medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Dear Theresa, you are of course very welcome to the roses. As well as to the less appealing items that for a variety of reasons also appear in these nosegays.
I could be mistaken in this, but it does seem that the image that so fascinates you is not item a), the late sixth-century Lateran fresco:
http://www.unifr.ch/patr/ah/aug/ea1.html
but rather item b), the mid-eleventh-century author portrait in Avranches, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 75, fol. Cv:
http://www.culture.gouv.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht9/IRHT_074889-p.jpg
Detail view:
http://www.culture.gouv.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht9/IRHT_074890-p.jpg
The object on which Augie sits is a throne. Whereas one is accustomed to seeing these shown with four legs, sometimes they're blockier in appearance, e. g.
1) in the image of the hetoimasia in the late fifth- or early sixth-century mosaics of the Arian Baptistery in Ravenna:
http://tinyurl.com/gtohd53
2) in the images of St. Luke and of Christ in Majesty in the late eighth-century Godescalc Gospels (betw. 781 and 783; Paris, BnF, ms. Nouvelle acquisition latine 1203, fols. 1r and 3r):
http://tinyurl.com/proz2av
http://tinyurl.com/hhzhcl5
3) in the image of St. Luke in the late eighth- or early ninth-century Lorsch Gospels (BAV, cod. Pal. lat. 50, fol. 1v):
http://bibliotheca-laureshamensis-digital.de/bav/bav_pal_lat_50/0008
4) in the initial image of St. Luke in the late twelfth-century Souvigny Bible (Moulins, Médiathèque Communautaire de l'agglomération de Moulins, ms. 2, fol. 329v):
http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht4/IRHT_080149-p.jpg
5) in the image of the hetoimasia in the earlier thirteenth-century apse mosaic (ca. 1220) of the basilica di San Paolo fuori le Mura in Rome:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/28433765@N07/5869352159
I have no idea how commonly lions appear vertically as furniture (as opposed, say, to their recumbent service as column bases or to their heads serving as ornamental knobs on on the arms or legs of chairs, etc.). But other animals appear analogously, e.g. this fish serving as part of the leg of a small writing table in the early eleventh-century Limburg Gospels (Köln, Dombibliothek, Codex 218, fol. 108v):
http://tinyurl.com/p6czmca
These fanciful images are not far different in concept from the very frequent use of animals (whether grotesques or from nature) to form illuminated initials. For a differently fanciful vertical piece of furniture, see the at least partly botanical table leg in the already cited portrait of Luke in the late eighth- or early ninth-century Lorsch Gospels (BAV, cod. Pal. lat. 50, fol. 1v):
http://bibliotheca-laureshamensis-digital.de/bav/bav_pal_lat_50/0008
The lion's being seen to crawl up the column and the footstool's tilt both strike me as attempts to impart motion to this scene.
The angel would seem to be carrying a closed book (the diagonal stripes denoting a cover strap): compare the book John is holding in the late tenth-century Paris Lat. 8851, fol. 115v:
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8490154f/f234.item.r=.zoom
http://tinyurl.com/jnyxuek
Or the book he's holding at London, BL, MS Royal 15 D II, fol. 144r (earlier C14):
http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/ILLUMIN.ASP?Size=mid&IllID=34992
One thing that I really like in this portrait of Augustine in the Avranches gospels (Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 75, fol. Cv)
http://www.culture.gouv.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht9/IRHT_074889-p.jpg
is the way in which the folds of his pink outer garment imitate the contours of a Roman breastplate, both at the breast and shoulders and, further down, at the embonpoint. Heroic strength in silk, as it were. And thus a statement of Augustine's prowess in his non-military but nonetheless essential theological sphere.
Best again,
John
John B. Dillon
emeritus
Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison
________________________________________
From: medieval-religion - Scholarly discussions of medieval religious culture <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Gross-Diaz, Theresa <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, August 28, 2016 10:59:10 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [M-R] FEAST - A Saint for the Day (August 28): St. Augustine of Hippo
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
John, thanks once again for the marvelous images you send us along with the 'saints' postings. Too often I don't stop to smell those figurative roses. The Lateran image fascinated me by all I could not understand: why is Aug sitting on a dresser? How common is it to see a tiny lion crawling up a column and holding an ink horn in its maw? Why is the footstool levitating, and what is that angel holding in its veiled hands?
I'd be grateful for any elucidation this company can easily provide -
TGD
> On Aug 28, 2016, at 6:44 AM, "John Dillon" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Some period-pertinent images of St. Augustine of Hippo:
>
> a) as depicted in a late sixth-century fresco, widely thought to be his earliest surviving image, in the papal basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano:
> http://www.unifr.ch/patr/ah/aug/
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