Le texte épigraphique à l'épreuve de l'art. Style, date, attribution

Abstract

The Interest among medievalists for the social and anthropological implications of written culture since the mid-1990s also concerns the study of medieval inscriptions, especially in the field of art history. Inscriptions are considered as a source of information for art historians, and their content is used as an evidence or a scientific argument for dates, attributions, or stylistic qualifications. Inscriptions are also considered as proper objects whose presence inflects or transforms the work of art. In order to testify to the convergence of historical questions regarding visual, textual and material cultures, this article first presents the main historiographical trends of the encounter between art history and medieval epigraphy. The Lazarus capital in Moissac shows, in a second part, the richness of the discourses produced at the crossroads of the sculpted image and the inscription. Finally, it presents some research perspectives for further studies of medieval epigraphic documentation.