Medieval Sculpture

An undergraduate dissertation examining hogback stones in relation to their wider context using place-names, topgraphy, vernacular poetry, Domesday Book and various narrative sources such as the Historia de Sancto Cuthberto. By these means hogback stones are tied more firmly to the Hiberno-Norse and the wider political and aristoractic context of contemporary northern England, suggesting a greater deal of continuity between pre- and post-Viking society than is often supposed. The importance of examining sculpture with reference to its wider context is also made clear. (Any feedback would be much appreciated.)

La croce di Santa Maria Maggiore, di pietra aurisina, restaurata e ricomposta nei suoi frammenti da Giovanni Giannelli, direttore tecnico del Laboratorio di Restauro
Ottorino Nonfarmale S.r.l., e collocata su una colonna di pietra gialla ramata di Vicenza, foggiata dal Laboratorio Morseletto, torna ad essere patrimonio archeologico
visibile della città di Bologna. Dopo essere rimasta a lungo nascosta, è stata rinvenuta durante i recenti lavori di consolidamento del portico della basilica di Via Galliera, dove è attesa per la definitiva collocazione all’interno della chiesa. (Mons. Rino Magnani)
Si tratta di un tassello archeologico importante che reca la data certa del 1143,
ma potrebbe anche trasformarsi in chiave determinante di interpretazione per
rileggere le maestranze di quegli anni.

El texto analiza en profundidad la portada del palacio de Mosén Sorell de Valencia, conservada actualmente en la sección de escultura española del Museo del Louvre.
Además de este artículo, se recomienda consultar el monográfico sobre Jaume Vicent, publicado en 2019 en la revista Archivo de Arte Valenciano. En él se le identifica como posible autor de esta obra.

Fondé sur une double approche iconographique et textuelle, ce livre situe pour la première fois les sirènes antiques et médiévales au sein d'une histoire globale. Cette mise en perspective qui inclut aussi une approche anthropologique, permet d'appréhender cette figure archétypale dans son unité profonde tout en rendant compte des formes paradoxales qu'elle a pu revêtir. Mais au-delà de l'histoire du mythe et de ses variantes, des croyances magico-religieuses qui y sont associées et des interprétations philosophiques et morales dont il a fait l'objet, cette étude présente surtout l'originalité d'évoquer le passage de l'Antiquité païenne au Moyen Âge occidental chrétien au moyen d'une image-symbole qui apparaît comme un révélateur de mentalités particulièrement éclairant.

Intéressé par les mécanismes subtils qui ont permis la transmission et l'assimilation d'une bonne partie de la culture antique au Moyen Âge, l'auteur s'est notamment attaché à montrer l'étonnante continuité du discours savant tel qu'il s'exprime essentiellement dans l'oeuvre exégétique des Pères de l'Eglise et dans la littérature didactique des moines et des clercs qui s'en sont inspirés. Une place importante n'en a pas moins été faite à l'apport des cultures germanique et celtique qui semblent très impliquées dans le maintien des sirènes au sein d'une certaine forme de réalité, et surtout dans leur métamorphose en femme-poisson intervenue au VIIIe siècle au plus tard. L'apparition de "bonnes sirènes" aux côtés des sirènes vampiriques toujours craintes par les masses en plein Moyen Âge, paraît aussi devoir leur être imputée.

A cette enquête complexe mais combien passionnante s'ajoute une iconographie généreuse et de qualité qui permet de découvrir comment on représenta les sirènes durant toutes ces époques. La sculpture sur pierre du XIe et du XIIe siècle y est particulièrement bien représentée car la sirène y apparaît comme un motif privilégié. Un chapitre consacré aux sirènes dans la stylistique romane tente d'expliquer cette faveur, sur base d'arguments uniquement stylistiques.

Resumo: A imagem da Santíssima Trindade proveniente da igreja de Santa Clara de Santarém, e hoje pertencente ao Museu Municipal da mesma cidade, é uma escultura de pedra, com vestígios de policromia que se encontra incompleta, faltando-se duas das figuras que completam a Trono de Graça. Pouco divulgada e pouco conhecida do público não especialista, carece de uma análise mais aprofundada, em especial no que se refere às suas características formais e aos modelos estéticos que lhe estão subjacente. Este estudo, através de uma metodologia comparativa, pretende colocar hipóteses que ajudem a colocar esta obra num tempo e numa corrente estética que a tornam mais compreensível par a História da Arte, sobretudo, se tivermos em conta que não chegaram até nós outras esculturas com características que permitam identificar a presença do mesmo artista (anónimo, até ao momento).

Abstract:  The image of the Holy Trinity from the church of Santa Clara in Santarém, now belonging to the Municipal Museum of this city, is a stone sculpture, with traces of polychrome that is incomplete, with two missing figures that complete the Throne of the Grace. Little publicized and poorly known to the non-specialist public lacks a deeper analysis, especially with regard to their formal characteristics and the underlying aesthetic models. This study, through a comparative methodology, aims to put hypotheses that help to put this work in a time and aesthetic movement that make it more understandable to the History of Art, especially if we consider that other sculptures with features that allow us to identify the presence of the same artist (unnamed so far) have not reached us.

This article describes two fragments of the alabaster virgin that presided over the centre altarpiece of the church of Saint Mary in Tamarite in 1504, having been commissioned by the legal representatives of the town of Tamarite and the sculptor Juan Dusi, native of Bruges and resident of Zaragoza. The piece was made just after the completion of the altarpiece, made with panels painted by the Zaragoza-born painters Miguel and Juan Ximénez between 1500 and 1503, and it continued to preside over the presbytery even when the Gothic furnishings were replaced by a new altarpiece, in this case made by the sculptor Juan de Loscertales in around 1682. The sculpture remained in this location until 1936, when material goods of the parish church were destroyed in the context of the Spanish Civil War. Since then, it was believed that the work was missing, hence the relevance of the recently recovered fragments.

In Artistic Change at St-Denis: Abbot Suger's Program and the Early Twelfth-Century Controversy over Art (Princeton University Press, 1990), I apply the conclusions of my earlier study of the social theory of medieval art as presented in The "Things of Greater Importance": Bernard of Clairvaux's Apologia and the Medieval Attitude Toward Art (University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 1990) to a complex and previously only partially understood case--that is, I test the practicality of my earlier study.  The art program of the monastery of Saint-Denis, just outside Paris, under Abbot Suger (1122-1151) is of enormous importance in the history of art, being considered to be the origin of Gothic architecture, sculpture, and stained glass.  Suger's writings, upon which I base my study, are among the most famous in the history of art.  In applying the issues of the early twelfth-century controversy over art to this program, it becomes clear that the situation at Saint-Denis was more complex than previously thought.  For example, rather than being the artistic expression of centuries-old Pseudo-Dionysian light mysticism, as has been believed, it can be shown that the artistic change initiated at Saint-Denis was a middle-ground reaction to the current controversy over art, especially to the criticism that art acted as a spiritual distraction to the monk.  And far from being the product of the personal idiosyncrasies of Suger, as has often said, the well known obscurity of the art of Saint-Denis was an intentional obscurity whose purpose was to provide an art so complex that it could be used as a justification of monastic art in its claim to function on the same level as scriptural study, which was unquestioned as a legitimate monastic pursuit.  It was in this sense that Suger wrote that his art was "accessible only to the litterati"--and not to the visiting illiterate pilgrim--previous scholarship not realizing that, in the vocabulary of early twelfth-century monasticism, litteratus is a technical term referring to the literate choir monk.  At the same time, however, I also show that Suger's claim can be fully understood only with recognition of the inherent contradiction that these same artworks were in fact fully accessible visually, if not intellectually, to the visiting illiterate lay pilgrim as well--a contradiction of which Suger was fully aware.  My conclusions, which have become broadly accepted, have fundamentally changed our view of the best-known moment of artistic change in medieval art history.

The pietà from the church of St. Michael the Archangel in Domachowo, a former bishop’s village, has not been studied separately so far. It has been mentioned in two exhibition catalogues during reflections on the most important pietàs associated with the style of the late 14th and early 15th c. This sculpture is linked with a Wrocław workshop and dated from 1400 to the 1430s. It was probably first shown publicly in Gostyń during the 1931 Marian Exhibition. Five years later, thanks to the involvement of students of the history of art at the University of Poznań, it was exhibited in the Museum of Wielkopolska. While it emerged in the scientific discourse at that time, it has never been given more attention. Still, it is undoubtedly a work which deserves a more comprehensive study. This article discusses the pietà of Domachowo and gathers all the existing knowledge about it. Moreover, it describes unpublished technological studies, which led to the rethinking of the knowledge about wooden pietàs dated 1400- 1430, as well as to the establishment of preliminary hypotheses and further research questions, concerning not only the sculpture from Domachowo, but also the whole set of  imilar representations.

The book was published in Prague in 1962.

Annotation:
The author completes this publication his long activities in the field of Czech Gothic sculpture. Traces the origins carvings, centered mainly in Moravia, circuit Parler smelter, climax around the year. 1460 and final degradation. Discovers a series of new works and formulate new knowledge. Genesis beautiful style derives from domestic conditions.

One of the great premises of medieval popular religion was the localization of the holy, the essential principle of the pilgrimage.  At the same time, there was a widespread equation between excessive art and holiness.  One result of these complementary dynamics was that many pilgrims felt that the localization of the holy was indicated by an elevated artistic environment, an attitude that was used at times by religious institutions at some holy sites to meet the expectations of some great experience on the part of the tens and even hundreds of thousands of visitors who are recorded as having annually visited these places.  At the high point of the pilgrimage (11th-12th centuries), almost all of these pilgrims had no or only very little formal education.  And so the question arises, given the important role of art in the lived experience, how was this often complex form of visual media negotiated in this unique intersection of high culture and the non-elite in actual practice?  In other words, what provided the crucial interface for a largely uneducated public and the often phenomenally expensive art programs that had been created almost entirely for their benefit, practically speaking?  Or, put another way still, was there such a thing as a "tour guide" in the Middle Ages?
This study investigates the medieval "tour guide" or, perhaps better, it investigates guide culture.  Toward this end, I ask such questions as was there a "tour guide" in the Middle Ages, that is, is there evidence for an artistic component within medieval guide culture?  If so, what was the precedent for this?  What was its relation to artistic culture in general and pilgrimage culture in particular?  Is there any evidence of guide support, such as guide training or guide aids?  What can we say about the range of artistic culture addressed by medieval guides and, in this regard, what sort of information did they convey?  Who were these guides and what social groups did they address?  Did they act to maintain--consciously or unconsciously--the traditional social distance between the spiritual elite and the non-elite?  And how does all this affect our conception of medieval artistic culture, broadly speaking?
Medieval guide culture and its mediating dynamic, ephemeral by nature, have been largely overlooked.  But at least something--even if little more than an awareness--of this culture may be recovered.  The evidence suggests that it was an active factor in the transmission of particular categories of knowledge and claims, and strongly affected both the object-viewer dynamic and the social context of medieval public art.  And in this, the guide, variously understood, was often the principal mediator between the ordinary visitor and the sometimes incredibly lavish and complex art programs--between the public and the public work of art--of the Middle Ages.

Of all the human endeavors of the more than one thousand years of Western medieval culture, no single aspect looms so large in the mind of modern man as that of medieval art.  Yet despite the vast number of studies that have been undertaken to explain one aspect or another of medieval art, very few have attempted to explain in a non-aesthetic or non-theological way that issue which is so fundamental to a complete understanding of the artistic complexities of the Middle Ages--the medieval attitude toward art.
In this book, I attempt to lay the foundation for just such an understanding, refracted through the greatest artistic controversy to occur in the West prior to the Reformation, and through the most important document of that controversy--indeed, the most important source we have for the medieval attitude toward art--Bernard of Clairvaux's Apologia ad Guillelmum (1125).
Bernard of Clairvaux was the most articulate spokesman of the historical constant of the medieval opposition to the use of religious art (virtually all of the greatest art before the Late Middle Ages was religious).  In this study, I address a number of the more pressing artistic issues affecting frontline art of the early twelfth century as articulated in Bernard's Apologia.  As presented in this study--which is securely anchored in both the monastic literary tradition and contemporary political, social, and economic concerns--the discussion of Bernard's "things of greater importance" follows a sequence from the economic base of monastic art production (the investment in art to attract donations) to the artistic means by which this was carried out (the sensory saturation of the holy place), to the reception of excessive art on the part of the general public (the equation between excessive art and holiness), to external social objections (art as being in opposition to the care of the poor), and finally to the internal spiritual objections of monasticism (art as a spiritual distraction to the monk).  Central to this social theory of medieval art is the concept of the justification of art, the limits of acceptable art, and the question of just what actually constituted excessive art.  This study shows that art, the absence of art, or the degree of art in the Middle Ages should no longer be seen simply as the result of the ability to acquire or the desire to avoid art.  This book comprises the most thorough social-theoretical study of medieval art as it actually functioned in society, and its implications for the art of both the Romanesque and Gothic periods, whose transition Bernard's life spans, are significant.
This study is accompanied by an English translation and an extensive commentary on the Apologia.
      This formerly out-of-print book is now available again in print at: https://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/1655.html

A Companion to Medieval Art: Romanesque and Gothic in Northern Europe, Blackwell Companions in Art History, 2nd ed. (Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, 2019) (a collection of thirty-nine original essays from leading and upcoming scholars in the field, each historiographically analyzing one of a systematic and editorially determined range of subjects in the development of Romanesque and Gothic art history; eleven new essays were added to the revised original thirty essays of the first edition; this includes my introductory essay, "A Sense of Loss: An Overview of the Historiography of Romanesque and Gothic Art").

1. Introduction
A Sense of Loss: An Overview of the Historiography of Romanesque and Gothic Art
Conrad Rudolph

2. Artifex and Opifex – The Medieval Artist
Beate Fricke

3. Vision
Cynthia Hahn

4. Materials, Materia, "Materiality"
Aden Kumler

5. Reception of Images by Medieval Viewers
Madeline H. Caviness

6. Narrative, Narratology, and Meaning
Suzanne Lewis

7. Formalism
Linda Seidel

8. Gender and Medieval Art
Brigitte Kurmann-Schwarz

9. Gregory the Great and Image Theory in Northern Europe During the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries
Herbert L. Kessler

10. Iconography
Shirin Fozi

11. Art and Exegesis
Christopher G. Hughes

12. Whodunit? Patronage, the Canon, and the Problematics of Agency in Romanesque and Gothic Art
Jill Caskey

13. Collecting (and Display)
Pierre Alain Mariaux

14. The Concept of Spolia
Dale Kinney

15. The Monstrous
Thomas E. A. Dale

16. Making Sense of Marginalized Images in Manuscripts and Religious Architecture
Laura Kendrick

17. Definitions and Explanations of the Romanesque Style in Architecture from the 1960s to the Present Day
Eric Fernie

18. Romanesque Sculpture in Northern Europe
Colum Hourihane

19. Modern Origins of Romanesque Sculpture
Robert A. Maxwell

20. The Historiography of Romanesque Manuscript Illumination
Adam Cohen

21. The Study of Gothic Architecture
Stephen Murray

22. France, Germany, and the Historiography of Gothic Sculpture
Jacqueline Jung

23. Gothic Manuscript Illustration: The Case of France
Anne D. Hedeman

24. “Specially English”: Gothic Illumination c.1190 to the Early Fourteenth Century
Kathryn A. Smith

25. From Institutional to Private and from Latin to the Vernacular: German Manuscript Illumination in the Thirteenth Century
Michael Curschmann

26. Glazing Medieval Buildings
Elizabeth Pastan

27. Toward a Historiography of the Sumptuous Arts
Brigitte Buettner

28. Reliquaries
Cynthia Hahn

29. East Meets West: The Art and Architecture of the Crusader States
Jaroslav Folda

30. Gothic in the Latin East
Michalis Olympios

31. Art and Liturgy in the Middle Ages
Eric Palazzo

32. Architectural Layout: Design, Structure, and Construction in Northern Europe
Marie-Thérèse Zenner

33. Sculptural Programs
Bruno Boerner

34. The Art and Architecture of Female Monasticism
Jeffrey F. Hamburger

35. Cistercian Architecture
Peter Fergusson

36. Art and Pilgrimage: Mapping the Way
Paula Gerson

37. "The Scattered Limbs of the Giant": Recollecting Medieval Architectural Revivals
Tina Waldeier Bizzarro

38. Medieval Art Collections
Janet Marquardt

39. The Modern Medieval Museum
Michelle P. Brown

Das Apostelkollegium als bildhauerisches Ensemble war in der mittelalterlichen Skulptur ein wichtiges Element von europaweit hohem Rang und einer langen Kathedraltradition. Ein Zyklus von Apostelfiguren, die an Pfeilern oder Wandflächen angeordnet und in die architektonische Struktur des Kircheninnenraumes organisch eingebunden sind, war Träger der konkreten ekklesiologischen Ideologie. Wegweisend in Symbolik und Funktion ist der in der ersten Hälfte des 13. Jh. entstandene Apostelzyklus in der königlichen Kapelle Sainte-Chapelle in Paris. Die Verbreitung dieses Urmusters in der Kunst des mittelalterlichen Europas fand auf sehr unterschiedlichem Wege statt. Die Rezeption erfolgte entweder durch die Übernahme des Typs und der Funktion der gesamten Sainte-Chapelle (als Reliquienschrein) oder durch eine freiere Interpretation der Apostel als symbolischer Pfeiler, die oft von lokalen Kontext beeinflusst war. Fast alle erhaltenen Apostelkollegien aus dem 13. und 14. Jh. hatten eine ideologische Prägung, die mit der örtlichen Reliquientradition und Machtideologie verbunden war. Die bekannten Zyklen dieses Typs in Europa sind vereinzelt und topographisch ziemlich zerstreut. In Frankreich selbst ist das einzige erhaltene Beispiel der Nachahmung des bildhauerischen Dekors von Sainte-Chapelle der Skulpturenzyklus aus dem 13. Jh. in der Kathedrale zu Carcassonne. Die klar erkennbare Referenz an die französischen Vorbilder in der gotischen Ausbauphase des Kölner Doms führte zur Popularität dieses ikonografischen Typs am Nieder- und Mittelrhein. Ein weiteres frühes Beispiel befindet sich im Stift zu Xanten (nach 1300), ein etwas Späteres im Stift zu Soest (ca. 1350) und ein chronologisch etwas entfernterer, aber im Sinne der Semantik sehr interessanter Zyklus – im Domchor zu Aachen (Ende des 14. Jh). Ein anderes Zentrum dieses Typs war am Oberrhein, in Freiburg/Br. (ca. 1310–1315). Die Dekoration in der dortigen Pfarrkirche wurde im Rottweil wiederholt (1340–1360).
Vor diesem Hintergrund ist es auffallend, dass der Typus des wand- oder pfeilergebundenen Apostelkollegiums in Preußen durch sechs bis heute erhaltene bzw. bekannte Figurengruppen vertreten ist (neben Beispielen, deren Gestalt heute gar nicht mehr ablesbar ist – wie der Figurenzyklus in Arnau, dessen wahrscheinliche Existenz nur von der bis heute erhaltenen architektonischen Umrahmung bezeugt wird, siehe Kapitel IV/2). Diese Denkmalgruppe, die in vieler Hinsicht uneinheitlich ist, bildet ein außergewöhnliches Phänomen, dessen Bedeutung den Rahmen der regionalen Kunst weit überschreitet. Nicht nur im Baltikum, sondern auch im größeren mitteleuropäischen Bereich wurde in dieser Zeit die ekklesiologische Ideologie der Apostel als Glaubenspfeiler in ganz unterschiedlicher visueller Form – nämlich Wandmalerei – ausgedrückt (eine bekannte Ausnahme bildet der Skulpturenzyklus aus der St. Magdalenenkirche in Wrocław/Breslau). Demgegenüber gehören die vier ältesten preußischen Apostelkollegien aus Malbork/Marienburg, Królewiec/Königsberg, Brodnica/Strasburg, Chełmno/Kulm zu den europaweit frühesten Beispielen. Sie beweisen weniger die Nutzung eines gängigen Typs oder Musters, sondern können eher als eine bewusste symbolische Kreation betrachtet werden.
In der bisherigen Literatur sind die bildhauerischen Apostelkollegien in Preußen nur allgemein erwähnt – mit unterschiedlichen Datierungen und Zuschreibungen (siehe Kapitel I und Katalog). Die zwei herausragenden und ältesten Zyklen befinden sich in der Marienburger Schlosskirche und in der Pfarrkirche zu Kulm. Der Zyklus in Marienburg ist leider nur fragmentarisch erhalten, das Gesamtbild ist aber aus einer vorkriegszeitlichen Dokumentation bekannt. Das Apostelkollegium in Kulm umfasst heute elf überlebensgroße Figuren mit Konsolen und Baldachinen, die trotz Verlagerungen noch in situ erhalten sind. Das Königsberger Collegium wurde während des 2. Weltkriegs zerstört, dank fotografischer Aufnahmen ist es zumindest fragmentarisch bekannt. Der Zyklus in Strasburg ist leider nur in wenigen Bruchstücken erhalten, was eine detaillierte Rekonstruktion ausschließt. Eine für das Ordensland signifikante Besonderheit bilden schließlich die Holzfigurengruppen, die in hierfür vorgesehene steinerne architektonische Umrahmungen (Konsolen und Baldachine) eingefügt wurden. Beispiele hierfür sind die an der Wende des 13. zum 14. Jahrhunderts entstandenen Apostelzyklen in den Pfarrkirchen zu Strasburg und Elbląg/Elbing. Das beschriebene bildhauerische Werk wurde fast von Beginn an (ca.1340) von der Wandmalerei begleitet, die derselben Thematik gewidmet war.
Die erhaltenen Figurenzyklen (siehe Katalog) sind keine einheitliche Gruppe bezüglich Material, Form oder Chronologie. Einige Zyklen sind aus Kunststein (Stuck), die anderen aus Holz hergestellt. Sie befanden sich in verschiedenen liturgischen Räumen (Ordensburgen, Stadtpfarrkirchen, Kathedrale), trugen unterschiedliche Bedeutungen und zeigten jeweils individuelle künstlerische Ausdrucksformen. An einigen Beispielen sind Werkstattbeziehungen nachweisbar, obwohl die Werke verschiedenen Stilen zuzuordnen sind (besonders die zwei späteren aus den Pfarrkirchen in Strasburg und Elbing). Alle Apostelgruppen basieren auf dem verwendeten modus eines monumentalen Figurenzyklus, der ins Programm des Kircheninnenraumes integriert wurde und gleichzeitig einen eigenständig wirkenden plastischen Akzent setzt. Das erlaubt, sie als ein gemeinsames Forschungsthema zu betrachten. Alle diese Werke befinden sich in wichtigen sakralen Räumen, die für die Kirche des Ordenslandes in Preußen bestimmte Bedeutungen hatten. Damit bilden die Figurenzyklen trotz aller Unterschiede eine künstlerische Erscheinung, die größtenteils in dieselbe Zeit gehört, aus einer und derselben Idee resultiert und vom gleichen Urheber – dem Deutschen Ritterorden – stammt.

Cette étude, unique, révèle enfin, l’histoire du plus célèbre sculpteur du XIIe siècle, le Maître de Cabestany, le créateur du tympan de l’église de Cabestany, au sud de Perpignan, et de nombreuses autres œuvres, aujourd’hui dispersées entre le sud de la France et le nord de l’Espagne.

Certaines de ces œuvres sont connues depuis longtemps, comme la frise de l’église du Boulou, l’Assomption de la Vierge à Rieux-Minervois ou encore le sarcophage de l’abbaye de Saint-Hilaire, dans l’Aude, et bien d’autres sculptures encore, mais certaines, totalement ignorées jusqu’ici, sont révélées et montrées pour la première fois, comme les chapiteaux de l’abbaye de Moissac, ou les petites sculptures du soleil et de la lune sur le portail de l’église de Saint-Pons-de-Thomières.

Chaque sculpture présentée dans cette étude est datée très précisément, ce qui a finalement permis de reconstituer la véritable histoire de ce sculpteur hors-norme, une histoire bien différente de celle habituellement présentée par les chercheurs, depuis sa naissance près de Toulouse à la fin du XIe siècle, jusqu’à sa mort, en Catalogne espagnole, près de 70 ans plus tard.

Mots-clés : Maître de Cabestany, art roman, sculpture, chapiteau, tympan, sarcophage de Saint-Sernin, abbaye de Moissac, Saint-Etienne de Cahors, Rieux-Minervois, Saint-Pons-de-Thomières, église de Cabestany, Le Boulou, église de Bellpuig, Vaissières, monastère de Sant-Pere-de-Rodes, Sant-Pere-de-Galligants, Sant-Esteve-d’en-Bas, château de La Réole, église d’Orrondo.

Prefazione; Introduzione; Capitolo I. Il chiostro istoriato romanico; Capitolo II. 1. Il chiostro di Aosta. Struttura; 2. Rifacimenti; 3. Il colore: 4. Iconografia; 5. Il problema della datazione: Appendice - Note di epigrafia; Capitolo III. 1. Caratteri stilistici dei capitelli; 2. Le sculture legate al corpus ursino; Capitolo IV. 1. Il chiostro aostano e la scultura d' Oltralpe; 3. I capitelli con i Profeti e la miniatura; Capitolo V. L' atelier attivo nel chiostro ursino. Conclusioni; Bibliografia; Pianta del chiostro; Tavole fuori testo.

The article is devoted to medieval and Early Modern animated sculpturesfrom the current and former territories of Poland. Sculptures of this kind, withthe construction of various degrees of complexity, quipped sometimes withmechanisms enabling movement of chosen body parts, e.g. the head, hands or legs,were used at theatralised liturgical and paraliturgical ceremonies, mostly during Holy Week. Such ceremonies have a rich tradition, which is clearly testified notonly by numerous surviving written accounts of specific ceremonies but also byseldom talked about and mostly unknown to theatre historians sculpted pieces thatare the subject of this article. The article contains a detailed presentation of surviving and known fromhistorical accounts figures of the Christ on a donkey, fixed to platforms onwheels and used on Palm Sunday; animated statues of the Crucified Christ, fittedwith mechanisms that made it possible to take the figure off the cross on GoodFriday; and statues of the Resurrected Christ that were used during ceremonies commemorating the Ascension of Christ. Other works of similar character used inother periods of liturgical year, though fewer, have also been mentioned.

The current conception of the art of the abbey of Cluny and of what is generally known as the Cluniac Order has been formed to an inordinate degree on the basis of one historical document, Bernard of Clairvaux’s Apologia ad Guillelmum. Indeed, many scholars have seen the treatise’s passage on art (Apol. 28-29) as a description of art as it existed at Cluny at the time of the writing of the Apologia (probably 1125). In confronting the question, this article briefly takes up a number of issues, including the belief that the Apologia was specifically addressed to the abbey of Cluny , that Bernard was either strongly repulsed by or strongly attracted to art, and that Apol. 29 is a description of actual cloister sculpture, most notably that of the cloister of Pons at Cluny . Instead, the passage which has been seen as a description of the cloister of Pons is explained as a critique of certain elements of art as a spiritual distraction–the implication being that a reformulation of our artistic conception of Cluny is long overdue, and that the criticism of art contained in the Apologia played a larger role than that of merely acting as a censure of artworks as they existed at Cluny.

Pre-Romanesque sculpture is characterized by interlacing composition at the church furniture. Among the motifs on interlaced sculpture, inside floral group appears motive of "swirling/vortex roses." There are different masonry performance of motives. Significant is the symbolism of "swirling roses" in combination with "lily motif" and interlacing tendrils that connects them. Different authors use various variants in describing motifs executed in interlace. By taking into account compositions of motifs on Early Medieval interlace reliefs and their interpretation in scholarly literature, uncoordinated terminology becomes prominent.

Alabaster has many proverbial qualities, as evident in Shakespeare's 'smooth as monumental alabaster' (Othello, V, ii). Tomb monuments are a prominent feature in Kim Woods’ new monograph 'Cut in Alabaster' (2018) on the uses of this translucent material in the period 1350 to 1550. Yet the scope of this book is much wider, both thematically and geographically.  With the increased interest in materiality, this is a welcome – and impressive – addition to the literature on medieval sculpture and on alabaster in particular.

The essential problem for the study of Bernard’s Apologia ad Guillelmum (1125), the most important document pertaining to the medieval attitude toward art, has been that scholars have felt it does not specifically name one monastery or monastic order as a subject of the criticisms contained in it. Although Bernard–one of the most influential men of his time–quite clearly and repeatedly addressed his admonitions to William of Saint-Thierry’s “order,” scholars have known that William was a friend of Bernard and therefore have believed that this address must have been a front for an indirect attack upon someone else. At the same time they have assumed that the Apologia was aimed at Cluny in particular. Undoubtedly from the earliest times a major factor in this conception has been the similarity of Bernard’s Letter 1 and the Apologia. Yet crucial distinctions between the two have not been noticed. These are that Bernard never hesitated to repeatedly mention Cluny by name in Letter 1, and that there is no criticism of the art of Cluny in the same letter. The problem of clarity of address was solved by prefixing to the Apologia, on inconclusive evidence, a certain letter of Bernard’s. This letter, in recounting an earlier one of William’s, did mention the Cluniacs. However, when the text proper was quoted either extensively or without the aid of the spurious preface, later scholars felt that it was necessary to interpolate the word “Cluniac,” as Bernard did not sufficiently use that word to accommodate their conception of the treatise. As a result, attention focused on Cluny as the major, or even sole, recipient of the Apologia.

Many scholars have thought that if it were Cluny that Bernard had complained about in his treatise, it must also be Cluny that he had described in his chapters on art. Therefore theApologia was substituted for historical evidence in their reconstruction of the art program of that abbey. The use of Bernard’s denunciation of the worst aspects of excessive art as a catalogue of the artworks as they were believed to have existed at Cluny in 1125 has led to an image of Cluny as bent on a program of excessive art. This image was compounded by a somewhat misleading comparison with Cîteaux when Cîteaux was at its financially most impoverished level. Such a polarization of the two most visible representatives of contemporary monasticism has contributed to a rather limited understanding of the monastic controversy in the early twelfth century. The inflexibility of this view has also had as a consequence the impression that excessive ornamentation was somehow distinctively Cluniac, and to be consistently found throughout the Cluniac Congregation.

As to an analysis of what Bernard actually said about art, scholars have tended to concentrate their attention on two main aspects of Apologia 28-29: Bernard’s censure of art as a spiritual distraction and his recognition of the utility of a secular religious art. The first point has, in the most thorough work, received a certain amount of recognition. But although Bernard’s comments on secular religious art were only made in passing, they have been dealt with by some as a major tenet of the Apologia. In short, these authors have fixed on to what may be termed the artistically positive aspects of the Apologia, rather than on to the more prominent negative criticisms of art.

The same inclination is seen in efforts to explain the impetus behind Apologia 28-29. The premium set on medieval religious art by nineteenth-century Church enthusiasts compelled them to denounce Bernard’s criticism of art as personally motivated, rather than on monastic or social grounds. The approaches to Bernard’s personal attitude toward art have been varied and contradictory, with some authors suggesting that Bernard’s rejection of art indicated a revulsion, and to others a very strong attraction. In the end, this has detracted from seeing any more historically or politically based impetus to Bernard’s actions, which scholarship has only just begun to look at. Possibly because of the emphasis on personal stimulus, no direct connection has been made between the Apologia and the discontinuation of heavily ornamented manuscripts within the Cistercian Order. In any event, Bernard’s relation to Cistercian art and legislation on art has not been put into proper perspective. While a very few authors have noted similarities between his views and those of earlier Church fathers, Bernard’s position within a non-iconoclastic movement against religious art in his own time has been largely neglected.

Ultimately, there has been no thorough analysis of the Apologia with the exception of Vacandard’s ground breaking effort. The tendency has been to isolate various passages ofApologia 28-29, rather than to coherently analyze the whole, especially in relation to the rest of the Apologia, Bernard’s other writings, the artistic evidence of Cluny and Cîteaux, and the political conditions of both Cîteaux and monasticism in general. The literature has established a rather inflexible and restricted view of the Apologia. But at the same time, questions have at least been raised on most major issues which, when developed, will lead to a more significant understanding of the part played by Bernard’s treatise in the controversy over monastic art in the twelfth century.