Romanesque & Gothic Art & Architecture (Fall 2005) Prof. T. Dale ...

on-line at http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/rul-benedict.html .
What are the essential tenets of the monastic life as outlined in the Benedictine Rule? How
is monastic architecture designed to enhance symbolic and functional distinctions between
individual parts of the monastic complex? What are the differences bewteen Cistercian
from Cluniac monasticism and how are these differences manifested in the art and
architecture of the two orders?
Sept. 12, 17
IV. Revelation, Judgement and Spiritual Passage in the French Romanesque Portal
(Moissac and Vézelay; Autun and Conques)
M. F. Hearn, Romanesque Sculpture, 102-17; 169-91. Linda Seidel, “The Moissac Portal and
the Rhetoric of Appropriation?” in READER.
What are the essential features of the canonical French Romaneque portals according to
Hearn? What is the significance of the iconography (subject matter) for its location at the
threshold of the church? What role do pictorial structure (composition and narrative
disposition) and inscriptions play in the “reading” of the visual imagery? How does Seidel
depart from conventional characterizations of the portal of Moissac? How does the
framework of the porch condition the viewer’s response to the sculptural program as a
whole? How does it ultimately reinforce the assimilation of the viewer’s entry into the
church building with both the biblical journeys and the viewer’s own reception into the
Heavenly Jerusalem at the end of time?
Sept. 19
V. Monstrosity, Corporeal Deformity and Fantasy in Romanesque Art
Bernard of Clairvaux, Apologia to William of St. Thierry in Davis-Weyer, Early Medieval Art,
168-170; Schapiro, "On the Aesthetic Attitude in Romanesque Art," (1947) in Romanesque
Art (New York, 1977/1993), 1-27 and READER; T. Dale, “Monsters, Corporeal Deformities,
and Phantasms in the Cloister of St-Michel-de-Cuxa,” Art Bulletin 83, no. 3 (2001):402-436
(available both in photocopy on Reserve and in full-text version at
http://wilsontxt.hwwilson.com/pdffull/04407/1Z7G6/3SX.pdf )
What are the origins of the term “fantasy” (phantasy) and how does its medieval meaning
differ from most current definitions? What is the etymology of the term “monster” and how
was it understood by medieval writers? What is Bernard of Clairvaux’s attitude towards art
in general and the representation of monsters and other human and animal subjects in
cloister capitals, in particular? How does Schapiro reinterpret Bernard’s complaint in terms
of artistic creation? How does my own interpretation differ from Schapiro’s? What issues
concerning these images are still left unresolved?
Sept. 24
VI. Eve, Salome and Mary: Defining the Role of Women in Romanesque Art
Petzold, 123-129; Linda Seidel, “Salome and the Canons,” Women’s Studies 11 (1984):29-
66 in READER.
What are the prescribed positive and negative roles for women in medieval Christian
theology and how are they manifested in Romanesque art? What is the significance of
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