Review: New Approaches to Medieval Architecture, by Robert Bork, William Clark, and Abby McGehee

Abstract

Robert Bork, William Clark, and Abby McGehee, editors. New Approaches to Medieval Architecture AVISTA Studies in the History of Medieval Technology, Science, and Art, Volume 8. Farnham, England, and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2011, 258 pp., 66 b/w illus. $119.95 (cloth), ISBN 9781409422280. New Approaches to Medieval Architecture bears a somewhat misleading title, as the methodologies employed by the authors are not new in the broad sense of the term; most papers included in this collection—drawn from conference presentations at the International Medieval Congress between 2007 and 2009—could be described as positivist, relying on site-oriented, object-based examination. But if the methods themselves are not entirely new, the problems to which they are applied—and the means by which they are applied—stretch the boundaries of the field, questioning standard truths and opening exciting directions of exploration. The authors, who include both emerging and senior scholars, demonstrate how fresh eyes and new technology can upend even the most deeply-entrenched conclusions. The editors organized the papers under four headings: master narratives of the field, patronage and institutional context, workshop practices, and new technology. Nicola Camerlenghi begins part one with “The Longue Duree and the Life of Buildings,” questioning our emphasis on a building’s moment of conception as the moment deserving study. He instead introduces the idea of four-dimensional study to medieval buildings, noting that time-based study can reveal changing attitudes about the past, the effects of the past on the present, and the lasting significance of sites or structures. His work is followed by that of Vasileios Marinis, who challenges the notion that liturgical function determined form in the ground plans of Byzantine churches, suggesting instead a more complex scenario accounting not only for function but for convenience, aesthetics, practicality, and change at each site. Next, Ellen Shortell convincingly reinterprets documentary sources for the construction of Saint-Quentin’s Gothic choir and supports her position with an analysis of the stained glass, concluding that Saint-Quentin, usually described as an imitative offshoot of Chartres, is instead its contemporary. Along the way, Shortell highlights the difficulty of using assumptions about an …