medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
From: Jim Bugslag <[log in to unmask]>
> The definitive work on this is Robert Scheller, Exemplum: Model-Book
Drawings and the Practice of Artistic Transmission in the Middle Ages (ca.
900-ca. 1470), trans. Michael Hoyle (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press,
1995).
many thanks, for this, Jim.
yet another of the legions of province of the literature up with which i have
not kept.
a brief look at it over lunch suggests it is a reasonably serious bit of work
by a fellow who has only been working on this particular area since the early
[19]'60s.
much of interest in the introductory material and i particularly look forward
to reading the "theoretical" discussions of the proposed use of suchlike mss,
though i suspect that i'll have a few differences of opinion with him, here
and there.
eg., his recounting of the passage in Gerald of Wales describing an artist
(illuminator, but called by Gerald a "scribe") who has a "dream" in which an
angel comes to him and shows him an image which the artist is instructed to
replicate.
this he is able to do, "...with the angel indicating the design..."
Scheller is, of course, interested in the precise form in which the angel in
the dream transmitted the image.
but, it seems to me that the *really* significant point is that the artist
"envisioned" his image in a "dream".
artistic production in this period is *Visionary*, not "reproductive".
the "Catalogue" looks to be something approaching "Definitive", save for the
odd future discovery of a palimpsest or fragment found in a binding, etc.
even so, i note that Scheller has been able to unearth only *Four* (4)
medieval, western, trans-alpine mss dating from before 1200 (well, o.k., 5 if
you count a Rhenish ms from "ca. 1200").
four mss, consisting --for the purpose of the definition of "model books"-- of
3 leaves, "14 fascicules", "2 bivolios" and "3 bifolios with 17
illustrations".
moreover, while some of the pages of some of these are clearly "patterns" (i
haven't been able to find S.'s definition of "pattern book" yet, but i'm sure
he will have a good one), the use to which some of the examples he illustrates
seem to my eyes to be quite ambiguous, to say the least (eg., the Adémar ms,
Catalogue no. 4).
now, let me see, can i get this straight:
the libraries of Europe have been combed by a clearly exceptionally competent
manuscript specialist for over 45 years (with the help, no doubt, of
innumerable collegues also interested in the subject), and that's what we have
--a handfull, a few leaves.
this is a definition of "Rare", it seems to me.
rare, even given the consideration of "used until worn out or outdated" which
i mentioned previously as a possible explanation of the non-survival of this
supposedly once-common vector for the transmission of iconographic (and
stylistic?) ideas.
most of the rest of the 36 mss in the Catalogue are from the High M.A. or
Renaissance (6 from the 13th c., 5 from the 14th c., etc.). and there are
also four mss in the "Appendix: Byzantine Model Books?", one from the 12th c.,
the other three from the 15th - 17th cc.
as i'll mention again in a response to one of John's good posts on the
original string, it seems to me that what is happening in "Romanesque" France
in the 11th and 12th cc. is quite a different from what we see in a later
period, much less in the Italy of the Renaissance.
thanks again for the Good Steer,
c
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