BOO EMILE MALE Religious Art in France THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY A Sindy of Medieval Iconography and Its Sources of BOLLINGEN SERIES XC +2 PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESSI General Character of Medieval Iconography ‘The Middle Ages had a passion for order. It organized art as it organized dogma, human knowledge, and society. The representation of sacred subjects was a science with its own principles; it was never left to indi- vidual fantasy. Undoubtedly, at a very carly date, this kind of theology of art’ had already been reduced to a body of doctrine, because we can witness the artists’ submission to it, from one end of Europe to the other and from the earliest times. The Church transmitted this knowledge to the secular sculptors and painters of the thirteenth century, and they rel giously preserved the sacred traditions, As a result, medieval art, even in the centuries when it was most creative, retained the hieratie grandeur of the early art, ‘These are the general principles we must make known at the outset, and as briefly as possible. a ‘The art of the Middle Ages is first of all a sacred writing whose elements every artist had to leain, He had to know that the circular halo placed vertically behind the head represented sainthood, and that the nimbus inscribed with a cross represented divinity. God the Father, Christ, and the Holy Spirit might never be represented without a cruciform nimbus surrounding their heads* He learned that the aurcole, light emanating from the whole person—a kind of halo surrounding the entire body, belonged to the Three Persons of the Trinity, the Virgin, and the souls of the blessed, and it expressed eternal beatitude. He had to know that bare feet were another sign by which God, the angels, Christ, and the apostles might be recognized, but that it would be truly improper to represent the Virgin or the saints with bare feet. In this sort of thing an exzor would be nearly as serious as heresy. Several symbols allowed the artist to express the invisible and represent what is beyond the domain of art. A hand enclosed in a cruciform nimbus issuing from the clouds, "The iconography of the Middle Ages is a kind of writingReligious Artin France The Thirteenth Century 4 A 1. The sky, water, tees, Lege Eustace (deta). Chartres (Eu Cathedeal of Notre-Dame. Nave, north side ss, stained glas panel making the sign of benediction with the thumb and forefingers raised and the other two bent under, was the sign of divine intervention, the emblem of providence. Small figures of naked, sexless children, side by side in the folds of Abraham’s cloak, signified the future life, eternal rest. ‘There were also signs, which the artist had to learn, for representing the visible world. Concentric lines, wavy and scalloped, represented the sky; parallel lines represented water, rivers, and the sca (fig. x). A tree —that is, a stalk with two or threc leaves at the top—indicated that the scene took place on earth. A tower with a gate signified a town; if an angel stood watch on the battlements, it was the Heavenly Jerusalem.’ ‘As we see, these are veritable hicroglyphs, a merging of art and writing.* ‘The same spirit of order and abstraction informed heraldic art, with its alphabet, rules, and symbolism. The artist had to be familiar with a myriad of precise details. He had to know the traditional type of the personages he was to represent. St. Peter, for example, must have curly hair, a thick short beard, and a ton- sure. St. Paul must be partially bald, with a long beard. Certain details of costume were unchanging, Over her hair the Virgin must wear a veil, which was itself the symbol of virginity. Jews would be recognized by their cone-shaped hats.* All these personages—their costumes unvarying, their type fixed—were placed in set scenes, However dramatic the action they were engaged in, all had to be planned in advance, No artist would have dared to change the composition of the great scenes of the Gospels. If he represented the Last Supper, he was not free to group the figures around the table accord- ing to his own fancy; he placed Christ and the apostles on one side, and Judas on the other.° If he represented Christ on the cross, he placed the, Virgin and the lance bearer at his right, and St. John and the sponge bearer at his left.”