Skip to content

Posts from the ‘Medieval Art’ Category

Apr 27

Marmorisco-san-juan-baptista

Romanesque North

Northern Spain is littered with Romanesque Art and Architecture.  A huge restoration project recently recieved the prestigious Europa Nostra Medal 2013

Románico Norte - or Romanesque North – is the name of a huge and impressive project in Northern Spain. From 2005 to 2012 a plan was laid to institute a complete restoration of 54 churches in the diocese of Palencia and Burgos, in the old Merindad Aguilar de Campo district. The geographical area covered by the Plan focuses on the North Eastern part of the Northwest province of Palencia and Burgos, where the Southern slope of the Cantabrian Mountains meet the Castilian plateau. The vast territory with its distinct topography has posed a major challenge for the whole team trying to implement the objectives of the plan for the development of the “Romanesque North”.

romanico norte 200x300 Romanesque North

San Juan Baptista

The work has – as can be ascertained from the website – been carried out in collaboration with a number of partners, who have provided state of the art solutions. Apart from local councils the work has been funded by La Consejería de Cultura y Turismo de la Junta de Castilla y León , la Fundación Siglo para las Artes de Castilla y León  and la Fundación Santa María la Real-Centro de Estudios del Románico . Partner has also been the Dioceses of Palencia and Burgos.

The aim has been to further sustainable economic growth, through taking care of and developing the nature, history and heritage, which is embedded in the landscape. Accordingly the work is still in progress since not only the churches but also the surrounding landscape is being analysed, described and restored.

Iglesia de San Juan Bautista
This has for instance been the case in the Iglesia de San Juan Bautista in Matamorisca, where the church is decorated with a series of very well preserved murals, which have been painstakingly restores. However, in order to provide lightening for the celebration of mass and other religious services, the church had installed a really terrifying lightening system  – with ripe possibilities for fires. Further the old lightening hampered the visitor, who wanted to study the murals in detail. Apart from restoring the church, the work carried out by Románico Norte consisted in installing a state of the art lightening, where 95% of the fuses etc. were hidden and at the same time providing a better experience both for the local villagers and the cultural tourists.

Románico Norte recently received the prestigious Europa Nostra Prize for 2013.  Read the validation here –  and see the video

READ MORE: 

Románico Norte

Read more about Romanesque art in Spain

Enciclopedia del Románico en la Peninsula Iberérica

- or access the encyclopedia in digital form

 

Apr 26

Angela LLop-santa-maria-de-bell-lloc

Coloma de Queralt

NEW RESEARCH:

Santa Coloma de Queralt  – A Rural Market Town in Catalonia

Santa Coloma de Queralt in the middle of present day Catalonia is even today a small rural market town. Complete with a with a pretty much intact medieval centre, it was established in the early11th century on the border between old Catalonia and the Muslim territory, where it grew from a small village in the shadow of a fortification, a church and a nearby hermitage into a rural market town with approximately 1500 inhabitants. Today the population is around 3000, but it still exude the same atmosphere of a busy little town as it must have done 7 – 800 years ago.

At least that is the feeling you get from reading the work of Gregory B. Milton who has made the small city an object for his extensive studies. So far this has resulted in a series of papers and articles plus a recent monograph, published last year on Palgrave Macmillan.

One reason is undoubtedly the fortuitous preservation of a large notarial collection. All in all 4300 records have been preserved concerning transfer of land in connection with marriages and inheritances, exchanges of real property plus more generally debts /commerce. This material – which the author interestingly enough claims is in no way unique in a Catalonian context – show how the 13th century witnessed a marked development of the role of trade and markets plus exchange of capital; plus not least the professionalization of the use of written, notarial records and contracts. Such instruments were part of the daily life and used by the majority. The book (which is a rewritten thesis) tells the general story of this transformation. The article focuses more specifically on the development of the ecclesiastical scribania into a professional notarial institution and shows how this was a

sta coloma 2 225x300 Coloma de Queralt

reflection of the effort of the Crown of Aragon through the implementation of new legislation.

“These professional notarial scribes of the period – he writes –  provided administrative services in many different arenas, but more significantly provided a reliable means – accurate, flexible and legal – of monitoring the commercial transactions they recorded for their customers. The value of professional notarial writing helped create and further the increased commercial activity of the period within the Crown of Aragon. While scholars have long considered this process in major urban centres, it was also a significant factor for rural communities in Catalonia, which utilised and benefited from regular access to professional writing for the necessities of daily life”.

Both are well worth reading: The book for its detailed documentation of the development of a rural market town in the 13th century and the article for its detailed analysis of the changes and professionalization of the notarial system. Currently Milton is working on a new book: Cultures of Debt: Christian, Muslim and Jewish Society in Iberia (1000-1500).

Santa Maria de Bell lloc small Coloma de Queralt

Santa Maria de Bell-lloc

Travelling to Santa Coloma de Queralt and trying to get a sense of the place, it may seem a bit bone dry to bring Miltons work along as a travelling companion (and, alas, even if available as an E-book, it costs a horrendous $92.50). But apart from the long and fastidious (and commendable) story about the transformation from village to market-town, the book also contains some fascinating biographies in the end of some of the medieval bailiffs, who basically ran the business of the town plus examples of the notarial instruments, which can be found in the registers. Not really worth a fortune, but…

And then we might wish for much more in order to get to know the place so much better. Accordingly this should be read as an invitation to Miller to write yet another book with a bit more historical anthropological twist to Coloma de Queralt and its fascinating personages from the 13th century.

Santa Maria de Bell-Lloc and Pere de Queralt

One of the sights in Colomoa de Queralt is a church on the outskirts of the city, Santa Maria de Bell-Lloc, with a late Romanesque portal form the 13th century.

Pere de Queralt II was lord of Santa Coloma de Queralt in the later half of the 13th century. As such he participated in the conquest of Valencia and Murcia. In 1240 he married Berengeria and acquired castell d’Aguiló, located a couple of kilometres outside Coloma de Queralt. Later, after having been widowed, he became Templar after having divided his possessions amongst his children. He is mentioned, although peripherally, in the Book of Deeds of James I of Aragon as amongst other things, a royally appointed arbiter in one of the many clashes between the king and the lords of his retinue. Later he played an important role in the reign of Peter III as admiral and ambassador to the Pope.

Angela LLop lion santa maria de bell lloc 296x300 Coloma de QueraltAbout him a legend is told, according to which the Saracens took Pere de Queralt as prisoner during a raid. As they knew him as a very brave knight, he was promised his freedom if he could fight and overcome a lion without a weapon. Which he of course accomplished, compelling the Saracens to release him. Afterwards he hired some of the best sculptors of his time and had them build a portal to the church, Santa Maria de Bell-Lloc, belonging to the former hermitage. Nowadays it is located on the outskirts of Coloma de Queralt, but in the 13th century it was found outside the city.

Originally it consisted of just a single nave, but later early Gothic additions from the 14th century added some side-chapels and a cloister (now gone). However, the portal in the west is pure Romanesque and must have been paid for by the Templar. The Tympanum holds a beautiful scene with the crowned Virgin in the middle flanked on the right side by Joseph and further on scene with the annunciation. To the left the three magi are seen adoring the child. The rest of the portal shows a series of compact scenes with amongst others the magi before king Herod and the flight into Egypt. One scene is remarkable: It shows a knight fighting a lion with his bare hands.  The church was used as a family vault and subjected to a series of generous donations.

 

Market Power. Lordship, Society and Economy in Medieval Catalonia (1276 -1313)
By Gregory B. Milton.
Palgrave Macmillan 2012
ISBN: 978-0-230-39170-3

The Transition from Ecclesiastical Scribania to Professional Notariate in Santa Coloma de Queralt
By Gregory B. Milton, Tampa, Florida, United States of America
In: Journal of Medieval History Volume 39, Issue 1, 2013, p. 1 – 19
Doi: 10.1080/03044181.2012.738787

Mar 24

wiki-Fibules_mérovingiennes_02

King Edwin’s ring?

King Edwin’s ring?

In the end of the 6th and the beginning of the 7th century there existed a prominent set of interconnections between the Anglo-Saxon and Merovingian royal families. One node in this network was Ethelberga, daughter of Bertha (539 -612), the Merovingian Princess who married King Æthelberht of Kent and afterwards became patron of St. Augustine of Canterbury and his Gregorian mission. The story about Ethelberga was told by the venerable Bede, as she was responsible for the conversion to Christianity of her husband Edwin, king of Northumbria. Bede writes:

“EDWIN (586 – 633) had reigned most gloriously over the nations of the English and the Britons seventeen years, for six of which, as we have said, he also was a soldier in the kingdom of Christ.

Then Caedwalla, king of the Britons, rebelled against him. He was supported by the vigorous Penda, of the royal race of the Mercians, who from that time euled over that nation for twenty-two years with varying success.

 A fierce battle was fought in the plain that is called Haethfelth (Hatfield Chase) and Edwin was killed on the 12th of October, in the year of our Lord 633. He was then forty-eight years of age; and all his army was either slain or dispersed. … King Edwin’s head was brought to York, and afterwards placed in the church of the blessed Peter the Apostle, which he himself had begun to build, but which his successor Oswald finished, as has been said before. It was placed in the chapel of the holy Pope Gregory, from whose disciples he had received the word of life.

The affairs of the Northumbrians were being thrown into confusion at the moment of this disaster and there seemed to be no prospect of safety except in flight. Paulinus took with him Queen Ethelberga, whom he had before brought there, and returned to Kent by sea. The Archbishop Honorius and King Eadbald very honourably received her there. The king came under the conduct of Bassus, a most valiant thegn of King Edwin, having with him Eanfled, the daughter, and Wuscfrea, the son of Edwin, as well as Yffi, the son of Osfrid, Edwin’s son.

Afterwards Ethelberg, for fear of the kings Eadbald and Oswald, sent Wuscfrea and Yffi over into Gaul to be bred up by King Dagobert, who was her friend; and there they both died in infancy, and were buried in the church with the honour due to royal children and to Christ’s innocents.“ (The Ecclesiastical History of the English People by Bede, Book 2, chapter 20. Edited with Introduction and Notes by Judith McClure and Roger Collins. Oxford University Press, p. 105. Punctuation and translation slightly amended).

The interesting question here is of course whether the Esrick ring – probably made out of a small (female) brooch – may have belonged to Edwin or his son Osfried, before it got lost in the aftermath of the battle. Hatfield Chase, where the decisive battle took place, is located 58 km south of Esrick; both locations lie near or at the old Roman Road leading into York, where the head (body) of the king – according to Bede – was brought.

Such speculations are rife in view of the new date assigned to the ring. Whether further studies of the ring will yield corroboration to this hypothesis awaits to be seen…

The Photo shows some Merovingian brooches kept in the Cabinet des Médailles in Paris

Feb 14

JohntheFearless1

Alabaster Tears

The Mourners are guesting Paris this spring before returning to Dijon

Since March 2010 the Mourners: Tomb Sculptures from the Court of Burgundy have been touring US and Europe, while the Dijon museum has been undergoing extensive renovations. Until now more than 500.000 have enjoyed the spectacular possibility of getting a closer look at these precious small statuettes. Finally – before they are returned to Dijon – they will be exhibited at the Musée de Cluny in Paris from the 27th of February.

Mourners 1 199x300 Alabaster TearsThe sculptures, known as the mourners, are made of alabaster in the workshop of Claus Sluter. He was master sculptor to the Valois Dukes of Burgundy. He and his apprentices produced some of the most evocative and original pieces of art during this period. Masterpieces are the magnificent funerary monuments of Philip the Bold and John the Fearless.

During the 14th and 15th centuries, the Valois dukes of Burgundy ruled over extensive territories in present day France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands from their capital in Dijon. The ducal tombs were conceived for the Charterhouse of Champmol, founded in 1384 by Philippe the Bold as a burial place for the new dynasty of the Valois dukes. Originally, the tombs were installed in the choir. Today the tombs are placed in the Musée des Beaux Arts in Dijon in France.

Each tomb includes an effigy placed on top of the roof of elaborate arcades. Created in a flamboyant gothic style, these arcades are populated by a solemn processional of alabaster figurines of monks and clerics. The sculptures are small-scale embodiments of late medieval devotion. They appear to circulate the tomb as if it were a cloister. The exhibition in Paris invites the visitors to take part in this procession. Thus it strives to create an evocative atmosphere whereby visitors are guided into the physical and captivating experience of what a late medieval mourning procession might have felt like. Finally the object is also to let each and everyone reflect on how they personally grieve. By wringing their hands, drying their tears or hiding their faces in the deeply carved folds of their robes, they represent at least 39 different ways of encountering grief.

Larmes d’albatre – Les pleurants de tombeau de jean sans Peur, duc de Bourgogne
Musée de Cluny
27.02.2013 – 03.06.2013
6. place Paul Painlevé
75005 Paris

 

READ MORE:

In connection with the American Tour, a special website, The Mourners, was developed. Additional material is available here:

Images: © FRAME 2010. Photographs by Jared Bendis and François Jay

Les tombeaux des ducs de Bourgogne

Nov 27

ivory-casket-Kunstgewerbemuseum-Staatliche-Museen-Berlin-Stefan Büchner

More Gothic Ivories

Gothic Ivories is a really splendid database Gothic Ivories is a really splendid database organised by the Courtauld Institute the Courtauld Institute…

“Gothic Ivories” is a really amazing project. The aim is to create a truly encompassing database containing all relevant information on every surviving Gothic Ivory from Western Europe 1200 – 1530, accompanied by at least one image. (Not included are non-figurative pieces, pre-1200 figured gaming pieces, so-called Siculo-Arabic non-figurative work and Embriachi-style 15th-century Italian figures.) However, included are forgeries, lost or stolen objects plus neo-gothic pieces from the 18th and 19th century.

Much of this must be characterised as a kind of contemplative art in the form of statuettes, diptychs and triptychs meant for private devotion in private chapels or while travelling. But ivory was also used for secular artefacts like mirror backs, wonderful caskets and knife-handles.

detail ivory casket Kunstgewerbemuseum Staatliche Museen Berlin Stefan Büchner 300x241 More Gothic Ivories

Raymond Koechilin did the last comprehensive survey in 1924. In three volumes he listed 1300 items. When the project with the database was introduced we were promised entries about app. 4000 scattered items in private and public collections. Already last week the database could muster more than 2800 entries accompanied by more than 7800 photos. Newly added collections are the Kunstgewerbemuseum in Berlin, the Barber Institute of Fine Arts in Birmingham, the GRASSI Museum für Angewandte Kunst in Leipzig, the Klassik Stiftung Weimar, the Musee de la Chartreuse in Douai, a large part of the collection of the Museo Nazionale del Bargello in Florence plus more pieces from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London as well as  many more! However, entries from some major as well as minor collections (like for instance the National Museum in Copenhagen) are still lacking, which means that more is to come; the project is not at all completed.

Just to give an example of the new material, there is a fine presentation of an ivory casket (Inv. 1882,608) presently in the Kunstgewerbemuseum in Berlin.

The casket with silver fittings, probably from the 1st quarter of the 14th century, measures no more than 4,6 x 12,2 x 6,7 cm. Nevertheless on the lid it shows four tiny scenes of a courting couple, a couple holding hands, a youth kneeling in front of a lady and a lady crowning her kneeling lover. Other scenes show a man (king?) with a hawk on his wrist and a queen holding a flower. On the other side there is a musician playing a portable organ and a couple dancing plus much more. Some figures wear chaplets “pierced with small holes, where gems may have been originally inserted.”

The point here is that the photos make it possible to study all the tiny details. Apart from that the database is searchable, which means that scholars and interested from other disciplines than Art History are able to browse specific themes like for instance the 133 entries picturing “nature” or the 122 entries picturing “costume, jewelry and personal appearance” . You might even join the project and listen in on the debates amongst the specialist in the forums. Enjoy!

Gothic Ivories Project at The Courtauld Institute of Art

Read more about a Gothic Ivory Group in Louvre

Photo: © Kunstgewerbemuseum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Photography: Stefan Büchner.

Nov 27

Descente de croix in Louvre © RMN louvre Jean-Gilles Berizzi

Descent from Cross

Louvre is petitioning to complement a unique Gothic Ivory Group…

The tiny delicate figures are breath-taking seen close up. In the centre Joseph of Arimathea carries the dead Christ on his shoulders. Standing close by Mary kisses the hand of her dead son, while the allegorical figure of the church stands a little to the left with her chalice in hand, cross broken off. To the right kneels Nicodemus holding a scroll, though curators believe he was originally handling the nails. Measuring no more than 23 x 24 x 30 cm and carved around 1250 – 60 the tiny tableau of the descent from the cross must have been created to embellish an altar in a private chapel. Probably it was part of the decoration of the altar Good Friday after the sixth hour, when all crosses were supposed to be unveiled. The ivory is extremely delicate and carries remains of polychromy and gilding.

st john coronation louvre RMN Jean Gilles Berizzi Descent from Cross

The group, which entered the collections of Louvre in 1896, is one of very few preserved in museums worldwide. However, until now it has not been quite complete. Originally it was balanced by two additional figures: John looking on the scene, and a blindfolded allegorical figure of the synagogue weeping while holding the tables in her left hand and a broken spear in the other. She is symmetrically positioned to balance Ecclesia on the left side.

Recently these two figures were discovered in a private collection and labelled as National Treasure. Recently Louvre launched a subscription to acquire the two missing statuettes. The price is €2.6 million, of which Louvre and the Axa Art foundation has secured €1.8. However Louvre still lacks €800.000 and all patrons and art lovers are invited to help out. So far 41% are in the coffers. The petition runs out on the 31st of January 2013.

READ MORE:
Gothic Ivories – a database with more than 7800 objects from collections from all over the world plus many features.

List of literature about this particular group at “Gothic Ivories”

Ivory carving in the Gothic Era, 13th _15th century

More about the petition

Photos:
Réunion des musees nationaux et Grand Palais. Coronation of the Virgin 1250-1260. © RMN-Grand Palais (Louvre) / Jean-Gilles Berizzi

Nov 20

1_0810.TIF

Anglo-Saxon Stone

The Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture is online

The Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture identifies, records and publishes in a consistent format, English sculpture dating from the 7th to the 11th centuries. Much of this material is previously unpublished. Apart from its artistic qualities and its art-historical importance, it is of crucial importance when medievalists try to identify the earliest settlements of the Anglo-Saxon/Pre-Norman English. The Corpus documents the earliest Christian field monuments from free-standing carved crosses and innovative decorative elements and furnishings of churches, to humble grave-markers.

From Books to Online
A reliable and comprehensive catalogue of Anglo-Saxon sculpture has long been needed – by archaeologists, art historians, historians and place-name specialists, and interested non-specialists alike. Durham University, under the guidance of Professor Dame Rosemary Cramp, supported by more than thirty researchers spread throughout the country, has coordinated the production of a series of bound volumes documenting the sculpture in almost every English county. There are currently ten published Corpus volumes, the very latest (the West Midlands) published in mid 2012 and the very first (County Durham and Northumberland) published in 1984. Those volumes, which remain in print, may be purchased from the British Academy via the Oxford University Press. The remaining volumes, which are now out of print, will be published online in the near future. Already it is possible to access the bibliographies of the first six volumes covering the sculpture from County Durham and Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmoreland and Lancashire, York and Eastern Yorkshire, South-East England, Lincolnshire and Northern Yorkshire.

CroftCross3 copyright KornBluth Photo 188x300 Anglo Saxon Stone

The Croft Cross © Genevra Kornbluth at KornbluthPhoto.com

Northumbrian Stone Sculpture
The current online resource makes available the material contained in Volume 1: County Durham and Northumberland. Eventually, all Corpus volumes will be available online.

The Northumbrian stone sculpture is especially rich with its great stone crosses such as those at Ruthwell, Bewcastle, Rothbury and Otley. Carved in high relief, they are characterised by their complex iconographies as well as their evident classical connotations. It is obvious that skillful stonemasons, who were either imported from Gaul and Italy or alternatively trained there, must have carved the crosses as well as the rest of the early sculptures. It is generally believed that the crosses were positioned in the centres of the grand monasteries like Jarrow and Monkwearmouth embodying the focal and enduring character of the Christian Cross built on “Petros” – stone.

The photos are very fine and presents the viewer with the possibility to study the sculptures in detail. However, the photos are rendered in black and white, often highly contrasted. Thus the seductive surface of the withered stone eludes us. A more refined approach may be found at Kornbluth Photo, where Genevra Kornbluth presents some of the more prominent pieces with loving details.

Project Sponsors
The Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture is supported by the Headley Trust, part of the Sainsbury Family’s Charitable Trusts, and by UK’s National Academy for the Humanities and the Social Sciences, the British Academy, with additional funding from the Pilgrim Trust and the AHRC.

SOURCE:
The Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture

READ MORE:
Anglo Saxon Art
by Leslie Webster
The British Museum 2012

 

 

Nov 12

alleged signature of painter Giotto in a fresco in San Nicola Chapel at San Francesco Basilica in Assisi
2 Comments

Giotto in Assisi

The “forgotten” chapel of St. Nicholas in the Cathedral of Assisi, having been closed for almost a century, is reopened to the public after restoration

One of the hidden gems of the cathedral is the chapel of St. Nicholas, decorated with a circle of frescoes unseen by most as it has been used only by the friars and even by them very seldom. The chapel was commissioned by the papal legate, cardinal Napoleone Orsini to house the tomb of his brother, a deacon, who died between 1292 and 1294. His funerary monument was placed in a niche above the altar. Between the tomb and the stained glass window a frescoed triptych was painted, representing the Madonna and Child with St. Nicholas and St. Francis. To this was added a cycle of frescoes comprising twelve scenes from the life of St. Nicholas.

Equipped with the experience from the post-earthquake restoration, the process began in 2010, to restore the chapel of St. Nicholas of Bari at the Northern end of the transept in the lower basilica.

But who painted the frescoes? For along time it was considered from “the school of Giotto”. Recently, however, a signature “GB” was found placed at a strategic point on one of the vaults. It is believed that the signature refers to Giotto di Bondone (1266- 1337). And that he in fact painted the frescoes early in his life…

Read the rest of the story in

Medieval Histories 2012: 11:2

« Older Entries