprises the most thorough social-theoretical study of medieval art as it actually functioned in society, and its implications for the art of both the Romanesque and Gothic periods, whose transition Bernard's life spans, are significant.
This study is accompanied by an English translation and an extensive commentary on the Apologia.
This formerly out-of-print book is now available again in print at: https://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/1655.html
A Companion to Medieval Art: Romanesque and Gothic in Northern Europe, Blackwell Companions in Ar... more A Companion to Medieval Art: Romanesque and Gothic in Northern Europe, Blackwell Companions in Art History, 2nd ed. (Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, 2019) (a collection of thirty-nine original essays from leading and upcoming scholars in the field, each historiographically analyzing one of a systematic and editorially determined range of subjects in the development of Romanesque and Gothic art history; eleven new essays were added to the revised original thirty essays of the first edition; this includes my introductory essay, "A Sense of Loss: An Overview of the Historiography of Romanesque and Gothic Art").
1. Introduction
A Sense of Loss: An Overview of the Historiography of Romanesque and Gothic Art
Conrad Rudolph
2. Artifex and Opifex – The Medieval Artist
Beate Fricke
3. Vision
Cynthia Hahn
4. Materials, Materia, "Materiality"
Aden Kumler
5. Reception of Images by Medieval Viewers
Madeline H. Caviness
6. Narrative, Narratology, and Meaning
Suzanne Lewis
7. Formalism
Linda Seidel
8. Gender and Medieval Art
Brigitte Kurmann-Schwarz
9. Gregory the Great and Image Theory in Northern Europe During the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries
Herbert L. Kessler
10. Iconography
Shirin Fozi
11. Art and Exegesis
Christopher G. Hughes
12. Whodunit? Patronage, the Canon, and the Problematics of Agency in Romanesque and Gothic Art
Jill Caskey
13. Collecting (and Display)
Pierre Alain Mariaux
14. The Concept of Spolia
Dale Kinney
15. The Monstrous
Thomas E. A. Dale
16. Making Sense of Marginalized Images in Manuscripts and Religious Architecture
Laura Kendrick
17. Definitions and Explanations of the Romanesque Style in Architecture from the 1960s to the Present Day
Eric Fernie
18. Romanesque Sculpture in Northern Europe
Colum Hourihane
19. Modern Origins of Romanesque Sculpture
Robert A. Maxwell
20. The Historiography of Romanesque Manuscript Illumination
Adam Cohen
21. The Study of Gothic Architecture
Stephen Murray
22. France, Germany, and the Historiography of Gothic Sculpture
Jacqueline Jung
23. Gothic Manuscript Illustration: The Case of France
Anne D. Hedeman
24. “Specially English”: Gothic Illumination c.1190 to the Early Fourteenth Century
Kathryn A. Smith
25. From Institutional to Private and from Latin to the Vernacular: German Manuscript Illumination in the Thirteenth Century
Michael Curschmann
26. Glazing Medieval Buildings
Elizabeth Pastan
27. Toward a Historiography of the Sumptuous Arts
Brigitte Buettner
28. Reliquaries
Cynthia Hahn
29. East Meets West: The Art and Architecture of the Crusader States
Jaroslav Folda
30. Gothic in the Latin East
Michalis Olympios
31. Art and Liturgy in the Middle Ages
Eric Palazzo
32. Architectural Layout: Design, Structure, and Construction in Northern Europe
Marie-Thérèse Zenner
33. Sculptural Programs
Bruno Boerner
34. The Art and Architecture of Female Monasticism
Jeffrey F. Hamburger
35. Cistercian Architecture
Peter Fergusson
36. Art and Pilgrimage: Mapping the Way
Paula Gerson
37. "The Scattered Limbs of the Giant": Recollecting Medieval Architectural Revivals
Tina Waldeier Bizzarro
38. Medieval Art Collections
Janet Marquardt
39. The Modern Medieval Museum
Michelle P. Brown
Studies in Iconography , 2023
Conrad Rudolph, "Astrological Theory and Elite Knowledge in Non-Elite Public Art: Order in the Zo... more Conrad Rudolph, "Astrological Theory and Elite Knowledge in Non-Elite Public Art: Order in the Zodiacal Archivolt at Vézelay," Studies in Iconography 44 (2023) 1-30.
The great sculpted portals of the Middle Ages were perhaps the leading form of public visual media of the time, and their cycles of the Zodiac and Months were staples of large-scale public art in Europe for centuries. The appearance of these cycles at Sainte-Madeleine at Vézelay (c. 1120–1132) is the earliest in cyclical form in Europe (the configuration found in macrocosmic/microcosmic images). In this important manifestation, there are a number of apparent irregularities that scholars have traditionally dismissed as "mistakes." However, these irregularities can be shown to have been caused by an application of the medieval theory of zodiacal melothesia, a recognition of which leads to not only a deeper understanding of the role of science in medieval works of art but also of the desire for complexity in the object/viewer dynamic that brought the previously scientific cycle into mainstream public art at Vézelay in the first place.
“Signing Dynamics of the Signature Rocks,” co-written with the Americanist Jason Weems, Great Plains Quarterly 43 (2023) 115-155.
“Signing Dynamics of the Signature Rocks” establishes more clearly than has been done the charac... more “Signing Dynamics of the Signature Rocks” establishes more clearly than has been done the character of a significant but not yet fully explained phenomenon of one of the most iconic episodes in the history of the United States. From 1839 to the 1870s, approximately 400,000 Euro-Americans made the overland passage from the Missouri River to the Pacific, leaving behind hundreds of thousands of signatures inscribed onto the immense rock formations that were often used as landmarks along the way--the signature rocks--one rock alone being said in 1860 to have 40,000 to 50,000 signatures. Most trail historians have noted the practice and generally taken it for granted, seeing only a mindset inclined toward what might be called straightforward graffiti or “ego.” However, the fact that mass signing is not found elsewhere in the expansionist culture of the time but only in what was known then as “Indian Country” suggests a deeper motivation, at least for some, for this unique social manifestation.
Strongly based on primary sources and visual images from within emigrant culture, this study concludes that mass signing was motivated by a number of cultural dynamics of self-assertion, most notably a sense of trespassing (manifested as simple fear, an awareness of consumption of Indian resources, and/or a sense of contributing to the destruction of the traditional Indian way of life as a result of this consumption), a sense of participation in a great historical movement (whether manifest destiny or a more general sense of a great moment in history of the country), “vainglory” (a superficial awareness of the individual’s own achievements in crossing the continent), and, for the vast majority, the dynamic of tourism (viewing the great landmarks not just through the lens of traditional “curiosity” but now also loosely motivated by the Romantic ideas of landscape and the sublime). At the same time, though in a limited way, the signature rocks became sites of emigrant-Indian contention, with now one side and now another overwriting the inscriptions of the other.
The Cambridge Guide to the Architecture of Christianity, 2022
"The Architectural Metaphor in Western Medieval Artistic Culture: From the Cornerstone to The Mys... more "The Architectural Metaphor in Western Medieval Artistic Culture: From the Cornerstone to The Mystic Ark," The Cambridge Guide to the Architecture of Christianity, ed. Richard A. Etlin, et al., 2 v. (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2022; completed and in press since 2009 [sic]) v. 1, p. 380-390.
In "The Architectural Metaphor in Western Medieval Artistic Culture: From the Cornerstone to The Mystic Ark," I identify and analyze the source texts for the use of architectural metaphor in medieval culture, and trace their use up through the twelfth century to most ambitious use of architectural metaphor anywhere in the West up until that time: Hugh of Saint Victor's Mystic Ark. Despite the widespread use of architectural metaphor, no one has ever written on the subject before, to the best of my knowledge.
The earliest appearance of architectural metaphor in the Bible is a strictly literary one. That is, it is highly unlikely that it was part of any broader contemporary artistic culture, that it affected the conception, creation, use, or understanding of works of visual art and architecture of its time. It was only the Christian tendency toward sermonizing that brought about the ever-increasing elaboration of the architectural metaphor from the simple to the complex, from the cornerstone to The Mystic Ark; and that allowed the architectural metaphor to permeate the boundaries of Scripture and scriptural writing to become a visual image itself; as, for example, in The Mystic Ark. This visual state of the architectural metaphor is, perhaps, more effective than the verbal state in exercising the intrinsic dynamic of the metaphor in that it goes beyond the literal reference or exegetical reading to engage the reader/listener/viewer and compel him or her to actively participate in the intellectual exchange of the artistic experience. This is because the mind of the participant must commit itself to a further level of engagement in the dynamic of the metaphor by the very necessity of identifying the metaphor as such in the first place.
The paper concludes by asking if architectural metaphors were operative in such medieval works of art as the image of Francis holding up the church in The Dream of Innocent III in the church of San Francesco in Assisi, the piers of the cloister of the monastery of Moissac, the eighth canon table of the Ebbo Gospels, the House of Heaven and in the House of Hell of the tympanum of Sainte-Foi at Conques, certain scenes of the Tower of Babel, the façade of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris, and the main east-west axis of the abbey church of Saint-Denis, from the Infancy Window to west central portal.
"'In It, You Will Look for Nothing That You Will Not Find': An Overview of Hugh of Saint Victor's Mystic Ark," La cultura dei Vittorini e la letteratura medievale, ed. Corrado Bologna and Carlo Zacchetti (Edizioni della Normale, Pisa, 2022) 317-327., 2022
Conrad Rudolph "'In It, You Will Look for Nothing That You Will Not Find': An Overview of Hugh of... more Conrad Rudolph
"'In It, You Will Look for Nothing That You Will Not Find': An Overview of Hugh of Saint Victor's Mystic Ark," La cultura dei Vittorini e la letteratura medievale, ed. Corrado Bologna and Carlo Zacchetti (Edizioni della Normale, Pisa, 2022) 317-327.
In the medieval sources, works of art are rarely referred to, let alone described in any detail. When they are mentioned, it is seldom with more than a word or a phrase, at the most a sentence. Almost completely ignored by art historians because of the immense difficulty of its text, Hugh of Saint Victor's Mystic Ark is a 42-page description of the most complex individual work of figural art of the entire Middle Ages, a painting also known as The Mystic Ark, making both the text and the painting among the most unusual sources we have for an understanding of medieval visual culture. The purpose of the painting of The Mystic Ark was to serve as the basis of a series of brilliant lectures undertaken by Hugh from around 1125 to 1130 at Saint Victor. The purpose of the text was to enable others outside of Saint Victor to undertake similar discussions themselves by providing the information necessary to produce the image. However, the four Arks that make up The Mystic Ark--the essential characteristic of The Mystic Ark--have never been central to any sustained analysis. This study, based on the four Arks, presents an overview of this complex image, an image that depicts all time, all space, all matter, all human history, and all spiritual striving, and that provided a middle-ground worldview in the face of radical intellectual change.
Conrad Rudolph, "Oliva and Gaulli’s Program at the Gesù and the Jesuit Conception of the End of the History of Salvation," in two parts: Part 1, Artibus et Historiae 85 (XLIII) (2022) 305-335; Part 2, Artibus et Historiae 86 (XLIII) (2022) 87-120., 2022
The dome, pendentive, nave, and apse frescoes painted by Giovanni Battista Gaulli in the Gesù, t... more The dome, pendentive, nave, and apse frescoes painted by Giovanni Battista Gaulli in the Gesù, the mother church of the Jesuit Order, are among the most stunning of all Baroque ceiling paintings in Rome (1672-1683). Commissioned by Gian Paolo Oliva, the eleventh superior general of the Order, previous scholarship has been primarily concerned with issues of their influence and with the identification of the many figures in these paintings, paying little attention to the actual meaning of the three works, and even less to their meaning as a unified program. My concern in this paper is with the meaning of these frescoes, both individually and as a unified whole. At first glance, the whole is visually overwhelming, an effect that obscures the underlying program and discourages close analysis of the content. But after careful study of the individual parts, Oliva’s program starts to emerge and Gaulli’s whole begins to make sense. And what that whole presents to the observer is the Jesuit view of progress toward the end of time as a great battle under the standard of Christ, a great battle whose final victory is expressed by means of a strongly unified conceptual dynamic put forth in the dome (Part 1) through the macrocosmic entry of Christ into his kingdom of the community of the saved at the beginning of the end of the history of salvation, and in the nave (Part 2) through the microcosmic entry of Jesus into his kingdom of the individual soul throughout the course of the history of salvation.
More specifically, the programs of the dome and nave are complex and cannot be reduced to a number of simple sections. However, both conceptually and compositionally, the dome is organized into four quadrants: the east quadrant, with the Trinity and Virgin (basic Church doctrine and Church tradition, justification, intercession, Mariology); the north quadrant, with Ignatius of Loyola (the Jesuit emphasis on the counter reformation, the Jesuits in the history of salvation); the south quadrant, with Francis Xavier (the Jesuit emphasis on missions); and the west quadrant, with the three choirs of martyrs, virgins, and confessors (Church tradition, the cult of saints, the continuity of Early Christian martyrs and Jesuit martyrs, Church doctrine on the eucharist). The situation is similar with the program of the nave fresco, that it is complex and cannot be reduced to simple sections. But it, too, is both conceptually and compositionally organized into a number of groups, now based on the traditional exegetical understanding of the compositionally prominent Three Magi and their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh: the north group, gold (Jesus as king), the south group, frankincense (Jesus as God), and the east group, myrrh (Jesus as human). The nave fresco also carries recurrent themes of the cult of relics, especially blood-relics, the exceptionalism and authority of Rome, and contemporary spirituality. It “concludes” with a depiction of the fallen being shut up in hell at the end of time. The apse, not part of the original program, depicts the reward of those who fought and won under the standard of Christ: heaven, depicted as the eternal praise of God (in the form of the lamb of the Apocalypse).
In the end, Oliva and Gaulli’s program is nothing less than the visualization of the Jesuit worldview, of Jesuit spirituality, and of the Jesuit claim in the culture wars of the seventeenth century, phrased in terms of a distinctly Jesuit conception of the end of the history of salvation.
Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 85 (2022) 520-549, 2022
Richard Caton Woodville’s 1848 painting War News from Mexico made while a student at the Kunstak... more Richard Caton Woodville’s 1848 painting War News from Mexico made while a student at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf, is one of the most iconic American images from before the Civil War (1861-1865). Traditionally, it has been seen as little more than a genre painting of American life by the noted genre painter, an idealized depiction of the American "middling sort" (an extended, upwardly mobile version of the middle class today). But what has gone completely unnoticed is that Woodville systematically adapted every single figure and the basic composition from an even better known painting from a more noted genre painter to produce his work, the 1822 Chelsea Pensioners (receiving war news from Waterloo) by David Wilkie. What has also gone unnoticed is that War News from Mexico is not at all an idealized depiction of the American middling sort, but rather a rigorous critique of explosive social and political situation in the United States on the verge of the American Civil War.
Whereas Chelsea presents an idealized depiction of the British "common sort," one that acts to "reinforce an hierarchical status quo," according to the British scholar David H. Solkin, War News, perhaps because of Woodville's perspective from the Revolutions of 1848 in Germany, presents a critical, even edgy view of American democracy and its middling sort. If Woodville's adaptation of Chelsea for an American context (reception of the war news of the Mexican-American War) meant Americanizing it, Americanizing it meant "democratizing" it. However, in general, far from simply being a question of "celebrating" the right of each adult white male to express his own political opinion through the democratic process, War News presents American democracy in all of its complexity with respect to the crossroads at which the nation found itself as a result of the imminent impact of the Mexican-American War (the admission of new Southern states) on that inherent contradiction within American democracy: slavery. Specifically with regard to Chelsea, the democratization of War News meant a replacement of the British common sort (none of whom in Chelsea would have had the right to vote until 1918) with the American middling sort (all of whom, except the African American and the woman, would have had the right to vote in national elections by the time of War News). It meant the distinct absence of a universal affirmation of the war news that is the ostensible subject of the image, completely contrary to its source, Chelsea. And it meant a representation that was not only not idealizing like Chelsea but that was explicitly self-critical, from the implication of an impending national crisis brought about by a failure of true democratic ideals to unsophisticated behavior and tobacco juice spit out on the floor.
It was an unsettling tale for those of Woodville's contemporaries who cared to read closely, one in which serious challenges to American democracy--old political ideals versus new expansionism, human rights versus states' rights, freedom versus slavery--were not hidden under the glad tidings of victorious war news from afar. Rather, brought to a head by the Mexican-American War, these smoldering political issues were deftly phrased in the tale told by Woodville of the democratized reception of war news from Mexico, a tale whose conclusion could be contemplated by understanding contemporaries only with the greatest foreboding.
Speculum 96 (2021) 601-661, 2021
The tympanum of the central narthex portal of Sainte-Madeleine at Vézelay is considered to be on... more The tympanum of the central narthex portal of Sainte-Madeleine at Vézelay is considered to be one of the greatest works of public figural art of the Middle Ages. The current consensus is that its main subject is the Pentecost, along with the related Mission and a reference to the Ascension, though a minority of scholars see it as referring to the contemporary social/political order at Vézelay or to a web of religious symbolism. Most scholars have ignored the four undulating components that are evenly distributed through the four quadrants of the tympanum proper or tried to explain them in ways that do not take into consideration their basic unity. But once we recognize that these four components represent the four elements (fire, air, water, earth), we see that the main components of the tympanum (the peoples of the world/the zodiac and months/Christ) function as the mundus/annus/homo of a neoplatonic macro/microcosm, with the fully divine and fully human Christ in the center and with an image of the Magdalene (no longer extant) at his feet, the purpose of which was to encourage the pilgrim to model himself or herself on Christ or, if this was not possible, on the Magdalene. This was a work of art so intentionally complex that its intended audience could not possibly have understood it to any appreciable degree except through a guide, who both mediated the work of art and allowed the complexity that required mediation, in the process facilitating institutional control in the non-elite participation in elite spirituality.
This study changes our understanding of medieval sculpted portals--perhaps the major medium of public visual culture and communication--in general in that, whereas before, we thought of these great programs of public art as directed toward the public visually and passively, now, we should understand at least some of them as also conceived as "verbally" and actively directed through the vehicle of guide mediation. Such interaction was, no doubt, a significant part of why these great works of public art were made, why so much of the limited resources of the institutions in question were expended upon them. The pilgrim now saw more than he or she did before, perhaps feeling that he or she had become an "initiate" and integrated into the spiritual life of the place in however ideological a way.
"The Evidence of the Training of Tour Guides in the Middle Ages," in ed. Julian Luxford, Tributes to Paul Binski: Studies in Gothic Art, Architecture, and Ideas (Brepols/Harvey Miller, Turnhout/London, 2021) 398-411., 2021
The Evidence of the Training of Tour Guides in the Middle Ages Conrad Rudolph "The Evidence of th... more The Evidence of the Training of Tour Guides in the Middle Ages
Conrad Rudolph
"The Evidence of the Training of Tour Guides in the Middle Ages," in ed. Julian Luxford, Tributes to Paul Binski: Studies in Gothic Art, Architecture, and Ideas (Brepols/Harvey Miller, Turnhout/London, 2021) 398-411.
Abstract
Very generally speaking, the greatest manifestation of medieval popular spirituality was the pilgrimage, whose basis, the localization of the holy, engendered expectations of some great experience on the part of a typically illiterate public. In order to address these expectations, recognition of the popular perception that increased levels of art indicated the presence of the holy often led elite institutions in control of the holy places to establish lavish and complex art programs, programs whose complexity was then commonly mediated for the illiterate pilgrims by on-site guides representing the institutions. This practice not only gave these elite institutions the opportunity to engage with the non-elite public in the pilgrimage as an expression of popular spirituality (as well as taking part in the lucrative sacred economy of the pilgrimage), it also allowed them to shape their identities and claims as institutions to this vast audience through art in a highly controlled way. [For more on this, see my "The Tour Guide in the Middle Ages: Guide Culture and the Mediation of Public Art," Art Bulletin 100 (2018) 36-67.]
Specifically with regard to the training of guides, while it would be only natural to assume that they would receive some type of training, like those in any other occupation at the time, the vast majority of guide training was presumably oral and so has left no trace. In the few written vestiges of guide culture discussed in this essay--some for public display and some for individual reading, some general and some more specialized--we have evidence from the vicars choral of York and Guillaume de Saint-Pair that explicitly indicates that the knowledge expected of an on-site guide was not something that was simply absorbed in the course of daily life at one of these institutions but was expected to be acquired through some sort of additional learning provided in one way or another by the institutions themselves. And, from the vicars choral, we have further evidence that this learning--this training--could be both formal and required, and that at least some of it might come from texts of undeniably dual purpose, such as the York tabula. Using these few vestiges of guide training to suggest the likely if hypothetical training of such a guide, this person would have been expected to be well versed in the history of the place (pre-foundation to the present), its claims and assertions of privilege, its relics, its significant burials, its art--the literal subject matter of presumably all works of art and sometimes even the elite content (the exegetical meaning) of at least some, possibly even in the context of larger artistic programs--its architecture, its architectural history, and the location and certain specifics of all this, apparently sometimes as part of a larger tour of the institution (for example, the extended tour of the cloister of Christ Church) and sometimes as a more focused presentation (e.g., the typological windows as conveyed by the clerk of the high altar shrine of Christ Church).
Ultimately, the on-site guide was part of a complex infrastructure and his mediation was part of the natural way of experiencing works of art--part of the object-viewer dynamic--for many in the middle ages. Ephemeral by nature, medieval on-site guide culture has been completely forgotten and evidence of it almost completely lost. But it can still be reconstructed, in however limited a way, from these vestiges and, by recognizing its unique role, contribute to a better understanding of medieval artistic culture.
Victorine Restoration: Essays on Hugh of St Victor, Richard of St Victor, and Thomas Gallus, ed. Robert J. Porwoll and David Allison Orsbon (Brepols, Turnhout, 2021; completed and in press since 2014) 123-146, 2021
Conrad Rudolph "'In Its Extraordinary Arrangement': Hugh of Saint Victor, the History of Salvatio... more Conrad Rudolph
"'In Its Extraordinary Arrangement': Hugh of Saint Victor, the History of Salvation, and the World Map of The Mystic Ark," Victorine Restoration: Essays on Hugh of St Victor, Richard of St Victor, and Thomas Gallus, ed. Robert J. Porwoll and David Allison Orsbon (Brepols, Turnhout, 2021; completed and in press since 2014) 123-146.
Hugh of Saint Victor's Mystic Ark is a Latin manuscript that gives general instructions on how to make an image of all time, all space, all matter, all human history, and all spiritual striving. This image was meant to be repeated again and again in order to serve as the subject of a months-long course that presented a middle-ground worldview in the face of perceived threats from the new, neo-platonically based critical learning of School (University) culture at an important time in the history of Western intellectual development (original image and course 1125-1130, Paris). In this study, I expand upon the discussion from my book, The Mystic Ark, of one of the most prominent and crucial components of The Mystic Ark: the world or world map.
This map is perhaps the earliest significant example of a map with Jerusalem at its center, it has the earliest executed oval earth of which I'm aware, and it incorporates the earliest Last Judgment that is part of a map. But its real interest lies in the way in which the actual specifics of the map are engaged with the Ark of the Flood that forms the core of this image, in a way, even activated by the Ark, resulting in a cartographical image of previously unrivalled conception.
Among other things, The Mystic Ark presents an elaborate visual summary of the entire history of salvation from the beginning until the end of time, an image that is nothing less than a visual capsulization of Hugh's most original theological theory as expressed in his great written systematic theology, De sacramentis: the works of creation and the works of restoration. The works of creation consist of the world with all its "elements" as manifested during the six days of creation that culminated in the Fall of Adam and Eve--that is, the alienation of humankind from its creator. The works of restoration comprise the Incarnation of the Word (that is, Christ) with all its "sacraments" as manifested during the six ages of the history of salvation (the six ages that constitute human history from Adam to the end of time)--works that will restore humankind to its creator. Central to this world-view as put forth in the image of The Mystic Ark is the depiction of the earth as the stage for the history of salvation, with the Ark proper acting as an image of both the Church throughout time and of the progression of time itself (as specifically stated in the text of The Mystic Ark), and with the focal point of all this being Christ as the Lamb of God in the central cubit of the Ark proper. It is the fundamental pervasion of this dynamic of the history of salvation throughout the image of The Mystic Ark--the map, the Ark, the cosmos, the figure of Christ--that makes its map so different from other contemporary maps, which may, in a less concerted way, also refer to the history of salvation.
Other themes that are taken up are the "extraordinary arrangement" of the Ark--to quote a contemporary witness--as manifested in Hugh's theory of an east-west spatial-temporal progression of events throughout history (translatio spiritualitatis and, to a lesser extent, translatio imperii); the manner in which the actual specifics of the map of The Mystic Ark are engaged with the Ark proper--in a way, even activated by the Ark proper; and Hugh's desire "to show not things and not the images of things, but rather their significations--not those that the things themselves signify, but those that are signified," or, put another way, his desire to show not Egypt or the geographical depiction of Egypt, but rather "ignorance," which is what the word "Egypt" was thought to mean etymologically and so exegetically. That is, he wanted to show not the geographical reality, but the spiritual reality.
In the end, the map of The Mystic Ark is nothing less than the centerpiece of a fully articulated world-view directly aimed at (and appropriating) the more prestigious (and secular) neoplatonic thought of the time, a newly perceived threat that was arising out of the same School culture in which and for which The Mystic Ark was created, and from whose standard academic imagery it borrows.
Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians , 2019
The Cistercian abbey church plan with its flat east end--the famous "Bernardine plan"--is one of... more The Cistercian abbey church plan with its flat east end--the famous "Bernardine plan"--is one of the most distinctive and written about church plans of all of medieval architecture, and has traditionally been thought to owe its origins to the architectural standards of Bernard of Clairvaux (the leading ecclesiastical politician of Europe) and to the overriding concern of simplicity. However, this view appears to have largely come about from the influence of modern architecture on modern scholars. Instead, it can be shown by reading this plan--in conjunction with the Cluniac apse-echelon plan and the well-known pilgrimage plan--through the monastic sacred economy, through a close understanding of contemporary accounts, and especially with reference to current monastic architectural theory (particularly regarding materials, craftsmanship, and public access), that the "Bernardine plan" is not really by Bernard at all but is better thought of as "the classic Cistercian plan," a compromise plan of lower spiritual standards, aimed at a broader institutional acceptance.
One of the great premises of medieval popular religion was the localization of the holy, the ess... more One of the great premises of medieval popular religion was the localization of the holy, the essential principle of the pilgrimage. At the same time, there was a widespread equation between excessive art and holiness. One result of these complementary dynamics was that many pilgrims felt that the localization of the holy was indicated by an elevated artistic environment, an attitude that was used at times by religious institutions at some holy sites to meet the expectations of some great experience on the part of the tens and even hundreds of thousands of visitors who are recorded as having annually visited these places. At the high point of the pilgrimage (11th-12th centuries), almost all of these pilgrims had no or only very little formal education. And so the question arises, given the important role of art in the lived experience, how was this often complex form of visual media negotiated in this unique intersection of high culture and the non-elite in actual practice? In other words, what provided the crucial interface for a largely uneducated public and the often phenomenally expensive art programs that had been created almost entirely for their benefit, practically speaking? Or, put another way still, was there such a thing as a "tour guide" in the Middle Ages?
This study investigates the medieval "tour guide" or, perhaps better, it investigates guide culture. Toward this end, I ask such questions as was there a "tour guide" in the Middle Ages, that is, is there evidence for an artistic component within medieval guide culture? If so, what was the precedent for this? What was its relation to artistic culture in general and pilgrimage culture in particular? Is there any evidence of guide support, such as guide training or guide aids? What can we say about the range of artistic culture addressed by medieval guides and, in this regard, what sort of information did they convey? Who were these guides and what social groups did they address? Did they act to maintain--consciously or unconsciously--the traditional social distance between the spiritual elite and the non-elite? And how does all this affect our conception of medieval artistic culture, broadly speaking?
Medieval guide culture and its mediating dynamic, ephemeral by nature, have been largely overlooked. But at least something--even if little more than an awareness--of this culture may be recovered. The evidence suggests that it was an active factor in the transmission of particular categories of knowledge and claims, and strongly affected both the object-viewer dynamic and the social context of medieval public art. And in this, the guide, variously understood, was often the principal mediator between the ordinary visitor and the sometimes incredibly lavish and complex art programs--between the public and the public work of art--of the Middle Ages.
FACES 2.0 is a face recognition application based on a method of machine learning known as deep ... more FACES 2.0 is a face recognition application based on a method of machine learning known as deep neural networking. Funded by the Kress Foundation (with initial work funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities), it is designed to automatically test the degree of probability of a shared identification between different works of portrait art--that is, non-photographic portraits that are subject to the subjectivity of artistic interpretation. When used correctly with good images, it has the potential to match what is known with a given unknown--something that is unlikely to be accidental--and yields results that may be considered probable. In this, FACES has the potential to provide previously unnoticeable or unconfirmable information by contributing categories of quantifiable data for researchers to factor into their own analyses.
The FACES website will be available sometime in January, 2018: http://faces.ucr.edu
FACES (Faces, Art, and Computerized Evaluation Systems) is a project that, after two years of re... more FACES (Faces, Art, and Computerized Evaluation Systems) is a project that, after two years of research support from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), has established proof of concept for the application of face recognition technology to works of portrait art. In the application of face recognition technology to photographed human faces, a number of difficulties are inherent in a real or perceived alteration of appearance of the face through variations in facial expression, age, angle of pose, and so on. With works of portrait art, not only do all these problems pertain, but these works also have their own additional challenges. Most notably, portrait art does not provide what might be called a photographic likeness but rather one that goes through a process of visual interpretation on the part of the artist. After establishing the initial parameters of the application of this technology, the main goal of FACES has been to test the ability of the FACES algorithm to restore lost identities to works of portrait art, something our research has shown is clearly feasible.
Our work has also suggested a number of other potential applications, both using the FACES algorithm and employing basic concept of FACES in an altered form.For example an altered form of the technology used in FACES might also be used to study a wide range of other applications such as adherence or non-adherence to widely recognized artistic canons, formal or informal; the identification of variations in the practice of an individual artist (over time, with different subjects, with different genres, after exposure to external influences, and so on); probable bodies of work of anonymous artists; difference in larger bodies of works (art historical "big data"); and even to detect the change of masons in medieval building.
FACES was conceived of by myself and I am Project Director and Principal Investigator. The FACES project is a collaboration of the humanities (art history) and the sciences (computer science). This article, of which I am the author, presents FACES from the point of view of the humanities, that is, how this technology generally works, what the parameters of its application to portrait art are at this time, what its advantages are, and so on. The computer science basis of the study has appeared in a leading computer science journal [Ramya Srinivasan, Conrad Rudolph, and Amit Roy-Chowdhury, "Computerized Face Recognition in Renaissance Portrait Art," Signal Processing Magazine 32:4 (July 2015) 85-94]. These two papers are meant to operate as a pair.
In this paper, I see the five different stained-glass window series at Canterbury Cathedral as p... more In this paper, I see the five different stained-glass window series at Canterbury Cathedral as part of a larger single depiction of the history of salvation, into which the monks inserted themselves in a complex way, one that attempted to hold on to a past form of status, the elite spiritual status of a two-level spiritual hierarchy consisting of the initiate (the monk) and the uninitiate (the layperson)--something in part asserted through the Parabolic Discourse Window--while claiming to participate in a new three-level form, one that accepted an intermediate level for the literate lay person. At the same time, I show how these windows might actually have been read on the basis of a unique survival: the Canterbury Roll, a text I maintain was used by the monks' assistants to guide illiterate or "spiritually illiterate" pilgrims (those who might be able to read but who had not attained the monk's level of spiritual literacy) through the Latin inscriptions and so through the content of the windows. However, I also maintain that the monks used the Canterbury Roll as a control device, through which this seeming access to the exclusive knowledge of the windows asserted rather than mitigated the old two-level spiritual hierarchy by intellectually processing, as it were, the information for the pilgrims in a way that upheld the monks' privileged social position.
In "The Architectural Metaphor in Western Medieval Artistic Culture: From the Cornerstone to The... more In "The Architectural Metaphor in Western Medieval Artistic Culture: From the Cornerstone to The Mystic Ark," I identify and analyze the source texts for the use of architectural metaphor in medieval culture, and trace their use up through the twelfth century to most ambitious use of architectural metaphor anywhere in the West up until that time: Hugh of Saint Victor's Mystic Ark. Despite the widespread use of architectural metaphor, no one has ever written on the subject before, to the best of my knowledge.
The earliest appearance of architectural metaphor in the Bible is a strictly literary one. That is, it is highly unlikely that it was part of any broader contemporary artistic culture, that it affected the conception, creation, use, or understanding of works of visual art and architecture of its time. It was only the Christian tendency toward sermonizing that brought about the ever-increasing elaboration of the architectural metaphor from the simple to the complex, from the cornerstone to The Mystic Ark; and that allowed the architectural metaphor to permeate the boundaries of Scripture and scriptural writing to become a visual image itself; as, for example, in The Mystic Ark. This visual state of the architectural metaphor is, perhaps, more effective than the verbal state in exercising the intrinsic dynamic of the metaphor in that it goes beyond the literal reference or exegetical reading to engage the reader/listener/viewer and compel him or her to actively participate in the intellectual exchange of the artistic experience. This is because the mind of the participant must commit itself to a further level of engagement in the dynamic of the metaphor by the very necessity of identifying the metaphor as such in the first place.
The paper concludes by asking if architectural metaphors were operative in such medieval works of art as the image of Francis holding up the church in The Dream of Innocent III in the church of San Francesco in Assisi, the piers of the cloister of the monastery of Moissac, the eighth canon table of the Ebbo Gospels, the House of Heaven and in the House of Hell of the tympanum of Sainte-Foi at Conques, certain scenes of the Tower of Babel, the façade of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris, and the main east-west axis of the abbey church of Saint-Denis, from the Infancy Window to west central portal.
Hugh of Saint Victor's Mystic Ark: Illustrations: http://mysticark.ucr.edu. This site presents a collection of images of The Mystic Ark that repeat in greater visual detail the same illustrations published in my study The Mystic Ark: Hugh of Saint Victor, Art, and Thought in the Twelfth Century for those who would like to study the image of The Mystic Ark more closely than is possible with the printed illustrations.
In "The Architectural Metaphor in Western Medieval Artistic Culture: From the Cornerstone to The... more In "The Architectural Metaphor in Western Medieval Artistic Culture: From the Cornerstone to The Mystic Ark," I identify and analyze the source texts for the use of architectural metaphor in medieval culture, and trace their use up through the twelfth century to most ambitious use of architectural metaphor anywhere in the West up until that time: Hugh of Saint Victor's Mystic Ark. Despite the widespread use of architectural metaphor, no one has ever written on the subject before, to the best of my knowledge.
The earliest appearance of architectural metaphor in the Bible is a strictly literary one. That is, it is highly unlikely that it was part of any broader contemporary artistic culture, that it affected the conception, creation, use, or understanding of works of visual art and architecture of its time. It was only the Christian tendency toward sermonizing that brought about the ever-increasing elaboration of the architectural metaphor from the simple to the complex, from the cornerstone to The Mystic Ark; and that allowed the architectural metaphor to permeate the boundaries of Scripture and scriptural writing to become a visual image itself; as, for example, in The Mystic Ark. This visual state of the architectural metaphor is, perhaps, more effective than the verbal state in exercising the intrinsic dynamic of the metaphor in that it goes beyond the literal reference or exegetical reading to engage the reader/listener/viewer and compel him or her to actively participate in the intellectual exchange of the artistic experience. This is because the mind of the participant must commit itself to a further level of engagement in the dynamic of the metaphor by the very necessity of identifying the metaphor as such in the first place.
The paper concludes by asking if architectural metaphors were operative in such medieval works of art as the image of Francis holding up the church in The Dream of Innocent III in the church of San Francesco in Assisi, the piers of the cloister of the monastery of Moissac, the eighth canon table of the Ebbo Gospels, the House of Heaven and in the House of Hell of the tympanum of Sainte-Foi at Conques, certain scenes of the Tower of Babel, the façade of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris, and the main east-west axis of the abbey church of Saint-Denis, from the Infancy Window to west central portal.
Hugh of Saint Victor's Mystic Ark: Illustrations: http://mysticark.ucr.edu. This site presents a collection of images of The Mystic Ark that repeat in greater visual detail the same illustrations published in my study The Mystic Ark: Hugh of Saint Victor, Art, and Thought in the Twelfth Century for those who would like to study the image of The Mystic Ark more closely than is possible with the printed illustrations.
In this work, we explore the feasibility of face recognition technologies for analyzing works of ... more In this work, we explore the feasibility of face recognition technologies for analyzing works of portraiture, and in the process provide a quantitative source of evidence to art historians in answering many of their ambiguities concerning identity of the subject in some portraits and in understanding artists' styles. Works of portrait art bear the mark of visual interpretation of the artist. Moreover, the number of samples available to model these effects are often limited. Based on an understanding of artistic conventions, we show how to learn and validate features that are robust in distinguishing subjects in portraits (sitters) and that are also capable of characterizing an individual artist's style. This can be used to learn a feature space called Portrait Feature Space (PFS) that is representative of quantitative measures of similarities between portrait pairs known to represent same/different sitters. Through statistical hypothesis tests we analyze uncertain portraits against known identities and explain the significance of the results from an art historian's perspective. Results are shown on our data consisting of over 270 portraits belonging largely to the Renaissance era.
Personal website, 2015
This site presents a collection of images of The Mystic Ark that repeat in greater visual detail ... more This site presents a collection of images of The Mystic Ark that repeat in greater visual detail the same illustrations published in my study The Mystic Ark: Hugh of Saint Victor, Art, and Thought in the Twelfth Century for those who would like to study the image of The Mystic Ark more closely than is possible with the printed illustrations.
This medium-length encyclopedia entry addresses the question of the aesthetics of Abbot Suger of ... more This medium-length encyclopedia entry addresses the question of the aesthetics of Abbot Suger of Saint-Denis, asking how certain motivating forces shaped his aesthetic position and artistic conception, which in turn resulted in the origin of Gothic art, with significant ramifications for the aesthetics of lay spirituality in the art of the great Gothic cathedrals.
In his summa-like systematic theology De sacramentis (c. 1130-1137), Hugh of Saint Victor pr... more In his summa-like systematic theology De sacramentis (c. 1130-1137), Hugh of Saint Victor presents the Christian theological conception of the history of salvation on an epic scale. It is also an account that conceives of its subject almost completely in terms of time. However, in his image of The Mystic Ark (first painted at the abbey of Saint Victor, in Paris, 1125-1130), an image that is virtually the visual equivalent of the main themes of De sacramentis, the visual setting for the history of salvation–a world map–introduces the dimension of space into this comprehensive world view. While Jerusalem plays no role whatsoever in Hugh’s written conception of the history of salvation, “the city of the great king” plays a strikingly active role in its visual counterpart. At the same time, Hugh chose to follow one medieval tradition that placed Jerusalem in the center of the world in world maps, the same place primarily occupied by Christ in his image, the result being one of the earliest examples–perhaps the earliest significant example–of Jerusalem, in however veiled a form, at the centre of a medieval world map. In this lecture, I will investigate the role that Jerusalem, the city of the great king, plays in The Mystic Ark in regard to Hugh’s own formal methodological categories of place, time, and person–a unique role that is not articulated, to the best of my knowledge, in Hugh’s other writings or in the work of other Christian writers or images, but which is found only in The Mystic Ark, the most complex individual work of figural art of the Middle Ages.
Hugh of Saint Victor's Mystic Ark: Illustrations: http://mysticark.ucr.edu. This site presents a collection of images of The Mystic Ark that repeat in greater visual detail the same illustrations published in my study The Mystic Ark: Hugh of Saint Victor, Art, and Thought in the Twelfth Century for those who would like to study the image of The Mystic Ark more closely than is possible with the printed illustrations.