medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
From: John Briggs <[log in to unmask]>
> Christopher Crockett wrote:
>> From: Jon Cannon
>>> 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*??).
> There is a datable example of plaster, whitewash, and red (fake) ashlar
lines - in this case, on an exterior wall, I believe - at York Minster, where
part of the church of Thomas of Bayeux (11th century) was enclosed within a
later structure.
the point of my (whole) post was twofold:
1) there being no way (that i know of) to date something *which is not there*,
claiming that "entirely bare" walls constituted the *original* decor of any
building is a Non-Starter, Up Front, bareitity being, by its very nature,
undateable.
b) although faux ashlar *might* well have been part of the painted decor in
*some* *pre-gothic* buildings,
http://www.art-roman.net/chauvigny/chauvigny2.htm
http://www.art-roman.net/chauvigny/chauvigny14.jpg
(assuming the "restoration" here is accurate)
there is no evidence to suggest that it was the main form of mural decoration
in the majority of them --especially in the more significant ones.
i assume that the question of whether "the church of Thomas of Bayeux" (i.e.,
York cathedral itself?) was one of the latter is a subject which is not open
to much quibbleization.
c
btw, *how* was the plaster "dated"?
seems to me like even carbon-14 wouldn't be able to yield a precise enough
date to say for certain that the plaster in question was the "original" wall
covering.
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