Pindar Press - publishers of art history and archaeology

Medieval Western

Medieval Image-Concepts and the Meaning of Visual Programs

by Beat Brenk

24 x 17 cm
560 pp. 272 illus.

£150.00

Publication: May 2007

ISBN 1 899828 73 3
Cloth Bound

This is the second volume of Professor Brenk's studies on late-Antique and medieval art; the first volume, on The Christianization of the Late Roman World, is featured earlier.

This volume presents a selection of 25 studies which are grouped into a number of topics that clarify Professor Brenk's approach. The art of the Middle Ages is treated not as a succession of styles, but is analyzed as an unstable value system, which seeks to prove its own legitimacy by claims and ideologies. Although works of art are not legal documents, they evoke frequently a religious or political self-conception. The author tries to show how the medieval artist brought into the world new creations under constant pressure, which he expresses with the resort to established models. In successive chapters the rhetoric of the demands made by Popes, bishops, abbotts, priests, monks, kings, dukes, counts, aristocrats, buyers and municipalities is examined.

What rhetorical models were at the disposal of the medieval artist, if he was concerned to articulate the needs and requirements of his clients? The analysis of the Carolingian, Norman-Sicilian and Capetian picture programs shows that not only the program, but also the artistic form and style, was used conceptually, i.e. style proves a freely selectable rhetorical form.

As in the earlier volume, a considerable number of studies previously published in German and Italian are presented here in English translation.

Contents

Preface
Antiquity on Demand: The Arts of the Mediterranean during the 7th and 8th centuries and No End of Antiquity
Understanding of Antiquity and Legal Thinking in the Sculptural Program of Frederick II at Capua
Innovation: Originality and Innovation in Medieval Art
Papal Ideology in the Early Middle Ages: Papal Patronage in a Greek Church in Rome
On the Pictorial Program of the Zeno Chapel in Rome
Carolingian Pretentions: Authentication –Requirement–Innovation. On the Imperial Art of the Carolingians
Written and Pictorial Art in the Court School of Charlemagne
Montecassino: Rome and Montecassino: The Frescoes of the Lower Church of S. Crisogono
The Historical Significance of the Lectionary of Desiderius Vat. Lat. 1202
Episcopal and Monastic ‘committenza’ in South Italy from the Example of the Exultet Rolls
Art and Ideology in Norman Sicily: The Symbology of Power
The Design Concept in the Royal Buildings of the Norman Period in Sicily. The Architecture and Mosaics of Monreale
The West Wall of the Cappella Palatina
On the Meaning of the Mosaic on the West Wall of the Cappella Palatina in Palermo
On the Program of the Capitals in the Cloister of Monreale
Capetian Pretentions: The Pictorial Program and the Historical Understanding of the Capetians at Chartres Cathedral
The Concepteur and his Addressee, or: On Veiling the Message
The Sainte Chapelle as a Political Program
Doors as Spolia: Nova construere, sed amplius vetusta servare; Patronage: The Commissioner of Ariberto
Commissioning: the Problems
Text, Sense, Rhetoric and Requirement in Simone Martini
Liturgy, Cult and Art: Who sits on the Loft?
Pilgrimage Churches and the Concept of Pretension
Medieval Saints’ Lives and the Liturgical Context: Sense, Rhetoric and Requirement
Additional Notes
Index