medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
> Can anyone direct me to comments in the Middle Ages or Renaissance about
> the theological or spiritual implications of perspective in graphic
> arts? Did anyone articulate the relative virtue (or vice) of "painting as
> illusion" as a way of representing sacred themes, or communicating
> theological or spiritual content? Is there any scholarship on the
> theological or spiritual implications of this stylistic change?
This is a very difficult question. The earliest written text that
mentions perspective is Leon Battista Alberti's Della Pittura of 1434
or 1435, and he was not concerned with the theological implications
of perspective so much as the "fame" of artists, particularly in a
specifically humanist comparison with classical artists. This tends
to be the tenor of the modern literature on mathematically exact
perspective, as well, e.g. Martin Kemp's The Science of Art (Yale,
1990), particularly in respect to painting practice in Italy. The
almost contemporary but less theoretically oriented developments in
the depiction of pictorial space in Flemish painting practice,
however, have been treated in a very different way by art historians.
It has much more closely been considered in relation to contemporary
devotional concerns, e.g. Craig Harbison, "Visions and Meditations in
Early Flemish Painting," Simiolus, 15 (1986), 87-118; David Carrier,
"Naturalism and Allegory in Flemish Painting," Journal of Aesthetics
and Art Criticism, 45 (1987), 237-49; James Marrow, "Symbol and
Meaning in Northern Renaissance Art of the Late Middle Ages and the
Early Renaissance," Simiolus, 16 (1986), 150-69. Also relevant to
this approach is Gerhart B. Ladner, "Medieval and Modern
Understanding of Symbolism: A Comparison," Speculum, 54 (1979),
223-56. Where, in my view, the discipline of art history still has a
long way to go on this issue is in reconciling these two very
different historiographical strands. In general, the rise of a more
visually oriented mode of representation can be seen to arise in
European art from the end of the 12th century, and although its
development is neither continuous nor always of primary concern, it
can be generally compared with the rise of Aristotelian natural
science, and in this, the theologians on the list would be better
able of making specific connections between Aristotelianism and
theology. I have tried to address some of these issues in a recent
article, "contrefais al vif: Nature, Ideas and Representation in the
Lion Drawings of Villard de Honnecourt," Word & Image, 17 (2001),
360-78, but it is not likely to satisfy the theological aspect of
your enquiry. One documented incident that I mention in the article,
however, might be of related interest, although it involves sculpture
rather than the graphic arts. The chronicle of the Cistercian abbey
at Meaux mentions Abbot Hugh (1339-49) having a new crucifix made,
and the sculptor "had a naked man before him to look at, that he
might learn from his shapely form and carve the crucifix all the
fairer". Abbot Hugh considered that such particularized truth to
nature would increase devotion, particularly, as he says, on the part
of women! The devotional -- and gendered -- attitudes evident here
seem to have been more on the minds of late medievals in this regard
(when they thought about it at all) than any specifically theological
implications, but that is a pretty off-the-cuff estimation.
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Jim Bugslag
**********************************************************************
To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME
to: [log in to unmask]
To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask]
To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion
to: [log in to unmask]
In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask]
For further information, visit our web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html
|