medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
From: Jon Cannon <[log in to unmask]>
> A big C11 church might be whitewashed, or whitewashed with ashlar lines
picked out, and nothing else; or even entirely bare, some say.
i'd be very, very interested to learn how we can possibly know this --that a
church "was entirely bare," bareitity being a somewhat Absolute State and
difficult to date, as well.
no doubt there *may* be some 11th c. churches with surviving whitewash,
perhaps even *dateable* surviving whitewash (dateable *how*??).
but i'd submit that all the the evidence we have suggests that, in this
(pre-"gothic") period, they were the great exceptions rather than the common
rule and that most (if not all) churches *of this period* of any
significance/size were dressed with decorative, figurative paintings.
while there are some churches of substantial size which have extensive painted
programs (e.g., Issoire --assuming that the restoration reflects the Original
Reality-- St. Savin-sur-Gartemphttp://www.art-roman.net/stsavin/stsavin.htm),
more telling might be the quite large number (~100?) of very, very modest
minor churches which, from what we can see of what remains, were also given
extensive mural programs.
(and what are we to do with Chauvigny
http://www.art-roman.net/chauvigny/chauvigny2.htm
assume that the painted ashlar reflects the original decor, given the
extensive sculpture and the painting of the columns?)
here's a page of links to some photos of modest churches, in just one small
region of France, which appear to have had extensive murals :
http://www.art-roman.net/orleanais/orleanais.htm
note that all save St-Benny (which has no surviving paint, though it surely
originally had it) are modest churches.
Lavardin
http://www.art-roman.net/lavardin/lavardin.htm
is a "normal" sized "parish" (priory, actually) church.
while Montoire (also a priory of Marmoutier)
http://www.art-roman.net/montoire/montoire1.htm
is just plain ole ***TINY*** --about the size of a bedroom in a contemporary
McMansion.
as is the *Spectacular* Berzé-la-Ville
http://www.art-roman.net/berze/berze.htm
which, despite its fancy name is just a farm now.
but Berzé is exceptional, not because of its size and the quality of its
painting, but because of its origins --it was the chapel of a vacation
residence of the Abbot of nearby Cluny (and we may reasonably assume that its
paintings reflect, in their Style and Iconography, what was to be seen in the
Mother Church).
note that only the paintings of the apse survive, but there is no reason to
believe that the whole of this modest building was covered with murals as
well.
point is, if the most *modest* of chuches were given extensive, high quality
decoration, it is simply absurd to think that the larger churches (which
*owned* the smaller ones, after all) were not given the same treatment --and,
methodologically, that we cannot use them to reconstruct what some of those
Mothers looked like themselves, most of them having been subsequently
rebuilt.
again, if there are examples of substantial buildings with surviving
*dateable* simple whitewash (much less dateable bareitity), i'd like to hear
of them (the Snooty Cistercians being the exception, of course).
> By the C13 this had been gothicised
yes, the "gothic" seems to have been something of a watershed in the type of
the painted decor.
>And never forget to factor in not just the effects of stained glass where it
could be afforded, candlelight and incense smoke, etc, but also of changing
light conditions: a painted and stained-glass filled church lit by many
candles is a very different experience at night than in daylight, yet where
the full Offices were performed this is how they were often seen.
a good point.
combine flikering candle light with the severe abstraction and sharp, deep
shadows which are almost universally found in the paintings of this period
(indeed, one of the defining characteristics of the "Romanesque")
http://www.art-roman.net/berze/berze8.jpg
and you might find yourself in the presence of a Super Reality which makes the
Naturalism of the Phenomenal World seem like, well, a mere shadow cast upon
the walls of a cave...
to say nothing of the wonderful *movement* inherent in something like this:
http://www.art-roman.net/stsavin/stsavin9.jpg
c
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