Publisher's Synopsis
This text aims to shed light on two problems. The first is the paradox that a religion (Christianity), which started off being opposed to the use of art or icons, went on to produce a wealth of masterpieces in all the arts. The second issue addressed is the esoterism of what the abstruse iconography of the 12th century can tell the reader about the interpretation of the Bible in that period.;The author uses an inductive method and an interdisciplinary approach, and the book follows an imaginary pilgrimage from Roman times to the Germanic empire, and stops in front of the St. Anne portal of Notre-Dame in Paris.;The first part of the book is introduced by the examination of a 12th century Mosan triptuch, the images on which raise most of the important issues relating to medieval art: architecture, technology, symbolic representation, mystical numbers, and narrative iconography.;The second part of this text studies the development of monasticism from the early desert hermits to the splendours of Cluny II. It uses the island of Reichenau to illustrate of evolution of monastries from the humble cells of the Irish hermits to Carolingian, Ottonian, Romanesque and baroque constructions.;The final third of the book is an exegesis of iconography as abstruse as the Eve of Autun or the Saint-Denis stained glass windows, and it finishes off by explaining how the portal of Notre-Dame marks the onset of gothic art which was closely linked to scholastic and scientific theology.
