> Pat Cullum mentioned that there are many byways that the question could
> lead to. I like to go to one of the byways...
> For several years I had a question which I have not yet had a satisfactory
> answer from many colleagues I asked, neither I came across a good reference.
> The question is what form of control or censorship existed in the medieval
> time if the work of art deviated from the acceptable teaching of the day.
> To put the question in different way, if the artist(s) or the patrons tried
> to create a different form that can be interpreted differently to the
> doctrine or belief of the day; i.e. could be heretical, or simply
> unacceptable. What could happen? Are there any examples?
This is something which I will be looking into in the (post-doc) future.
Although there is plenty of material in the so-called 'fringe sphere'
(which
in itself has some really interesting ideas if disjointed and compiled
into often
very shaky conclusions) no serious academic work has been done on this
subject - I have
yet to look at the book by Lynda Harris on the heretical symbolism in
the work
of Bosch (any opinions or reviews?).
It is perfectly plausible to suggest that heretical notions could be
contained
symbolically within medieval art. Why not? This is of course an
intricate subject
and we have to start with definitions of 'heresy', 'dissidence' -
drawing the line
between popular misconceptions and direct opposition to the
establishment of the Church.
Then there are pagan undertones to consider - something that can perhaps
be measured
when looking at the evolution of hybrid gargoyles for example. But I
won't elaborate unless
you want to open up a full discussion on this topic.
There is one intensively studied sphere of potentially pseudo heretical
symbolism - the history of alchemical iconography - again, another
story.
> One answer I had from Dr. Eamon Duffy during a coffee break in one of the
> conference that different bishops in different regions behaved differently.
> Example English bishops did not censor many of the manuscript's
> illustrations, but some continental bishops censored only the illustrations
> for the locally used or produced manuscripts.
Yes, it seems very likely that Christianity was never a coherent unit in
that everybody working for the Church behaved in a singular fashion
(especially visible at the time of
the conversion) - of course, this is often taken for granted yet
forgotten in sweeping generalisations of popular dissidence,
iconographic and ritual variety.
Aleks Pluskowski
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Department of Archaeology
University of Cambridge
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