medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>>> <[log in to unmask]> 2/11/2004 11:04:07 AM >>>
Diedrichs, Christof L. <i>Vom Glauben zum Sehen. Die
Sichtbarkeit der Reliquie im Reliquiar. Ein Beitrag zur
Geschichte des Sehens</i>. Berlin: Weissensee Verlag, 2001.
Pp. 351. Euros 33,13. ISBN 3-934479-50-2
Reviewed by Scott B. Montgomery
University of Denver
[log in to unmask]
In 1215, the sixty-second decree of the Fourth Lateran Council
required that relics not be displayed outside their containers
("reliquaiae amodo extra capsam non ostendantur"). This was
presumably in response to heightened lay interest in seeing
relics and the resultant need to secure the relics from the
excesses of this increasingly visual (and tactile) veneration.
The ecclesiastical need to safeguard relics, coupled with the
popular clamor for greater access to them, fostered the
creation of new forms of reliquaries that could simultaneously
secure and display their contents. The development and
proliferation of more diversified types of reliquaries from the
thirteenth century onward has often been seen as a result of
this post-1215 dilemma as increasingly varied demands were put
upon these containers of the sacred. Christof Diedrichs
challenges this view, noting that the rise of visibility of
relics within their reliquaries can largely be traced to the
twelfth century. Therefore, we need to understand the Fourth
Lateran Council's decree as codifying a well-established
tradition, rather than promulgating a new practice. While this
is not an entirely new insight, Diedrichs is to be credited
with mustering an impressive amount of evidence, soundly
articulating his point, and more fully formulating the idea
than had previously been forwarded.
Diedrichs' study on the practice of making relics visible
within their reliquaries provides an interesting chapter in
this fascinating and dynamic history of the development and
function of reliquary types. As this occurrence both shapes
and mirrors changes in the history of piety and art, the topic
is one of great interest to both art historians and historians
of the cult of relics. This book is essentially a history of
relic visibility before the Fourth Lateran Council, as Diedrich
focuses on the rise of this phenomenon during the eleventh and
twelfth centuries. Initially surveying the early history of
such reliquaries from the so-called Talisman of Charlemagne in
the Treasury of Reims Cathedral to a series of mid-eleventh
century reliquaries (Reliquary Cross from the abbey church of
St. Nikomedes in Steinfurt-Borghorst and the Reliquary of the
Holy Nail from the Treasury of Essen Cathedral), Diedrichs
notes the origins of the phenomenon as dating back to at least
the eleventh century. He underscores the lack of certainty in
the early history of reliquaries that visually display their
contents. Where he uncovers more secure documentation is in
the twelfth century formulation of the "display-reliquary"
(Schaureliquare). The adumbration and analysis of twelfth
century examples, forming Part I, constitutes the book's
principal contribution. In articulating and illustrating his
thesis that unencumbered visual access to relics secured within
reliquaries antedated the Fourth Lateral Council, Diedrich is
successful and thoroughly convincing.
The book is derived from the author's dissertation, completed
at Humboldt University in Berlin in 2000. Thankfully, its
publication makes this otherwise difficult-to-obtain material
more readily available. Like so many dissertations, this book
can be mined for information and references aplenty--a fact
that will make it useful to scholars continuing research in
this fruitful area of inquiry. However, the organization of
the book's chapters is rather perplexing. Following a brief
introduction, the author provides a general background, laying
out his central thesis and discussing the earliest examples of
reliquaries that enable the showing of their relics. Part I
consists of four chapters detailing particular examples of the
twelfth century development of forms of display reliquary.
While interesting, these chapters come across as somewhat
disparate case studies (Chapter 1: Bernward Cross, Triptych of
the True Cross from Liege, Plate Reliquary from St. Albans;
Chapter 2: Arm Reliquary of Charlemage and Shrine of the Three
Magi; Chapter 3: Rock Crystal and Cabochon Reliquaries; Chapter
4: Early Ostensories and Display Reliquaries of the Early 13th
century). Though a general chronological framework supporting
the author's thesis that the development of reliquaries with
clearly visible relics was a well-established phenomenon before
the Fourth Lateran Council is established, these case studies
are not neatly tied together in a clearly articulated
assessment of this phenomenon.
Part II outlines the conditions, parallels and background
relating to the development of display-reliquaries. Much of
the information included here is general and cursory,
establishing the conditions for the development of these
reliquaries as outlined in Part I, but not fully developing the
phenomenon into a comprehensive account. It strikes this
reviewer that much of this material could be more effectively
integrated into earlier portions of the book. The outlining of
the belief in the presence of the saints in their relics is
important in the context of this study as it sets up the very
reason for the popular demand for greater contact with the
relics--it is the <i>sine qua non</i> of relic veneration.
This crucial background could be far more effectively
incorporated into a discussion that outlines the devotional
reasons for the evolution of reliquary types. Instead, it
appears to have been appended to the rest of the study. In
many ways Part II comes across as a series of appendices, as
does the tantalizing epilogue on the history of sight. The
discussion of the visual elements of medieval devotion and
liturgy is interesting, particularly in terms of the "culture
of sight" and the "optical communion" experienced at the
elevation of the Host. However, these ideas could be more
fully developed and incorporated into the body of the text,
rather than appended as an afterword. Indeed, the relationship
between the cult of the Corpus Christi and the cult of relics,
with its paralleling of forms of display in the monstrance and
ostensory reliquary, seems far more cogent to this discussion
than would appear from the somewhat tangential discussion given
here. As such, it is a rather disjointed book, consisting of a
general introduction of an interesting thesis, several
individual studies linked by a broad theme, background on
relics and reliquaries, followed by a theoretical afterword.
One wonders if the publication of the book version was perhaps
a bit premature. Had more time elapsed between the completion
of the dissertation and its publication, the author might have
been able to further develop his ideas, thereby making the
volume all the more cohesive and thorough.
The book's bibliography is largely in German, an indication
that this material has long been dominated by German
scholarship. This is underscored by Deidrichs' historiographic
essay in the book's introduction, where he traces the study of
relics and reliquaries from Stephan Beissel's groundbreaking
work in the 1880s to the excellent studies by Anton Legner and
Arnold Angenendt in the 1990s. However, there are striking
lacunae in Diedrich's bibliography, particularly in regard to
recent North American scholarship. This is unfortunate, as
reliquaries, and figural reliquaries in particular, have been
the subject of much interesting work of late. When discussing
figural reliquaries, there is no reference to the 1997 volume
of Gesta that focused on body part reliquaries. This is
particularly surprising, in that Deidrichs mentions the use of
arm reliquaries for liturgical benedictions, but makes no note
of Cynthia Hahn's superb study of this very practice. Were the
author to have incorporated recent North American scholarship
that examines the dynamics of the use of reliquaries and their
interaction with the faithful, he might have been more
successful in developing his exciting topic to its fullest
potential. Diedrichs seems to base much of his argument on an
essentially formalist premise in regard to the function of
reliquaries, which he defines as "mobile containers of metal,
stone, crystal, wood, ivory, textiles or other material, that
hold relics." (p. 27). Indeed, he is correct to note that this
is a primary function (Haupt-funktion) of reliquaries, but it
seems to dismiss the ways in which reliquaries give shape,
meaning, and life to their contents, often fleshing-out and
making more palpable those things that are not immediately
apparent to the bodily eyes. To be sure, Diedrichs uses this
functional premise of reliquary as container to forward his
thesis that it was the desire to see the contained that led to
the development of the ostensory and display-reliquary. I
believe that he is correct in this analysis, but that it is
only part of the complex interaction between relic, reliquary,
and faithful that precipitated the development and
proliferation of tremendously diverse reliquary types in the
later Middle Ages.
In tracing the rise of the genus of display-reliquaries,
Diedrichs augments the established foundation for future study.
While he does not trace the more varied and dynamic later
history of these forms, it not being in his chronological
purview, the author invites us to further examine the
relationship between relic and reliquary, saint and viewer. He
seems to posit something of a mid-wife role for figural
reliquaries, as a step in the progression of increased visual
access to the relic, from bursa to ostensory. Astutely noting
that figural reliquaries visually flesh-out the real presence
of the saints, Diedrichs articulates the connection between
seeing and believing that was a key impetus to the creation of
figural reliquaries. However, the power of the figural
reliquary to give concrete form to the saint's presence was not
superceded by the more direct visual access to relics, as
facilitated by display-reliquaries. It would be interesting to
develop this study by exploring the ways in which these two
trends in reliquary development both overlap and diverge in
their common goal of making accessible on a sensory level that
which is not immediately palpable. Continued study of the
evolution of vitrines within figural reliquaries might help
further this line of inquiry, as these forms simultaneously
reveal and refashion their relic contents. The abundance of
fourteenth-century head and arm reliquaries with vitrines, as
well as altarpieces that combine glazed (or unglazed) relic
compartments with reliquary busts, underscores the need to more
fully explore the later manifestations of relic display.
It is not my purpose here to enumerate all my concurrences and
quibbles with this interesting book. Despite its shortcomings,
there is much to recommend here. Given the quality of
Diedrich's work manifest in this dissertation, with its
meticulous research, we can expect to enjoy the fruits of his
further study and rumination on this extremely fascinating and
important topic. This book tells part of a much larger, more
complicated story. It does a laudable job in presenting this
portion of the history of relic display. In doing so, it
should prove to be an important contribution to the study of
relic veneration and display, as well as the development of
reliquary forms. One only hopes that the rest of the story
will be told in the future.
**********************************************************************
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
|
