Subject: | | Re: Image of St. Benedict |
From: | | [log in to unmask][log in to unmask], 5 Feb 2001 17:39:47 +0100610_iso-8859-1 Dear Marjorie
Je pense que la mitre fut d'abord une coiffure venue d'Asie (Perse) avant d'être reprise par les grecs puis les femmes romaines. Voir aussi, dans la Bible, Exode, XXIX, 9. Mitra désigne donc à l'origine une coiffure en forme de bandeau (headband). Or, à l'origine la mitre épiscopale était souple, elle tenait donc grâce à un bandeau qui donne son nom à la coiffure : mitra. Ce n'est qu'au début du XIIIème siècle que la mitre prend sa forme actuelle, rigide : mitre bicorne (en rappel des 2 testaments, des cornes de Moïse ou de la tiare d'Aaron), [...]46_5Feb200117:39:[log in to unmask] |
Reply-To: | | Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture <[log in to unmask]> |
Date: | | Thu, 1 Feb 2001 14:46:46 +0000 |
Content-Type: | | text/plain |
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> I was browsing the other day through the splendid Ecole Initiative
> collection of saints' images when I came across the following image of St.
> Benedict:
>
> http://www.bnf.fr/enluminures/images/jpeg/i8_0054.jpg
>
> Does he seem to you to be standing in water or a stream holding up his
> garment?
This seems questionable to me. The colour of the ground plane
certainly comes close to a modern water-like colour, but I'm not
convinced that an illuminator would have chosen it. And there is no
attempt to register waves, etc. I would interpret it as a flat
ground plane that the illuminator has sought to infuse with pictorial
depth through a fairly typical tonal gradation, from light to dark,
as the floor plane recedes into space. The tempera medium requires
this to be done with small dabs of pure tones, and s/he has not
bothered mixing them very thoroughly, thus giving the floor a more
"water-like" appearance. If it had been important for the saint to
be standing in or by water, the figure would probably not have been
cut off at the shins, so that the feet are not visible (a curious
feature of the image, in any case). And if it were a reference to a
water-based episode in St Benedict's life, some further feature of
that episode might also be expected to be included.
Cheers,
Jim Bugslag
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