Dear Carlos,
not my field (by now i have *no* idea *what* my field might be), but it seems
to me that, outside of Genesis scenes, depictions of the Father are rather
rare in the West before the Late Middle Ages.
in any event, in the two Dormition scenes i know best it is clearly the Son
who is primarily involved, assuming that a cruciform halo can be used as
evidence of such an identification:
at the magnificent little portal at SENLIS (c. 1170??), on the left lintel,
angels carry the soul upwards, towards the tympanum,
http://centrechartraine.freeservers.com/senlis/senlpll1.jpg
wherein the Virgin is seated next to Her Son (with an arguably ambiguous
halo):
http://centrechartraine.freeservers.com/senlis/Senlwtd1.jpg
(Her entombment by the most dynamic angels in Western art is on the right
lintel:
http://centrechartraine.freeservers.com/senlis/senlprl.jpg ) ;
at MANTES (c. 1180??), He stands, passing the little soul on to an angel:
http://centrechartraine.freeservers.com/senlis/mantlint.jpg ,
and, again, there is a coronation by the Son in the tympanum above:
http://centrechartraine.freeservers.com/senlis/mantt_l.jpg
(*something* was clearly sculpted in the peak of the arch of the
tympanum, and my over-heated imagination could easily make out the traces of a
nimbus above, clouds below --so, Father??)
especially curious is what could have been *between* the two major figures,
which seems to have attracted the very special ire of the iconoclasts.
ideas?
both these portals --undoubtedly the work of closely related workshops of the
rather new "Early Gothic" stylistic sequence-- appear to have been heavily
influenced by Byzantine iconography (and style), so very close parallels there
can surely be found by those that know of such.
best from here,
christopher
p.s. Please let me know if these images don't load--i've been having a *lot*
of trouble with this site lately.
one reason why i'm presently working with someone who has a web design
business and who is also an "independant scholar" (art history) who's
expressed an interest in using her site & server to host webpages/sites for
those of us medievalistes detachés (or even those wretched tenureless toilers
in the Towers of Academe who find themselves, at the whim of bean-counting
Adminstrators, unwillingly made peripetic from time to
time) who might like to group together in a cooperative fashion and set
up some kind of add-free, inexpensive, semi-permanent interdisciplinary
medieval site.
i'd be happy to respond to queries about this off list (we're not ready for
Prime Time), should this strike a sympathetic cord with anyone here.
c
"Carlos Sastre" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>Jim Buslag's original question give me the excuse for asking if some of you
knows of any text stating that the Trinity (and not just Jesus) took part in
the Koimesis. I know of a couple of examples -a miniature and a panel- where
it is the Father who descends to hold Mary's soul. And (as far as I know an
"unicum") another one with the Trinity.
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