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The period between 1080 and 1160 saw an explosion in monastic construction throughout Western Europe. The textual sources from this period document this building boom and explicitly tie construction and refurbishment to monastic reform and the creation of spaces for spiritual renewal. Newly built or remodeled monasteries and churches were richly decorated with wall paintings and monumental sculpture and inscriptions. A new form of sculpture emerged during this period of increased construction—the historiated capital. Despite their small size, capitals in the eleventh and twelfth centuries were frequently decorated with figures of humans or animals, and these images usually referred to a narrative, with lapidary inscriptions serving as commentary to the images. This article will compare two capitals depicting the Sacrifice of Isaac to consider how location and movement around the capitals direct the interpretation and understanding of the narrative scenes and accompanying epigraphy. One capital is in the narthex of Saint-Seurin at Bordeaux, while the other is in the choir of Sainte-Foy at Conques. My analysis involves making connections between the location of the capital within the architectural space and its relationship to other sculpted imagery, monastic interpretations of their spaces, and the liturgical events that took place within those spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The period between 1080 and 1160 saw an explosion in monastic construction throughout Western Europe. The textual sources from this period document this building boom and explicitly tie construction and refurbishment to monastic reform and the creation of spaces for spiritual renewal. Newly built or remodeled monasteries and churches were richly decorated with wall paintings and monumental sculpture and inscriptions. A new form of sculpture emerged during this period of increased construction—the historiated capital. Despite their small size, capitals in the eleventh and twelfth centuries were frequently decorated with figures of humans or animals, and these images usually referred to a narrative, with lapidary inscriptions serving as commentary to the images. This article will compare two capitals depicting the Sacrifice of Isaac to consider how location and movement around the capitals direct the interpretation and understanding of the narrative scenes and accompanying epigraphy. One capital is in the narthex of Saint-Seurin at Bordeaux, while the other is in the choir of Sainte-Foy at Conques. My analysis involves making connections between the location of the capital within the architectural space and its relationship to other sculpted imagery, monastic interpretations of their spaces, and the liturgical events that took place within those spaces.

In the Middle Ages, angels were a constant presence and participated with the faithful in praising God. Due to the manifold roles played by angels in Christian theology, it is not surprising that they were a popular subject for church decoration. At the abbey church of Sainte-Foy at Conques, the attention paid to and regard for angels was expressed to an exceptional degree and therefore provide an excellent case study through which to understand how monumental sculpture communicated monastic identity and exegesis. This article considers the formal attributes and spatial arrangement of the sculpted angels at Conques as they relate to early medieval monastic conceptions of angels' function and role within the heavenly community, providing the monks with a celestial model to negotiate the boundaries between the active and contemplative life as articulated by Gregory the Great and the Venerable Bede. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Romanesque portal of the church of St. Aegidius in Ilija near Banská Štiavnica, which dates back to 1254, is a unique architectural and sculptural work, and its significance transcends the borders of medieval Hungary. Andrej Kmeť and Václav Mencl significantly deepened the knowledge about the history of the portal and its stylistic classification as well as historical research and restoration from the recent period. The portal shows common features with the so-called Norman style spreading from Western Europe to its eastern parts, which persisted until the middle of the 13th century. The architecture of three-recessed jambs with inserted columns with pear-shaped profiling of the corners of the recesses passing into an entire arch above the tympanum with a three-circle border is complemented by rich sculptural equipment of capitals and cornices. The asymmetry of the relief decor forms on the northern and southern parapets follows a distinctive iconographic program unique even within the European context. The capitals of the northern lintel with zoomorphic motifs of dragons united by one head, the heads of outcasts incorporated into a tangle of vegetation, represent the world of diabolical powers attacking the human soul in an attempt to seize it. In contrast, the southern jamb is decorated with a balanced composition of double-row tongue leaves and a cornice capitalising paradise in its harmonious expression. The two linings are a materialized expression of instruction serving as the Biblia pauperum, one of the most important missions of medieval art. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept and nature of Form in linguistic as well as visual signs has been debated among several semioticians and art historians. Some notable analytical attempts have been put forward by Saussure, Hjelmslev, Vygotsky, and, regarding visual signs in particular, by Meyer Schapiro, Floch, Greimas, and the Groupe µ, among others. Greimas and Floch proposed a distinction between two levels of semiotic Form in visual representation, each being constitutive of a separate system of semiotic articulation: figurative language and plastic language. With arguments drawn from behavioural science, the interdisciplinary Groupe µ presented a different version of the same distinction as one between iconic and plastic signs. In this paper, I shall give a short outline of these and some further proposals, especially Meyer Schapiro's view on the formal structure of pictures and visual signs, and his analysis of visual signifiers as 'vehicles' of spatial meaning. Schapiro's account of the 'image-sign' will be presented as coloured by his socio-historical perspective and the empirical pragmatism of Peirce. Regarding the relationship between 'iconic' and 'plastic' meaning, Schapiro's studies of Romanesque sculpture and non-figurative painting anticipate some observations later made by the Groupe µ. However, rather than attempting to defend any specific account of the nature of visual or plastic Form, a pluralistic position will be proposed here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Chronica Mundi is the property of Chronica Mundi and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Codex Aquilarensis is the property of Fundacion Santa Maria la Real del Patrimonio Historico and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper addresses the issue of Romanesque sculpture and presents it by means of describing the ensemble of masks preserved in the Romanesque, partially reconstructed, church dedicated to the Name of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a symbol of Inowroclaw. This text addresses the well-known sculptures analysed from a contemporary research and methodological perspective in respect of the history of medieval art. Artistic analogies, aesthetic sources, and the practice of ornamenting the Houses of God with stone masks have been presented and new interpretations of iconography, form, and meaning have been discussed. Issues concerning artistic geography, style, significance, law of the frame and technique have been considered and compared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the sculptural programme of the west portal of Saint-Martin-de-Besse, which places Penance and the Eucharist sacraments at the centre of its polysemic narratives, forming chiastic sequences. Concerned with the fall of humankind and the history of redemption, the portal of Besse presents a series of enigmatic figures from the Old and New Testaments, along with an early Christian figure, Saint Eustace. In this article, I first present a brief historical overview of the church and its surroundings and then proceed with an iconographical survey of its portal. I argue that the series of sculpted narrative vignettes forming the west façade of Besse are polysemic as they carry multiple meanings. Focusing on salvation through (re)conversion, where the liturgical sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist are fundamental, these polysemic narratives form and perform four distinct chiasmus interchanges involving the Garden of Eden, where time and space are in constant dialogue.

The southern façade of the Holy Sepulchre was adorned until 1929 with two carved lintels, distinct in their iconographies (exhibited ever since in the Rockefeller Museum). Whereas the western Christological lintel represents the narrative of the last days of Jesus in Jerusalem (albeit in breach with the narrative sequence), the eastern peopled-scroll lintel is a non-narrative representation of a variety of beasts, birds, and naked male figures, some of whom are obscenely pointing to their genitalia. The puzzling iconography of this bestial world includes the conspicuous images of a bird-siren and a centaur. Rather overlooked by past scholarship, it would seem implausible that the most important holy site in Christendom and a meta-pilgrimage church would have been decorated with meaningless imagery. This paper contextualizes the eastern lintel within crusader concepts of history and mythology, biblical symbolism, liturgy and patronage. The eastern door gave way to the funerary chapel of the crusader kings, located beneath the Calvary Chapel. An examination of the funerary context reveals that sirens played part in such schemes, endowing the lintel with an apotropaic vitality. A remarkable chapter in the chronicle of Fulcher of Chartres, illustrating the curiosities of the Lands of the Saracens, is suggested as a major conceptual notion for the understanding of the non-narrative lintel, which actually stands within the Bestiary tradition. The lintel thus becomes a liminal site, where all polyvalent layers meet, meant to show the opposition of good and evil forces. This opposition is established by installing a historiated Christological lintel to the west, embodying a liturgical vision of the New Jerusalem recently established by the Franks and, to the east, an image of the conquered beasts of the Saracens, doomed to hell, signaling Latin victory, on the one hand, and promising an apotropaic protection for the departed, on the other. The patronage of Queen Melisende, in collaboration with the crusader Church, is then analyzed.

The article explores the history of a Romanesque wooden crucifix found in the Norman church of Saint-Marcel in Eure, France. The author provides an analysis and attribution of the crucifix and a possible historical nexus that would justify the relationship between the crucifix and a group of carvings conserved in Normandy. She argues that Rotrou de Beaumont, bishop of Evreux, probably saw the resemblance of the crucifix with the Courajod Christ in the Louvre.

Title in English: The Northern Transept Aedicule of Lund Cathedral. A Study of its Painted Sculptures. – Many authors have considered Lund Cathedral, its mediaeval history and its sculptures, sometimes at considerable length. From an iconographical point of view, however, much of the earliest phases of the building’s construction and the sculptural programme still remain obscure. Hardly any of the early mediaeval sculptures can be found today in the places for which they were initially intended, and the original context of many of them seems to be irretrievably lost. Through the centuries, countless individual artworks have been destroyed and sculpture groups dismembered, sometimes for inclusion in new constellations. A good example of such an assortment is the aedicule in front of the northern transept’s eastern chapel. It consists of a number of elements, produced by different hands or workshops, that have at some moment in time been assembled to form the present assemblage. Various dates, chronologies and positions have been proposed for its different components, but so far none that are really convincing. This article presents the results of a study of the painted relief decorations on the canopy and the adjacent chapel – and also contains photographic documentation of its various components. The findings are compared and discussed in relation to previous research.

A Romanesque double-springer and five voussoirs, decorated with foliate carving and pellet, have been reused as a door-head in the ground floor of Church House, Gloucester Cathedral. The carved stones are illustrated, together with a reconstruction of the original double arch, which may have come from an early 12th- century pulpitum screen or the arcade of the first Norman cloister. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The American medievalist Arthur Kingsley Porter (1883–1933), author of such important texts asRomanesque Sculpture of the Pilgrimage Roads(1923) andSpanish Romanesque Sculpture(1928), has long figured in the annals of art history as a ground-breaking scholar-photographer. Critical study of Porter's personal photographic archive and unpublished primary sources shows that this paradigmatic vision requires substantial modification. Lucy Wallace Porter (1876–1962), who became the medievalist's wife in 1912, was the chief photographer of the two from 1919 onwards. She made significant contributions to her husband's scholarship, alone producing more than two-thirds of the photographs published inRomanesque Sculpture of the Pilgrimage Roads, which amounted to over 1500 prints. Our picture of Porter the scholar becomes very different if we realize that he often saw Romanesque sculpture through the eyes of his photographer wife. Moreover, all subsequent users of Porter's landmark publications have perceived Romanesque sculpture through her eyes as well. In addition to examining the holdings, history, and use of Porter's picture library, this article analyzes previously unpublished photographs that afford new vistas onto the couple's lives, imaginations, and camera work. It also explores the fascinating story of Lucy Porter's eye- and mind-training, proposing that she deserves recognition as one of the most influential women photographers in the field of art history during the twentieth century. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Forschungen zur Volks- und Landeskunde is the property of Romanian Academy Publishing House / Editura Academiei Romane and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Over the course of the twelfth century, six fine Romanesque churches were built in the town of Uncastillo, Aragon. Three of these churches display carved hagiographic scenes on the tympana above their principal entrances, a highly unusual placement for saints’ lives during this period. Though the subject matter responds to a broad interest in hagiographic imagery across post-conquest Aragon, its prominent location and recurrence in multiple churches were both motivated by political and social factors shaping the kingdom at this time. On the one hand, the hagiographies’ allegorical evocations of the Christian conquest speak to the relevance of Aragon's territorial expansion to the town's inhabitants. On the other, the sculptures’ placement above the church portal – the focal point of the community – responds to the contemporary experience of urbanization in Uncastillo, which resulted in the town's organization into six different neighborhoods. Considering the hagiographic tympana with respect to sculptural traditions, reconquest rhetoric, and patterns of urban settlement and development, I argue that Uncastillo's experiments with form and iconography aspired to cohere urban communities during a dynamic period of social transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Migrating from Greek mythology to scripture and ecclesiastical writing, sirens are best known for the perils they put on the road of Odysseus, and conversely, on that of the crucified Christ and on that of the pilgrim, two significations that Odysseus, the eternal voyageur tied to the mast, came to symbolize in the Middle Ages. Long acknowledged in past scholarship, the siren motif was perceived of as a multi-layered image, whose negative Homeric connotations suited an even vaster range of destructive meanings, moral, social and political. More than sheer misogyny, the hybrid sirens represent violation of social order, mainly that of the manly world. It is therefore no coincidence to find them dwelling in the biblical debauched town of Babylon, and in the land of Edom, destined to be destroyed, alongside hybrid centaurs, both in the Septuagint and in the Vulgate. These beasts gained much popularity throughout the Middle Ages, and embody the ultimate significance of evil in the medieval bestiary, as well as in a wide-ranging exegetical literature. This development may stand for the immense dispersion of the siren motif in Romanesque sculpture. Meant at an edifying purpose, sirens associated with urban destruction, lust, and avarice, signify the menace of sin they seduce humanity to fall into. The virtuous Christian, recognizing the long-enduring classical motif in its new Christian context should take the paradigm of Odysseus in his Christological typology, and restrain from evil. Though constituting a rather popular motif of Romanesque sculpture in general, sirens seem to inhabit many of the churches of the Auvergne and the Velay regions of France, along pilgrimage shrines, located lengthwise the Via Podiensis and crosswise routes, thus forming a marked feature of the local imagery. More than sheer enthusiasm for the antique, as past scholarship would have it, sirens seem to have chanted a very specific local chant in Auvergne-Velay. Constituting a major motif, which testifies to a profound understanding of their contextual implications, they represent a multifaceted image, denoting didactic, apotropaic, liturgical, social, and political messages. The context of pilgrimage and pilgrimage roads seems to have constituted a perfect setting for this multitude of sirens. The Via Podiensis was known as particularly uninviting. The mountainous topography, infested with thieves and brigands, provided lucrative opportunities of ambushing pilgrims on their way. It is the purpose of this paper to uncover the versatile imports of the siren antique motif in Romanesque Auvergne-Velay, by pointing out their meticulous perplexing delineation in the context of actual hardships pilgrims and congregants endured within pilgrimage shrines and roads. The first part of this paper will survey the range of allegorical significances of sirens from Homer to Jerome and to medieval exegeses, followed by a description of sirens in Auvergne-Velay. Then, I would like to suggest a new reading of the particular rendering of sirens in the small church of Pont-du-Château and in the pilgrimage church of Notre-Dame of Orcival, which may bear a local historical significance, resulting from the conflicting situations of pilgrims, on their way to worship the celestial realm.

Between 1110 and 1127, the kingdom of León-Castile found itself in an extended conflict with the neighboring kingdom of Aragon, which gave rise to the outbreak in the former of a series of political, social, and religious tensions that had been growing since the previous century. This disorder responded to the profound changes carried out within each of those spheres during the reign of Alfonso VI (1065/72- 1109). After a particularly aggressive phase by both Aragonese troops and the townspeople of several important cities, efforts toward peace intensified. At that same time, we can perceive an increasing desire to shift attention toward the Islamic power in al-Andalus. This article proposes an interpretation of the iconographic contents of two emblematic buildings, San Isidoro de León and San Martín de Frómista, as the sacralization of the pairing of peace/war that took place around the time each church was constructed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses Romanesque sculptural program at the Abbey Church of Sainte-Madeleine narthex portals in Vézelay in the early 1100s. Topics include themes in the three portals with the left tympanum portraying the resurrection of Christ and the larger central tympanum with Christ enthroned in a mandorla. Also cited are the archivolt with medallions, the motif of coiled man, siren and dog to conform with the circular format and verse 14 of Psalm 82 pictorialized in marginal images.

This paper focuses on a series of pre-Romanesque fragments found in Kotor and several other localities in Boka Kotorska, which can be linked to an early phase in the formation of the pre-Romanesque style. Chronological orientation points provided by the triple mention of Bishop Ivan, who was present at the Second Council of Nicaea in 787, have served as a framework dating the fragments to the last quarter of the 8th and the early 9th century. They are considered to be work of a highly skilful stonemason workshop, for which the name Stonemason Workshop from the Time of Bishop Ivan of Kotor has been proposed. The reliefs have been compared to analogous sculptural decoration adorning the cathedrals of other cities in the Eastern Adriatic based on similar stylistic and iconographic features, as well as masterful stonemasonry in high-quality marble. These analogies indicate a common visual language used by the masters active in the broad belt stretching from Istria to Boka Kotorska, who brought to our coast the spirit of new, pre-Romanesque art at the turn of the 9th century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Not a single English Romanesque great cloister arcade survives in situ. Despite this, the existence of a number of 11th- and 12th-century rear walls, and the discovery of quantities of stonework likely to have originated in cloister arcades, make it possible to recover something of the likely appearance and character of the cloister in Anglo-Norman England. The following paper considers that evidence, and assesses how our understanding of the underlying topography and archaeology of Anglo-Norman cloisters might enable us to reconstruct their lost walks. It concludes with an appraisal of the chronology of English cloister building. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Around the turn of the twelfth century, a new iconography arose in northern Spanish and southern French lands. The sculpted image of a naked crossbowman, crouching to arm his weapon, flourished briefly and then vanished within a few decades. The crossbow was just coming into common usage at this time; with little training, it could be wielded by peasants or women to defeat mounted knights and thus had the potential to destabilize social structures. I analyze the display of the Romanesque crouching crossbowman to understand this heretofore unexamined iconography, investigating the reasons behind its initial conception, layered content, and rapid disappearance. Even more than the textual references to crossbows that have come down to us, I contend that visual analysis, together with an understanding of the specific historical context that encompassed the short life of this iconography enables us to decipher the multiple meanings behind the image. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the problem of using terms that define isolated elements in classical architecture to describe the continuous vertical surfaces and square edges--based on the shapes of stacked bricks--in early eleventh-century southern European churches. Masons trained in the brick tradition created a comprehensive system of architecture in which decoration, articulation, construction, and structure formed an inseparable whole. Studying these elements of architecture together reveals new information about the regional context of building and the background, intent, and contribution of workers in Romanesque churches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this short article is to put on record the archaeological observations made between 1990 and 2002 during the decade of stonework conservation on the northern run of the frieze panels on the west front of Lincoln Cathedral. It is not concerned with the frieze sculpture itself but with its stones and the spaces behind the stones. Equally, this article is not an assessment of the sculpture and its dating but is an archaeological investigation which potentially has wider implications for the sequence of construction and carving of the Romanesque frieze now visible at Lincoln. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of RACAR: Canadian Art Review / Revue d'art Canadienne is the property of Universities Art Association of Canada / Association d'Art des Universites du Canada and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Author-supplied Abstracts.)

Copyright of Brocar: Cuadernos de Investigación Histórica is the property of Universidad de la Rioja, Servicio de Publicaciones and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Brocar: Cuadernos de Investigación Histórica is the property of Universidad de la Rioja, Servicio de Publicaciones and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this article it is reflected on the principal historiographic contributions around the study of the ancient legacy present in the Romanesque sculpture. Since the appearance of the "Romanesque" term, coined by Charles de Gerville in 1818, until the publication in 1960 of the Erwin Panofsky´s book Renaissance and Renascences in Western Art, it was advanced a lot in the definition of such influences. Actually it is tried to present a synchronous panorama that allows to put into context the current researches on this highly topical subject.

The study focuses on some original parts of the second building of Gyulafehérvár cathedral which are now missing, such as its original sanctuary, which was demolished soon after completion and replaced by another. Also discussed are a number of carvings used in a secondary or tertiary setting, as spolia, originally made around 1200 or at the beginning of the 13th century, and then removed from their original context. Fragments of chevron-decorated carvings can be arranged along an arch that, because of its size, can only be identified with the transverse arch of the original apse of the sanctuary. The transverse arch on the face of the Gyulafehérvár apse, built around 1200, was -- as far as we know today -- the largest structural element in Central Europe decorated with a "Norman" chevron ornament. From the exterior decoration of the original apse a surprisingly large number of richly decorated details still survive. The entablature high on top of the polygonal apse of the present-day sanctuary is richly decorated with figures and other motifs in high relief. The placement of these carvings is clearly secondary. Obviously pieces from the entablature of the 12th-century apse were re-used in the 13th-century Gothic apse (and later when it was rebuilt in the 18th century). The thematic focus of the Gyulafehérvár cornice also relates to the figural decoration of the capitals inside the sanctuary. In addition to this series, about a dozen or so other figural carvings from this same period adorn the church. The two reliefs depicting St. Michael, both found in secondary placement high on the outside wall of the sanctuary, are the most important of these carvings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Art / Umění is the property of Institute of Art History of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Espacio, Tiempo y Forma. Serie VII, Historia del Arte is the property of Editorial UNED and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Before the renovation of the Baroque parish church in Szigetújfalu (built between 1770–1773) there was given occasion to a research of the wall. It could be proved that the church was built of the stone material of the Benedictine Abbey of Ercsi. The more than 100 observed stones, 12 of which was taken of the wall, represent an important and richly decorated Romanesque monument of the late 12th century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]