On the State of Medieval Art History

Author(s): Herbert L. Kessler

Source: The Art Bulletin , Jun., 1988, Vol. 70, No. 2 (Jun., 1988), pp. 166-187
Published by: CAA

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 On the State of Medieval Art History

Herbert L. Kessler

Ever since Renaissance humanists conceived the Middle distinctive artistic tradition. Scholars have succeeded in
embedding medieval art in unique and complex cultural
Ages as a foil for their own accomplishments, "medieval
art" has been understood not so much as a result of co- contexts only by assiduously mining the few surviving ek-
herent artistic developments as the product of external his-
phrases, theological debates, technical manuals, typika, and
inventories, and, more important, by analyzing the sur-
torical processes. To be sure, scholars have discerned short
chains of linked morphological transformations, usually inviving monuments with a real conviction about the im-
connection with efforts to reinstate classical conventions.portance of visual culture during the period. Success has
But they have been unable to chart the kind of logical come at the price of an increasing alienation within the
succession of artistic responses that give apparent consis-parent discipline,4 running up professional as well as in-
tency to ancient Greek sculpture or Renaissance painting tellectual costs. The less medieval art resembles the para-
- that is, a consistency largely independent of extra-ar-digmatic traditions, the more isolated it becomes. To the
tistic events. The seemingly erratic stylistic shifts and the extent that this status report has an ambition, therefore, it
coexistence at any moment of the Middle Ages of radically is to outline for the nonspecialist some of the major issues
opposed forms have always prompted searches for expla- of medieval art currently being investigated and, in so
nations in such historical events and social conditions as
doing, to crack open a door in the massive wall of recent
Constantine's conversion, the "barbarian" invasions, scholarship.5
changes in devotional practices, or the growth of urban
economies.' For this reason, historians of medieval art have Periodization
long divided their allegiance between art history and me- The profound indebtedness of the Renaissance to the
dieval studies. Indeed, much recent work owes its vigor to Middle Ages notwithstanding, the essential claim is certain:
new developments in anthropology, historiography, cod- beginning in the late thirteenth century, a succession of Tus-
icology, and literary criticism.2 can painters and sculptors fundamentally transformed in-
Receptivity to work in cognate disciplines has allowed a herited artistic traditions by reinstating classical theory and
break from the Italian model of art history, which from the forms.6 The question is: how far should this claim, which
start was antipathetic to the Middle Ages. It has also lib- was so brilliantly promoted by Tuscan writers, be ex-
erated the study of medieval art from admiring but equally tended?7 In the Christian East, for example, art remained
unhistorical Romantic interpretations. In the best recent emphatically traditional into the eighteenth century and be-
work, the commitment is to supplant inherited preconcep- yond, despite the influence of Renaissance imports and the
tions with interpretations grounded in the Middle Ages.3 Turkish conquest of Constantinople (1453).8 Indeed, as an
But this commitment entails a struggle. Medieval docu- instrument of ethnic cohesiveness, art became assertively
ments are notoriously unself-conscious about the history of conservative during the turcocratia.9 Fifteenth- and some
art; one finds in them no media aetas and no notion of a sixteenth-century art produced in regions north of the

1 The process began with the sharp stylistic contrasts apparent in the Archhensive and, for reasons of space, refer only to original publications, not
of Constantine and Vasari's account of them. For an attempt to discover to reprints or translations.
the shape of early medieval art within the seeming chaos, while not dis- 6 H. Belting, "Introduzione" in La civilta' Bizantina dal XII al XV secolo,
counting the pressures of general history, see E. Kitzinger, Byzantine Art Rome, 1982, 279-355.
in the Making, Cambridge, MA, 1977.
7 On the tyrannical hold of the Italian model on art history, see S. Alpers,
2 The influence of B. Stock, The Implications of Literacy, Princeton, 1983,The Art of Describing. Dutch Art in the Seventeenth Century, Chicago,
is a dramatic example of the art historian's productive reaction to work 1983.
in other disciplines.
8 M. Chatzidakis, "Recherches sur le peintre Theophane le Cr6tois," Dum-
3 On the complex correlation between advances in the appreciation ofbarton Oaks Papers, xxmii-xxiv, 1969-70, 309-52; Stift Herzogenburg,
medieval art and contemporary developments, see M. Caviness, "Erwei-Kunst der Ostkirche, exh. cat., Vienna, 1977; and British Library, The
terung des 'Kunst'-Begriffs. Die Rezeption mittelalterlicher Werke im Kon-Christian Orient, exh. cat., London, 1978.
text nachimpressionistischer Str6mungen," Osterreichische Zeitschrift fiir
9 J. Seguy, "Images et 'religion populaire,'" Archives des sciences sociales
Kunst und Denkmalpflege, XL, 1986, 204-15.
des religions, XLIv, 1977, 25-43. As a result, later views on Byzantine art
4 This is an old story; see the account of Adolph Goldschmidt's early yearsmust be read with the same caution used in applying Renaissance histories
in Berlin in K. Weitzmann, Adolph Goldschmidt und die Berliner Kunst- to Western medieval art; see C. Mango, "Lo stile cosiddetto 'Monastico
geschichte, Berlin, 1985. della pittura bizantina," Habitat-Strutture-Territorio (Atti del Terzo Con-
s This report focuses on work published during the past ten years, thoughvegno Internazionale di Studio sulla Civilta Rupestre Medioevale nel Mez-
it also dips into that of the preceding decade. It does not cover the historyzogiorno d'Italia, 1975), Galatina, 1978, 45-62.
of medieval architecture. References are exemplary rather than compre-

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 ON THE STATE OF MEDIEVAL ART HISTORY 167

Alps - though often labeled "Northern Renaissance" -developments,

is now treated as a separate period variously
generally understood as a medieval phenomenon, albeit a
dubbed "Late Antique," "Early Christian," and "Early Me-
final phase;10 few scholars would treat the alabaster carving
dieval."'5 It is seen as a subspecies within the heterogeneous
of sixteenth-century England as a Renaissance manifesta-artistic culture of Rome, which had already employed,
tion. Moreover, certain "old-fashioned" crafts persistedalongside a classical mode, unnatural scale and proportion
everywhere, uninfluenced by the new pretensions. Vene- of figures, hieratic spatial relationships, and abstraction to
tian mosaicists continued to use medieval techniques as express
late the timelessness and absolute authority of its po-
litical structure. Even iconography - once taken as a dis-
as the time of Giovanni Bellini;"1 makers of stained glass
employed venerable methods into the sixteenth century tinguishing sign - is no longer regarded as differentiating
(even after the style of their images had succumbed to Re-and alien. Subject matter, too, has been set in a framework
naissance types);12 and as late as the mid-fifteenth century,
of pagan imagery that had already become largely neutral
modelbook formulae were still replicated in Florentine in content.16 So has the very structure of medieval pro-
manuscripts.13 More important, art continued to occupy grammatic decoration.17 And since the unearthing in 1932
much the same place in spiritual practice that it had in pre-
of the synagogue at Dura Europos, which is widely ac-
vious centuries. At least until the Protestant Reformation,
cepted as a bridge between Roman and medieval art, Jewish
art served to make Christian doctrine clear to the faithful,
art is now seen more as a parallel manifestation within the
and memorable as well, by engaging the "spiritual" sense
intricate configuration than as a formative precursor.
of sight.14 Thus, long after Renaissance art had been
Drawn from the same pictorial repertoire, Jewish art seems
established in Tuscany as a dominant style, medieval
to have stimulated the expansion of Christian imagery as
art flourished in interesting, if largely neglected,
an aspect of rivalry between Judaism and Christianity; in
manifestations. turn, it may have been influenced by Christian art.18 Craft
What of the beginnings of medieval art? Renaissance traditions, moreover, fostered centuries-long continuities19
commentators concurred that the origins were to be sought in certain classes of objects. On silver vessels depicting
in the systematic destruction of antique traditions, though mythological themes, for instance, classical forms persisted
even they disagreed somewhat about the underlying cause. as late as the seventh and possibly even into the eleventh
For Ghiberti, Constantine's conversion in 312 started the century.20 In fact, the classical style was deployed for sym-
"decline." For Vasari (writing during the Counter-Refor- bolic or rhetorical purposes within Christian images, pro-
mation) a dying empire, not Christian hostility, brought viding a distinct mode of expression.21
about the change. As the history of Roman art has acquired The origins of medieval art are found, then, not in an
a shape during the course of this century, early medieval assault on pagan traditions, but in the broad acceptance
art has emerged as a fully integral aspect of late imperial and adaptation of the functional and formal diversity of

10 Herbst des Mittelalters, exh. cat., Cologne, 1970, and J. Plummer, The der Deutschen Instituts, xciv, 1979, 600-52, and idem, "Constantin und
Last Flowering. French Painting in Manuscripts 1420-1530, Oxford and Christus," Spidtantike und friihes Christentum (as in n. 15), 267-83.
New York, 1982.
18 B. Narkiss, "The Jewish Realm," in Age of Spirituality (as in n. 15),
11 0. Demus, The Mosaics of San Marco in Venice, Chicago, 1984. 365-94; H. Brandenburg, "Oberlegungen zum Ursprung der friihchrist-
12 M. Caviness, Stained Glass Before 1540: An Annotated Bibliography, lichen Bildkunst," Atti del IX Congresso Internazionale di Archeologia
Boston, 1983. Cristiana (1975), Vatican, 1978, 1, 331-60; and J. Gutmann, "Early Syn-
agogue and Jewish Catacomb Art and Its Relation to Christian Art," Auf-
13 F. Ames-Lewis, "Modelbook Drawings and the Florentine Quattrocento
Artist," Art History, x, 1987, 1-11. stieg und Niedergang der R6mischen Welt, ed. H. Temporini and W. Haase,
xxI, Pt. 2, Berlin, 1984, 1313-42. On later implications of Jewish art, see
14 M. Baxandall, Painting and Experience in Fifteenth-Century Italy, Ox- R. Stichel, "Ausserkanonische Elemente in byzantinischen Illustrationen
ford, 1972; idem, The Limewood Sculptors of Renaissance Germany, New des Alten Testaments," R6mische Quartalschrift, LXIX, 1974, 159-81; idem,
Haven and London, 1980; and J. Marrow, Passion Iconography in North- "Die Einheit von Judentum, Christentum und Islam in den Vorstellungen
ern European Art of the Late Middle Ages and Early Renaissance, Kor- von der Geburt des messianischen Kindes," Oecumenica, Iv, 1986, 27-48;
trijk, 1979.
and G. Sed-Rajna, La Bible Hebrai'que, Fribourg, 1987.
15 Kitzinger (as in n. 1); B. Brenk, et al., Spiitantike und friihes Chris- 19 For individual media, see Brenk, et al. (as in n. 15); J. Ward Perkins,
tentum, Berlin, 1977; Metropolitan Museum of Art, Age of Spirituality, "The Role of the Craftsmanship in the Formation of Early Christian Art,"
exh. cat., New York, 1979; and Liebieghaus Museum alter Plastik, Spiat- Atti del IX Congresso (as in n. 18), I, 637-52; and J. Trilling, The Roman
antike und friihes Christentum, exh. cat., Frankfurt-am-Main, 1983. Heritage: Textiles from Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean 300 to 600
16 P. Brown, "Art and Society in Late Antiquity," Age of Spirituality. A AD (Textile Museum Journal, xxI), Washington, DC, 1982.
Symposium, ed. K. Weitzmann, New York, 1980, 17-27; E. Kitzinger, 20 I. Kalavrezou-Maxeiner, "The Cup of San Marco and the 'Classical' in
"Christian Imagery: Growth and Impact," ibid., 141-63; C. Murray, Re- Byzantium," Studien zur mittelalterlichen Kunst 800-1250. Festschrift fiir
birth and Afterlife. A Study of the Transmutation of Some Pagan Imagery Florentine Miitherich zum 70. Geburtstag, Munich, 1985, 167-74, and
in Early Christian Funerary Art (BAR International Series, c), Oxford, J.M.C. Toynbee and K.S. Painter, "Silver Picture Plates of Late Antiquity:
1981; H. Kaiser-Minn, Die Erschaffung des Menschen auf den spiitantiken A.D. 300 to 700," Archaeologia, cvIIl, 1986, 15-65.
Monumenten des 3. und 4. Jahrhunderts (Jahrbuch fiir antike und Chris- 21 Kitzinger (as in n. 1) and K. Weitzmann, "The Classical Mode in the
tentum. Ergiinzungsband, vi), Miinster, 1981; and H. Brandenburg, "Die
Period of the Macedonian Emperors: Continuity or Revival?," Byzantina
Darstellungen maritimen Lebens," in Spaitantike und friihes Christentum
(as in n. 15), 249-56. kai Metabyzantina I. The "Past" in Medieval and Modern Greek Culture,
ed. S. Vryonis, Jr., Malibu, CA, 1978, 71-85.
17 J. Deckers, "Die Wandmalerei im Kaiserkultraum von Luxor," Jahrbuch

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168 THE ART BULLETIN JUNE 1988 VOLUME LXX NUMBER 2

Roman art. Christians actually strengthened classicism

during the fourth and fifth centuries (Fig. 1),22 both as a
normal aspect of their new, aristocratic stature and as part
of the concerted attempt to lay claim to the Roman heri-
tage. The transfixing icon of Christ on Mt. Sinai,23 recently
added to the canon of medieval works, and the silver plates
from Cyprus24 are among the many works that attest to the
endurance of ancient forms well into the sixth and seventh
centuries. Christian art fashioned in the best Roman tech-
niques according to classical conventions provided a rich
legacy for the later Middle Ages - one of far greater con-
sequence than pagan art.25
With the acceptance of late antiquity as a discrete period
in the history of art, medieval beginnings must be sought
well after the conversion of Rome to Christianity; but
whereas "barbarian" invasions, Byzantine Iconoclasm (726-
843), and Islamic conquests suggest A.D. 700 as a conve-
nient dividing line, history offers no clear break. The "bar-
barians," for instance, are no longer viewed entirely as out-
siders; for centuries, they had operated within Roman
society as well as outside.26 Secular art was sustained during
Iconoclasm, and Christian production may not have been
completely disrupted.27 Indeed, Islam actually sheltered
Christian art - even from Christian iconoclasts - while
adapting for Islamic use some of its remarkable tech-
niques.28 Moreover, the late seventh and eighth centuries
are emerging in the latest scholarship as a time of icono-
graphic innovation and as a period when the central func-
tion of art in Christianity was in fact being enhanced.29
What is so appealing about the current periodization is its
congruity with the medieval view of a general persistence
of Roman culture, marked only by local disruptions and
restorations.
Scholars continue to debate whether the classical char- 1 Three Maries at the Tomb and Ascension ivory. Munich,
acter of such Carolingian and Macedonian "renaissance" Bayerisches Nationalmuseum (photo: Museum)
works as the Vienna Coronation Gospels and the Castel-
seprio frescoes30 is the result of revival or a manifestation
of a "living" tradition. Classicism was by the ninth century expressive purposes. As presented in the ninth- and tenth-
only one of several modes available to artists, a style rich century revivals,31 the achievement of first-millennium art
in connotations but one not well suited to certain important is seen as twofold. First, it is a concerted demonstration of

22 Kitzinger (as in n. 1). For a reconsideration of the political motivations ed. A. Bryer and J. Herrin, Birmingham, 1977, 35-44, and D. Wright,
behind the classical revival, see K. Shelton, The Esquiline Treasure, Lon-"Byzantine Art and Literature Around the Year 800. Report on the Dum-
don, 1981, and for Constantine's role in the progressive occurrence, seebarton Oaks Symposium of 1984," Dumbarton Oaks Papers, XL, 1986,
E. Simon, Die konstantinischen Deckengemilde in Trier, Mainz, 1986. 183-85.

23 K. Weitzmann, The Monastery of Saint Catherine at Mount Sinai. The28 See K. Weitzmann, "The Ivories of the So-Called Grado Chair," Dum-
Icons, i, Princeton, 1976. barton Oaks Papers, xxvi, 1972, 45-91; idem (as in nn. 21 and 23); 0.
24 British Museum, Wealth of the Roman World, A.D. 300-700, exh. cat., Grabar, The Formation of Islamic Art, New Haven and London, 1973.
London, 1977. 29 P. Speck, "Ikonoklasmus und die Anfange der Makedonischen Renais-
25 P. Speck, "Versuch einer Charakterisierung der sogenannten Make- sance," Poikila Byzantina, iv, 1984, 177-210; R. Cormack, Writing in Gold,
donischen Renaissance," Les pays du nord et Byzance (Scandinavie et Byz- New York, 1985; and A. Kartsonis, Anastasis, Princeton, 1986.
ance). Actes du colloque nordique et international de byzantinologie,30 Most recently, see P. Leveto-Jabr, "Carbon-14 Dating of Wood from
Uppsala, 1981, 237-42. the East Apse of Santa Maria at Castel Seprio," Gesta, xxvi, 1987, 17-18.
26 R6misch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, Gallien in der Spfitantike, exh.31 The significant continuity between the art of late antiquity and that of
cat., Mainz-am-Rhein, 1980; G. Cavallo, "Libri e continuita della cultura the "revival" periods surfaces in discussions of dating and sources; see H.
antica in eta barbarica," in Magistra barbaritas, Milan, 1984, 603-62; andBelting and G. Cavallo, Die Bibel des Niketas, Wiesbaden, 1979, and A.
A. Romanini, "II concetto di classico e l'alto medioevo," ibid., 665-78. Cutler, "'Roma' and 'Constantinopolis' in Vienna," Byzanz und der Wes-
27 R. Cormack, "The Arts During the Age of Iconoclasm," in Iconoclasm, ten, ed. I. Hutter, Vienna, 1984, 43-64.

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 ON THE STATE OF MEDIEVAL ART HISTORY 169

Christian claims to the Roman imperial heritage and a renewed feeling for sentiment and psychology, the more
triumph over its pagan errors, an interpretatio Christiana dramatic imagery was generated, in part, by an efflores-
of the ancient traditions.32 Second, within a bewildering cence of rhetorical learning in the Church schools of Con-
variety, the achievement reveals a general sorting out, a stantinople.38 Evolving at a time of important contacts with
depreciation of mundane naturalism and an emphasis on Latin Europe - in Sicily, for instance, and Venice39 - the
abstract means for conveying the relationship between mi- new, resilient humanistic mode had an immediate effect in
crocosm and macrocosm, including a strengthening of hier- the West. Already at the end of the eleventh century, cer-
archical structures and the significant integration of words, tain patrons, intent on reintroducing Early Christian tra-
symbols, and geometrical schemata into figural represen- ditions as an aspect of Church reform, had tapped Byzan-
tations.33 The devices for picturing transcendental truths tium for workers skilled at complicated craft techniques no
were perpetuated and elaborated in later medieval art; in- longer practiced in the West - mosaic laying and bronze
deed, an intricate, sometimes opaque form of visual exe- casting, for instance.40 Byzantium appeared to them to have
gesis - barely attached to Roman formulations - became preserved the traditions of effigy and narrative associated
the dominant mode of artistic expression in the Latin West with late antiquity and could, therefore, serve as midwife
during the High Middle Ages.34 Byzantium was largely un- in the rebirth of a lost past.41 Western Christianity was itself
affected by truly abstract trends, but there, too, the anti-reconsidering the meaning of the material world and had
quarian classicism of the "Macedonian Renaissance"35 was begun to replace an intellectual vision with a historical one.
superseded by a humbler style - characterized by linear The growing interest in the personal experience of sacred
detailing, absence of spatial settings, and hieratic compo- history regulated the admittance of Byzantine art and en-
sition.36 At the same time, Byzantine art became increas- couraged the elaboration of human elements that could
ingly receptive to foreign influence, particularly to elabo- stimulate empathy.42
rate Islamic ornament that displaced antiquity as a sign of The Crusades fueled the rapprochement between Eastern
luxury and power. and Western art. They brought artists and patrons into
Beginning around the middle of the twelfth century, By- contact with a range of art, both old and contemporary,
zantine art once again developed an affective narrative style forcing them to discriminate in new ways.43 Working in
dependent on movement and a sense of pathos.37 Reflecting ateliers established in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem and

32 L. Seidel, Songs of Glory, Chicago, 1981; H. Belting, "Problemi vecchi Century," Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen, xxv, 1985, 27-102.
e nuovi sull'arte della cosiddetta 'Rinascenza Macedone' a Bisanzio," XXIX 37 T. Velmans, La peinture murale byzantine 't la fin du Moyen-Age, Paris,
corso di cultura sull'arte Ravennate e Bizantina, Ravenna, 1982, 31-57; 1977; D. Mouriki, "Stylistic Trends in Monumental Painting of Greece
and R. Cormack, "Patronage and New Programs of Byzantine Iconog- During the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries," Dumbarton Oaks Papers,
raphy," The Seventeenth International Byzantine Congress. Major Papers, xxxiv-xxxv, 1980-81, 77-124; idem, The Mosaics of Nea Moni on Chios,
New Rochelle, NY, 1986, 609-38. Athens, 1985; and L. Hadermann-Misguich, "La peinture monumentale
33 H. Kessler, The Illustrated Bibles from Tours, Princeton, 1977; M. Ev- du XIIe siecle ' Chypre," XXXII corso di cultura sull'arte ravennate e bi-
ans, "The Geometry of the Mind," Architectural Association Quarterly, zantina, Ravenna, 1985, 233-58.
xII, 1980, 32-55; P. Dutton and E. Jeauneau, "The Verses of the 'Codex 38 H. Maguire, Art and Eloquence in Byzantium, Princeton, 1981, and
Aureus' of Saint-Emmeram," Studi medievali, xxiv, 1983, 75-120; M. Cav- idem, "The Self-Conscious Angel: Character Study in Byzantine Paintings
iness, "Images of Divine Order and the Third Mode of Seeing," Gesta, of the Annunciation," Okeanos, vii, 1983 (Essays Presented to Ihor Sev-
xxii, 1983, 99-120; and V. Elbern, "Bildstruktur-Sinnzeichen-Bildaussage. cenko on His Sixtieth Birthday), 377-92.
Zusammenfassende Studie zur unfigiirliche Ikonographie im friihen Mit-
39 V. Pace, "Pittura bizantina nell'Italia meridionale (secoli XI-XIV)," in
telalter," Arte medievale, I, 1983, 17-37.
I Bizantini in Italia, Milan, 1982, 427-94; E. Kitzinger, "Two Mosaic Ate-
34 P. Klein, "Les Apocalypses Romanes et la tradition exegetique," Les liers in Palermo in the 1140s," in Artistes, artisans et production artistique
cahiers de Saint-Michel de Cuxa, xII, 1981, 123-40; Bayerische Staatsbi- au Moyen-Age, ed. X. Barral i Altet, Paris, 1986, I, 277-94; and Demus
bliothek, Das Evangeliar Heinrichs des Ldwen und das mittelalterliche (as in n. 11).
Herrscherbild, exh. cat., Munich, 1986; R. Deshman, "The Imagery of
40 E. Kitzinger, "The First Mosaic Decoration of Salerno Cathedral," Jahr-
the Living Ecclesia and the English Monastic Reform," in Sources of An-
buch der 6sterreichischen Byzantinistik, xxi, 1972, 149-62, and H. Belting,
glo-Saxon Culture, ed. P. Szarmach, Kalamazoo, MI, 1986, 261-82; and
"Byzantine Art Among the Greeks and Latins in Southern Italy," Dum-
E. Sears, The Ages of Man. Medieval Interpretations of the Life Cycle,
barton Oaks Papers, xxviii, 1974, 1-29.
Princeton, 1986.
41 E. Kitzinger, "The Arts as Aspects of a Renaissance: Rome and Italy,"
35 H. Belting, "Kunst oder Objekt-Stil? Fragen zur Funktion der 'Kunst'
Renaissance and Renewal in the Twelfth Century, ed. R. Benson and G.
in der 'Makedonischen Renaissance,"' in Byzanz und der Westen (as in n.
Constable, Cambridge, MA, 1982, 637-70.
31), 65-83; and A. Wharton, Tokalh Kilise, Washington, DC, 1986.
42 H. Belting, Das Bild und sein Publikum im Mittelalter, Berlin, 1981.
36 Because most of the Constantinopolitan monuments have been de-
stroyed, Middle Byzantine art is known largely through its "provincial" 43 H. Fillitz, "Nicolaus von Verdun," in Wilrttenbergisches Landesmu-
realizations. The extent to which these reflect the capital and how much seum, Die Zeit der Staufer, exh. cat., Stuttgart, 1977, v, 279-90, and X.
they incorporate indigenous features are constant issues of discussion; see Muratova, "Western Chronicles of the First Crusade as Sources for the
N. Thierry, "L'art monumental byzantin en Asie Mineure du XIe siecle au History of Art in the Holy Land," Crusader Art in the Twelfth Century
XIVe," Dumbarton Oaks Papers, xxix, 1975, 73-111; Mango (as in n. 9); (BAR International Series, cLII), Oxford, 1982, 47-69.
and H. Buchthal, "Studies in Byzantine Illumination of the Thirteenth

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170 THE ART BULLETIN JUNE 1988 VOLUME LXX NUMBER 2

?~ ` ,?I'??:?\ ')??

:!Y rr-?
?n other Eastern colonies (Fig. 2), Western painters absorbed
Islamic and Armenian traditions as well as the evolving
kC?:
ii
I?;
L\ ..: 1 *~~ ???
tr Byzantine forms. By the end of the twelfth century, a truly
E ii e%?
i~. (~,???
("
international style based on the Byzantine idiom had de-
1~ ' veloped and had spread across Europe.45 In this context,
the effect on art of the diversion of the Fourth Crusade and
.;??r::~*~~I ~;???i
-4?;.: ~?I :?
':uc
?? ' :~ fr?(
... L~
;z
Latin conquest of Constantinople in 1204 was both less dra-
:t Ld~,? IS~
I T '1. *? ic matic and more consequential than has previously been
supposed. Byzantine production - long since established
i ..
in centers outside the capital - continued in provincial
tc?.
outposts, and from there it exerted influence. Western art,
,1
.?, .?Iic
already assimilated to Byzantine forms, continued to
,...,:,r:
I r; evolve. Formerly comprehended as separable currents,
I/
I
r~S? "Gothic" and "maniera Greca," the reassertion of human-
istic features is now seen as a pan-European phenomenon,46
involving function as well as style.47
s

The return of Byzantine rulers to the imperial palace in

1261 marked the beginning of a renewal of Constantino-
politan art that sought to revalorize orthodox traditions,
including antiquity, following the Empire's humiliation and
desecration.48 The pious sentimentality detectable in
twelfth-century painting intensified; nurtured in Serbia and
Bulgaria, it had matured by the beginning of the fourteenth
century when frescoes were painted in the Kariye Djami in
Constantinople.49 The prestige of the Byzantine capital was
never restored, however; and as threats to Constantinople's
security increased, so did the impoverishment of its art.
Safeguarding the Byzantine artistic tradition became the
responsibility of rising Slavic and Balkan states even before
the city's fall; in the post-Byzantine world, Constantinople
was replaced as the center of east European art by Mt.
Athos.
In Western Europe, "Gothic" painting adhered closely to
Byzantine trends, though the routes of influence often de-
toured in unexpected ways.50 The fact that artists com-
2 Crucifixion icon. Sinai, Monastery of St. Catherine (photo: monly worked in more than one technique helped to extend
Alexandria, Michigan, Princeton expedition)

44 For a summary of earlier work, see J. Folda, "Painting and Sculpture45; idem, "Italy and the Holy Land: Import-Export, 2. The Case of Apulia,"
in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem 1099-1291," in A History of the Cru- Crusader Art in the Twelfth Century (as in n. 43), 245-69; and idem, "La
sades, ed. H. Hazard, Madison, WI, 1977, Iv, 251-81. Also see CrusaderBibbia 'bizantina' di San Daniele di Friuli: Le certezze di un enigma," Min-
Art in the Twelfth Century (as in n. 43). Sculpture, an art form promoted iatura in Friuli Crocevia di Civilth, Pordenone, 1987, 71-81.
more in the West than the East, followed its own pattern; see H. Busch-
47 Belting (as in n. 42) and Weitzmann (as in n. 46).
hausen, Die siiditalienische Bauplastik im Kanigreich Jerusalem vom Kdnig
Wilhelm II bis Kaiser Friedrich II, Vienna, 1978, and Z. Jacoby, "The Art et societe a Byzance sous les Paleologues (Actes du colloque or-
48
Composition of the Nazareth Workshop and the Recruitment of Sculptorsganish par lAssociation Internationale des Etudes Byzantines a Venise en
for the Holy Land in the Twelfth Century," The Meeting of Two Worlds, Septembre 1968), Venice, 1971; Velmans (as in n. 37); and Belting (as in
Kalamazoo, MI, 1986, 145-59. n. 6).

45 Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Year 1200, exh. cat., 2 vols., New49 Studies in the Art of the Kariye Djami and Its Intellectual Background
York, 1970. (The Kariye Djami, Iv), ed. P. Underwood, Princeton, 1975; Maguire,
Art and Eloquence (as in n. 38); and Belting (as in n. 6).
46 H. Belting, "Introduction," in Il medio oriente e l'occidente nell'arte del
XIII secolo (Atti del XXIV Congresso. Comite Internationale d'Histoire 50 W. Oakeshott, Sigena. Romanesque Paintings in Spain and the Win-
de I'Art), Bologna, 1979, II, 1-10; K. Weitzmann, "Crusader Icons andchester Bible Artists, London, 1972; L. Ayres, "The Work of the Morgan
Maniera Greca," in Byzanz und der Westen (as in n. 31), 143-70; V. Pace,Master at Winchester and English Painting of the Early Gothic Period,"
"Presenze e influenze Cipriote nella pittura duecentesca italiana," XXXIIArt Bulletin, LVl, 1974, 201-23; P. Feist, "Die Bedeutung der byzantischen
corso (as in n. 37), 259-98; idem, "Italy and the Holy Land: Import-Export,Kunst fiir die deutsche Kunst des hohen Mittelalters," Byzantinischer
1. The Case of Venice," in The Meeting of Two Worlds (as in n. 44), 331-Kunstexport, ed. H. Nickel, Halle-Wittenberg, 1978, 11-23.

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 ON THE STATE OF MEDIEVAL ART HISTORY 171

after mid-century, a reactionary spirituality reasserted it

the new style,51 but, in general, the different media followed
distinct courses. Sculpture, for instance, was affected self.59
by Increasingly, however, the Tuscan achievements ca
Byzantine forms mediated through metalwork,52 but it toalso
dominate, not only in Italy but also in France, Bohemia
and England.60
derived its naturalistic animation from the study of antique
models.53 Together with the new view of late antiquity, the recent
Whereas recent scholarship sustains the idea of a developed
thir- picture of the twelfth- and thirteenth-century
tistic environment completely changes the image of m
teenth-century rejuvenation of art engendered by contacts
dieval art as a continuous series of classical revivals and
with Byzantium, it describes a phenomenon quite different
from the one Vasari promoted.54 Byzantine art is seen renascences,
not always frustrated but steadily building to the
as a monolith. It is now understood as a complex andItalianfluidRenaissance. Now a triumphant Christianity is seen
not to have destroyed ancient art, but to have captured it
idiom responsive to internal religious and political shifts
and to the tastes of patrons. Technically refined and like
of-so much booty, smelting it to make its own cultural
fering a humanized, narrative style, Byzantine art had arsenal.
at- Never entirely depleted in Byzantium, the tradi-
tracted Westerners since the twelfth century. In some tionsin-inherited from late antiquity remained available
throughout the Middle Ages, evoking in their reconcilia-
stances, Byzantine sources were mined because they recalled
the late antique traditions being reinstated as part of ation
gen-of Christian and classical values the golden age of
eral reform. In other cases, Byzantine cultural achieve- Christian antiquity.61 In its various permutations - Justin-
ments were emulated because of competition with the greatianic, Heraclian, Carolingian, and Macedonian - Early
power they symbolized. A changing Latin Christianity Christian art held special fascination during the Crusader
found in Byzantine icons the artistic vehicle for a new period
in- when the apostolic era was a living model. And it
receded only when Christian Rome lost its originary stature
terest in personal faith. And the Byzantine "lingua franca"
used at the height of the Crusades by artists of various - when the Renaissance began to trace its roots to classical
nationalities provided a syncretic style evocative of antiquity,
a uni- putting an end to the Middle Ages.
fied Christianity.55
The Medieval Art Object
By the second half of the thirteenth century, particular
Works of medieval art, for all their dependence on an-
currents were separating from the dynamic flow. In Paris,
miniaturists, responding to expanding market demands, tique styles and techniques, enjoyed a distinct status de-
exploited a range of formulae taken from the earlier termined
ex- by the circumstances of medieval life and Chris-
periments.56 In Rome, Early Christian monuments, some tianofmetaphysics. Whereas certain modes continued almost
uninterrupted throughout the entire period - scientific il-
which were restored by leading artists of the time, exerted
lustration,62 for instance - significant shifts took place in
a powerful influence.57 In the meantime in Tuscany, which
the hierarchy of media and focus of art as Christianity
was relatively unencumbered by tradition, artists refor-
mulated Gothic naturalism under humanist pressures.58 emerged as the dominant cultural force. Christians placed
Naturalism continued to develop during the fourteentha cen-
special value on lustrous substances and on materials re-
sistant
tury, reattached to the Plinian tradition and responsive to to physical decay: gold, ivory, precious stones, and
the new empiricism. But it was only one of several glass.
im-Quite early, they rejected three-dimensional sculp-
pulses. Distinct "national" traditions were evolving; and
ture as troublingly laden with idolatrous connotations. And

57 P. Hetherington, Pietro Cavallini, London, 1979, and J. Wollesen, "Die

51 H. Buchthal, The "Musterbuch" of Wolfenbiattel and Its Position in the
Art of the Thirteenth Century, Vienna, 1979, and G. Zarnecki, "GeneralFresken in Sancta Sanctorum," Rdmisches Jahrbuch ffir Kunstgeschichte,
Introduction," in Hayward Gallery, English Romanesque Art 1066-1200, xix, 1981, 37-83.
exh. cat., London, 1984, 15-26. 58 M. Baxandall, Giotto and the Orators, Oxford, 1971, and G. Previtali,
52 W. Sauerliinder, "Sculpture on Early Gothic Churches: The State of
"La periodizzazione della storia dell'arte italiana," in Storia dell'arte ita-
Research and Open Questions," Gesta, ix, 1970, 42-45, and idem, "Ar-liana, Turin, 1979, I, 5-95.
chitecture and the Figurative Arts: The North," in Renaissance and Re-
59 P. Dieckhoff, "Antiqui-moderni. Zeitbewustein und Naturerfahrung im
newal (as in n. 41), 671-710; and Fillitz (as in n. 43). 14. Jahrhundert," in Schnuitgen Museum, Die Parler und der Sch6ne Stil
1350-1400, exh. cat., Cologne, 1978, III, 67-123, and M. Warnke, Hof-
3 G. Gnudi, "Considerazioni sul gotico francese, l'arte imperiale e la for-
mazione di Nicola Pisano," Federico II e l'arte del duecento italiano (Attikiinstler. Zur Vorgeschichte des modernen Kiinstlers, Cologne, 1985.
della III Settimana di Studi di Storia dell'Arte Medievale dell'Universitah
60 F. Avril, "Un cas d'influence italienne dans l'enluminure du Nord de la
di Roma. 1978), Galatina, 1980, I, 1-17; P. Claussen, "Antike und gotische
France au quatorzieme siecle," Studies in Late Medieval and Renaissance
Skulptur in Frankreich um 1200," Wallraf-Richartz Jahrbuch, xxxv, 1973,Painting in Honor of Millard Meiss, ed. I. Lavin and J. Plummer, New
83-108.
York, 1977, 32-42; J. Krasa, Die Handschriften K6nig Wenzels IV, Prague,
54 J. Gardner, "Pope Nicholas IV and the Decoration of Santa Maria 1971; and L. Sandler, Gothic Manuscripts, Oxford, 1984.
Maggiore," Zeitschrift fiir Kunstgeschichte, xxxvi, 1973, 1-50; and H.
61 H. Bloch, "The New Fascination with Ancient Rome," in Renaissance
Belting, "The 'Byzantine' Madonnas: New Facts About Their Italian Or-
and Renewal (as in n. 41), 615-36, and I. Herklotz, "Sepulcra" e "mon-
igin and Some Observations on Duccio," Studies in the History of Art,
umenta" del medioevo, Rome, 1985.
12 (National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC), 1982, 7-21.
62 K. Weitzmann, "Science and Poetry," in Age of Spirituality (as in n.
ss H. Belting, "Zwischen Gotik und Byzanz," Zeitschrift fur Kunst- 15), 199-204; H. Grape-Albers, Spaitantike Bilder aus der Welt de Arztes,
geschichte, XLI, 1978, 217-57.
Wiesbaden, 1977; and Z. Kdadr, Survivals of Greek Zoological Illumi-
56 R. Branner, Manuscript Painting in Paris During the Reign of Saint
nations in Byzantine Manuscripts, Budapest, 1978.
Louis, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1977.

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172 THE ART BULLETIN JUNE 1988 VOLUME LXX NUMBER 2

in response to the importance of Scripture for their faith, pigments (which are little more than base matter) lacked
they made the illuminated book central, transforming it glory; but the defenders of images countered with the claim
completely. Most important, they reconsidered the nature that substances are fundamentally altered through artistic
of the art object itself - its context, its function, and its action.71 Medieval works are often intricately ornamented
audience. with a virtuosity that seems totally to subdue the material,
Because the physical world was understood as an ema- and they are always uniformly finished.72 Ornament also
nation of the supernatural, materials played a significant introduced apotropaic qualities, through the "taming" of
role in medieval cosmology and, hence, in art production.63 evil forces or the incorporation of beneficial signs.73
Spirituality resided in material things: the sacraments, rel- The notion that the church and its appointments are re-
ics, and art. Each medium had its distinctive technical as- flections of the Heavenly Church is fundamental to an un-
pect and symbolic reference, and its own poetics as well. derstanding of medieval art. During the Middle Ages, art
Iconological elements in themselves, materials were used served principally to create and articulate church spaces,
for expressive purposes in various combinations and within the consecrated environment where earth intersected
the set structures of discrete objects and whole buildings. Heaven. The visual form of this environment was consid-
Precious substances conveyed power and thus were used ered an essential aspect of its ontology.74 In the terrestrial
to impress Christian worshippers.64 They could lift the church, the faithful witnessed a reflection of the celestial
faithful imaginatively out of the terrestrial prison. Gem- Church, not only through the sacraments and liturgy, but
encrusted gold objects, stained glass, and carved crystal also through crafted materials and artistic effects: shim-
owed their positions in the hierarchy of medieval art to mering mosaics, stained glass, utensils of silver and ivory,
more than intrinsic value. Their luminosity served Chris- cloths embroidered with precious metal threads.75 Indeed,
tian metaphysics of light.65 Other substances, too, took on one of the most dramatic transformations of the ancient
meaning. In Byzantium, steatite served special uses because heritage during the Middle Ages was the widespread es-
of its unblemished appearance and resistance to fire;66 and tablishment of otherworldly interiors as stages for com-
the purple opacity of porphyry and the tactile near-white- munion with the divine.
ness of rare ivory acquired specific connotations.67 The altar, of course, was a special focus (Fig. 3). Dec-
One consequence of the attribution of symbolic qualities orated with a cross, it represented Christ in the midst of
to materials was the impulse to enhance rather than deny his congregation, binding Heaven and earth together with
surfaces, substances, and textures.68 This, in turn, led to an his body and blood.76 Many of the works taken to be "me-
acceptance of the architectonic structure of the artifact as dieval art" were in fact created as altar utensils or as devices
a primary organizing principle.69 Medieval documents re- for enhancing the awesomeness of the altar area - objects
cord an appreciation not only of the cost of materials, but such as icons, most ivories, luxurious manuscripts with
also of the effects that derived from the working of surfaces jeweled covers, crosses and candlesticks, gold and silver
and the visible effects of light on them. Workmanship also reliquaries, and elaborately woven and embroidered
added value and attested to the artisan's dedicated labor. textiles.
Most important, raw matter, through artistic working, be- As the altar was venerated, so was any art on or near
came a vehicle of religious ambition. Through the impo- it.77 Accordingly, Christians had to abandon the cult statue
and, with it, three-dimensional imagery, not only because
sition of form, matter acquired the rational dignity it needed
to become sacred art.70 Byzantine iconoclasts, for instance,of the vestigial association with paganism, but also because
focused attention on color, claiming that images made the
of statue's presence in the sacralized space would violate

63 G. Bandmann, "Bemerkungen zu einer Ikonologie des Materials," Stii- (see P. Claussen, "Goldschmiede des Mittelalters," Zeitschrift fiir Kunst-
del Jahrbuch, II, 1969, 75-100, and C. Meier, "Edelsteinallegorese," in Die wissenschaft, xxxII, 1978, 46-86).
Parler (as in n. 59), III, 185-88. 73 Caviness (as in n. 33); Elbern (as in n. 33); J. Guilmain, "The Com-
64 M. Budny, "The Anglo-Saxon Embroideries at Maaseik: Their Histor- position of the First Cross Page of the Lindisfarne Gospels: 'Square Sche-
ical and Art-Historical Context," Mededelingen van de Koninklijke Aca- matism' and the Hiberno-Saxon Aesthetic," Art Bulletin, LXVII, 1985, 535-
demie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van Belgie, XLV, 47; and H. Roth, Kunst und Handwerk im friihen Mittelalter, Stuttgart,
1984, 57-133. 1986; but also see C. Gilbert, "A Statement of the Aesthetic Attitude
Around 1230," Hebrew University Studies in Literature and the Arts, xiii,
65 B. Brenk, "Les premieres mosaiques dories de l'art chretien," Palette,
1985, 125-52. Pagan ornament may also have had magical connotations;
xxxvIII, 1971, 16-25.
see Gombrich (as in n. 72).
66 I. Kalavrezou-Maxeiner, Byzantine Icons in Steatite, Vienna, 1985.
74 Universita Cattolica del S. Cuore, La Gerusalemme celeste, exh. cat.,
67 A. Cutler, The Craft of Ivory, Washington, DC, 1985. Milan, 1983; Cormack (as in n. 29); and R. and L. Kriss-Rettenbeck, "Re-
68 C.R. Dodwell, Anglo-Saxon Art, Ithaca, NY, 1982. liquie und ornamenta ecclesiae im Symbol-kosmos der Kirche," Orna-
69 Caviness (as in n. 33). menta Ecclesiae, exh. cat., Cologne, 1985, III, 19-24.

70 R.W. Hanning, "Ut enim faber . . . sic creator": Divine Creation as 75 Heaven, in turn, was imagined as a glorious church; Dodwell (as in n.
Context for Human Creativity in the Twelfth Century," Word, Picture, 68), for instance, notes a gold embroidery described in Heaven.
and Spectacle, ed. C. Davidson, Kalamazoo, MI, 1984, 95-149. 76 P. Springer, Kreuzfiisse, Berlin, 1981, and A. von Euw, "Liturgische
71 F de' Maffei, Icona, pittore e arte al Concilio Niceno II, Rome, 1974. Handschriften, Gewinder und Gerite," in Ornamenta Ecclesiae (as in n.
74), I, 385-414.
72 E.H. Gombrich, The Sense of Order, Ithaca, NY, 1979. Ovid's dictum
77 Herklotz (as in n. 61).
"opus superabat materiam" struck many medieval commentators on art

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 ON THE STATE OF MEDIEVAL ART HISTORY 173

Christian beliefs about the relationship between terrestrial

and heavenly realms. Accepted as being more purely spir-
itual, painted images replaced statues;78 but Iconoclastic ar-
guments against religious art still focused on veneration
and on the unique importance of the sacraments and the
Cross.79 Only when three-dimensional sculpture was inte-
grated into an established cult of relics was it accepted as
an important art form, and then only in the Latin West.
Because it recorded God's word, the book was elevated
in Christianity to the position once occupied by the cult
statue. Embellished, it was to have the visual effect befitting
its spiritual content. Books took on distinctive features: the
codex form itself, elaborate covers, nomina sacra and dec-
orated initials, rubrication, and pictorial additions; all were
determined by the special place of Scripture in Christian-
ity.80 Service books - sacramentaries, Gospels, epistolar-
ies, Psalters, and so forth - fitted out with ornamented
covers picturing Christ's death and triumph, became cer-
emonial objects for display on the altar. Like the liturgy
they served, such books were doors to the words of God.81
Written in gold, silver, or even lapis lazuli (sometimes on
porphyry-colored vellum) and intricately ornamented, lux-
ury editions actually became precious objects, sacred ves-
sels.82 In the late and post-Byzantine periods, the Sticher-
arion was used alongside the icon and illuminations were
increasingly assimilated to icon traditions.83 In both East
and West, priests paraded books to the altar in rituals that
paralleled the procession of relics; and legends developed
to assert the magical powers of decorated codices.84
Art was applied to books - as to the church building 3 Roger van der Weyden, Seven Sacraments Altarpiece, cent
itself - to authorize and shape them. Portraits of the panel.
in- Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten
(photo: ACL, Brussels)
spired writers, for instance, certified the divine status of
the texts and "kinetic" initials inspirited the words. Em-
bellished canon tables and harmony pages asserted the pri- part of the liturgy, making real the presence
pensable
participation
mary unity of the contents,8m and other features structured of the figure represented on it and, thro
access to the texts: frontispieces and headpieces,consecration,
orna- acquiring a sacramental aspect. Icons we
mented initials, narratives and marginal miniatures, and
venerated and censed, and prayers and confessions we
sometimes an integrated mise-en-page.86 said before them. Depicting the message of the liturgy, th
icon offered the worshipper a contact with the world
As most medieval art served the sacred liturgy, its history
is largely the history of the response of artists to changing
grace.88 Icons were mounted on a screen (the iconostas
liturgical conditions. So, as the specific history of liturgy
that separated the sanctuary from the nave. Like the litur
becomes better known, the course of medieval art is betteritself, the iconostasis was a gateway between this wo
understood.87 In Byzantium, the icon was itself an and indis-
the other, and the arrangement of icons on it plot

78 Belting (as in n. 6). 85 R. Nelson, The Iconography of Preface and Miniature in the Byzant
79 Speck (as in n. 29). Gospel Book, New York, 1980, and L. Eleen, The Illustration of the
line Epistles in French and English Bibles of the Twelfth and Thirteen
80 C. Roberts and T.C. Skeat, The Birth of the Codex, London, 1983, and Oxford, 1982.
Centuries,
O. Picht, Buchmalerei des Mittelalters. Eine Einfiihrung, Munich, 1984.
86 C. Nordenfalk, Die spiitantiken Zierbuchstaben, Stockholm, 1970; J.
81 E. Kitzinger, "A Pair of Silver Book Covers in the Sion Treasure," in
Alexander, The Decorated Letter, New York, 1978; Evans (as in n. 3
Gatherings in Honor of Dorothy E. Miner, ed. U. McCracken et al., Bal-
M. Camille, "Seeing and Reading: Some Visual Implications of Medi
timore, 1974, 3-17.
Literacy and Illiteracy," Art History, viii, 1985, 26-49; and M. Gib
82 Belting (as in n. 35). "Who Designed the Eadwine Psalter?" in Art and Patronage in the Eng
83 H. Belting, Das illuminierte Buch in der spiitbyzantinischenRomanesque,
Gesell- ed. S. Macready and F.H. Thompson, London, 1986,
76.
schaft, Heidelberg, 1970.
87 For
84 L. Nees, "A Fifth-Century Book Cover and the Origin of the Four the impact of liturgical changes on images of the Anastasis, see
Evan-
gelist Symbols Page in the Book of Durrow," Gesta, xvii, 1978, Kartsonis
1-8, and(as in n. 29).
J. Backhouse, The Lindisfarne Gospels, Oxford, 1981. 88 G. Galavaris, The Icon in the Life of the Church, Leiden, 1981, and H.
Torp, "Larte e l'artista delle icone," Arte medievale, ii, 1985, 9-22.

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174 THE ART BULLETIN JUNE 1988 VOLUME LXX NUMBER 2

humanity's path to God. In this, it was like the fresco and mystery of the sacraments. On saints' days in the East, ap-
mosaic decorations of the church as a whole.89 Comprising propriate icons introduced the honored figure into the
diverse materials and forms and composed of seemingly church, and priests stressed the notion that the saint was
incongruous parts - flat and curved, written and pictured, present through the depiction. Certain two-sided and three-
old and new, real and fictive - the ornamented church dimensional works were carried in processions; some served
itself formed a great, composite icon. Wall paintings, win- active functions in rituals. Though the question of the pre-
dows, panels, utensils, books, vestments, and all the other cise impact of liturgical drama on art is still debated, the
diverse ornaments were joined to one another by liturgical fact that pictures and church theater occupied much the
ritual and songs, which they reflected and supported.90 Li- same place in medieval religious life and shared many
turgical art shared with the liturgy a suspension of time sources is now well established.96
and space that enabled contact with those in a higher realm. Particular liturgies also had concrete influence on indi-
The different liturgy in the West was hardly less influ- vidual works: the liturgy of Assumption Day in a church
ential on art. It served to integrate diverse features of church dedicated to the Virgin, for instance,97 or the reading of the
decoration into a unified composition, affecting both large life of Saint Francis at Assisi.98 Dedication ceremonies also
and small details of imagery. Art, in turn, provided a ca- resonated in church art, as has recently been shown for Sta.
talyst within the liturgical environment by helping join the Prassede and Hagia Sophia; art perpetuated the consecra-
fixed physical circumstance to the world beyond.91 Pri- tion for everyone who subsequently entered the church.99
marily near the apse but also on lateral walls, facades, and In liturgical books, the effect of individual liturgical rites
even floors, it served the liturgy by announcing the mystery was strong and direct, shaping the imagery and pictorial
awaiting fulfillment in the sacraments and by marking the argumentation.100 The semi-private ceremonies in monas-
stages of preparation.92 Liturgical practice also determined teries engendered artistic forms of their own, which were
the reception of Byzantine forms in the West during the often distinctly more personal.101 Finally, the appropriation
Crusader period, most notably the adaptation of icon pan- of art for the special activities of mendicant orders con-
els as altarpieces or devotional images.93 And internal centrated on forms useful for preaching and individual
changes in ceremony fostered the invention of new art devotion.102
forms. Thus, following 1215, painted panels replaced stat- Having already occupied an important place in ancient
ues atop altars to provide a backdrop for the new visual imperial and civic ceremonies, art continued to serve in
presentation of the Eucharistic Host by a priest standing secular rituals during the Middle Ages.103 A basic continuity
with his back to the congregation.94 Liturgical function often of imperial rites seems to account for the perpetuation in
determined the "aesthetic" properties of medieval objects; Ravenna and Constantinople of certain art forms generally
Romanesque statues of the Virgin and Child, for instance, abandoned elsewhere: carved tomb monuments, for in-
were made of wood so they could be carried, were three- stance, and equestrian statues.04 During the twelfth cen-
dimensional so that they could be seen from all sides, and tury, imperial art, together with such rituals as the Laudes,
were sheathed in precious materials for anagogical effect.95 was adopted by an ascendent Papacy. The purpose was to
Hidden away most of the time, many art objects were lay claim to imperial stature.105 Sacred art, in turn, pene-
brought into view only on set occasions and then only by trated the quasi-religious world of kingship; portraits of
oersons in authority. In this respect, too, they shared in the rulers offered evidence of the intimate relationship between

89 R. Hamann-MacLean, Grundlegung zu einer Geschichte der mittelal- 99 Cormack (as in n. 29), and M. Mauck, "The Mosaic of the Triumphal
terlichen Monumentalmalerei in Serbien und Makedonien, Giessen, 1976. Arch of S. Prassede: A Liturgical Interpretation," Speculum, LXII, 1987,
813-28.
90 C. Walter, Art and Ritual of the Byzantine Church, London, 1982.
100 G. Galavaris, The Illustrations of the Prefaces in Byzantine Gospels,
91 H. van Os, Sienese Altarpieces 1215-1460, Groningen, 1984, and M.
Vienna, 1979, and R. Reynolds, "A Visual Epitome of the Eucharistic
Kupfer, "Spiritual Passage and Pictorial Strategy in the Romanesque Fres-
Ordo from the Era of Charles the Bald: The Ivory Mass Cover of the
coes at Vicq," Art Bulletin, LXVIII, 1986, 35-53.
Drogo Sacramentary," in Charles the Bald: Court and Kingdom (BAR
92 Seidel (as in n. 32); Kupfer (as in n. 91); and P. Claussen, Magistri
International Series, ci), Oxford, 1981, 265-89.
Doctissimi Romani, Stuttgart, 1987.
101 Belting (as in n. 42) and J. Weitzmann-Fiedler, Romanische gravierte
93 Belting (as in n. 42), and Weitzmann (as in n. 46). Bronzeschalen, Berlin, 1981.
94 Van Os (as in n. 91). 102 Belting (ibid.), Van Os (as in n. 91), and Marrow (as in n. 14).
95 I. Forsyth, The Throne of Wisdom, Princeton, 1972. 103 Brown (as in n. 16); S. MacCormack, Art and Ceremony in Late An-
96 H. van Os, "The Madonna and the Mystery Play," Simiolus, v, 1971, tiquity, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1981; and M. McCormick, Eternal Vic-
5-19; R. Woolf, The English Mystery Plays, Berkeley and Los Angeles, tory, Cambridge, 1986.
1972; and U. Nilgen, review of the Arts Council "English Romanesque 104 Herklotz (as in n. 61).
Art" exhibition in Kunstchronik, xxxvii, 1984, 202-15.
105 I. Herklotz, "Der Campus Lateranensis im Mittelalter," Ramisches
97 E. Kitzinger, "A Virgin's Face: Antiquarianism in Twelfth-Century Art,"
Jahrbuch ffir Kunstgeschichte, xxII, 1985, 3-43.
Art Bulletin, LXII, 1980, 6-19.
98 D. Blume, Wandmalerei als Ordenspropaganda, Worms, 1983.

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 ON THE STATE OF MEDIEVAL ART HISTORY 175

Christ and the earthly sovereigns emphasized in coronation stored or rebuilt, for instance, venerable pieces of their ear-
ordines. 106 lier decoration were preserved and incorporated. New
As vehicles of mediation between the terrestrial and works were legitimate only when they were integrated har-
heavenly worlds, works of art acquired the properties of moniously with the old.114 Miscellaneous pieces of antique
relics, although they were even superior to relics in their sculpture were assembled in elaborate piecemeal programs
ability to communicate.107 Many works of art were in fact to glorify emperors and popes: at Aachen, for instance, and
regarded as relics, either because of their divine origin - in front of the Lateran.115 Often a particular significance
the acheiropoieta - or because of their association with motivated the choice of works that were recycled; Pope
saints.108 Others were containers for relics. Relics had to be Anastasius IV selected the sarcophagus of Saint Helena for
displayed and touched, but also protected.109 Art works - his own burial because of its association with an empress
not only actual reliquaries (Fig. 4), but also bookbindings, saint.116 In other cases, only a more general interpretatio
crosses, and sculptures - served the dual purpose.110 Es- Christiana was intended, as when an intaglio portrait of
pecially in the East, icons achieved the status of relics Titus' daughter Julia was mounted atop the Escrain de
through replication and consecration by holy men; unlike Charlemagne to proclaim the victory of Roman Christi-
relics, they could be fabricated and made readily accessible. anity.117 A lapis lazuli portrait of Livia was introduced as
Works of art were also like relics in their capacity to work Christ's face on the Herimann Cross of 1056 for much the
miracles and to heal; indeed, their powers account for the same reason.118 In the twelfth-century Stavelot Triptych,
enormous attraction they held for pilgrims. Pilgrimage, in Mosan enamels were joined to ancient gems and Byzantine
turn, generated its own art: memoriae, containers for rel- enamels to form a complex new program. And following
ics, and souvenirs."' The "throne of St. Peter" in the Vat- the conquest of Constantinople, the refashioning, display,
ican is a good example of art's status in medieval times (Fig. and replication of captured Byzantine treasure further el-
5). A ninth-century ivory-clad chair brought to Rome forevated art relics.119
the coronation of the Carolingian emperor Charles the Bald, In a related process of reaffirmation, works of art were
it was adopted for papal ceremonies in the eleventh cen- constantly being enhanced with additions. Embellishments
tury. Then, during the course of the twelfth century, it was of the statue of Saint Foy at Conques attest to the esteem
promoted as an apostolic "relic" - the cattedra Petri - held for the image over centuries.120 Already in the ninth
and was used as a weapon in the battle for superiority (and century, the throne of Charles the Bald (cattedra Petri) was
pilgrims) between the Vatican canons and the Lateran.112 refitted with a series of inlaid ivories that enriched it phys-
By extension of their relic-like capacities, works of art ically and reinforced its basic program.121 Most churches
were continuously reused and reframed in a process of re- betray a continuous process through which new additions
validation and further elevation."13 When churches were re- were assimilated into fresh harmonies. Even tools - model

106 R. Deshman, "Christus Rex et Magi Reges; Kingship and Christology Archaeology in Renaissance Venice," Journal of the Warburg and Cour-
in Ottonian and Anglo-Saxon Art," Friihmittelalterliche Studien, x, 1976, tauld Institutes, XL, 1977, 27-49.
367-405, and F. Miitherich, "Das Evangeliar Heinrichs des L6wen und die 114 H. Belting, Die Oberkirche von San Francesco in Assisi, Berlin, 1977;
Tradition des mittelalterlichen Herrscherbildes," in Das Evangeliar (as in M. Andaloro, "La decorazione pittorica medioevale di Grottaferrata e il
n. 34), 25-34. suo perduto contesto," in Roma Anno 1300, ed. A. Romanini, Rome,
107 P. Brown, "A Dark-Age Crisis: Aspects of the Iconoclastic Controversy," 1983, 253-87; B. Brenk, "Sugers Spolien," Arte medievale, i, 1983, 101-
English Historical Review, LXXXVIII, 1973, 1-34, and Belting (as in n. 42). 07; and J. van der Meulen and J. Hohmeyer, Chartres. Biographie der
Iconoclasts attacked both art and the cult of relics; see J. Phillips, The Kathedrale, Cologne, 1984.
Reformation of Images: Destruction of Art in England 1535-1660, Berke- 115 M. d'Onofrio, Roma e Aquisgrana, Rome, 1983, and Herklotz (as in
ley and Los Angeles, 1973, and Kartsonis (as in n. 29). n. 105).
108 Cormack (as in n. 27). 116 Herklotz (as in n. 61).
109 R. Kroos, "Vom Umgang mit Reliquien," Ornamenta Ecclesiae (as in 117 Seidel (as in n. 32).
n. 74), I11, 25-49.
118 R. Wesenberg,"Das Herimannkreuz," in Kunsthalle, Cologne, and Mu-
110 K. Hauck, "Versuch einer Gesamtdeutung des Einhard-Kreuzes," in sies Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire, Brussels, Rhein und Maas, exh. cat., 1973,
Das Einhardkreuz, ed. K. Hauck, G6ttingen, 1974, 143-205, and "Sacrae II, 167-76. In a somewhat different process, pagan mother goddesses may
Reliquiae," in Ornamenta Ecclesiae (as in n. 74), III, 25-183. have been taken by believers as images of the Virgin Mary; see Forsyth
111 K. Weitzmann, "Loca Sancta and the Representational Arts of Pa- (as in n. 95).
lestine," Dumbarton Oak Papers, xxviii, 1974, 33-55; Palazzo Venezia, 119 H. Belting, "Die Reaktion der Kunst des 13. Jahrhunderts auf den Im-
Roma 1300-1875. L'arte degli anni santi, exh. cat., Rome, 1984; and F. port von Reliquien und Ikonen," in Medio oriente e loccidente (as in n.
Niehoff, "Umbilicus Mundi - Der Nabel der Welt," in Ornamenta Ec- 46), 35-53.
clesiae (as in n. 74), III, 53-72.
120 E. Dahl, "Heavenly Images. The Statue of St. Foy of Conques and the
112 M. Maccarrone, "La storia della cattedra," Atti della Pontificia Ac- Signification of the Medieval 'Cult-Image' in the West," Acta ad Archaeo-
cademia Romana di Archeologia (Memorie, x), La cattedra lignea di S. logiam et Artium Historiam Pertinentia, viii, 1978, 175-91.
Pietro in Vaticano, Vatican, 1971, 3-70. Another case is the mosaic icon
121 K. Weitzmann, "The Heracles Plaques of St. Peter's Cathedra," Art
of Sta. Croce in Gerusalemme; see Belting (as in n. 42).
Bulletin, LV, 1973, 5-35, and "An Addendum," Art Bulletin, LVI, 1974,
113 A. Esch, "Spolien. Zur Wiederverwendung antiker Baustiicke und 248-52; and C. Frugoni, "Uideologia del potere imperiale nella 'Cattedra
Skulpturen im mittelalterlichen Italien," Archiv fiir Kulturgeschichte, LI, di S. Pietro,"' Bullettino dell'Istituto Storico Italiano per il Medio Evo e
1969, 1-64, and M. Perry, "St. Mark's Trophies: Legend, Superstition, and Archivio Muratoriano, LXXXVI, 1976-77, 67-181.

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176 THE ART BULLETIN JUNE 1988 VOLUME LXX NUMBER 2

books and artistic manuals - were augmented and reor-

ganized over time.122
In almost all cases, the recycled works remained visually
distinct within their new settings. Indeed, to call to the
viewer's mind the claim of triumph and revalidation, their
essential strangeness had to remain visible, even conspic-
uous. The fragments, however, were frequently integrated
iconographically, embedded in a context that established a
new status. Thus, reused pieces of classical or Islamic art
not only signaled general Christian triumph,12 but also
conveyed a specific and appropriate message. The beautiful
fourth-century serpentine disk inlaid with gold fish, trans-
formed into a paten during the Merovingian period, is an
example,124 and so are the capitals purloined in the twelfth
4 Leon, S. Isidoro, reliquary (photo: Hirmer)
century from the Baths of Caracalla and still atop the col-
umns in the church of Sta. Maria in Trastevere. There, in
fact, male and female couples function as counterparts to
the apse mosaic, which features Christ and Mary.125 On the
Stavelot Triptych, Byzantine enamel triptychs containing
a fragment of the "True Cross" and an image of the Cru-
cifiction are framed by Mosan medallions tracing the Con-
stantinian legend of the finding of the Cross.126
An earlier work of art that was not actually recycled was
sometimes quoted for comparable purposes.127 The copying
of details from the fifth-century Vatican Vergil codex for a
ninth-century illustration of the Conversion of Paul,128 for
instance, asserts a fundamental continuity linking Chris-
tianity to pagan Rome that is implicit both in the legend
of Paul and in medieval interpretations of the Aeneid. The
references to ancient triumphal arches on ninth-century li-
turgical objects convey the idea of Christian victory as em-
phatically as does the incorporation of actual spolia; and
allusion to these vessels on Romanesque church facades es-
tablishes in turn a firm, if intricate, spiritual and political
genealogy.129 By citing an object, artists could secure a re-
lationship to the tradition that created the prototype and
at the same time, by altering its content, could stake out
their own unique place.130
The processes of recycling and citing objects depended
for their effectiveness on the general practice of medieval
iconography, which tied subject matter directly to func-
tion. Thus, the Communion of the Apostles, with its Eu-
charistic reference, was often chosen for patens and apses.'3'
5 Vatican, Cattedra Petri (photo: K. Weitzmann)
An enlarged Crucifixion interrupts the narrative frescoes
in St. Peter's directly above the altar of Simon and Jude
because the altar was a stop in the procession on the Feast

122 C. Barnes, Villard de Honnecourt. The Artist and His Drawings, Bos- in P. Huber, Bild und Botschaft, Zurich, 1973.
ton, 1982. 127 Kitzinger (as in n. 97).
123 D. Ebitz, "Secular to Sacred: The Transformation of an Oliphant in 128 D. Wright, "When the Vatican Vergil was in Tours," Festschrift fiir
the Mus&e de Cluny," Gesta, xxv, 1986, 31-38. Florentine Miitherich (as in n. 20), 53-66.
124 E. Bielefeld, "Eine Patene aus dem franz6sischen Kr6nungschatz," 129 Seidel (as in n. 32).
Gymnasium, LXXIX, 1972, 395-445.
130 M. Baker, "Medieval Illustrations of Bede's Life of St. Cuthbert," Jour-
125 D. Kinney, "Spolia from the Baths of Caracalla in Sta. Maria in Tras- nal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, XLI, 1978, 16-49.
tevere," Art Bulletin, LXVIII, 1986, 379-97.
131 W. Loerke, "The Monumental Miniature," in The Place of Book Il-
126 Also see the complex case of the altar of King Andrew III of Hungary, lumination in Byzantine Art, Princeton, 1975, 61-97.

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 ON THE STATE OF MEDIEVAL ART HISTORY 177

of the True Cross.132 And themes contrasting Virtue ligious

and emotions, and sometimes by speaking or acting.
Vice decorate the so-called "Hansa bowls" used by nuns in Medieval work follows ad hoc rather than universal rules
of composition, the effect deriving not from an "organic
a cleansing ritual before Confession.133 Sometimes, though,
the connections were anything but obvious: on the bronze unity""138 but from the incorporation of all anomalies and
doors at Hildesheim, for example, Genesis narratives wereintrusions. Objects were often the product of an accretive
process, compiled rather than fashioned. And they relied
opposed to New Testament scenes to illustrate the idea that
"The door of Paradise, closed by the first Eve, has now for their effect on both the fascination of spectaclel39 and
been opened to all by the holy Virgin."134 This practice theofwork of decipherment (Fig. 6).140 Indeed, the reciprocal
selecting appropriate subjects reinforced the functional play of overall effect and specific details was one of the
purpose of medieval art by rooting the diachronic ritualsmany oppositions that provided an inner logic governing
the objects served in a continuous, validating, and sacred
the reading of most works, a syntax structured through
history. Perhaps the most apt and important instancedualistic
of sets, both formal and iconographic. Among other
this process is the decoration of the whole church, whichof these sets were the contrast of classical and abstract
styles, of various colors, of text and image, and of such
in both East and West (though in different ways) amplified
the relationship of past events to the cyclic rituals of subject
the oppositions as death and transfiguration, Old Tes-
liturgy. tament/New Testament, past and future, history and etern-
Like relics, art had an entirely temporal effect that was ity, and sin and redemption.141 These reflect the funda-
particularly beneficial for pilgrimages: it attracted people mental medieval cosmology according to which the world
- hence money - to places it sanctified by its presence.135 is divided into good and evil and will be perfectly unified
The "power" of art, attested to in medieval texts, has been only at the end of time.142 It is understandable, therefore,
studied only in a few instances, of which the best known that when, toward the end of the Middle Ages, natural-
is the statue of Saint Foy at Conques.136 While praying be- istically rendered historical narrative was introduced, a
fore a work of art helped to secure salvation, the com- fundamental adjustment was required in the way images
missioning of art assured eternal protection of body and were perceived.'43
soul. Transmuting the heathen practice of interring objects All of this raises important questions about the concept
with the dead for use in the afterlife, Christian art served of artistic style as used by medievalists and as it functioned
as collateral in transactions for redemption. Given to a during the Middle Ages. Familiar with paleography as an
church or monastery, it was exchanged for the assured pro- important tool of their discipline, medievalists apply pro-
tection of the body and for perpetual prayers of interces- cedures of stylistic analysis in order to date and place
sion for the soul.137 works. Like their counterparts in postmedieval fields, they
The work of medieval art was more agent than object. focus on "Morellian" characteristics - on the "ductus" of
It did not so much attract the beholder's eye to itself as drapery folds especially - even though the special nature
mediate vision toward something beyond; and its spiritual of art production during the Middle Ages poses important
significance derived from the complex context for which it theoretical questions about the validity of applied
was made. Thus, it served as but part of a whole: an apse stylistics.144
mosaic needed the altar beneath it for completion, candle- Because artistic discontinuities were widely used for ex-
sticks required a cross between them to convey their sym- pressive purposes during the Middle Ages, style has in-
bolic message, and all were furnishings dependent on the creasingly been taken as a signifier of meaning. Stylistic
church structure to articulate their place and hence hier- consistency marks certain classes of objects, more or less
archical position. In turn, art also communicated higher independent of date and place of production. And within
impulses to the faithful by visually fixing the spoken and single objects, aspects of rendering - scale, point of view,
performed liturgy or preached message, by stimulating re- modeling, and so forth - were manipulated to stratify sub-

132 W. Tronzo, "The Prestige of St. Peter's: Observations on the Function bert (as in n. 73).
of Monumental Narrative Cycles in Italy," Studies in the History of Art, 140 J.-C. Bonne, L'art roman de face et de profil, Alengon, 1984, and L.
16 (Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts Symposium Series, iv),
Seidel, "Images of the Crusades in Western Art: Models as Metaphors,"
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1985, 93-112. The Meeting of Two Worlds (as in n. 44), 377-91.
133 Weitzmann-Fiedler (as in n. 101). 141 C. Meier, "Die Bedeutung der Farben im Werk Hildegards von Bingen,"
134 W. Tronzo, "The Hildesheim Doors: An Iconographic Source and Its Friihmittelalterliche Studien, vI, 1972, 245-355, and C. Davis-Weyer,
Implications," Zeitschrift fiar Kunstgeschichte, XLVI, 1983, 357-66. "Komposition und Szenenwahl im Dittochaeum des Prudentius," in Stu-
135 R. Oursel, Pelerins du Moyen Age, Paris, 1978; Dahl (as in n. 120); dien zur spiitantiken und Byzantinischen Kunst Friedrich Wilhelm Deich-
and M. Miles, Image as Insight, Boston, 1985. mann Gewidmet, Bonn, 1986, III, 19-29.

136 Dahl (as in n. 120). 142 Bonne (as in n. 140).

137 O.-K. Werckmeister, "Pain and Death in the Beatus of Saint-Sever," 143 Belting (as in n. 6), and idem, "The New Role of Narrative in Public
Studi medievali, xiv, 1973, 565-626, and Cormack (as in n. 29). Painting of the Trecento: Historia and Allegory," Studies in the History
of Art, 16 (as in n. 132), 151-68.
138 Gombrich (as in n. 72).
144 V. Pace, "Possibilita e limiti dell'analisi stilistica come metodologia
139 Brown (as in n. 16); A. Kazhdan and A. Cutler, "Continuity and Dis-
storica," Artistes, artisans et production artistique au Moyen-Age, ed. X.
continuity in Byzantine History," Byzantion, LII, 1982, 429-78; and Gil-
Barral i Altet, Rennes, 1983, I, 751-57.

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178 THE ART BULLETIN JUNE 1988 VOLUME LXX NUMBER 2

ject matter.145 Thus, as one example, the ordering of the mation of stylistic schemata are difficult to document until
narratives in the Upper Church at Assisi and the richly or- the very end of the Middle Ages, indeed, until the time
chestrated presentation of other subjects in the church re- usually called the "proto-Renaissance" for just this rea-
spond to complex programmatic demands that are rein- son.152 The last half of the twelfth century seems to be the
forced also by choices of media (stained glass and fresco) one earlier moment in which a succession of nonfunctional
and even by the type of architectural setting.146 In fact, me- morphological replacements can be traced: in Byzantium,
dievalists deal more with the history of form (object-classes, a "dynamic" style gave way to an "art nouveau" style,
materials, techniques, and function) than with the history which in turn ceded to a "monumental" style, sending a
of style (having an independent, internal cogency). The ripple across Europe.l53
twelfth-century "renaissance" is characterized by the self- What generated this development? The Crusades, which
conscious appropriation of the late antique techniques of brought patrons into contact with a range of art forms,
mosaic making, ivory carving, opus sectile, and of Early seem to be implicated.154 The first art collections can be
Christian and Byzantine iconography, much more than by traced to the twelfth century, suggesting the beginnings of
a concerted attempt to create new works in a revived stylistic discriminations destined also to affect production.
"style.""147 Even such fundamental "stylistic" phenomena as Once choices were available, individual tastes could be sat-
the development of naturalism during the twelfth and thir- isfied.155 Naturalism, for instance - at first a vehicle of
teenth centuries are now linked to subtle changes in the religious sentiment - could be assimilated to humanistic
function of art objects in the liturgy, including the need to traditions and advanced in the court milieu as a manifes-
affirm the presence of the living Christ in the Eucharist and tation of "talent."156
the new relationship between image and beholder that For whom was medieval art intended? Who made up its
evolved to suit private devotion.148 "audience"? Until recently, attention focused on piincely
Morphological distinctions connoting place of origin, patrons and lowly illiterates. Now it is turning more and
quality, and appearance were not unknown during the more to intermediary groups - the clergy and nobility -
Middle Ages. One reads of Graeco opere and opere Sar- that used art to reaffirm their own beliefs.'57 Debate about
acenico, for instance.149 Furthermore, the implications of the appropriateness of art in monasteries never subsided;
origin connoted by style were exploited by patrons and from Caesarius of Arles through Bernard of Clairvaux and
artists, as when Charlemagne set about to attach his court later, ascetic members of the community renounced both
to the age of Constantine by rehabilitating classical forms, the luxury and human focus of art as inappropriate for
or the Macedonian emperors of Constantinople adapted mature monks.158 The debate only confirms the conclusion
the ancient style for similar ends. The use of the living By- that art often functioned as a reminder of clerical monopoly
zantine tradition as a surrogate for Early Christian forms for those without direct access to Scripture and other spir-
reflects an ability to make subtle stylistic distinctions. Sim- itual instruments.159 Women seem to have made up a major
ilarly, styles were mingled or merged to suggest the uni- segment of the audience, perhaps because such forms of art
fication of independent territories;1s0 tenth- and eleventh- as the icon offered a means of private worship that com-
century English art, for instance, is characterized by its pensated for the general exclusion of women from insti-
stylistic syncretism.l51 Internal developments involving the tutional religion.160 In most cases, medieval "users" en-
criticism of previous styles and resulting in the transfor- countered art over long periods and in stable conditions.

145 Kitzinger (as in n. 1) and Weitzmann (as in n. 21). of the Arts," in Art and Patronage in the English Romanesque (as in n.
86), 145-58.
146 Belting (as in n. 114).
147 H. Toubert, "Le renouveau paleochretien a Rome au debut du XIIe 156 Warnke (as in n. 59).

siecle," Cahiers archkologiques, xx, 1970, 99-154, and Kitzinger (as in n. 157 J. Mitchell, "St. Silvester and Constantine at the SS. Quattro Co-
41). ronati," Federico II (as in n. 53), II, 15-32; Van Os (as in n. 91); Belting
148 S. Sinding-Larsen, "Some Observations on Liturgical Imagery of the (as in in 42); Weitzmann-Fiedler (as in n. 101); B. Abou-El-Haj, "Bury St.
Edmunds Abbey Between 1070 and 1124: A History of Property, Privilege,
Twelfth Century," Acta ad Archaeologium et Artium Historiam Perti-
nentia, viii, 1978, 193-212; Maguire, "Self-Conscious Angel" (as in n. 38), and Monastic Production," Art History, vi, 1983, 1-29; M.-L. Th6rel, A
and Miles (as in n. 135). l'origine du decor du portail occidental de Notre-Dame de Senlis: Le
triomphe de la Vierge-Eglise, Paris, 1984; E. Stiegman, "Saint Bernard:
149 E.F. Van der Grinten, Elements of Art Historiography in Medieval Texts,
The Aesthetics of Authenticity," Studies in Cistercian Art and Architec-
The Hague, 1969. ture, II, 1984, 1-13; Cormack (as in n. 29); Camille (as in n. 86); and
150 M. Gelfer-Jergensen, Medieval Islamic Symbolism and the Paintings Kupfer (as in n. 91).
in the Cefalz' Cathedral, Leiden, 1986. 158 J. Van Engen, "Theophilus Presbyter and Rupert of Deutz: The Manual
151 R. Deshman, "Anglo-Saxon Art After Alfred," Art Bulletin, LVI, 1974, Arts and Benedictine Theology in the Early Twelfth Century," Viator, xi,
176-200. 1980, 147-63, and Stiegman (as in n. 157).
152 Baxandall (as in n. 58), and N. Bryson, Vision and Painting, New
159 Werckmeister (as in n. 137), and Seguy (as in n. 9).
Haven and London, 1983.
160 J. Herrin, "Women and the Faith in Icons in Early Christianity," in
153 Mouriki, "Stylistic Trends" (as in n. 37). Culture, Ideology and Politics, ed. R. Samuel and G.S. Jones, London,
154 Muratova (as in n. 43). 1982, 56-83; Miles (as in n. 135); and X. Muratova, "Bestiaries: An Aspect
of Medieval Patronage," in Art and Patronage in the English Romanesque
155 U. Nilgen, "Intellectuality and Splendour: Thomas Becket as a Patron (as in n. 86), 118-44.

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 ON THE STATE OF MEDIEVAL ART HISTORY 179

6 Conques,
Ste. Foy, west
facade, central
portal (photo:
J. Austin)

This allowed them to decipher the messages in stages and because the essential ingredients of liturgy, consecration,
often as part of a collective experience involving educated and faith are always lacking. To recreate the psychological
interpreters. aura needed to provide the historical dimension of medi-
The circumstantial (not artistic) unity of medieval art eval art, a spectator's informed imagination is better than
works and their functional (not stylistic) relationship with mock apses and piped plainsong.162 More successful are the
one another pose particular problems for modern presen- publication and display of church treasuries, especially in
tation. In art-historical texts, pieces extracted from accre- the few cases where authentic hoards can still be assem-
tive and complex monuments are usually arranged in gal- bled.163 These cannot restore the functioning context, of
leries of plates that do not differentiate them from the art course, but they do preserve intact the range and variety
of other periods. In museums, too, the prevailing manner - and to a limited degree, the contiguities - of actual
has been to disregard context and to let randomly accu- church art.
mulated and separately displayed objects stand for their
age in the implied narrative of a universal art history. Al- Production
most from the start of modern museology, however, meth- The Middle Ages generated neither a concept of fine art
ods of presentation have been applied to medieval art that per se, nor, until the very end, a speculative art market. "1
sacrifice chronology to a functional milieu. These efforts Thus, it was only very late that the idea of an individual
to reintegrate objects into an "authentic" experience have "artist" with an independent, determining imagination
been unique to medieval museum collections and exhibi- emerged, and then only as part of the process leading to
tions. Beginning with the inauguration of the Mus&e Cluny the Renaissance.'65 Medieval notions of art production were
in Paris'16 and extending to the Metropolitan Museum of governed largely by three legacies, which in part account
Art and Cloisters in New York and the Schniitgen Museum for the conflicted status of both the object and its maker.
in Cologne, the approach continues in a Postmodernist The antique system according to which art-making crafts
guise that offers an ersatz "context." Though a commend- were classed with the artes mechanicae, not the Liberal Arts,
able motive to reestablish an original environment under- was most important, because this system controlled actual
lies it, the approach is destined to fail because it must inev- practice.66 Monasticism absorbed into Christian ideas the
itably "recreate" a context that never existed and, of course, ancient aristocratic disdain for manual labor embodied in

161 S. Bann, The Clothing of Clio, Cambridge, 1984, and R. Grandi, "II 164 J. Larner, "Art, Commercial Trade of," in Dictionary of the M
Civico Medievale, formazione e vicende," in Introduzione al Museo Ci- Ages, I, 560-63, and J. Diamond, "Manufacture and Market in Par
vico Medievale, Bologna, 1985, 7-17. Book Illumination Around 1300," Europiiische Kunst um 1300 (Akte
162 In much the same way, the "purification" of medieval churches fails. XXV. Internationalen Kongresses fiir Kunstgeschichte, Vienna, 1983)
By stripping the accretions of later periods, it not only denies an essential enna, 1986, vi, 101-10.
element of the medieval process, but also results in an artificially created 165 J. Larner, Culture and Society in Italy, 1290-1420, New York, 1971,
context. and Roth (as in n. 73).
163 E.g., B. de Montesquiou-Fezensac and D. Gaborit-Chopin, Le tresor
166 Ward Perkins (as in n. 19); D. Claude, "Les artisans dans le royaume
de Saint-Denis, Paris, 1977; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The
merovingien selon les sources &crites," Artistes, artisans 1983 (as in n.
Treasury of San Marco, exh. cat., Milan, 1983; and P. de Winter,
144), I,The
20-41; and Roth (as in n. 73).
Sacral Treasure of the Guelphs, Cleveland, 1985.

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180 THE ART BULLETIN JUNE 1988 VOLUME LXX NUMBER 2

this means of classification. But it developed arguments and toward the worth of the creation.173
that, because work - including the manufacture of art - The different legacies in part reflect the social diversity
was imposed on man after the Fall, it served a penitential of medieval art's producers. In monasteries every station,
function. The Rule of Saint Benedict (number 57), for in- from abbots and abbesses on down, participated in the
stance, included craft activities among the forms of work making of art. The icon painter was to be schooled first in
appropriate to the cloister,167 and assigned a moral aspect spirituality and only secondarily in the techniques of his
to them. So long as it engendered no pride or excessive art. Secular artisans, in contrast, could be slaves. A com-
luxury, art contributed ad maiorem Dei gloriam; even mon textual topos reports how a serf is liberated on dem-
though it implied neither divine inspiration nor personal onstrating extraordinary artistic skill.174 With the growth
sanctity in the maker, the making of religious art was an of towns from the twelfth century on, an artisan class be-
acceptable form of meditation.16s Many of the numerous came distinct, leading to increased specialization, controls,
artists' signatures surviving from the Middle Ages are and a more positive attitude toward the mechanical arts.175
framed in formulae of humility, seeking prayer and A few ancient texts had accorded artistic talent to the high-
expiation.169 born and these helped to dilute the scorn toward manual
The Bible, in which God is called artifex et conditor and endeavors. Medieval aristocrats, even kings and emperors,
in which artists filled with God's spirit are commissioned are reported to have produced works of art.176 As courts
to glorify his house, offered a different, more elevated became centers of art production after the middle of the
model for artistic production. According to this concept, thirteenth century, artists themselves attained elevated sta-
the artist is God's instrument, and his (or her) skill derives tus, as signaled by such titles as "valet de chambre" and
from a likeness to God through which spirituality is real- "peintre du roy.'"177
ized in material form. Particularly in Byzantium, under Many artists were women. Generally ignored, primarily
pressure from Iconoclasts to justify image-making, the bib- because they seem rarely to have participated in the making
lical tradition came to prevail. Icon painting was traced of frescoes or large-scale sculptures, women were, in fact,
back to the time of the Gospels and icon painters were con- active in such major media as illuminated manuscripts, tex-
sidered the virtual equals of priests.170 In the West, too, the tile weaving and embroidery, and metalwork.178 They in-
manufacture of ecclesiastic art was considered pious labor cluded the nun Ende, who collaborated in the illustration
appropriate only for virgin women and "moral" men.171 of the Gerona Beatus,179 and Saint Edith, who was cele-
If Besalel was the artist's precursor, so too were Apelles brated for her stitching.1so Opus anglicanum, a major En-
and Daedelus; the humanist heritage was a third conceptual glish export art during the fourteenth century, was pro-
source and one increasingly invoked from the twelfth cen- duced by nuns and professional women artists. And female
tury on.172 Adapting this classical model, signatures differ- illuminators appear in number in fourteenth- and fifteenth-
entiated artistic products and advanced the claim that art century guild records.
was not mere manufacture but a realization of theory, More is known about who medieval artists were than
learning, and ideology. Workmanship, not just material about how they worked because the written sources are
value, was increasingly prized and promoted. Thus, em- largely secondary, consisting of histories of imperial reigns,
phasis shifted away from the moral character of the maker hagiography, legal documents, and, for the later period,

167 J. Le Goff, "Travail, techniques et artisans dans les systemes de valeur172 H. Beck, "Der kunstfertige Schmied - ein ikonographisches und nar-
du haut Moyen Age (Ve-Xe siecles)," Artigianato e tecnica nella societsaratives Thema des friihen Mittelalters," Medieval Iconography and Nar-
dell'alto medioevo occidentale (Settimane di studio del Centro Italiano dirative, Odense, 1980, 15-37, and P Claussen, "Kiinstlerinschriften," Or-
Studi sull'Alto Medioevo, xviii), Spoleto, 1971, 239-66; Van Engen (as innamenta Ecclesiae (as in n. 74), I, 263-76.
n. 158); J. Leclercq, "Otium Monasticum as a Context for Artistic Crea- 173 Claussen (as in n. 72), and R. Haussherr, "Arte nulli secundus: Eine
tivity," in Monasticism and the Arts, ed. T. Vernon, Syracuse, NY, 1984,
Notiz zum Kiinstlerlob im Mittelalter," Ars Auro Prior (Studia Ioanni
63-80; and A. Legner, "Illustres manus," in Ornamenta Ecclesiae (as in n.
Bialostocki Sexagenario Dicata), Warsaw, 1981, 43-49.
74), I, 187-230.
174 Claude (as in n. 166).
168 Roth (as in n. 73), and H. Hoffmann, Buchkunst und K6nigtum im
175 P. Burke, "L'artista: Momenti e aspetti," Storia dell'arte italiana (as in
ottonischen und friihsalischen Reich, Stuttgart, 1986.
n. 58), 11, 85-113.
169 H. Klotz, "Formen der Anonymitit und des Individualismus in der
176 M. Cal6 Mariani, "Federico II e le 'artes mechanicae,"' Federico II (as
Kunst des Mittelalters und der Renaissance," Gesta, xv, 1976, 303-12, and
in n. 53), 11, 259-75, and N. Oikonomides, "L'artiste-amateur Ai Byzance,"
H. Belting, "Le peintre Manuel Eugenikos de Constantinople, en G6orgie,"
Artistes, artisans (as in n. 39), I, 45-50.
Cahiers archeologiques, xxviII, 1979, 103-114.
177 Warnke (as in n. 59).
170 De' Maffei (as in n. 71), Torp (as in n. 88), and Hanning (as in n. 70).
For a colophon attributing the illuminator's skill to God and suggesting 178 D. Miner, Anastaise and Her Sisters, Baltimore, 1974; Weitzmann-
that art is a divinely ordained vocation, see J. Anderson, "Cod. Vat. gr.Fiedler (as in n. 101); A.W. Carr, "Women and Monasticism: An Intro-
463 and an Eleventh-century Byzantine Painting Center," Dumbarton Oaksduction from an Art Historian," Byzantinische Forschungen, Ix (1985), 1-
Papers, xxxii, 1978, 177-96. 15; Budny (as in n. 64); and Legner (as in n. 167).
171 Budny (as in n. 64), and X. Muratova, "Vir Quidem Fallax et Falsi-179 J. Casanovas, "The Beato of Gerona," in Beati in Apocalypsin Libri
dicus, sed Artifex Praeelectus," Artistes, artisans (as in n. 39), I, 53-72.Duodecim (Codex Gerundensis), Madrid, 1975, 219-38.
180 Dodwell (as in n. 68).

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 ON THE STATE OF MEDIEVAL ART HISTORY 181

some commercial materials.181 During late antiquity, pro- cialization grew. In both Byzantium and the West, teams
duction was located in towns, indeed, mostly in the same of artists also came together ad hoc to fill special needs
centers that had provided pagan art.ls2 Though some evi- through temporary collaborative undertakings.191 In the
dence of monastic work survives,'3" art production wasproduction
at of illuminated manuscripts, for instance, book
sellers became active entrepreneurs, organizing enterprises
that time largely secular, leading to Christian assimilation
of pagan conventions. With the general relocation of ar- and farming out work. Increasingly, itinerant artists moved
tisan activity to monasteries during the eighth and ninth through Europe: an Englishman in Spain, a painter of
centuries, production methods were adapted to cloister French heritage in Constantinople, a Byzantine frescoist in
Genoa.192 Courts became especially active and attractive,
routines, and any one artist might be master of several arts.
offering artists freedom and promoting art of a distinctly
Work in the officina was collaborative and unspecialized.'M
Around the turn of the twelfth century, for instance, theinternational character.193 The variety of fourteenth-cen-
Abbot of St. Trond prepared the vellum for a book, wrote tury art reflects the new diversity of production and market
conditions.
the text, and illuminated it.18 Some of the most prestigious
courts seem to have supported "workshops" during the In the circumstances that obtained through most of the
early Middle Ages, though precisely how these were or- Middle Ages, conceptualization and execution of works of
ganized is unclear. Most often, royal patronage was di- art were largely independent. Planning was done by a
rected through monastic establishments.s86 From the elev-learned advisor - either the patron or head of a monastic
enth century, at least, lay artisans worked together withor secular shop; realization was the work of a craftsman.194
Until late in the period, virtually every work of art was
the monks;187 for large, technically complex undertakings,
made on commission, and inventories as well as inscrip-
hired laymen could have primary responsibility.'88 Some of
these laymen may have operated out of established shops; tions usually give credit to the commissioner, not the ar-
others must have been itinerant. Though how labor was tisan.195 Though sometimes the division resulted from prac-
organized can only be deduced from the works themselves,tical exigencies (as when Byzantine mosaicists were
employed in the West196), the importance of conception
it appears to have been divided systematically among
workers. 189 rather than realization was enshrined in theory. This re-
flects the fundamental conflict in medieval attitudes toward
During the twelfth century, methods were devised for
the material world and manual labor. As promulgated at
accelerated production to meet the demands of such new
monastic orders as the Cistercians and for such complex
the Second Council of Nicaea (787), for instance, the theory
works as the new glossed Bibles.190 The gradual increase inheld that manufacta could only embody those sacred truths
commercial production fostered the growth of shops. What which were conserved in Church tradition as transmitted
were commonly family establishments for both producing through learned advisors. A result was that advisors and
patrons
and selling art came to resemble other business enterprises not only instigated projects and provided material
where apprentices received training and professional spe- for the production of medieval art but also often chose the

181sl E. Patlagean, "Sources &crites et histoire de la production artistique 190

ia P. Stirnemann, "Nouvelles pratiques en matiere d'enluminure au temps
Byzance," Artistes, artisans (as in n. 39), I, 29-41. de Philippe Auguste," La France de Philippe Auguste - Le temps des
182 Brenk et al. (as in n. 15). mutations (Actes du Colloque International Organish par le CNRS), Paris,
1982, 955-78, and W. Cahn, "The Rule and the Book: Cistercian Book
183 Claude (as in n. 166) and Roth (as in n. 73).
Illumination in Burgundy and Champagne," in Monasticism and the Arts
(as in n. 167), 139-72.
184 J.J.G. Alexander, "Scribes as Artists: The Arabesque Initial in Twelfth-
century English Manuscripts," Medieval Scribes, Manuscripts and Li- 191 H. Buchthal and H. Belting, Patronage in Thirteenth-Century Con-
braries. Essays Presented to N. R. Ker, London, 1978, 87-116, and A. stantinople, Washington, DC, 1978; A. W. Carr, Byzantine Illumination
Cohen-Mushlin, "The Labour of Herimann in the Gospels of Henry the 1150-1250, Chicago, 1987; and Diamond (as in n. 164).
Lion," Burlington Magazine, cxxvii, 1985, 880-87.
192 Oakeshott (as in n. 50); L. Striker, "Crusader Painting in Constanti-
185 Branner (as in n. 56).
nople; The Findings of the Kalenderhane Camii," Medio oriente e l'oc-
186 C. Nordenfalk, Codex Caesareus Upsaliensis, Uppsala, 1971; R. cidente (as in n. 46), 117-21; and R. Nelson, "A Byzantine Painter in Genoa:
McKitterick, "The Palace School of Charles the Bald," Charles the BaldThe Last Judgment at S. Lorenzo," Art Bulletin, LXVII, 1985, 548-66.
(as in n. 100), 385-400; and F. Miitherich, "The Library of Otto III," in
193 Cal6 Mariani (as in n. 176) and Warnke (as in n. 59).
The Role of the Book in Medieval Culture (Proceedings of the Oxford
194 E. Kitzinger, "The Gregorian Reform and the Visual Arts: A Problem
International Symposium 1982), ed. P. Ganz, Turnhout, 1986, II, 11-25.
of Method," in Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, xxii, 1972,
187 Nordenfalk (ibid.), Belting (as in n. 169), and Hoffman (as in n. 168). 87-102, and Cormack (as in n. 32).
188 Mango (as in n. 9).
195 The problem is complicated by the fact that such seemingly simple
189 I. SevEenko, "On Pantoleon the Painter," Jahrbuch der Oster-words as "facere" meant either "to make" or "to have made"; see Hoff-
reichischen Byzantinistik, xxI, 1972, 241-49; L.M.J. Delaiss&, "The Im- mann (as in n. 168) and F. Newton, "Leo Marsicanus and the Dedicatory
portance of Books of Hours for the History of the Medieval Book," Gath- Text and Drawing in Monte Cassino 99," Scriptorium, xxxIII, 1979, 181-
erings in Honor of Dorothy E. Miner (as in n. 81), 203-25; and A. Cohen-205.
Mushlin, The Making of a Manuscript, Wiesbaden, 1983. 196 Demus (as in n. 11) and Nelson (as in n. 192).

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182 THE ART BULLETIN JUNE 1988 VOLUME LXX NUMBER 2

subject matter, selected models, and formulated content.197 tion.209 The purpose of art was, after all, to perpetuate pur-
Desiderius of Montecassino,198 Suger of St. Denis,199 and portedly immutable truths, not to convey individual ob-
Bernard of Clairvaux are perhaps the best-known art pa- servations or to be elaborated with inspired additions. Even
trons. The men's visions and commitments transformed the in the secular realm, medieval art was forcefully conven-
art of their times. But the decisive involvement of many tional.210 Although considerably greater freedom for in-
other patrons can also be traced, among them Benedict Bis- novation existed there than in religious production,211 sec-
cop,200 Pope Boniface VIII,201 and Theodora Raoulaina.202 ular art, too, was governed by the requirement of accuracy
Though the act of patronage could be quite rudimentary, in recording secular history.212
it often involved an explicit and subtle interaction between The urge toward continuity rather than innovation was
advisor and artist. Written instructions to artists survive, inherent in Christianity itself. Dependence on models had
for instance, in the Quedlinburg Itala manuscript, attesting an existential dimension during the Middle Ages.213 So, log-
to the participation of a literate advisor as early as the fifth ically, copying was a common procedure, either because
century,203 and planned transactions between artists and ad- an object had a venerable or even divine pedigree, or be-
visors can be documented throughout the period.204 In the cause it stood for a valued tradition. Icon painting sought
case of manuscripts, authors themselves sometimes super- to replicate the archetypes.214 In manuscript illumination,
vised illuminators, the illustrations being integral to au- where the scribal mentality reinforced the principle of ac-
thorial conception.205 Corporate patrons, the monastic and curate copying, art was principally an act of duplication.
mendicant orders especially, had set goals of their own and Although personal traits and even small intentional alter-
applied uniform systems to the production of art. The Fran- ations always appear, the goal was generally to come as
ciscans, for instance, promoted certain forms, styles, and close as possible to reproducing the model.215 The same ad-
iconographies;206 so, too, did the Dominicans.207 herence to sources affected monumental art forms as well.
Not surprising, tensions arose. Wary of artistic license, Though many factors - architectural settings and liturg-
Church authorities found evil even in innovations whose ical requirements, for example - precluded perfect adher-
expressive value they could appreciate. The attack on three- ence to prototypes,216 when frescoes were repainted or re-
nail Crucifixions by Lucas of Tuy is a famous case in point; stored, the new works often conformed to the previous
recognizing that the recently devised iconography might imagery.217 Replication also served to identify one culture
advance devotion, the bishop nonetheless condemned it as with another, and so it was especially common during pe-
contrary to tradition and hence heretical.208 As in literature riods of renewal - following Iconoclasm, for instance, or
and theology, artistic originality consisted more in the during the Carolingian period.
choice of models and in their reformulation than in inven- Craft traditions themselves helped to perpetuate both

197 U. Bergmann, "PRIOR OMNIBUS AUTOR - an h6chster Stelle aber Guillaume de Machaut, Paris, 1982, 117-32.
steht der Stifter," Ornamenta ecclesiae (as in n. 74), I, 117-48. 206 Belting (as in n. 114), Blume (as in n. 98), and Van Os (as in n. 91).
198 H. Bloch, Montecassino in the Middle Ages, Rome and Cambridge, 207 J. Cannon, "Simone Martini, the Dominicans and the Early Sienese
MA, 1986. Polyptych," Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, XLV, 1982,
69-93.
199 P. Gerson, "Suger as Iconographer. The Central Portal of the West
Facade of Saint-Denis," in Abbot Suger and Saint-Denis. A Symposium, 208 Gilbert (as in n. 73).
ed. P. Gerson, New York, 1986, 183-98.
209 Seidel (as in n. 140) and Wright (as in n. 128), 53-66.
200 P. Meyvaert, "Bede and the Church Paintings at Wearmouth-Jarrow,"
210 M. A. Stones, "Secular Manuscript Illumination in France," Medieval
Anglo-Saxon England, viii, 1979, 63-77.
Manuscripts and Textual Criticism, ed. C. Kleinhenz, Chapel Hill, NC,
201 J. Gardner, "Boniface VIII as a Patron of Sculpture," Roma Anno 1300, 1976, 83-102, and Camille (as in n. 86).
(as in n. 114), 513-27.
211 C. Gaignebet and J. Lajoux, Art profane et religion populaire au Moyen
202 Buchthal and Belting (as in n. 191). Age, Paris, 1985.
203 I. Levin, The Quedlinburg Itala, Leiden, 1985. 212 P. Brown, "Painting and History in Renaissance Venice," Art History,
204 F. Avril, "Un manuscrit d'auteurs classiques et ses illustrations," The viI, 1984, 263-94.
Year 1200: A Symposium, New York, 1975, 261-70; B. Brenk, Die friih- 213 P. Springer, "Modelle und Muster, Vorlage und Kopie, Serien," in Or-
christlichen Mosaiken in S. Maria Maggiore zu Rom, Wiesbaden, 1975; namenta Ecclesiae (as in n. 74), I, 301-14.
T. Mathews, "The Epigrams of Leo Sacellarios and an Exegetical Ap- 214 Galavaris (as in n. 88).
proach to the Miniatures of Vat. Reg. Gr. 1," Orientalia Christiana Per-
iodica, XLIII, 1977, 94-113; L. Brubaker, "Politics, Patronage, and Art in 215 K. Weitzmann, "The Study of Byzantine Book Illumination, Past, Pres-
Ninth-Century Byzantium: The Homilies of Gregory of Nazianzus in Paris ent, and Future," in The Place of Book Illumination (as in n. 131), 1-60;
(B.N.Gr. 510)," Dumbarton Oaks Papers, xxxix, 1985, 1-13; M. Camille, Belting and Cavallo (as in n. 31); and J. Lowden, "The Production of the
"Illustrations in Harley MS 3487 and the Perception of Aristotle's Libri Vatopedi Octateuch," Dumbarton Oaks Papers, xxxvi, 1982, 115-26.
naturales in Thirteenth-Century England," in England in the Thirteenth 216 E. Kitzinger, "The Role of Miniature Painting in Mural Decoration,"
Century, Suffolk, 1985, 31-43; and D. Bernstein, The Mystery of the Bay- Place of Book Illumination (as in n. 131), 99-142; idem (as in n. 39); Demus
eux Tapestry, Chicago, 1987. For a complex example of interaction, see (as in n. 11); and H. Kessler, "Pictures as Scripture in Fifth-Century
B. Brenk, "Le texte et l'image dans la 'Vie des saints' au Moyen Age: R0le Churches," Studia Artium Orientalis et Occidentalis, II, 1985, 17-31.
du concepteur et r1le du peintre," Texte et image (Actes du Colloque In- 217 C. Bertelli, "La mostra degli affreschi di Grottaferrata," Paragone, no.
ternational de Chantilly, 1982), Paris, 1984, 31-39. 249, xxI, 1970, 91-101.
205 F. Avril, "Les manuscrits enlumines de Guillaume de Machaut," in

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 ON THE STATE OF MEDIEVAL ART HISTORY 183

forms and styles, sometimes over long periods.218 Thement ap- - Eastern stylistic features at the time being absorbed
prenticeship system was fundamentally conservative. by Thethirteenth-century Latin artists. Quotations from the
training of artists reflected the attitude: Nihil innovetur,
sketchbook were incorporated by a Saxon illuminator, sug-
nisi quod traditum. And in both the East and the West it
gesting how forms and motifs made their way across great
distances and through diverse media.
consisted in teaching techniques largely through replicating
examples.219 In preparing works of art, medieval craftsmenReflecting the exchange of peoples during the Crusades,
used stamps, stencils, molds, and matrices that were passed
the Wolfenbiittel Musterbuch betrays, in its personal se-
on from generation to generation.2" Small objects - man- lection and taste, signs of weakening in the tyranny of tra-
uscripts, icons, ivories, and metalwork - could be copied dition. Along with the development of trade, the growth
directly; when artifacts were being used as prototypes of foran urban bourgeoisie, and the Church's promotion of
other media or when nonmovable objects were being cop- images as means of private devotion, artists' travels con-
ied, model books were used. These were kept in a shop tributed
and to the thirteenth-century transformation of art
were even legally bequeathed, assuring the perpetuation of
production. And speculative production of art began to
break the pattern of close collaboration between artist and
forms for decades.221 They also were used ti, transmit for-
mal and iconographic features from place to place and gen- patron and, in many cases, between the work and its spe-
eration to generation.222 Authority actually adhered to thecific function. Certain centers gained trade monopolies on
pictorial guides; the eighth-century Life of Saint Pancratius
specific art forms - Venice in glass crafts, for instance,
of Taormina, for instance, reports that none other than
and Norwich in alabaster - and art dealers began to
Saint Peter himself equipped missionaries to Sicily with
emerge.229 Under pressures of commodification, speciali-
drawings used in decorating new churches.223 The Francis-
zation intensified and techniques akin to those of mass pro-
cans used the same method to assure conformity, author- duction evolved. Competition increased the value placed
on skill and individual fame. Distinctive technical achieve-
izing certain patterns in the decoration of their churches;224
and a modelbook (now at Yale University) helped an Or- ments assured steady patronage. And guarantees that goods
thodox community in an Arabic country preserve its tra- were produced according to accepted standards, sought
ditions.225 In some cases, written guides rather than pictures
through regulation and legislation, stabilized markets.230
served the same function, aiding the makers of art to The as- ability to differentiate places of origin, producers,
semble and arrange fragments and motifs. Artistic recipe workshops, and, ultimately, identifiable artists also gained
books also recorded and distributed technical importance. Art was no longer seen merely as manufacture
information.226 but as the product of a learnable profession, a liberal art;
Medieval artists assembled "motif books" to record for and the making of art was seen to require not just manual
later use interesting patterns, profiles, and isolated figures skill but talent.231 Now prized, individual observations were
they had either seen or invented.227 The Wolfenbiittel Mus- set down in a new type of modelbook and something com-
terbuch is a well-known (and much-studied) example. Itself parable to modern drawings appeared.232
perhaps the replica of a more elaborate version, the sketch-
book contains figures copied by an Italian artist from mos- The Place of Art
aics, sculpture, and paintings seen in the course of travels Powers attributed to vision gave force and persistence
in Venice and the Balkans during the period of the Crusader to art in medieval culture. Following ancient speculation,
conquest.228 Containing parts of compositions and only medieval theologians praised sight as the most spiritual of
fragments of figures, the Musterbuch reveals its artist's par- the senses and the source of divine knowledge;233 and so
ticular interest in the representation of volume and move- art, because it is visual, acquired a special dignity. Believ-

218 Branner (as in n. 56). E. Vergnolle, "Un carnet de modiles de l'an mil originaire de Saint-Benoit-
219 Torp (as in n. 88), and The 'Painter's Manual' of Dionysius of Fourna, sur-Loire," Arte medievale, ii, 1985, 23-56.
transl. P. Hetherington, London, 1974. 228 E. K6nig, "Zur Bildfolge im 'Wolfenbiitteler Musterbuch,' " Zeit der
220 J. Salomonson, "Spiitr6mische rote Tonware mit Reliefverzierung aus Staufer (as in n. 43), v, 335-52, and Buchthal (as in n. 51).
nordafrikanischen Werkstitten," Bulletin antieke Beschaving, XLIV, 1969, 229 Larner (as in n. 165).
4-109, and Springer (as in n. 213).
230 W. Cahn, Masterpieces, Princeton, 1979; A. Laiou, "Venice as a Centre
221 F.E Cheetham, English Medieval Alabasters, Oxford, 1984. of Trade and of Artistic Production in the Thirteenth Century," Medio
222 J. Wollesen, Die Fresken von San Piero a Grado bei Pisa, Bad Oeyn- oriente e loccidente (as in n. 46), 11-16; and 0. Grabar, "Trade with the
hausen, 1977. East and the Influence of Islamic Art on the 'Luxury Arts' in the West,"
ibid., 27-33.
223 C. Mango, The Art of the Byzantine Empire 312-1453, Englewood
Cliffs, NJ, 1972. 231 Hanning (as in n. 70) and Claussen (as in n. 172).
224 Blume (as in n. 98). 232 B. Degenhart and A. Schmitt, Corpus der italienschen Zeichnungen
1300-1450, Berlin, 1968-82; U. Jenni, "Vom mittelalterlichen Musterbuch
225 Buchthal (as in n. 51).
zum Skizzenbuch der Neuzeit," Die Parler (as in n. 59), III, 139-50; and
226 B. Bischoff, "Die Oberlieferung der technischen Literatur," Artigianato Ames-Lewis (as in n. 13).
(as in n. 167), 267-96; and B. Binsch, "Technische Literatur," Ornamenta
233 S. Edgerton, The Renaissance Rediscovery of Linear Perspective, New
Ecclesiae (as in n. 74), i, 348-51.
York, 1975; Miles (as in n. 135); and D. Summers, The Judgment of Sense,
227 C. Nordenfalk, "Corbie and Cassiodorus, A Pattern Page Bearing on Cambridge, etc., 1987.
the Early History of Bookbinding," Pantheon, xxxii, 1974, 225-31, and

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184 THE ART BULLETIN JUNE 1988 VOLUME LXX NUMBER 2

ers, needing to see and witness, were attracted by the an- sonages believed to be living in a world beyond the sensory
imating character of art, in particular that of three-dimen- one. In so doing, it reinforced the special importance and
sional objects, which, like the sacraments, invigorated their sanctity of the places that sheltered images.240 Consecrated,
faith.234 Tied in medieval epistemologies to reason and or rendered in precious materials that lifted the figures out
memory, sight was afforded a unique place in edification of the earthly realm, images were incarnations of the di-
and instruction;235 Christ, it was noted, taught through vine; as such, they also played affective roles - stirring
demonstration. Art and sight together were regarded as the emotions, speaking, converting, and healing.241 The
foundations for an orderly progression from the world of stigmatization of Saint Francis is but one, albeit the most
matter to the spiritual realm; they were a fundamental famous episode, in which images operated fully in real his-
means for advancing religion.236 tory.242 The reality ascribed to the effigy also served mun-
Visual beauty was taken as a reflection of divine beauty, dane purposes, helping to memorialize, for instance,243
the ornamented church as an imitation of the heavenly or - harnessed to defamatory portraits of criminals - to
Church. As suggested by such scattered scriptural refer- punish.244
ences as Psalm 26:8 and the description of the celestial Je- Despite the authority that medieval Christianity vested
rusalem in the Book of Revelation, the beauty of art was in Scripture, words were not deemed fully reliable; texts,
taken to be an analogue of the pure, essential beauty of after all, could be altered, translated, and glossed. And in
Heaven. Incorporating divinely inspired ideas and appeal- a predominantly oral culture, words were transmitted
ing to the most spiritual sense, art was an instrument of through the ears, not the eyes.245 Indeed, though painting
meditation on this beauty and purpose;237 following God's drew upon different conventions, it was taken to be an
laws, it elevated matter to a spiritual state. Accordingly, exercise parallel to writing, as the use of the same vocab-
in making a work of art, the artist was seen merely to be ulary - graphe, zoographFa historia, schema - makes
actualizing an antecedent design; he or she merited no real clear.246 Moreover, because visual memory was considered
credit for the achievement except for the degree of ap- especially strong, the experience of literature itself involved
proximation to the ideal.238 seeing; by appealing to the "mind's eye," which made men-
Credence that, in Christ, God had assumed physical form tal images available to the rational faculty, art could train
implicated art in Christology, the most fundamental of all memory to extraordinary capabilities.247 Because of its
medieval theological issues.239 Long before the eighth- and mnemonic capacity, art was put to the service of instruction
ninth-century Iconoclastic disputes, Christ was considered and preaching.248
the eikon of God. To challenge the appropriateness of im- Art's testimonial power assured pictorial narrative a spe-
ages of him was to deny the Incarnation. And the defense cial place in medieval culture.249 In picturing the events de-
of images was extended to depictions of Mary and the scribed in Scripture, art attested to the events' actuality and
saints. hence to God's intentions in history. Even relatively sche-
While attesting to the historical veracity of God's inter- matic depictions added a sense of reality to words;250 nat-
ventions, images also confirmed his continuing presence on uralistic renderings, embodying laconic details, conveyed
earth - like the relics and sacraments with which they were the literal sense of the divine account in a concrete language
associated - mediating between this world and the next. that enhanced the feelings of immediacy.251
The Church recognized the value of art as a missionary
By asserting the real presence of the subjects depicted, art
provided a privileged means of communication with per- tool. Images eased the conversion from pagan practices that

234 Bonne (as in n. 140); H. Kessler, "Pictorial Narrative and Church Mis- 241 Dahl (ibid.) and E Biuml, "Varieties and Consequences of Medieval
sion in Sixth-Century Gaul," Studies in the History of Art, no. 16 (as in Literacy and Illiteracy," Speculum, Lv, 1980, 237-65.
n. 132) 75-91; Miles (as in n. 135); and Kartsonis (as in n. 29). 242 Belting (as in n. 42).
235 V. Kolve, Chaucer and the Imagery of Narrative, Stanford, 1984. 243 Herklotz (as in n. 61).
236 B. Nolan, The Gothic Visionary Perspective, Princeton, 1977; G. Lad- 244 G. Ortalli, "Pingatur in Palatio": La pittura infamante nei secoli XIII-
ner, "Medieval and Modern Understanding of Symbolism: A Compari- XVI, Rome, 1979.
son," Speculum, LIv, 1979, 223-56; S. Ringbem, "Some Pictorial Con-
245 Camille (as in n. 86), Cormack (as in n. 29), and Kartsonis (as in n.
ventions for the Recounting of Thoughts and Experiences in Late Medieval
29).
Art," Medieval Iconography and Narrative (as in n. 172), 38-69; Caviness
(as in n. 33); Roth (as in n. 73); and Summers (as in n. 233). 246 De' Maffei (as in n. 71), Meyvaert (as in n. 200), and Maguire, Art
237 Nolan (as in n. 236) and Summers (as in n. 233). The very attraction and Eloquence (as in n. 38).
of art also served to hold the faithful's attention and relieve boredom; see 247 Maguire (ibid.), Kolve (as in n. 235), and Summers (as in n. 233).
Gilbert (as in n. 73). 248 J. Friedman, "Les images mnemotechniques dans les manuscrits de
238 Hanning (as in n. 70). '16poque gothique," in Jeux de memoire, Montreal and Paris, 1985, 169-
84.
239 L. Barnard, "The Theology of Images," in Iconoclasm (as in n. 27), 7-
13, and D. Stein, Der Beginn des byzantinischen Bilderstreites und seine 249 Brown (as in n. 212).
Entwicklung bis in die 40er Jahre des 8. Jahrhunderts, Munich, 1980. For 250 H. Stahl, "Old Testament Illustrations during the Reign of St. Louis:
later involvement, see C. Bynum, "The Body of Christ in the Later Middle The Morgan Picture Book and the New Biblical Cycles," Medio oriente
Ages: A Reply to Leo Steinberg," Renaissance Quarterly, xxxIx, 1986, 399- e loccidente (as in n. 46), 79-93, and Kartsonis (as in n. 29).
439.
251 Werckmeister (as in n. 137), Marrow (as in n. 14), and Belting (as in
240 Dahl (as in n. 120) and Cormack (as in n. 29). n. 114).

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 ON THE STATE OF MEDIEVAL ART HISTORY 185

relied on cult statues, and they demonstrated God'swere

pres-sometimes introduced into commentaries and apo
ryphal
ence in lands never visited by Christ or his Apostles.252 Pic- writings to anchor the new versions to the auth
tures' accessibility made them compelling instruments itative
forsources.260

teaching the lessons of Scripture to both converts andInthe the public context outside the book, pictorial narrative
emphasized literalness by drawing on illustrated manu-
faithful; as enunciated by Pope Gregory the Great, reiter-
ated by Thomas Aquinas among many others, and en- as models or by adopting the structures of book
scripts
shrined in canon law, "pictures are the books of the art.261
illit- Here, however, sacred Scripture no longer acted as
erate."253 Diminishing the basic tension created by the
a validating referent and control, and different conditions
of viewing governed the presentation of history. Pictorial
centrality of the written Word in a largely illiterate society,
pictorial narratives became an important component of
formulae provided a basic vocabulary262 and the use of sim-
public art. Sacred stories depicted on the walls of conse-
ple outlines and strong colors enhanced legibility.263 Spatial
disposition created a syntax;264 orderly succession in space
crated buildings helped the believers to "see" the messages
taught in sermons and to recall the lessons later.254 suggested
Like passage in time; atemporal juxtapositions de-
Church drama, moreover, they also made the written claimed
ac- diachronic relationships and demonstrated the
counts seem real and vivid, transforming lofty verbal teleological
re- unity of sacred history. And the vivid "re-
ports into personal experiences. enactment" of past events itself displaced them to a new
Pictorial narrative in its primal manifestation - the timeil-and place, thereby linking the story of salvation to
luminated book - was part of a complex interplay betweenthe present.265
text and image. Illustrations derived a special authority Doctrinal readings were introduced into the pictured
from association with their sacred writings, and they ledas in manuscripts, through internal glosses; the Cre-
texts,
the viewer/reader to conclusions that were persuasive pre-
ator was identified either as Christ or the Trinity, for in-
cisely because they were integrated into the literalstance,ac- to convey a central tenet of Christian exegesis.266
count.255 Thus, in the fifth-century Cotton Genesis, theNarrative
Cre- formulae established typologies, as when scenes
ator is characterized as the Christ-Logos to establish from thethe life of Saint Peter were constructed of materials
taken from Moses iconography to assert the idea - im-
Son's pre-existence to creation, and Tamar and her children
are given special prominence, not because of their impor-portant in Early Christian Rome - that Peter was heir to
tance in the Old Testament story, but because theyMoses were as spiritual and temporal leader of the Chosen Peo-
ancestors of Christ.256 Similarly, pictorial topoi were em-Though pictures could teach theological lessons, cap-
ple.267
ployed to "rewrite" the accompanying texts. In the tions Bibleand labels were often added to underscore the typo-
logical messages.268 Especially during the Romanesque
of Leo Sacellarios, they transform the episode of the Levites
Carrying the Ark of the Old Covenant into a demonstra-
period, elaborate symbol systems and complex schemata,
as well as compositional conventions and inscriptions,
tion of the Christian liturgy;257 and in an eleventh-century
Life of Saint Alban, they reveal the saint to be a new John
transformed narratives into sophisticated metaphysical and
the Baptist.258 In other instances, pictures providedmetahistorical
a sep- presentations.269 For illiterates, reading the
arate commentary on the accompanying text by connectingsimple historiae must have been taxing; comprehending the
interpretive
and contrasting passages and offering moral readings.259 In imagery of Romanesque tympana or even the
a reversal of the process, images based on canonical relatively
texts transparent Early Christian programs would

252 Kessler (as in n. 234). 260 K. Weitzmann, The Miniatures of the Sacra Parallela, Princeton, 1979,
and Brubaker (as in n. 204).
253 W.-Jones, "Art and Christian Piety: Iconoclasm in Medieval Europe,"
in The Image and the Word, ed. J. Gutmann, Missoula, 1977, 75-105; 261 Kitzinger (as in n. 216), and Kessler (as in n. 216).
Kessler (as in n. 234); and Camille (as in n. 86).
262 F. Garnier, Le langage de limage au Moyen Age, Paris, 1982.
254 Friedman (as in n. 248). 263 Brenk et al. (as in n. 15).
255 M. Schapiro, Words and Pictures, The Hague and Paris, 1973; Brenk 264 On the historical determination of artistic syntax, see Nolan (as in n.
(as in n. 204); and A. St. Clair, "A New Moses: Typological Iconography 236); S. Nichols, Romanesque Signs, New Haven and London, 1983; and
in the Moutier-Grandval Bible Illustrations of Exodus," Gesta, xxvi, 1987, Bonne (as in n. 140).
19-28.
265 Belting (as in n. 114); F. Deuchler, "Le sens de la lecture. A propos du
256 K. Weitzmann and H. Kessler, The Cotton Genesis, Princeton, 1986.
boustroph6don," Etudes d'art mbdieval offertes a Louis Grodecki, Paris,
257 Mathews (as in n. 204). 1981, 251-58; Nichols (as in n. 264); Bonne (as in n. 140); and Kupfer (as
258 Brenk (as in n. 204). in n. 91).

259 J. Gaehde, "Carolingian Interpretations of an Early Christian Picture 266 J. Zahlten, Creatio mundi, Stuttgart, 1979.
Cycle to the Octateuch in the Bible of San Paolo fuori le Mura in Rome," 267 C. Pietri, Roma christiana, Rome, 1976, and H. Kessler, "Scenes from
Friimittelalterliche Studien, vIII, 1974, 351-84; H. Buchthal, "The Exal- the Acts of the Apostles on Some Early Christian Ivories," Gesta, xvIII,
tation of David," Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, xxxvii, 1979, 109-19.
1974, 330-33; K. P. Wentersdorf, "The Symbolic Significance of Figurae268 B. Brenk (as in n. 204); R. Pillinger, Die Tituli Historiarum, Vienna,
Scatologicae in Gothic Manuscripts," Word, Picture, and Spectacle (as in1980; and Davis-Weyer (as in n. 141).
n. 70), 1-19; and T. A. Heslop, " 'Brief in Words but Heavy in the Weight
269 Ladner (as in n. 236), Seidel (as in n. 32), Nichols (as in n. 264), Cav-
of Mysteries,' " Art History, ix, 1986, 1-11.
iness (as in n. 33), and Bonne (as in n. 140).

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186 THE ART BULLETIN JUNE 1988 VOLUME LXX NUMBER 2

surely have been impossible - at least without informed sought to generate pious sentiments in the beholder and
assistance.270 Thus, the "bibles of the lay" reinforced the serve as a moral model.279
ultimate priority of words over images. It must be remem-
bered, however, that the decoding of pictures, like listening Recent scholarship, finally free from preoccupation with
to sermons, was an aspect of communal religion involving classical forms and misplaced concern with "creative art-
diverse levels of society at once.271 ists," has begun to write an anthropology of medieval art.
Images also served the educated, of course. For insiders, No longer resistant, historians now accept tradition as cen-
one job of art was to support and reconfirm cherished be- tral in medieval art-making, and they are investigating
liefs. Pictures functioned as a divinely ordered memory sys- copying, citation, imitation, and reuse as expressive media.
tem, dealing out images of historical events in ordered That is one reason why the Crusader period - only now
stages, regulating liturgical performances, fixing a viewer's emerging as a subject - is so important, with its receptivity
time and place to the course of sacred time, and recalling to foreign impulses, including classical antiquity and Islam.
the essential points of Christian doctrine.272 And art could At that time art generated new uses and new modes of pro-
make arguments - sometimes drawing conclusions not duction. And most important, the system of internal ref-
possible to express in any other manner - as at Assisi, erencing was dislodged, permitting such new centers of ar-
where the fate of the Roman Catholic Church was provi- tistic production as Venice and Paris to replace the old
dentially tied to Saint Francis and the Franciscan order,273 capitals of Rome and Constantinople.
or in the Bayeux Tapestry where, in a celebration of vic- But while the works of art now best understood are, of
tory, a subversive political message may have been course, those which were agents of religious devotion, in-
introduced.274 struction, and ritual, secular art needs similar attention -
Especially in public works, art tended to stratify its au- not just imagery of rulers, which has always held a special
dience. Like the Scripture it substituted for, art could be fascination, but vernacular forms as well. And ornament,
read literally, symbolically, and anagogically.275 With such which so dominates the aspect of medieval objects, war-
artistic cues or devices as naturalism, inscriptions, typo- rants serious and thorough treatment.
logical conventions, schemata, and ornament, the levels Still, despite some progress, far too little is known about
were accessible according to the viewer's learning.276 Be- the production and distribution of art during the Middle
ginning in the twelfth century, artists worked steadily to Ages. The status of art-making, a meditative and redemp-
integrate the several modes of interpretation. Without sac- tive activity of importance for both artisan and patron in-
rificing spiritual meaning, they strove to make the reading dependent of the final product, needs to be investigated.
literal by operating according to the divine system that gov- The full implications of the role of patrons/advisors have
erns nature itself, including optics. They emphasized yet to be drawn. And for a culture that regarded artistic
Christ's life and Passion as the most effective means to ap- mastery as equaling, not surpassing, that of predecessors,
prehend spiritual reality through physical sight.277 And they "originality" must be reconsidered and assigned an appro-
transformed the unfolding of sacred history in art into a priate place.
system of meditation; this led the soul from sin to salvation Stimulated by renewed interest in the place that texts
and translated it in ordered stages from this world to the held in oral culture, historians have been investigating the
full ecstasy of pure contemplation.278 Influenced by views interaction between visual art and the word with partic-
espoused by Hugh of St. Victor and his contemporaries, ularly fruitful results. They risk losing sight of art's unique
that the visible was a demonstration of the invisible world, roles, however, and of its characteristic means for filling
they presented pictorial narrative as an instrument of direct them. And by torturing every bit of information from
communication with the divine. No longer principally a sparse sources, scholars may be obscuring or overlooking
means for confirming Church doctrine or instructing, art important historical distinctions. To the extent that each

270 Brenk (as in n. 204), and I. Ragusa, "Porta patet vitae sponsus vocat 275 R. Haussherr, "Sensus litteralis und sensus spiritualis in der Bible mora-
intro venite and the Inscriptions of the Lost Portal of the Cathedral of lisle," Friihmittelalterliche Studien, vi, 1972, 356-80.
Esztergom," Zeitschrift fiir Kunstgeschichte, XLIII, 1980, 345-51. On the 276 Belting (as in n. 114), Nichols (as in n. 264), Bonne (as in n. 140), and
reading and misreading of narrative, see W. Tronzo, The Via Latina Cat- Gilbert (as in n. 73).
acomb, University Park, PA, 1986.
277 G. Zinn, Jr., "Suger, Theology, and the Pseudo-Dionysian Tradition,"
271 Kessler (as in n. 216) and Camille (as in n. 86). Abbot Suger (as in n. 199), 33-40.
272 Nolan (as in n. 236), Camille (as in n. 86), and Friedman (as in n. 248). 278 Nolan (as in n. 236).
273 Belting (as in n. 114). 279 Belting (as in n. 143), Zinn (as in n. 277), and W. Kemp, Sermo Cor-
274 Bernstein (as in n. 204). poreus: Die Erziihlung der mittelalterlichen Glasfenster, Munich, 1987.

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 ON THE STATE OF MEDIEVAL ART HISTORY 187

work encapsulates the special circumstances that engen- Herbert Kessler's earliest publications were on Northern
dered it and rendered it accessible to its first users, under- Renaissance art, including the exhibition catalogue, French
standing it requires unique methods. And insofar as the and Flemish Illuminated Manuscripts from Chicago Col-
rules of syntax governing each work of art served for a lections (1969). His subsequent work has centered on early
limited duration and only in certain places, they have their Western and Byzantine manuscripts, painting, and ivory
own historicity. The same is also true of every medieval carving, and taken form in The Illustrated Bibles from Tours
statement on art. It, too, was conditioned by its immediate (1977), The Cotton Genesis (with Kurt Weitzmann, 1986),
circumstances; it, too, had its history. and various articles, most recently in Dumbarton Oaks Pa-
In these conditions, one should not be surprised that pers (XLI, 1987), and the Jahrbuch ftir Antike und Chris-
much of the very best recent scholarly writing has focused tentum (xxx, 1987). His current research is on narrative and
on single works or on small groups of related monuments. medieval church decoration in Rome. [Department of the
These monographic studies provide important source ma- History of Art, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore,
terial; but the history of medieval art must still be written. MD 21218]

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