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The narrative cycles at the south portal of Moissac's famous Romanesque abbey-displaying the parable of the poor leper Lazarus and the story of the Infancy of Christ-are studied here in relation to the thinking of Meyer Schapiro. His early publications as well as his later oral comments on the narratives are considered, along with his views on the principles of expressive form that help to explain the dynamics of Romanesque sculpture. Schapiro's ideas are then extended into new areas of interpretation. It is argued that the program of the portal turns on more than simple antithesis: changeling chiasmic schemes lead to open-ended visual play and, within the porch's thematic design, a complex counterpoint of learned, iconographic permutations issues from an emphasis on miserliness and generosity, resulting in a visual discourse that encourages charitable philanthropy from the feudal nobility in accord with the needs of the abbey. The sculptures' sensuality and sexuality, it is claimed, are informed by a spe...

Destruction of the abbey of Saint-Martin, Savigny during the aftermath of the French Revolution led to the scattering of its sculptures. Their origins were forgotten. Five such dissociated sculptures, now in varied American collections, seemed to form a coherent group and thus to provide promising study by neutron activation analysis. They are: an acrobat in The Cloisters; a monolith with scenes of Samson in the Duke University Museum of Art; a capital-column with a depiction of the Adoration of the Magi on loan to The Cloisters; a crouching figure at the Duke University Museum of Art; and a relief of an Agnus Dei from the Dumbarton Oaks Collection. All five were sampled for neutron activation analysis at Brookhaven National Laboratory to determine their compositional profiles. The results revealed markedly similar profiles consistent with an origin for stones in the same limestone formation. By combining art-historical evidence (archival data, old prints, early photographs, shipping records, antiquary re...

The original, Romanesque appearance of the restored facade portal at Saint-Andoche, Saulieu (Cote-d'Or), can be visualized with the help of the varied forms of evidence examined here. These include: drawings, reports, and verbal descriptions by Eugene Viollet-le-Duc, Joseph Carlet, Jean-Baptiste Lallemand, and Jacques Nicolas Caristie; documentation from French archives; archaeological data and art historical argument. Study of these sources indicates a mid-twelfth-century recessed portal with an uncarved tympanum, chastely decorated archivolts, and double-storied, colonnaded embrasures. These architectural sculptures were ornamented in a restrained manner making use of some historiated motifs, but there were no conventional column statues. Striking figural interest was provided by three monumental statues of saints included in the portal scheme: one figure stood atop each of the pier-buttresses flanking the portal; and a third, Saulieu's patron saint, Andoche, was addorsed to the portal trumeau. The resu...

This paper explores the possibility of a relationship between Romanesque sculpture and the contemporary paradigm for spiritual life known as the vita apostolica. The emphatic directives of this concept were that members of religious communities hold all property in common and function together "with one heart and one soul," as did the apostles of Christ. These directives were given particular impetus during the Gregorian Reform when nostalgia for the early church was a guiding theme. The subsequent phenomenon, whereby monks and canons of the late 11th and 12th centuries believed they could imitate or model themselves on Christ's apostles in their own communal life, even to the extent that they might metaphorically experience the places, people and events of the apostolic age (e.g. thereby substituting the spiritual journey of their professional mission for actual travel to pilgrimage sites), is studied here with regard to its possible reflection in architectural sculpture. The discussion focuses on themes...

Romanesque statues of the Madonna in Majesty form a distinct class of sculptures.1 Figures 1, 2, and 5 illustrate examples which are very typical but nevertheless are still less well known than their quality merits.2 All such statues, which are often referred to as “Majesties” (Maiestates) in the contemporary texts, are small, usually measuring about three feet in height. Without exception they are made of wood.3 Most of them are carved on all sides including the back and are true freestanding sculptures (Figs. 3, 4, 7). The iconography of costume and pose varies slightly according to region, but the basic theme is the sedes sapientiae; Mary is interpreted as the Seat or Throne of Wisdom.4 She herself is majestically seated on a throne, an unvarying and meaningful essential in the iconography, and she ordinarily assumes a frontal, regal pose with the Christ Child rigidly centered and enthroned in her lap. Her importance as the throne for Christ or as the Seat of Wisdom is thus clear.