Romanesque Art Research Articles

Billy and the Thirteen Blackbirds: The Co-Creation of Meaning in a Child Analysis Session

ABSTRACT The author uses the microanalysis of a single videotaped session with a neurodiverse child to find insights into the process by which change takes place in analysis. In this analytic play session, change is generated through a rhythm of “match, disruption, and reunion” on top of which, like a carrier wave, a narrative is co-created about the “stability” of the relationship. In keeping with the theme of Jonathan Palmer’s inspiring paper relating psychoanalysis with the creative act of painting, the author links her observations of the clinical session with two other forms of art – a Wallace Stevens poem (“Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird”) and an essay on Romanesque art by the art historian, Meyer Schapiro. Both the psychoanalytic session and these examples of art illustrate the centrality of co-creation in the dyads (analyst-patient, author-reader, and sculptor-viewer).

A Century of Romanesque Sculpture of the Pilgrimage Roads. Rivers of Europe entering the land of the sons of Cain

In 1923, Arthur Kingsley Porter published his ten volumes on Romanesque Sculpture of the Pilgrimage Roads. This paper takes its anniversary as a chance to look back to how the narrative constructed around Romanesque art in Iberia, the Way to Santiago, and the impact of the Islamic frontier developed and changed under different international and nationalistic scholarship and their agendas. Hopefully, it can also serve to critically reflect on the modes of current instrumentalization of medieval past in Spain’s public sphere and on the great value of Porter’s lessons on art history.

SOURCES OF KYIV RELIEFS WITH «SECULAR» PLOTS: ISSUE OF ATTRIBUTION AND DATING

The earliest Kyiv reliefs with figurative images correlate with temples built in the second half of the 11th — early 12th centuries. The iconography and dating of Ovruch pyrophyllite slate reliefs with secular or indefinite plots has been the subject of research by more than one generation of scholars. The reliefs have been found already damaged or reused, so their original placement in the interior or faзade, as well in the temple or palace also remains a matter of debate.
 The study of the images of these reliefs in the context of the development of Byzantine art shows that the Kyiv artists copied a Christian patterns that combined secular, mythological and biblical plots, the formation of which took place under the influence of the Classic heritage. According to the conditions of discovery, iconography and style, these are the works of the second half of the 11th — early 12th centuries. The typological and stylistic similarity of four such reliefs permit to suggest that they were made for the same building, although they were found in different parts of the city. They depict the biblical character Samson or David, the mythological character Cybele or the Great Mother of the Gods, a warrior fighting the lion and a fragment of the animal head — a goat or a lioness. Fragments of two other reliefs depict the animal looks like a lion with the rider on its back, possibly Samson or David. The depiction of a man riding a beast is the motif of oriental origin that became widespread in Byzantine and Romanesque art of the 12th century, including in Rus. Two fragments of slabs depicting the griffin in high relief come from the exterior decor. In the art of the 10th—12th centuries, the griffin as a vigilant guard of the sacred place was depicted on the facades of churches in the type of «solemn procession». The Kyiv’s griffin was probably included in the heraldic composition. The question of the placement of the slabs — in a palace or a temple — is still disputable.

The Early Medieval relief from Malo Čajno nearby Visoko with great Nespina kaznac’s added inscription

The Early Medieval relief from Malo Čajno nearby Visoko with great Nespina kaznac’s added inscription

Происхождение каталонской романской художественной традиции: политический дискурс в контексте историографии проблемы

This article raises the issue of the origins of the 11th –12th-centuries Catalan Romanesque pictorial tradition. The purpose of this work was to demonstrate the specific features and complexity of this regional artistic tradition and, referring to the example of the historiographical discourse that developed in medieval studies of the last century and at the beginning of the 21st century, to consider the main theories of the origin of Catalan Romanesque painting. Based on the analyzed works, the author notes that the researchers’ attempt to establish continuity between the Catalan and any other medieval artistic tradition was often associated with the political agenda in Catalonia. In the course of the study, the author identifies three main theories that prevailed in the works devoted to establishing the authorship of Romanesque Catalan painting: the Lombard theory, the South French theory and the Roman theory. Despite the persistence of the Northern Italian theory to determine the origins of Catalan painters (Master of Pedret), today the increasing number of researchers disputes the connection of Catalan workshops with Lombardy and insist on the influence of Rome and Southern Italy on the Romanesque artistic tradition of Catalonia. According to the author, the tendency to associate the Catalan art school with the Roman-Cassinian circle of monuments is directly related to the current separatist sentiments in the region and the desire to demonstrate the uniqueness of its national tradition, which was the successor of the Early Christian Art. In this article, the research history of the Catalan Romanesque art will be presented time in accordance with the current socio-political context in Catalonia for the first.

К ВОПРОСУ ОБ АНТИЧНЫХ СЮЖЕТАХ В ИСКУССТВЕ ДОМОНГОЛЬСКОЙ РУСИ

A narrow range of Byzantine texts, primarily chronographic ones, containing classical themes and images, were translated in Russia starting from the 11th century.These texts became the literary basis of secular and ecclesiastic art. Several iconographic motifs from mythological stories and the “Ascension of Alexander the Great” entered the art of pre-Mongol Russian. Byzantium was the main source of the antique elements in Old Russian culture. Some motifs were also adopted in Old Russia from Romanesque art, through close contact with Western Europe. The tradition of using ancient subjects for the decoration of churches in relief, which was widespread both in Byzantine and in Romanesque art, was continued in Russian monuments. Сlassical subjects on the walls of churches served as apotropaic images, but their symbolism could also include other aspects. Antique motifs are encountered even in the frescoes of monastery churches which followed a strict, ascetic iconographic programme in spite of the general orientation of Old Russian art towards the monastic culture of Byzantium. The author deals with the problem of specific samples. It is unlikely that objects of applied art could have served as models for church sculpture.

«Descubrir» y «descubrirse» en el románico: un ejemplo catalán de patrimonio de la humanidad

The aim of this work is to present a case study on the identification between Romanesque art and national identity in Catalonia, an association that emerged in the framework of the emer‑ gence of national movements at the end of the 19th century, but that was recovered a century later when the process for the declaration of the Romanesque churches of the Boí Valley as a world heri‑ tage site by UNESCO began. The identification of the Romanesque with a «national art» is reinforced in this case because it is a Romanesque art located in the heart of the Pyrenees, with the strong symbolic value of the mountain as the «cradle» of the Catalan nation. We will analyse the World Heritage process and its effects in the context of a small territory, with a scarce population and dependent to a great extent on the seasonality of tourism.

Becoming Leo. Steinberg e l'Institute of Fine Arts di New York: dall’eredità dei professori tedeschi allo sviluppo di un nuovo criticism

Leo Steinberg, born in Moscow in 1920 but raised in Berlin and London, arrived in New York in January 1945. Trained as an artist in London in the early 1950s, when he was already in his thirties, he decided to study art history at the Institute of Fine Arts (IFA), where he was educated by Jewish-German refugee art historians such as Richard Krautheimer, Wolfgang Lotz, and Erwin Panofsky. This essay reconsiders Steinberg’s work, which is well-known for its unconventional and revisionist inter- pretations, through the lens of his academic formation and the legacy of German Kunstwissenschaft in postwar America. Taking into account unpublished material (including university course notes and papers and an abandoned dissertation on the afterlife of Romanesque art), I point out how Steinberg’s first scholarly works, while respecting the methodologies of his professors, at the same time tried to “resist” their heritage. His engagement with contemporary art, for example, led him to challenge the biases of his professors, sometimes to their annoyance, as was the case with his Ph.D. dissertation on Borromini’s church of San Carlino, which was contested by his adviser Richard Krautheimer. The essay argues that during the IFA years Steinberg had already developed some of the concepts that would characterize his later intellectual trajectory: the dialogue between Old Master art and contemporary experience, the emphasis on the beholder’s physical and psychological response to artworks, the epistemological reevaluation of subjectivity, the priority of visual data over texts, and the hermeneutical validity of ambiguity and multiple levels of meaning. Through these means, Steinberg achieved a personal synthesis between historical investigation and criticism, anticipat- ing the rethinking of the methodological tradition in the 1960s and 1970s.

Of Archers and Lions: The Capital of the Islamic Rider in the Cloister of Girona Cathedral

Abstract In the south gallery of the cloister of the Cathedral of Santa María, Girona, we find one capital that is differentiated from the rest because of its formal as well as its iconographic characteristics. The four faces of capital no. 4 contain two repeated and two alternating motifs: the archer on horseback and the lion attacking a bull. Both the dress of these horsemen and their physical traits identify them as Muslim horsemen. This identification creates an interpretive context for the capital as a whole that also conditions the reading of the conquering lion. Both images will be examined within their constructive context in the light of events and legends that surrounded the cathedral of Girona in the twelfth century. Moreover, we will trace the origin of these motifs that have their parallels in ivories of the art of the caliphal and taifa periods as well as in Catalan Romanesque and Sicilian-Norman art. This overview will enable us to interpret the meaning and significance of the capital in its historical-artistic context and enrich our knowledge of the artistic transfers between Andalusian and Romanesque art.

Traditio Legis y otras representaciones iconográficas a través de objetos de vidrio y vidriados

En el presente artículo analizaremos las patenas de vidrio y vidriadas decoradas con la imagen de Cristo, san Pedro y san Pablo, así como el programa iconográfico de la Traditio Legis. A pesar de que no son muy numerosas en España, sí contamos con el importante testimonio de Cástulo (Linares, Jaén) o de la Almoina (Valencia). El análisis de sus formas intrínsecas nos aporta una valiosa información iconográfica, que sería el ante sala del Pantocrator representado en el arte Románico en siglos posteriores.

Les églises romanes : un objet typologique

'Romanesque art' is a concept, an instrument forged by Art historians in the 19th century for the formal classification of medieval churches. Nowadays, it has turned into a goal, inducing a set of questions and issues that researchers are currently working on. Based on a critical study of various theories and on examples of churches in Auvergne, this paper is aiming to present the research in medieval Art history as a witness to the crisis of the early 21st century, marked by a whole series of reactionary movements.

Iconografia bíblica a la pintura mural romànica de la Vall de Boí: el cel dins de l’eglésia

The present article is about biblical iconography on the Romanesque mural paintings conserved from three churches in Vall de Boi: Sant Climent of Taull, Santa Maria of Taull, and Sant Joan of Boi, which at the beginning of the 20th century were moved to the National Museum of Catalan Art in Barcelona. This article analyses the mural paintings of these tree churches, as they were the only way to transmit biblical messages and lessons to illiterate medieval believers. Key words: biblical iconography, Romanesque art, Romanesque mural painting, Vall de Boi.

At the Borders of the Regnum of Naples. The Guglia and the Princes of Taranto Orsini del Balzo in Soleto

Founded in Norman times, the Principality of Taranto was a satellite area at the borders of various kingdoms, passing to Swabians and Angevins. Under the governor of the central power, its Princes were chosen among the ruling families to control the territory better and take advantage of its natural geographical strategy, especially for trade with the Adriatic Sea and the East. The exception to this long series of rulers was the Orsini del Balzo family, with its two representatives Raimondo († 1406) and his son Giovanni Antonio (†1463), totally focused on making the fief firmer thanks to some separatist tendencies from the Crown. After the election of Raimondo Orsini del Balzo as Prince of Taranto in 1399, many artistic centres flourished insmall towns. An example is the magnificent basilica of S. Caterina in Galatina (near Lecce) founded by Raimondo,which houses Princes’ tombs and well–known frescoes of the beginning of the 15th century. A few kilometres away from Galatina, the small town of Soleto was invested with new importance by the Orsini del Balzo. The core of the homonymous County, it reached its maximum territorial expansion during that time. Here there are several sites celebrating the glories of the family, but the most important one is the so-called Guglia, a belfry, approximately 45 m tall, decorated with sculptures and coats of arms, leant against the façade of the Church of Maria Santissima Assunta. The paper is focused on the analysis of this monument,variously dated between the end of the 14th century and the first half of the 15th century and differently linked to Raimondo or Giovanni Antonio. Even though not so many years passed between the governments of the father and the son, their patronages were really dissimilar: the first was devoted to the tradition of Romanesque art, whereas the second focused on a language receptive to the International Gothic. This study wants to endorse the figure of Giovanni Antonio as commissioner of the tower and highlights the political importance of this piece of art declaring the power of the family in a territory at the borders of the Kingdom of Naples.

A representación das soldadeiras nas cantigas de escarnio galego-portuguesas e na cultura visual románica

Las soldadeiras fueron personajes femeninos que tradicionalmente se consideraron acompañantes de los trovadores y juglares en su performance. En las cantigas de escarnio son frecuentes las burlas de estas mujeres, ridiculizadas por sus gustos desmedidos por el juego y la lujuria, de modo que en los estudios literarios se asimilaron con las prostitutas. El objetivo es realizar una investigación interdisciplinar, en la que están presentes el análisis literario y artístico a partir del estudio de la descriptio física y moral que se realiza exclusivamente de aquellas mujeres que fueron denominadas como “soldadeiras” en las cantigas, así como de su representación en el arte románico gallego. Si bien la caracterización literaria refleja una visión negativa de estas figuras, la posición privilegiada que adquiere su figuración en los tímpanos de algunas iglesias, como la de San Miguel del Monte (Chantada, Lugo) o Santa María de Ucelle (Coles, Ourense), confirma que las lecturas literales de las cantigas de escarnio no pueden ser sustentadas, pues su finalidad era buscar la risa del auditorio mediante la presentación grotesca de la sociedad del momento.
 
 [gl] As soldadeiras foron personaxes femininas que tradicionalmente se consideraron acompañantes dos trobadores e xograres na súa performance. Nas cantigas de escarnio son comúns as mofas a estas mulleres, ridiculizadas polos seus gustos desmedidos polo xogo e a luxuria, de modo que nos estudos literarios se tenderon a asimilar coas prostitutas. O obxectivo é realizar unha investigación interdisciplinar, na que están presentes a análise literaria e artística a partir do estudo da descriptio física e moral que se realiza exclusivamente daquelas mulleres que foron denominadas como “soldadeiras” nas cantigas, así como da súa representación na arte románica galega. Se ben a caracterización literaria reflicte unha visión negativa destas figuras, a posición privilexiada que adquire a súa figuración nos tímpanos dalgunhas igrexas, como a de San Miguel do Monte (Chantada, Lugo) ou Santa María de Ucelle (Coles, Ourense), confirma que as lecturas literais das cantigas de escarnio non poden ser sostidas, pois a súa finalidade era buscar o riso do auditorio mediante a presentación grotesca da sociedade do momento.

Justice, Conflict, and Dispute Resolution in Romanesque Art: The Ecclesiastical Message in Spain

This article examines the iconography of militarized violence in Christian art as a reflection of turbulence and peacemaking during the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. Despite the message of peace urged by Christ’s Beatitudes, churches of that time displayed depictions of violent disputes between individuals and groups in a wide array of examples on both the exterior and the interior, often in positions available to clergy and laity for viewing and instruction. Focusing especially on Spain, we offer a survey of these representations and an analysis of the message they conveyed to viewers. The pilgrimage road to Santiago de Compostela had a major role in connecting France and Spain and their religious and artistic communities, but other factors, such as the Gregorian reform and the frontier conflict against the Islamic South, are considered as well. Although the iconography has often been associated with such pacifist movements as the Peace and the Truce of God, we argue that these images assert the Church’s active role in earthly justice, whose methods utilized violent means. The involvement of the Church in the struggle for precedence over the secular nobility resulted in conflicts about landed power and patronage, with the ordeal by combat used to settle legal disputes and find justice. Depictions of confronted warriors, and particularly the inclusion of an intervening figure, expressed not the Church’s banning of conflict but its adoption of a judicial method to impose its rule and uphold the virtue of divine justice.

The Chrismon and the Liturgy of Dedication in Romanesque Sculpture

AbstractThe chrismon, the symbol based on the early Christian chi-rho monogram of Christ, is among the most intriguing yet poorly understood and contentious subjects in the study of “Romanesque” sculpture. It may be the most common symbolic subject in Romanesque art—hundreds of examples survive in the portal sculptures of southern French and northern Spanish churches—but the answers to fundamental questions about the chrismon’s meaning and purpose in eleventh- and twelfth-century sculpture are disputed. A vast body of largely unconsidered evidence for the chrismon points overwhelmingly to a new answer for the old questions: the chrismon was the chief consecration mark in the doorway of the church. It was designed to receive lustration with the chrismal oils by which the bishop sanctified the entryway to the church in the liturgy of dedication, preserving in durable form the ephemeral marks, gestures, and language of the rite of consecration. This insight offers new perspective on the interactive reception...

Галицкие рельефные плитки: европейский контекст

Ceramic tiles of different types and sizes were widely used in the decoration of the churches of Old Rus. They were covered with yellow, green, and brown glaze, sometimes they were also decorated with ornament. Only in Halich region, in some churches, there were tiles with reliefs where figures and ornamental images were depicted. The complete absence of similar samples in other regions of Old Rus gave a reason for some scholars to look for analogical tiles in neighboring countries and to derive them from Byzantine or Romanesque art. To understand how such unusual elements of decoration appeared in Halich, it is necessary to place them in the context of European decorative ceramics of that time. In general, decorative ceramic tiles were widely spread in the medieval architecture of Europe and NearEast; but in different regions, there were some peculiar types. In Constantinople, there were actively used tiles of white clay covered with bright painted glaze ornaments with prevalence of yellow, green, and brown colors. In the Seljuk Sultanate of Konia, at the end of the 12th century, there were tiles made of white clay as well, covered with white and blue glaze ornament, often they were of cruciform or of star shape. In France and German, the tiles began to be actively used at the end of the 12th century, in Britain — in the middle of the 13th century. There they were made of red clay, at first covered with monochrome glaze; the method of pouring red clay in a white clay form in order to achieve a bicolor effect appeared in the middle of the 13th century. Only in Polish and Czech lands the tiles with reliefs of floral motifs and story images were widely spread. So, it becomes clear that the only places where the relief tiles were found were the countries of Central Europe,where they were actively used from the end of the 12th century. That is why it seems natural that such plates appeared in Halich lands, which were in cultural interaction with these countries. In spite of the fact that the method of placement of an image in a circle was widespread in Europe, as well as the depiction of gryphons,peacocks, and other creatures on tiles, the relief tiles are typical for certain geographical and cultural zone of theCentral European countries. Finally, if we take into consideration the peculiarities of political history of Halich Russia in the middle of the 13th century, the active contacts of Daniil of Galicia with his western neighbors and the presence of similar by technique and shape tiles in Lesser Poland, it seems logical that this region was the origin of the tiles of that type.

Le chant monastique au XIe siècle: le chant grégorien. Le vécu à l’abbaye de Saint-Trond

It is important to have a clear understanding of the monastic day, ordered by all the offices specified by the Rule of St. Benedict. However this does not say anything specific about chant. We are referring to Gregorian chant, ‘the chant known as Gregorian’, whose history is briefly traced. This highlights the importance of a geographical area corresponding to present-day Belgium and the southern regions of Belgium, with Metz as centre, where Bishop Chrodegang played a leading role. For centuries all chant was performed using memory alone, for there was no musical notation. The ninth century will see the development of neumes, as simple memory aids, like tropes. Only in the eleventh century, especially with Guido d’Arezzo, will the designation of notes and writing on staff lines appear. Only then can one sing what one reads. This study then focuses on the Benedictine monastery of St Trond where musical annotation was introduced at the end of the eleventh century by Rudolph of St Trond. The question is how Gregorian chant was performed at St Trond. One cannot avoid the question of the possible contrasts between the beauty of the liturgical chant and the many troubles that gripped the abbey at the time. A question valid for the eleventh century: a question of contrast valid for our time. Like the romanesque art of its time, this chant was of the eleventh century and remains forever the meeting point of the human and the divine.

L’art roman en Lombardie. État des questions

Romanesque art in Lombardy is striking for its lack of typological and technical uniformity, due to the use of a variety of materials : stone in the alpine and sub-alpine zones, brick (reused brick until the end of the 11th century) in the plain, in the south. The formulation in Lombardy of a new architectural style springs from a wider geographical and cultural context, that of the “first Romanesque art”. This architectural renewal is closely related to episcopal reform in the framework of the Ottonian and Salien Reichskirchensystem. The most emblematic figures are Aribert d’Intimiano for the diocese of Milan and the bishops of Brescia and Como, who remained faithful to the Empire. In the mid-11th century there are important experiments made in Santa Maria Maggiore at Lomello, in the baptistery of Galliano and in the San Sepulchro in Milan, both in the architectural conceptions and structural solutions (vaulting in stone, material division of bays, articulation of the supports). The unfortunate disappearance of many monuments in the second half of the 11th century prohibits a serial vision of the process that leads to the mature phase of Romanesque architecture at the end of the century, which coincides with the emergence of the Lombard communes. The most representative buildings, such as Sant’Ambrogio in Milan and San Michele Maggiore in Pavia, adopt tribunes with alternating supports and ribbed vaults, and monumental sculpture takes on unprecedented importance. At the same moment, reconstruction work begins on Cremona Cathedral, one of the most problematic Romanesque buildings in northern Italy, which is situated halfway between the Lombard world and the cathedrals in Po valley (Modena and Piacenza).

The use of interactive and educational tools to understand romanesque Heritage: a case study in Erill La Vall (Lleida)

This paper analyses the concept of interpretation centres as an effective tool to understand heritage. At the same time, it presents the case study of the Centre del Romànic de la Vall de Boí (CRVB) in Erill la Vall (Lleida). This model has been selected after a previous study taking into consideration qualitative, descriptive and exploratory criteria. The study was carried out in numerous Romanesque art interpretation centres throughout Spain. The results of the analysis show that this case includes those basic aspects established in the investigation in order to become an educational model that seeks as its main objective the proper interpretation of the Romanesque teaching.