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This issue of ‘Das Mittelalter’ explores the voice of small things.2 We approach artefacts that are no bigger than one’s hand not as silent witnesses to people’s lives, but as agents that actively engage with human beings through the senses, shape their social identities and evoke emotions.3 For close to forty years or more, archaeologists have argued that medieval people understood objects to have particular social meaning as indicated by the curation of heirlooms, the re-use of prehistoric axes as grave gifts, or the special relationship to devotional objects such as pilgrim badges.4 A similar situation exists across other cognate disciplines from discussions of seals in art history or the particular meanings of things in plays as discussed by literary scholars.5 When the miniature scale is addressed, it often is in terms of the uniqueness of an object with a particular emphasis placed on craftwork and materials or related to their biographies and histories of use. Much less attention has been paid to bodily, sensorial and emotive experiences, that is, the ‘corporeal choreographies’ that can result from the engagement with the diminutive.6 peer-reviewed

The paper presents a study of the context, functions, and rationale behind architectural replicas sealed off in ancient Egyptian tombs, the finest exemplars of which having been excavated in the Theban tomb of Meketre (ca. 2000 B.C.). The analysis is preceded by clarifications regarding the terminology used, the point of view from which they have to be considered, and the developments that led to their presence in the funerary assemblage. It is suggested that in the sealed ‘replicas chamber’ or burial chamber in which they were deposited, it was mainly the winged ba, a connective agent between the worlds of life, death, and eternity, that was meant to enter the imaginary realm of the replicas and feed the deceased in order to revivify him.

This article discusses how Venice, in its political representation, valued the relation with the sacred as one of the main strategies for strengthening its political power in Istrian communities. Through associations with the cults of local saints, the Republic participated in the (co)creation of local memory and identity as evinced in the cases of St. Nazarius, the patron saint of Koper, and St. Euphemia, the patron saint of Rovinj. A new impetus was given to their cults in the 15th century after the restitution of their relics as attested by commissions of several liturgical objects made in the Venetian botteghe. The restitution of the relics of St. Euphemia in 1401, here confirmed by the archival research, is a rare documented case in Venetian political and religious practices. The growth of devotion to the saint was prompted by the return of the body, but also by the Venetian custom of developing cults in a coordinated manner, encompassing liturgical celebrations, legends and their visual expressions. This article sheds new light on the role of Venetian officials in the promotion of the cult of St. Euphemia and the authorship of the key illuminations in the Rovinj Illuminated Codex.

El Libro de los Juramentos del Ayuntamiento de Toledo es considerado uno de los códices más importantes custodiados en el Archivo Municipal de la ciudad, si bien, aunque los estudios referentes a su contenido se han tenido en cuenta desde hace décadas, no ha sido el caso en lo referente a su aportación artística. Los folios iluminados y enmarcados con bellas orlas han fascinado a todos los que, por alguna razón, se acercaron al manuscrito toledano, por lo que nuestro principal objetivo ha sido analizar desde el punto de vista estético, estilístico e iconográfico el conjunto de repertorios iluminados.En el proceso de estudio ha sido fundamental el análisis comparativo con otros códices que hemos considerado contemporáneos, pues en base a la fecha de renovación del volumen manuscrito, la diligencia del último folio apunta al año de 1594. De igual manera hemos podido concluir una importante conexión estilística y técnica con las nuevas fórmulas de iluminación, iniciadas en el scriptorium del monasterio de El Escorial desde el último cuarto del quinientos.AbstractThe Book of Vows of the City Hall of Toledo is considered one of the most important codex kept in the Archive of the city. The studies regarding its content have been already analyzed for decades, but its artistic contribution has been neglected. The illuminated pages, beautifully framed, have fascinated all those who have approached the Toledo manuscript. Our main objective has been to analyze from the aesthetic, stylistic and iconographic point of view the set of illuminated repertoires.This article will stablish new relations with other codices that we have considered contemporary, according to the date of renewal of the book: the year 1594. We have been able to link this work stylistically and technically with the new formulas of illumination, started at the scriptorium of the monastery of El Escorial during the last quarter of the five hundred.

Европейская графика, как и все изобразительное искусство, всегда стремилась к станковости, к максимальному освобождению от пут прикладничества (Вильям Моррис с его идеями внедрения искусства в промышленность – редкое исключение). Станковая графика в Европе так и называется «Freigraphik», то есть свободная, вольная графика. Русское искусство, напротив, долго оставалось в рамках восточных традиций декоративной двухмерности. Только после реформ патриарха Никона русское изобразительное искусство бросилось догонять «западный прогресс», давно устремившийся к веризму и фотографии. Именно плоскостной подоплекой русской графики и объясняется популярность в России гравюры на дереве. Ксилография, даже репродукционная, имитировавшая в XIX веке фотографическую трехмерность, упрямо вцепившись в плоскость листа, не давала разыграться духу станковости. Начало XX века вернуло ксилографию на плоскость листа, а эстетику репродукционной гравюры сочло безнадежным анахронизмом. Художник – гравер или резчик, столкнувшийся с технологическими особенностями гравирования на дереве, поневоле умнеет как художник, выбирая оптимальный путь достижения цветовой и линейной выразительности. Европейское книгопечатание целиком обязано гравюре на дереве. Подвижные литеры суть маленькие гравюры на дереве, ныне отливаемые в металле, но бывшие когда-то вырезаемы на единой доске. Еще один пример упрямого устремления ксилографии к утилитарности – это попытка уже в XVI веке употреблять ее как репродукцию живописи. В статье упоминается об изобретении кьяроскуро Уго да Карпи. Следует обратить внимание на то, что именно прикладники – ювелиры, витражисты и архитекторы XVI века широко использовали ксилографию как средство репродуцирования и широкой популяризации своих идей и изобретений. Удивительно, что эти гравюры-чертежи в наше время воспринимаются как чисто станковые произведения. Многие из авторов этих гравюр упомянуты в публикации. Художники нашего времени заметили, что гравированная или нарезанная доска гораздо красивее оттиска с нее. Это явление натолкнуло на мысль украшать громадными ксилографиями интерьеры. Так ксилография вторглась в архитектуру. В этом и состоит парадокс: ксилография большого формата, казалась бы, должна быть идеально станковой, но нет, она сохраняет за собой функции прикладничества., European graphics, like all fine arts, has always sought to easel, to maximize their freedom from practical application (William Maurice, with his ideas of introducing art into industry, is a rare exception). The easel graphics in Europe is called «Freigraphik», i.e. free graphics. Russian art, on the contrary, has long remained within the Eastern traditions of decorative two-dimensionality. Only after the reforms of Patriarch Nikon Russian art rushed to catch up with the «Western progress», long since striving for to verism and photography. It is the planar background of the Russian graphics that explains the popularity of woodcutting in Russia. Woodcut, even reproduction, imitating photographic three-dimensionality in the 19th century, stubbornly clinging to the plane of the sheet, did not let the spirit of easel play its role. The beginning of the 20th century returned woodcuts to the plane of the sheet, and considered the aesthetics of a reproductive engraving a hopeless anachronism. An engraver or a carver, faced with the technological features of wood engraving, willy-nilly becomes wiser as an artist, choosing the best way to achieve color and linear expressiveness. European typography is entirely due to woodcut. The moving letters are small woodcuts, now molded in metal, but the former were once carved on a single board. Another example of the stubborn aspiration of woodcuts to utility is an attempt in the 16th century to use it as a reproduction of painting. The article mentions the invention a chiaroscuro by Hugo da Carpi. Attention should be paid to the fact that it was applied painters-jewelers, stained glass artists and architects of the 16th century who widely used woodcuts as a means of reproducing and widely popularizing their ideas and inventions. Surprisingly, these engravings-drawings nowadays perceived as a purely easel works. Many of the authors of these prints are mentioned in this publication. Artists of our time have noticed that the engraved or chopped board is much more beautiful than the print from it. This phenomenon prompted the idea to decorate interiors with huge woodcuts. So xylography invaded architecture. This is a paradox: large-format woodcuts, it would seem, should be ideally easel, but no, it retains the functions of applied art., №1(12) (2019)

Review, Aethiopica, Vol 20 (2017)

Las miniaturas en los manuscritos ilustrados de Chrétien de Troyes se valen de elementos pictóricos como los colores, los gestos o la posición y el tamaño de los objetos, así como de figuras y símbolos que aluden a lo sobrenatural, lo maravilloso o lo extraordinario, para representar los distintos sentidos de la aventura en los romans artúricos del autor. El artículo se propone mostrar cómo se lleva a cabo ese traslado a imágenes, mediante el análisis de una selección de miniaturas que aluden a la aventura como prueba, la aventura como evento que altera el curso natural de la existencia y la aventura como diálogo con el mundo, en el cual se descubre e interpreta el destino., The miniatures in the illustrated manuscripts of Chrétien de Troyes make use of pictorial elements such as colours, gestures, positions and sizes of objects, as well as symbols and figures related to the supernatural, the marvellous and the extraordinary, to represent the different meanings of adventure that the author develops through his romances. The paper presents the analysis of a selection of miniatures that refer to the notions of adventure as test or challenge, adventure as an event that changes the normal course of life and adventure as a dialogue with the world, through which one may discover and interpret fate. Such analysis will show the process by which those ideas are translated into images.

In this work we used the SEM/EDS technique in the morphological characterization and in-situ microanalysis of small portraits on copper support of the seventeenth/eighteenth centuries.

L’étude des miniatures des premières pages de la Bible d’Alba met en évidence la difficile acceptation de la figure du savant juif par la société castillane du XVe siècle. On observe un net contraste entre la liberté d’écriture dont avait joui Rabí Mosé Arragel, le rabin chargé de traduire en castillan l’Ancien Testament, et le programme iconographique imposé par les mentalités chrétiennes de l’époque.El estudio de las miniaturas de los preliminares de la Biblia de Alba así como de su proceso de creación pone de manifiesto los límites de la aceptación que se da en la sociedad castellana de principios del siglo XV de la figura del sabio judío. Se percibe un neto contraste entre la efectiva libertad de escritura de que había gozado Rabí Mosé Arragel, el rabino encargado del romanceamiento del Antiguo Testamento, y las marcas iconográficas que, plasmando el horizonte mental de la época, reducen su papel en la creación de la obra.

Le manuscrit Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fr. 12201 est une commande de Philippe de Bourgogne et a été réalisé en 1403. Il contient trois textes ayant trait à l’Orient, avec, notamment, une copie de l’œuvre de l’arménien Hayton de Korykos, la Fleur des histoires de la terre d’Orient.C’est un manuscrit enluminé, dont la particularité est d’être le seul d’une commande de trois codex identiques à nous être parvenus. Cette commande, par le duc de Bourgogne, de ces trois manuscrits revêt un sens éminemment politique : à l’aune du contexte troublé du début du xve siècle, l’analyse de l’iconographie accompagnant les textes donne de précieux indices sur les ambitions diplomatiques du duc. La construction, probablement en deux temps, de ce manuscrit apporte une clef de lecture supplémentaire quant à la politique orientale des ducs bourguignons. The Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fr. 12201 manuscript was commissioned by Philip of Burgundy and completed in 1403. It contains three texts about the East, including a copy of the Flor des estoires de la Terre d’Orient by the Armenian monk Hayton of Corycus.The manuscript is one of three identical illuminated manuscripts and the only one to have survived. The commission of these three manuscripts by the Duke of Burgundy, takes on a powerful political meaning in the confusion of the early 15th century. Analyzing the iconography can reveal clues about the diplomatic ambitions of the duke. How this manuscript was constructed, probably a two-step process, shines a light on the political relationship the Burgundians dukes had with the East.