The ritual display of gospels in Late Antiquity

The Textile Museum Journal, 2018

In The Jeweled Style: Poetry and Poetics in Late Antiquity, Michael Roberts argues that color, opulence, repetition, and variety epitomized the period’s aesthetics, a phenomenon he terms the “jeweled style.” Although Roberts did not consider textiles in his analyses, this article argues that fabrics participated in the same trends, perhaps even serving as intermediaries in the transfer of motifs between actual gemstones and architectural decoration. The first part of the article shows how Roberts’s definition of the jeweled style fits in larger art historical discussions about late antique aesthetics and visuality. The bulk of the article presents examples of tapestry-woven textiles from the fourth through eighth centuries that depict gems and jewelry in woven form. Many tunics, for example, depict gemstones along their collars; furnishing textiles, too, frequently include representations of gems and jewelry, most notably at the edges of fabrics or as part of woven renderings of architectural structures like columns and arcades. On the most basic level, these woven gemstones reflect the broad popularity of the jeweled aesthetic among a wide social spectrum and in a variety of contexts, especially in fabric furnishings. More particularly, the popularity of jeweled motifs in textiles points to a sophisticated appreciation for artistic bravura, as weavers pushed against the limits of the textile medium to transform yarns into precious stones. Lastly, the article argues that a focus on textiles with jeweled designs points to the interrelatedness of ornamental motifs in late antique jewelry, textiles, and architectural décor, an observation which in turn highlights compelling aesthetic connections between the adorned human body and the built environment.

S. Greiff, A. Hilgner, D. Quast (edd.), Gemstones in the first Millenium AD. Mines, Trade, Workshops and Symbolism (RGZM Tagungen 30), Mainz 2017

In the most important early medieval churches, gemstones were employed to decorate a number of objects. Some contexts of use (chalices, patens, crosses, reliquaries, hanging crowns, etc.), are well known; others, on the contrary, have been scarcely examined: gemstones were also used to decorate icons, textiles and stone church furnishings (such as altars and ciboria): the material evidence for these types of objects, however, is scarce and scattered, and small pieces of evidence had to be put together in order to reconstruct the overview presented in this paper. Material, written and iconographic sources agree in indicating that stones of blue and green colour were highly regarded, almost always combined with pearls. These items generally had a very long life: throughout the centuries they could be damaged and might need renewals, often involving the replacement of gems. In bigger cities, the repairs were almost certainly carried out locally, whereas in some other cases – as the Testament of Patriarch Fortunatus indicates – it was necessary, or preferable, to send the objects away, in order to have the work done by specialised craftsmen not available nearby. The same source – the Testament of Fortunatus – includes a small mystery concerning diamonds, for which a possible solution has been proposed. The contemporary interpretation of the gems that decorate the church items that survive to this day is frequently based upon their symbolic meanings, related to the religious sphere and expressed in a number of written sources, from the Bible itself up to the medieval ecclesiastical texts. The interpretation of real objects according to these written sources, however, can be very problematic, as the same gemstone could have many disparate symbolic meanings, at times in the very same text. Moreover, interpreting the presence of a given gemstone on a real object with reference only to religious texts leaves out a number of relevant aspects. The production and the use of a church item involved many actors: the donor, the financers, the craftsmen and the »public«, i. e. the clergymen and the believers in the ecclesiastical building; many of these persons had no knowledge of the scholarly world of the ecclesiastical books containing the Christian symbolic meanings of the gems. The Church’s use of precious stones and metals was also related to its own self-promotion in the eyes of the faithful, being a clear indicator of its economic and political power: if unaware of the religious symbolic meanings, the believers could surely appreciate the elaborate craftsmanship of jewelled church items and decorations, which no doubt contributed to the creation of a mystical atmosphere in the church. Finally, the choice of specific types of gems was also influenced, simply, by the taste and the fashion of the period.

KERMA ΙV, 2017

Rivista di Studi Orientali, 2013

Dans le manuscrit et en dehors: Échanges entre l’enluminure et les autres arts (IXe-XVIe siècles), sous la direction de Michele Tomasi, 2023

The Carolingian gospel book in Aachen (Domschatzkammer, inv. no. 4) holds exceptional evidence of intermedial exchange: The illuminators seem to have been inspired by techniques from mural painting and from leather work. The file uploaded provides the first two pages of the paper.

The Routledge Handbook of Early Christian Art surveys a broad spectrum of Christian art produced from the late second to the sixth centuries. The first part of the book opens with a general survey of the subject and then presents fifteen essays that discuss specific media of visual art—catacomb paintings, sculpture, mosaics, gold glass, gems, reliquaries, ceramics, icons, ivories, textiles, silver, and illuminated manuscripts. Each is written by a noted expert in the field. The second part of the book takes up themes relevant to the study of early Christian art. These seven chapters consider the ritual practices in decorated spaces, the emergence of images of Christ’s Passion and miracles, the functions of Christian secular portraits, the exemplary mosaics of Ravenna, the early modern history of Christian art and archaeology studies, and further reflection on this field called “early Christian art.” Each of the volume’s chapters includes photographs of many of the objects discussed,...

Marian Devotion in the Late Middle Ages: Image and Performance, 2022

This paper focuses on the role of and the relations among techniques, materials, and colours with respect to the iconography of selected polychrome high medieval Marian wood sculpture from Italy. Special Attention is paid to Sedes Sapientiae sculptures and to the medieval theology of light. The paper discusses as a case study the Presbyter Martinus Madonna (1199) from the former Camaldolese monastery of Borgo Sansepolcro, preserved in the SMPK, Berlin. This Madonna is famous for her well-preserved polychromy from the time of origin and the inscription, which identifies her as Sedes Sapientiae. In contrast to earlier interpretations of this sculpture, which focused on the differences and contradictions between its form and polychromy, here it’s shown that technical execution, polychromy, and iconography are deeply interwoven aspects. The paper argues that the choice of a mostly golden rendering of the latter is related to the spiritual environment of the Camaldolese-Benedictine order. Under consideration of several writings of the influential Benedictine Petrus Damianus, it can be shown that the Presbyter Martinus Madonna is indeed a close visual translation of Damianus’ words into colour, form, and material.. Link to AAM: https://arepository.akbild.ac.at/view.php?uid=11049&t=88680d6b8d41a6564be44748ab83ff3e&org=/eyebase.data/dokumente/1024/14/00026038_f29eb72ecd5ff15d1abba6d20f71b8ab_m.pdf