medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
> In response to Richard Landes' query: Meyer Schapiro's _Romanesque Art_
> devotes a considerable portion of its text to Moissac, a place he
> obviously adored.
The sculpture of Moissac was, in fact, the subject of Schapiro's 1929 dissertation at
Columbia University under Arthur Kingsley Porter, the first part of which was
published, with corrections, in _The Art Bulletin_, vol. XIII, and reprinted in his
_Romanesque Art_ (1977). It was again reprinted, with updated references, in his
_The Romanesque Sculpture of Moissac_ (1985), wherein he characterizes the
tympanum sculpture as an almost literal rendering of Revelations iv, 2-7; v, 1, 8.
(pp. 77-78). There follows the more detailed comments reproduced by Marjorie.
His discussion of the tympanum is far too lengthy to
> reproduce here. But I will extract a few sentences bearing directly on
> the recent discussion: "The tympanum does not render a specific line of
> the Apocalyptic text but a characteristic and impressive moment of the
> vision" (202). [There follows a sort of catalogue of elements of the
> text omitted from the sculpture and elements of the sculpture which
> diverge from the text.] "With all these modifications of the vision,
> the tympanum is yet wonderfully in accord with it" (202). "The wavy
> lines of the sea of glass, the meandering ribbon under the archivolt,
> and the dense, serried feathers of the many wings contribute further
> to the restlessness of the whole" (203). "Even the sea of glass halts
> for a moment before his feet; the amplitude of the wave is noticeably
> greater here in acknowledgement of the common center" (203).
From the little I've been able to follow of this string, both "conventional" and "cliche"
have been used to describe the "sea of glass" or "wavy clouds" under discussion,
but if either were appropriate, the interpretation would be obvious. It would seem to
me that the sculptors here had to exercise considerable creativity to translate their
clerical brief into concrete sculptural form. I'm not aware that a "standard"
iconography for seas of glass ever really developed. This one certainly looks
considerably different from the Carolingian manuscript illumination signalled by
Christopher. And if one looks for similar forms elsewhere in near contemporary
works, they appear to have a considerable variety of meanings. On the Vezelay
tympanum, for example, different sorts of "wavy clouds" flanking Christ have been
interpreted to represent, respectively, the acceptance and non-acceptance of the
Christian doctrine being disseminated by Apostolic evangelization. And on the left
doorway of the Royal Portal at Chartres, similar "wavy clouds" in all probability
indicate the border between the visible, physical world and the invisible, spiritual
realm. This variety suggests that a fairly widespread formal technique was being
used in a broad range of (undoubtedly new) iconographic contexts.
Cheers,
Jim Bugslag
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