In the field of religious experience in the ancient Mediterranean area, the visual relationship with the divine has acquired special relevance since the first textual and material manifestations that we possess. From the Greek Magical Papyri to the first Christian communities, we can trace a continuity in the use of a particular lexicon linked to the action of "look straight" at an epiphanic divinity. In the ancient Greek lexicon, this action of looking is expressed through the verb alpha tau epsilon nu i zeta omega, while in the Latin language, the verb intendo and the expression oculos figere-in its different variants-are present in texts in which the religious experience in the Middle Ages, as in the ancient world, is related to a mystical and epiphanic relationship with a divine entity characterized by its luminous nature. In this text we intend to show the continuity of this ancient experience in the theo-dramatic vision of the Middle Ages.
The distinction between "major" and "minor" arts has its source within Renaissance humanism. In the fifteenth century, Filarete identified the decadence of the architecture of his time in the transalpine trend of building monuments in the form of thuribles and tabernacles, imitating the works of goldsmiths on a larger scale. Therefore, since their first delineation "minor arts" have included goldsmithing and other related art forms. Despite its monumental dimensions, stained glass soon joined this category in the post-medieval literature on art. As confirmed by recent research, the aesthetics and techniques of the arts of goldsmithing, enameling, and stained glass turned out to be deeply intertwined. This article investigates the artistic intersections that underpinned the emergence of stained-glass windows in the early Middle Ages, focusing on key aspects such as changes in scale and the tension between continuity and rupture in classical and non-classical traditions, characteristic of the long late Antiquity up to the beginning of the Carolingian Renaissance.
The reuse of ancient sculpted stones was a highly active process during the Middle Ages and has been the subject of numerous studies. The various underlying reasons for this practice have been analyzed, highlighting pragmatic, ideological, and aesthetic motivations. When an ancient object is reused in a new context, it is integrated as is, without modifications. However, a small number of objects were recut or resculpted, involving significant interventions on the ancient substrate. This phenomenon of recutting not only reflects efforts to revitalize ancient artifacts but also provides insights into the appreciation of ancient heritage during the medieval period and its role in the formation of certain artistic identities. By focusing on cases of recutting ancient sculptures, we will propose avenues for reflection and analyze the information these particular cases can provide for a better understanding of the perception of ancient heritage between the 8th and 14th centuries.
The CorpusAgrimensorum Romanorum (Corpus of the Roman Surveyors) is a seminal compilation of topographical texts attributed to prominent ancient authors such as Siculus Flaccus, Frontinus, Agenius Urbicus, Hyginus Gromaticus, and other writers collectively known as Gromatici or Agrimensores (surveyors). This corpus survives in multiple manuscripts, with the earliest extant manuscript being the 6th-century Codex Arcerianus (Wolfenb & uuml;ttel Herzog Bibl. Cod. Guelf. 36.23A). Composed over various periods, the Corpus includes a range of texts that address topics from boundary delineation and city layout to the course of rivers and the orientation of roads. The CodexArcerianus alone preserves 33 distinct texts, primarily manuals and instructional works for surveyors tasked with land measurement and demarcation. Central figures in this collection are Frontinus (1st century CE), Siculus Flaccus (2nd century CE), Hyginus Gromaticus, Agenius Urbicus (5th or 6th century), Balbus, and Marcus Junius Nipsus (2nd century). The manuscripts are notable for their richly detailed illustrations, which were faithfully reproduced during the medieval and Renaissance periods from the remarkable 6th-century originals. Our analysis reveals that within these early illustrations or in their marginalia, abbreviations of the artists' names frequently appear: one artist, identified as the renowned Eusebius of St. Peter Armentarius, was active in Ravenna in the early 6th century, while the other, "Marcus As.," likely an abbreviation of "Asinius," remains an obscure figure. The persistence of these initials in later copies suggests their perceived significance to subsequent generations of copyists and illuminators. The presence of Eusebius, a professional illuminator, in the codex is particularly intriguing; he worked in the atelier of the Gothic bokareis (scribe) Wiliaric in Ravenna, connected to the Arab clergy of St. Euphemia's church and the city's Catholic elites, who commissioned esteemed manuscripts from him. The Corpus of the Grom & aacute;tica, a text offering technical and scientific insights pertinent to land measurement and division, catered to this intellectual and elite milieu. This collection parallels the compendium of ancient geographical texts by authors such as Censorinus, Julius Parides, Pomponius Mela, Vibius Sequestrus, Titius Pro-bus, and Valerius Maximus, assembled in Ravenna in the 6th century by Rusticius Elpidius, with a distinguished Carolingian copy now housed in the Vatican Library (Vat. Lat. 4929).
The art of the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance influenced the representation of Christ's human nature through new iconographic models, such as lamentations, pietas, or dead Christs supported by angels. Based on Antonello da Messina's << Dead Christ Supported by an Angel,>> this article explores how this progressive humanization results from artists' intentionality to contemporize the biblical scene, thus seeking to speak the same language as the spectator; a tendency that seems to have fossilized from the modern era onward, when << archaeological >> representations became the dominant trend.
A comparison of the thirteenth-century Virgen de las Batallas with a first-century marble statue of Psyche and Eros introduces questions about the continuity, revival, and evolving meaning of ancient ornament during the Middle Ages. The paper examines ways acanthus glossed representations of young women in art and texts, simultaneously likening Mary's beauty to that of pagan goddesses and differentiating it. Drawing on Vitruvius, the Ara pacis Augustae, Campana plaques, the Timaeus, Santa Maria Maggiore and John VII's oratory in Rome, the Flabellum of Tournus, images of the Tree of Jesse, and the Master Gregorius, it argues that acanthus ornament's inherent vibrancy and regeneration not only marked several moments of classical revival but also glossed the Annunciation and Mary's Assumption through an aesthetic of anagogical ascent.
The essay addresses living stones, a topic frequently discussed in patristic and exegetical literature but hitherto without a basic knowledge of whether-and if so, how-this allegory manifested itself in Christian pictorial and architectural iconography in the Middle Ages. It provides an overview of the topic by presenting a selection of European monuments linked to this metaphor by inscriptions and other examples where the same connection can be assumed. In doing so, it attempts to open up a pathway to a better understanding of the allegory, including changing our view of what is now generally regarded as mere decoration in medieval churches.
This article studies the instrumentalization of the legacy of Antiquity by medieval bishops and prelates, linked to the dioceses of Orense, Astorga and Le & oacute;n, between the 10th and 12th centuries. By reusing Roman stones and cameos, the reinterpretation of the pagan iconography ofJupiter and the Dioscuri, Castor and Pollux and, finally, the allusion to the idea of Rome, as an old intellectual capital, the ecclesiastical elites gave prestige to their own funerary memory.
The topic "Giotto and Antiquity" counts countless contributions, and it is to be considered one of the most important issues on which we discuss when studying the artist, both mono-graphically or in relation to the culture, and specifically the visual culture of his time. My article will start from what is already known and discussed, but with a substantial premise: the Antique, for Giotto, is never an antiquarian passion or a sophisticated whim for elites. It is rather one of the aspects of Giotto's "realism." Giotto has a heightened attention to the memories and visual evidence of the Antique, and in it he seems to look for models-that we might call 'moral' - that serve him to create his own expressive keys. We do not know where he got his knowledge of ancient painting: what we know today of the great painting of ancient Rome is generally the result of seventeenth/eighteenth/nineteenth century rediscoveries; but it is clear that the landscape of medieval Rome-which Giotto knew from a very young age-between the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries must have included far more survivals than today. In ancient painting, Giotto sought patterns of illusiveness and transfiguration of space: walls that disappear, planes that multiply infinitely, false depths. But the monumentality of the figures in ancient megalographiae also provided him with great suggestions, as is already evident in the two scenes of Isaac in Assisi. In sculpture, on the other hand, the artist seems to have sought patterns ofgravitas and a new, more powerful figural presence of his characters, as is particularly clear in the personifications of the Virtues and Vices at the Scrovegni Chapel. My aim will therefore be to analyze these different modalities, in the knowledge that this kind of study can still provide much insight into Giotto's visual world and culture. It can also add something to our knowledge of the ancient world, which we will look at through the eyes of an artist circa 1300.
A bronze piece from the late 4th century is reviewed, possibly a portrait of Aelia Flacila (356-386 AD) from the Roman city of Clunia, currently housed in the Monastery of Silos. This piece was likely known to Romanesque sculptors: a capital from the cloister of the Cathedral of Jaca (in the Church of Santiago in the same town) features a very similar hairstyle, also linked to the sarcophagus of Do & ntilde;a Sancha, kept in the collegiate church of Covarrubias since 1841. The analysis also includes numismatic details and observations about the fauna of Silos, such as terrifying gorgons, zoomorphic guardians, and masks sculpted on the chest plates of thoracata armor, as well as griffins and muses on some classical sarcophagi that may have captivated Romanesque sculptors.
The analysis of the theological vocabulary referring to the Eucharist from its beginnings to the 12th century shows significant coincidences with that which describes the artisan processes used in goldsmithing. In particular, the action of fire applied to precious metals, its transform-ing virtues of the matter on which it acts, links with a very old Judeo-Christian eschatological sense, which is revealed in the doctrine of baptism of fire. At the same time, fire is a common metaphor to designate the essence of the Spirit, and "ignification" is presented as a process of spiritualization of the reality affected by its action. This essay tries to demarcate the complex threads that make up the braid that links Eucharistic ontology, eschatological spiritualization and the real presence of the supernatural in the world, regarding the temporal coincidence noted between the debate on the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist and the elevations to precious reliquaries of corpora sancta, from the middle of the 11th century to the middle of the 12th.
Taking as its point of departure the suggestive framing of image-making, scribal art, and the celebration of the Mass within a sequence of images dedicated to human labor in the early thirteenth-century so-called Reiner Musterbuch (Vienna, oNB, Cod. 507), this essay explores how Christian altars were employed and conceptualized as productive sites-ateliers-in the Middle Ages. Among the many transformations worked upon Christian altars, legal acta rep-resent a particularly potent and telling tradition; one of the aims of this essay is to suggest that they too informed, and were informed by the altar's status as a productive site. From the mak-ing of diagrammatic images out of the host to the legal transformation of property and people, medieval actions at and upon altars collectively reveal a long-lived conception of the Christian mensa as a site and surface for the exercise of a sacramental mode of creativity.
The three canonical images of Christ omnipresent on altar decorations can be interpreted both as devotional supports and as references to the Eucharistic liturgy, and more particularly to the double function he fulfils in this context, as both victim and high priest of the heavenly liturgy accomplishing his own sacrifice. While this reading is commonly accepted for the Crucifixion, it is generally neglected for the Christ in Majesty and the Child in his Mother's lap, although it can be supported by many arguments. There are also several indications that the Virgin may have been conceived as a figure of the officiating priest exposing the sacramental body of his Son. The article provides a broad overview of works that can be interpreted from this Eucha-ristic perspective, suggesting that it must have been relatively widespread and has continued until the late Middle Ages.
Nine sets of antependium and altar side panels or pairs of side panels in painted wood and dating from between the 12th and 14th centuries have been preserved in Catalonia. They have no strict parallels in western medieval art. These materials, together with the hints in some other preserved wooden antependia and with the knowledge of analogous, previous or contemporary examples in other supports (stone, goldsmithery), illuminate the panorama of a medieval altar decorated not only on its front, but also on at least three of its sides. This phenomenon probably was somewhat more general than what this sample attests to. Despite their scarcity, these panels provide a rare possibility to reconstruct and study complex decorative systems of the altar in such format, in a given geographical context and during the period prior to the consolidation of the altarpiece as the preferred container for images linked to the Eucharistic table.
At the beginning of the 12(th) century, the man who was to become the first archbishop of San-tiago de Compostela, Diego Gelmirez, equipped the high altar of his cathedral, by then under construction, with what was for sure the most ambitious altar decoration produced up to this moment for any Hispanic church. At the end of the 14(th) century, the archbishop of Toledo Pedro Tenorio completely renewed the decoration of the high altar of his cathedral by fabricating a monumental altarpiece that became the reference for the great wall altarpieces of the Late Gothic period. In the western states of the Iberian Peninsula, the period of two hundred and fifty years between both landmarks was one of an extraordinary flourishing of the arts of the altar, even though, unfortunately, only a limited number of remnants are preserved. The legacy of the Compostela ensemble, together with the involvement in general trends of the Medieval West, define this long period. Our purpose is offering an overview of it through available textual and material evidence.
The three canonical images of Christ omnipresent on altar decorations can be interpreted both as devotional supports and as references to the Eucharistic liturgy, and more particularly to the double function he fulfils in this context, as both victim and high priest of the heavenly liturgy accomplishing his own sacrifice. While this reading is commonly accepted for the Crucifixion, it is generally neglected for the Christ in Majesty and the Child in his Mother's lap, although it can be supported by many arguments. There are also several indications that the Virgin may have been conceived as a figure of the officiating priest exposing the sacramental body of his Son. The article provides a broad overview of works that can be interpreted from this Eucharistic perspective, suggesting that it must have been relatively widespread and has continued until the late Middle Ages.
The tabernacle is an essential element of the church building, more specifically of the altar equipment. The eminent significance of this furnishing throughout history has led to constant renewals and to the subsequent loss of the great majority of tabernacles created during the Middle Ages. Therefore, studies of medieval tabernacles are few, especially regarding the Iberian Peninsula. However, a considerable number of medieval tabernacles have survived in a fragmented state, hidden, reused, or abandoned, and it is important to bring this material to light. This article presents a selection of examples together with some written sources for their study. The attention centres on the medieval Kingdom of Castile, but without losing sight of its European context. The tabernacles that survived here offer a surprising variety of shapes and materials, as they include wall niches, chests, towers, and chambers, carried out in wood, stone or metal. Regarding written sources, the main focus will be on synodal constitutions and pastoral visitations. The last-mentioned category of texts often yields interesting descriptions that go beyond mere prescriptions on how the Host should be stored.
The impulse to display the arts of the medieval altar in context has guided curators of European medieval art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art since its medieval collection first took form in the early 1900s. Developing side by side with displays governed by classificatory principles of art history, The Met's contextual displays mine its eclectic medieval collection to recreate the settings of furnished and decorated church sanctuaries from both western and eastern Eu-rope. Such evocations seek, among other things, to recuperate the losses of meaning incurred by ritual objects taken out of active use. This paper explores the history of altar evocation in Met galleries (both Fifth Avenue and The Cloisters) and argues that these displays chronicle curators' changing pedagogical interests over time with respect to the presentation of medieval art to a visitorship unfamiliar with the Middle Ages.
Abbot Suger, in De Administratione, invites his readers to consider the precious materials adorning the altar of Saint-Denis from an allegorical perspective. His metaphors encompass the liturgical furnishings of the altar as well as the colors of its gems, stones, and precious metals. Suger also refers to matter and light, and the ascent from what is material towards what is immaterial. The "anagogic" function of polychrome gems, as described by Suger, is rooted in the neoplatonic ideas of pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, whose ideas were also the basis for John Scotus Eriugena's concept of theophany. This article thoroughly analyzes the symbolic and allegorical language in Abbot Suger's writings and reconnects them with the figurative language used in Medieval Latin culture: the typological, encyclopedic, and liturgical allegories, as well as metaphysical pansemiosis. Suger's references to specific theoretical and textual passages in the writings of Eriugena and Hugh of St.Victor will be identified. Finally, an analysis will be made of the altars at Saint-Denis and related liturgical furnishings, using Suger's descriptions, other written and figurative sources, and the few material fragments preserved. Specific atten-tion will be paid to the allegorical interpretation of colors and precious materials, including the cryptic materia saphirorum.
Generally speaking, the emergence of the Gothic period contributed to put an end to the tradition of decorating the interior of churches with extensive polychrome cycles on the walls, roofs, and apses. The opening of large windows and the introduction of ribbed vaults, despite reducing the surface areas capable of housing paintings of considerable dimensions, offered new spaces suitable for displaying ornamentation: the keystones. These pieces, in addition to performing a tectonic function, became a receptive support for sculpted, painted and applied decoration that made possible the realisation of iconographic programs of all kinds. They were therefore elements of Gothic architecture that were given a symbolic significance, not infrequently of great importance. However, in the light of new research into topography, passage-ways, semiotics of images, etc., we can conclude that these pieces also had a symbolic value in relation to the place they occupied and the audiences they served.
