Heavenly Jerusalem Research Articles

Ekphrasis from the inside: Notes on the Inscription of the Crown of Light in Bayeux

This paper focuses on the inscription engraved in the crown of light given by Odo, bishop of Bayeux, to his cathedral around 1080. This long poem describes the shape of the object and the images it presents above the main altar of the cathedral. It constitutes a monumental example of Latin ekphrasis using rhetorical tools that can be read in many Antique and Late Antique texts. The inscription of the Bayeux crown also presents original features by building a description based on the visual experience of the object in a liturgical context. It establishes a complex discourse on the crown as an image of Heavenly Jerusalem and invites a fictional reader to look beyond the material to see the effect of the liturgical engagement that happens under the crown of light during the Eucharistic ceremony. Between materiality and transcendence, the gathering of the text and its subject produces a physical experience of the object and a meditation on its meaning.

Revelation 21:1–22:5. An Early Christian Locus Amoenus?

The visions of the Heavenly Jerusalem (Revelation 21) have a utopian feel. In this article I suggest that ancient writers from a Graeco-Roman background might have read these visions through the lens of the locus amoenus (pleasant place)—a utopian prototype. While associated primarily with vision poetry, the motif also served wider theological and philosophical purposes in the late Roman Republic and early Imperial periods and had spread beyond purely literary confines. The genre also engaged with philosophical, theological and eschatological themes. Thus engaging with Revelation 21 as a locus amoenus, as a contextually appropriate form, may have served as a jumping-off point into the less familiar realms of Judaic eschatological symbolism. Lastly, it is suggested that the appearance of the motif within what would become the Scriptures of emerging Christianity may provide a reason for the later more explicit developments of the genre in patristic writing.

Margaret HealyShakespeare, Alchemy and the Creative Imagination: The Sonnets and “A Lover’s Complaint.”Shakespeare, Alchemy and the Creative Imagination: The Sonnets and “A Lover’s Complaint.”Margaret Healy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011. Pp. x+260.

Margaret HealyShakespeare, Alchemy and the Creative Imagination: The Sonnets and “A Lover’s Complaint.”Shakespeare, Alchemy and the Creative Imagination: The Sonnets and “A Lover’s Complaint.”Margaret Healy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011. Pp. x+260.

The Vision of the Palace of the Byzantine Emperors as a Heavenly Jerusalem, by Maria Cristina Carile

In the middle Byzantine period the earthly court of the Byzantine emperors was regarded by contemporaries as a mirror of the heavenly court of Christ. Maria Carile’s thesis in this book (based on her 2007 Ph.D. dissertation) is that we can trace that idea back to the Late Antique period. As evidence for this, Carile looks to the palaces of the period. She brings together the (very limited) archaeological record of Late Antique imperial palaces with ekphraseis of palaces and, above all, with images of palaces and cityscapes in mosaics of the fifth and sixth century. As a book that seeks to look for an analogy between the earthly realm and the divine this is not a positivist attempt simply to reconstruct what we know about the physical environment of the emperors of Late Antiquity. Instead, as the title announces, it is a study of the ‘vision’ of the palace. Carile is interested in this symbolic power of palaces, how they were imagined and conceived, not in the way they actually appeared. Given the lack of physical evidence for earthly palaces (none has ever been comprehensively excavated), and the partial nature of literary evidence, the idea to focus instead on the vision of the palace is a pragmatic and sensible solution.

The Vision of the Palace of the Byzantine Emperors as a Heavenly Jerusalem. By Maria Cristina Carile . Spoleto: Centro Italiano di Studi sull'Alto Medioevo. 2012. xiii + 226 pp. €80. ISBN 978 88 7988 566 9.

Early Medieval EuropeVolume 21, Issue 2 p. 223-225 Book review The Vision of the Palace of the Byzantine Emperors as a Heavenly Jerusalem. By Maria Cristina Carile. Spoleto: Centro Italiano di Studi sull'Alto Medioevo. 2012. xiii + 226 pp. €80. ISBN 978 88 7988 566 9. David Rollason, David Rollason Durham UniversitySearch for more papers by this author David Rollason, David Rollason Durham UniversitySearch for more papers by this author First published: 07 April 2013 https://doi.org/10.1111/emed.12016_2Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Volume21, Issue2May 2013Pages 223-225 RelatedInformation

Szczęśliwość wieczna królewny Anny Wazówny. W niebie pod kopułą pomnika grobowego

The Eternal Bliss is a dream of each believer on crossing the finishing line of his/her earthly journey and entering Heaven in reward for being just. As it comes to the biography of Princess Anna Vasa of Sweden and the events commemorating her that took place in Toruń in 1636, we deal with three visions on the beyond. They are her personal experience of presence in the Third Heaven (1), the vision on her presence in Heaven created by the means of art on her sepulchral monument at the Assumption of the Virgin Mary Church (c. 1636) (2), and the parallel vision constructed during the funeral ceremony (3) and present in a panegyric that situates her in Heavenly Jerusalem, in which her name is written in the Book of Life and she is nourished by the living waters and connected to the Tree of Life.All endeavours aimed at commemorating Princess Anna Vasa such as funeral ceremony, sepulchral monument and occasional literature are dual in their nature, ie. they are both mournful and distinctly triumphant. Thus on the sepulchral monument, despite its typical gloomy character, there are elements to be found that overtly indicate the state of Eternal Bliss in which the departed Princess is to rejoice. The elements include the monument’s location in the chancel and such its architectural details as a portal in the shape of triumphal arch symbolizing the gate between the earthly and the spirit worlds, a dome as a symbol of Heaven, and a design for the sepulchral sculptures, that contains the lying figure of the Princess (with the eyes open and lost in contemplation of the spirit world; situated beyond the portal-gate and composed within the arch of the portal), and the set of three portal figures, standing for Princess’ earthly achievements and opening the gate to Heaven for her in exchange for her faithfulness to the faith and its articles. The figures include the images of Fides (Faith), Gratitudine (Gratitude) – representing the help to our neighbours, and Vittoria (Victory) – denoting the victory in the earthly and heavenly dimensions.

Motiv raja v Poslednji sodbi Fra Angelica

This article defines the possible sources for the unique depiction of paradise in the painting The Last Judgment by Fra Angelico. It defines the artist’s notion of paradise, which developed into a specific eschatological concept under the infl uence of apocalyptic writings during the Middle Ages, promising eternal blessedness to those that followed the steps of Christian moral values. Furthermore, an iconological analysis provides a possible explanation of the motif through the painting’s liturgical function. An extraordinarily rich theological, literary, and artistic tradition informed the artist’s conception of the Last Judgment. The doctrine and the iconographic features are supported by many passages from the apocalyptic sections of Bible, which, together with Dante’s intense visual imagery and various hymns, provided a source for the artist’s interpretation of the motif. Fra Angelico in general followed traditional iconography, but gave a unique depiction of paradise consisting of two parts: terrestrial paradise and Heavenly Jerusalem. In the early writings of the fathers of the Greek church, the notion of the third heaven can be found. It is the place of waiting for the righteous souls, but not the final destination. In the writings of Aquinas, the distinction between the earthly paradise and caelum empyreum is presented. Dante’s epic masterpiece also makes the same distinction. Earthly paradise is placed at the top of the mount of Purgatory, a reward for proper moral behavior. The unusual depiction of terrestrial paradise—in which the elliptical movement of dancing souls on fl owery meadows in a calm and serene composition, in which realism is strongly accentuated, is realized in the painting—has no visual parallel elsewhere. Because of its liturgical character, the painting carries the character of mystery far beyond the narrative function. Following the conventions of Byzantine-derived iconic art and based on Dominican knowledge, the painting is not an illustration of textual exegesis, but provides a field for exegetical inventions. Therefore it does not illustrate the succession of past events of Christian salvation history, but instead incorporates the events into the sacrament. As a liturgical art connected to liturgical action and the liturgical environment through the mass, it transports the audience into the mystical presence of God and engages them more deeply in the mystery of salvation. The liturgical presence therefore contains eschatological hope within, giving assurance of the world to come.

Resistencias: hacia una poética del espacio cortés: el Roman de Troie

The following essay attempts, using the tools of literary history, hermeneutics and phenomonology, to explore the poetics of courtly space in medieval Romance literature. Thus, the Benoit de Sainte-Maure's Roman de Troie is taken as a model, since it subsists as a cornerstone within the literary and iconographic tradition of the theme of the City of Troy, stretching between Antiquity and the end of the Middle Ages. In particular, we delineate how the urban space of Troy in Benoit's work is constituted through a rewriting and reimagining of the Heavenly Jerusalem of Revelation, whose meaning affects the reading of the poem as a whole. Outside the verse Roman de Troie this form of reading is unproductive, and the symbolic space created by Benoit is trammelled by the estoire and impulses towards rationalization. In spite of this, the iconographic tradition (such as Alfonso XI's version of the Historia troyana) shows the survival of a conflict between symbolic and rationalizing interpretations, and provides...

Architecture as icon: perception and representation of architecture in Byzantine art

Presenting the first formulation of the central subject, this volume challenges major assumptions long held by Western art historians and provides new ways of thinking about, looking at, and understanding Byzantine art in its broadest geographic and chronological framework, from A.D. 300 to the early nineteenth century. Byzantine art abandoned classical ideals in favor of formulas that conveyed spiritual concepts through stylized physical forms. Scholarship dealing with Byzantine icons has previously been largely focused on depictions of holy figures, dismissing representations of architecture as irrelevant space-filling background. Architecture as Icon demonstrates that background representations of architecture are meaningful, active components of compositions, often as significant as the human figures. The book provides a critical view for understanding the Byzantine conception of architectural forms and space and the corresponding intellectual underpinnings of their representation. Introduced by four thought-provoking essays, the catalogue divides the material as included in the exhibition into four categories identified as: generic, specific, and symbolic representations, and a final grouping entitled From Earthly to Heavenly Jerusalem. This handsomely illustrated volume addresses various approaches to depicting architecture in Byzantine art that contrast sharply with those of the Renaissance and subsequent Western artistic tradition.

The idea of the perfect city in the state of prince Lazar and despotes Stefan Lazarević

The idea of the perfect city in the state of prince Lazar and despotes Stefan Lazarević

Deserts and holy mountains of medieval Serbia: Written sources, spatial patterns, architectural designs

Essential concepts in Christian thought and practice, the desert and holy mountain denote a particular kind of monastic and sacral space. They are secluded from the world, intended for asceticism, and ambivalent in nature they are inhospitable and menacing zones populated with demons, but also a monastic paradise, places for spiritual conversion and encounter with the divine. From earliest times, deserts and holy mountains had a few distinguishing characteristics. All forms of monastic life, from communal to solitary, were practiced side by side there. Monks of a special make-up and distinction known as holy men who were also often founders of illustrious communities, future saints and miracle-workers acted there. Furthermore these locales were important spiritual and bookmaking centre's, and therefore, strongholds of Orthodoxy. When trying to research Serbian material on this topic, we face a specific situation: few surviving sources on the one hand, and devastated monuments on the other. The ultimate consequence is that the entire subject has been neglected. Therefore the study of the Serbian deserts and holy mountains requires a very complex interdisciplinary approach with systematic field work as its essential part. It should address the following issues: corroboration, on the basis of written sources, of the reception of the concept of the monastic desert and holy mountain in a particular, regional, context; the distinct means and mechanisms employed in their physical realization; interpretation of their function; the recognition of patterns preserved in the surviving physical structures. Even the results obtained so far appear to be relevant enough to become included in the sacral topography of the Christian world. The author of this study gives particular attention to the detailed analysis of written sources of various genres - diplomatic sources, hagiographic material, liturgical texts, observation notes - in order to establish the meaning and the function of the monastic locales labeled as deserts and holy mountains (and, in a limited number of cases, also known as caves). The most important conclusions that may be drawn would be the following: the terms are interchangeable and were used both in a broader and a narrower sense, but in either case in reference to the space intended for higher forms of monastic life. A particularly broad range of meanings had the term desert which could refer to a distinct locale, as a rule a river gorge, or a mountain inhabited by hermits, but also a cave hermitage, the hesychasterion of a coenobitic community. The distinct forms of monastic life in such areas were communities of two or three or a few monks, organized as a skete or as a cell. In the deserts and mountains hermits primarily pursued the practice of 'agon and hesychia', but were also engaged in manuscript copying - an important peculiarity of Serbian eremitic monasticism. Finally, such locales were thought of by their dwellers as spiritual cities and the narrow path leading to Heavenly Jerusalem. The other thematic focus is an analysis of spatial patterns and architectural structures based on the relevant examples studied so far. Different types of monastic communities functioning as deserts were considered, from the point of view of their spatial situation and their relationship to the coenobia. In this context, field research identified examples of the so-called internal deserts, which was reconfirmed by the records from written sources. Special attention was given to the mechanism for creating a holy mount in the Serbian environment, according to the recognizable, athonite model. Also analyzed were architectural solutions characteristic of Serbian monastic deserts, from the simplest ones such as wooden huts and walled-up caves to monumental multi-storied edifices, equipped with different features. Finally, the conclusions that have been reached serve as a basis for defining future priorities in the field research of this topic.

Gateway to the heavenly city: crusader Jerusalem and the Catholic West (1099-1187)

Gateway to the Heavenly City presents a penetrating analysis of the attitudes of Latin Christendom towards Jerusalem in the period from the First Crusade to the Muslim capture of the city in 1187. Sylvia Schein starts by exploring the changes in the Western image of Jerusalem, first as the goal of the crusade, then after its conquest. She examines the theories used to justify the conquest and rule of the Holy City and the attitudes of the papacy towards this new rival centre of sanctity. Subsequent chapters describe the new character of Jerusalem's sanctity as the city of the Old and New Testaments, as the earthly gateway to the heavenly city, and in apocalyptic terms as the centre of the world and the place where the events of the end of the world would unroll. The reaction to the fall of crusader Jerusalem in 1187 is the subject of the final chapter. Based on a detailed examination of the source materials, from poetry and song to chronicles and charters, this book paints a clear picture of the place of the Earthly and the Heavenly Jerusalem in Latin Christendom.

Zu den kleinfigurigen Szenen am ungarischen Krönungsmantel

Summary The space above the arcades, divided by turrets housing the apostles on the gold embroided chasuble donated to the Royal provostry in Szekesfehervar in 1031 by the King St. Stephen and his wife Gisela (transformed later to the coronation mantle) are filled with enigmatic scenes. As no inscriptions are given, and there is no evident iconographic context, only types of figures and gestures can help in their interpretation. A part of the small figures are warriors attacking the towers of the architecture which seems to be identified with the Heavenly Jerusalem. Five scenes represent rulers sitting according to oriental modi and entoured by members of their court. The cycle may be influenced by the types of the Hispanian Beatus Commentary illustration. Its iconographic meaning can be an allusion to the prophecies of the Old Testament about the empires threating Jerusalem.

Late Shakespeare: A New World of Words (review)

Short Notices 263 during the singing of a high Mass for the Dead', and so on for another day or so (p. 16). In other words, the tomb held a central place, physically as well as ritually in the life ofthe church or priory. The surroundingfiguresare each framed within a highly decorative gable supported on columns. The closest similarity to these is in the triforia ofthe bigger churches constructed after 1230, such as Saint-Denis or Beauvais or Troyes, in which the glazing of the clerestory has been extended downwards into the triforium arcade so the intricate gables over the triforium appear like so many crystalline roofs under the glory of the great windows. In the upper parts of the churches this represents the City of God, the Heavenly Jerusalem, below which the daily rituals of the earthly plane are acted out. In the tombs one has a similar impression that those in the lower register are in some way associated with the Heavenly City, which then supports the dead on the level above in a devout posture already ascending beyond the City for that awe-filled moment of Judgement. With feelings of good hope, one trusts. Towards the end of the middle ages many tombs, like the churches themselves, were mass-produced and assembled from standard parts. The merchant class had joined the nobles, but through their influence lineage and social prestige was less important than the display of wealth and ties ofpatronage. Though much has been written over the years on the subject of tombs, this is an excellent resource that brings together many of the separate strands only covered in shorter articles on specific tombs, in which Morganstern has woven a well-researched argument. John James Lawsons Long Alley Hartley Vale, NSW Palfrey, Simon, Late Shakespeare: A New World of Words, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1999 (1997); paper; pp. ix, 298; R.R.P. £14.99; ISBN 0198186894. This book, now issued in paperback, proposes a radical re-assessment of Shakespeare's romances from the point of view of what is coming to be called, on the analogy of new historicism, 'new philology'. Stripping the works of the kind of supernatural and courtly mantle with which Wilson Knight draped them, Simon Palfrey emphasises the disruptive, transformative and disjunctive kinds of language they employ, seeing Shakespeare's version of romance as inherently 264 Short Notices political, and posing a challenge to literary authority. The plays are read as examples of civic humanism rather than traditional romance, and therefore politically charged. The island of The Tempest is said to be 'fashioned aurally': The play will then trace, elliptically and impressionistically, the steps of linguistic evolution, and so the processes through which structures of dominance and subservience become canonized and naturalized in language, (p. 149) Character is seen as essentially speech-act, a construction of language withou necessary reference to notions of unified identity. Pericles becomes a 'lacunar hero, constructed by his gaps and absences rather than by continuity or essential identity, 'less a personal thing than a text of civic potential' (p. 61). In analysing the 'textual exploitation' of Imogen and the role of Perdita as 'proleptic repairer', Palfrey attempts to correct the reading that they are 'inert vessels of a wistful pastoral tradition'. Palfrey's book is alert to linguistic nuance and reveals complexities that have until n o w been found more often in the tragedies and histories. As a consequence, however, he runs theriskof under-stressing the unique theatricalism of the last plays, and of over-complicating dramatic effects that do seem different in kind from Shakespeare's earlier work, and more reminiscent of Elizabethan romance. For all its ingenuity and innovativeness, the book will not be to every reader's taste. The writing seems calculated to mirror Shakespeare's audacious unruliness, and metaphor runsriot.This is a clever and challenging book, but at times over-clever. R. S White Department ofEnglish The University of Western Australia ...

Vom dreizehnten Gott zum dreizehnten Apostel?

The Christianization of the imperial funeral in late Antiquity did not change its political function. The public honours bestowed upon the dead emperor were meant to display dynastic continuity and political legitimacy. Furthermore, the Christian concept of consecratio, like its pagan counterpart, legitimized the imperial succession and manipulated the emperor's dead body for the propagandistic presentation of the triumphant domus divina. Constantine, the first Christian emperor, was buried in the centre of the church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople, flanked by the tombs of the twelve apostles on either side. From the literary, iconographical and numismatic evidence one cannot deduce, as has sometimes been suggested, that there Constantine wanted to be venerated as the thirteenth apostle, but that he proclaimed himself to be lσoXplστos, i.e. the equal of Christ. Thus he radically christianized the pagan idea of identifying the emperor with his patron god. Although Constantine's ceremonial instructions - which replaced the traditional funeral ceremony with a Christian mass - were imitated by later Christian emperors, his uncompromising demand for identity was not. It appears that his son, Constantius II, had already removed his coven from the church of the Holy Apostles. In addition, Christian writers openly opposed Constantine's idea of a 'Christian' apotheosis and propagated instead the concept of the emperor's accession to the Heavenly Jerusalem, where he would enjoy communion with God. At the same time, the usurpers were mercilessly banned to hell. The dead emperor now was a subordinate part of the celestial hierarchy. The solemn rites for the deceased imperator Christianus were an amalgam of pagan and Christian rituals. The new Christian imperial cult argued from a theological perspective for the emperor's superhuman elevation and widened the gulf between the ruler and his subjects. The majority of Christians apparently did not see any contradiction bet

The Precious Stones of Heavenly Jerusalem in the Medieval Book Illustration and Their Comparison with the Wall Incrustation in St. Wenceslas Chapel

The art historians have traditionally considered St. Wenceslas Chapel of St. Vitus' Cathedral in Prague Castle the image of Heavenly Jerusalem. This theory proved legitimate also in the study discussing the symbolism of the precious stones incrustation adorning the cycle of paintings of the Redemption story in the lower part of all the chapel walls. The identification of precious stones with Christ, with the saints and martyrs does not, however, exclude the possibility that the chapel was meant as a reliquary. It is therefore necessary to search for new parallels in medieval literature and art to the precious stones adorning the chapel to be able to endorse the former or the latter theory, or, eventually, look for a new explanation.

Sobre la «Jerusalén restaurada»: los Calvarios barrocos en España

In this article, the author wants to analyze the different kinds of «calvarios» and «sacromontes», which can be found in the Spanish Baroque, when so many villages and towns are turned into the symbolic image of «Heavenly Jerusalem».

The Meaning of the Landscape in Bellini's "St. Francis in Ecstasy"

The article proposes that the landscape in Giovanni Bellini's St. Francis in Ecstasy in the Frick Collection, New York, shows the Heavenly Jerusalem, a motive which originated in the North, although it is patterned loosely after Assisi. The cave serves to identify the saint with Jerome, so that it acts as the vehicle of salvation well in advance of Bosch and Patinir. While the scene has multiple resonances of meaning, the author further suggests that the likely subject is St. Francis seeking inspiration from the heavens as he is about to compose the Canticle of the Sun at San Damiano.

Speaking in stone ? On the meaning of architecture in the Middle Ages

Architecture has often served a variety of purposes in addition to that of mere functionality. Different categories of meanings can be distinguished. In this essay some aspects of political meaning in medieval architecture will be discussed. The architecture of churches commissioned for instance by bishops, archbishops, provosts or other high-ranking clerical patrons was often used to express views about the status and position of both patron and institution. Rivalling patrons could copy those parts of each other's churches that were considered essential and characteristic. Buildings were thus often symbols, not only of the Church and of Heavenly Jerusalem, but also of an idealized history and an aspired status and position.

Holy Land, Holy People? Photography, Semitic Wannabes, and Chautauqua's Palestine Park

Near the end of the day on which he was assassinated, Abraham Lincoln and his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, left the confines of the White House for a drive. As their carriage made its way through the city of Washington, their conversation turned, ironically, to the future. They talked of the travels they hoped to make following the expiration of his second term in office. Although their plans included tours of the Western United States and Europe, one destination assumed special importance. More than any other place, it seems, the president wanted to visit the Holy Land. “But,” as his widow wrote over a year later, “a few days after this conversation, the crown of immortality was his - he was rejoicing in the presence of his Saviour, and was in the midst of the Heavenly Jerusalem.…”