“Wicked and Absurd": A Surprising Paragone in Bernard of Angers’s Miracles of Saint Faith (original) (raw)
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FINAL ENGLISH VERSION VII Colloquium Ars Mediaevalis 2017: The Profane within Sacred Medieval Art
In his The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, the sociologist Émile Durkheim formulated the idea that the division of the world into two domains is the distinctive feature of religious thought, one containing the sacred and the other all that is profane. Durkheim's distinction cannot be applied to medieval art, however, in which the mixing of secular motifs in religious objects, images, and architecture was characteristic –at least not without complicating the theoretical notion. The senmurf on the eleventh-century reliquary of St. Matthew in SS. Cosma e Damiano in Rome, the figure copied from Orestes on the ancient Husillos sarcophagus above the altar at Fromista, a fragment of victory killing a barbarian from a consular diptych re-used on a 11 th /12 th century book cover, and the incorporation of diagrams and motifs from natural science in the " aula gotica " in SS. Quattro Coronati in Rome are among myriad examples that document why this is the case. In one of the best-known texts related to medieval art, Bernard of Clairvaux railed against the imaginative variety of profane art displayed in twelfth-century Cluniac monasteries, which he considered to be a subversion of the moral order of monastic life. Bernard's diatribe not only confirms the fact that linking the two realms was common but also raises the question of audience and hence also spatiality. As the anthropologist E. E. Evans-Pritchard postulated, sacredness (and therefore the profane) might be considered as situational, in a chronological as
In his The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, the sociologist Émile Durkheim formulated the idea that the division of the world into two domains is the distinctive feature of religious thought, one containing the sacred and the other all that is profane. Durkheim's distinction cannot be applied to medieval art, however, in which the mixing of secular motifs in religious objects, images, and architecture was characteristic –at least not without complicating the theoretical notion. The senmurf on the eleventh-century reliquary of St. Matthew in SS. Cosma e Damiano in Rome, the figure copied from Orestes on the ancient Husillos sarcophagus above the altar at Fromista, a fragment of victory killing a barbarian from a consular diptych re-used on a 11 th /12 th century book cover, and the incorporation of diagrams and motifs from natural science in the " aula gotica " in SS. Quattro Coronati in Rome are among myriad examples that document why this is the case. In one of the best-known texts related to medieval art, Bernard of Clairvaux railed against the imaginative variety of profane art displayed in twelfth-century Cluniac monasteries, which he considered to be a subversion of the moral order of monastic life. Bernard's diatribe not only confirms the fact that linking the two realms was common but also raises the question of audience and hence also spatiality. As the anthropologist E. E. Evans-Pritchard postulated, sacredness (and therefore the profane) might be considered as situational, in a chronological as well as in a spatial sense. An object considered sacred in a given period may be considered profane or magical in a different time and/or space; decontextualization and reuse are thus also important issues related to the topic. Profane does not always imply anti-sacred. Indeed, given the fact that profanus means “in front of the consecrated enclosure,” the inclusion of secular elements within sacred domains suggests a dynamic interweaving that extends beyond the mere incorporation of motifs and objects. Sometimes the contacts between the two domains was regulated by rites that provided the conditions within which the relationship was made possible (i.e. consecration); other times, as when natural science was assimilated into the choice and manufacture of materials, the overlapping of sacred and profane underlies the processes of art. In recent decades, historians have explored the uses of subversive elements in sacred art –from marginalia in illuminated manuscripts to coin-imagery and stamping incorporated in Eucharistic hosts. The conference Ars Mediaevalis 2017 sets out to assess the results of the advances made by the new art historiography and, more important, to open up still-unmapped paths for future study of the profane within the sacred during the Middle Ages.
2020
This study is the first fundamental analysis and synopsis of the printed relic-book genre. Printed relic books represent, both by image and text, precious reliquaries, which were presented to the faithful audience during special liturgical feasts, the display of relics. This study brings into focus the specific aesthetics of these relic books and explores the immense influence that patrons had on figuration as well as on the forms of these books. The analysis focuses on the interaction of image and text as manifestation of authenticity. This book then contributes to clarifying the complex medial role of printing with movable type in its early period and offers a novel interpretation of the cultural significance of artefacts in the Renaissance. e: Part of the series Library of the Written Word, Vol: 85; Library of the Written Word - The Handpress World, Vol: 66
VISUAL RHETORIC: IMAGES OF SARACENS IN FLORENTINE CHURCHES
Anuario de Estudios Medievales on Preaching in Middle Ages, CSIC, Barcelona, Spain, Vol 42, no.1, 7-28 , 2012
This paper focuses on the encounter between the Christian and the Islamic worlds as it appears in Florentine churches. It explores images of Muslims connected to the ideas of mission, conversion and crusade as they appear in the oral and visual traditions. Crusading sympathy in Tuscany, particularly in Florence, had a long history, going back to the twelfth century. The role of the mendicant orders, established in the great convents of Santa Croce and Santa Maria Novella, was crucial in winning sympathy for the crusades. This tradition continued in the fi fteenth century, after the fall of Constantinople, when Florence openly voiced support for papal crusading efforts and participated in fund-raising for the crusade. The main supporters of crusade propaganda in Florence were the Franciscan and Dominican preachers, who acted as virtual papal envoys, continuing a tradition of mendicant crusade sermons. These movements also developed special types of artworks, either painting or sculptures in order to disseminate their religious ideals. The usage of rhetoric and preaching, the interrelations between word and image, the artistic and literary traditions, artworks and sermons will be a central focus of essay. Resumen: Este artículo se centra en el encuentro entre el mundo cristiano y el musulmán tal y como se representa en las iglesias fl orentinas. Analiza las imá-genes de musulmanes relacionadas con los conceptos de misión, conversión y cruzada según su tratamiento en las tradi-ciones visuales y orales. Existía una larga tradición de simpatía hacia las Cruzadas en la Toscana, sobre todo en Florencia, que se remonta hasta el siglo XII. El pa-pel ejercido por las órdenes mendicantes establecidas en los grandes conventos de santa Croce y de Santa María Novella, fue crucial para fomentar la simpatía hacia las cruzadas. Esta tradición continuó du-rante el siglo XV, después de la caída de Constantinopla, cuando Florencia articuló explícitamente su apoyo a los esfuerzos papales en las cruzadas y participó en la recaudación de fondos para las mismas. Los principales partidarios de la propaganda para las cruzadas en Florencia fue-ron los predicadores franciscanos y do-minicos, quienes actuaban efectivamente como enviados papales, continuando una tradición de sermones mendicantes sobre las cruzadas. Asimismo, estos movimien-tos desarrollaron su propio estilo de pro-ducciones artísticas, o bien en la pintura o bien en la escultura, para divulgar sus ideales religiosos. Este artículo se centra-rá en el uso de la retórica y la predicación y en las relaciones entre la palabra y la imagen, entre las tradiciones artística y li-teraria, y entre las producciones artísticas y los sermones. 8 NIRIT BEN-ARYEH DEBBY ANUARIO DE ESTUDIOS MEDIEVALES, 42/1, enero-junio 2012, pp. 7-28
Art, Devotion, and the Utility of Sight in the Carolingian Church
2014
Art, Devotion, and the Utility of Sight in the Carolingian Church This thesis is an exploration of Carolingian art within the context of religious devotion. The second chapter investigates the theoretical aspects related to the use of images by examining historical sources. These texts offer insight both into the types of anxieties images raised as well as contemporary attempts to reconcile these concerns. In order to determine how these theories were put into practice, the third chapter considers the manners in which the visual experience was orchestrated. To do so, shrines and reliquaries, as well as textual accounts describing encounters with them, are used to explore the messages that religious art conveyed and the means by which they did so. The fourth chapter focuses on the figure of the maker of sacred art. The theories of religious art and implementation of them, as discussed in Chapters II and III, fundamentally relied on the craftsman who fashioned them.