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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Of course we have lots of frescoed churches in Italy. More to the point, we have lots of frescoed "gothic" churches in Italy. These undermine the assertion that in "gothic" churches _the_ frescoes (i.e., not just some of them) were replaced by stained glass (or by colored glass of some sort). Generalizations about a class of objects that are untrue for a significant number of objects in that class are misleading and possibly even dangerous, as they can lead to significant misconceptions about the class as a whole (a case in point being the frequently seen statement that Italy has very few "gothic" churches, when it fact it has many, most of which just don't fit someone's notion of what a "gothic" church really is). I am also not certain that Italy is all that much of an exception with regard to the use of frescoes in its "gothic" churches. "Gothic" churches that clearly once had extensive frescoing also occur elsewhere, for example in the Czech Republic. One may suspect too that, just like their "romanesque" counterparts, many northern European "gothic" churches once had extensive frescoing that was later removed either for confessional reasons or because it was peeling and no longer stable or even for reasons of changes in taste. Where Italy seems to be an exception is in its relatively smaller amount, vis-a-vis practices elsewhere, of space devoted to windows in its "gothic" churches. This has as a corollary a relatively greater amount of parietal space available in such churches for frescoing. Which, of course, does not mean that the proprietors of "gothic" churches with more window space did not also extensively fresco their walls, vaults, columns, window frames, etc. that were _not_ glass. Best again, John Dillon Tamara Quirico wrote: > medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture > > We have lots of frescoed churches in Italy - which maintained the > tradition rather then replacing it with the new stained-glasses windows. > I would say it is more an exception, an italian characteristic. ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html