Monastic Patronage of the Arts 1080-1280

Overview

The aim of the module is to introduce students to the Romanesque and early Gothic periods by focussing on monastic art and architecture. Rather than concentrating on issues of style, the module will approach the period from the perspective of the patrons, examining the works in an attempt to understand them as part of an intellectual and cultural whole.

Many of the greatest works of Romanesque and early Gothic art and architecture were commissioned by or for monastic patrons. We will examine some of the major monuments of architecture, sculpture, stained glass and manuscript illumination in an attempt to understand their role, function and meaning as part of a complex iconographical, liturgical and theological whole.

Particular use will be made of some of the outstanding buildings and works of art in Yorkshire and the North East, such as Durham, Rievaulx, and the remarkable figure-sculptures from St Mary's Abbey here in York, while not forgetting connections with southern England and the Continent.

We shall look at themes such as the concept of the great church; the cult of the saints in art (where the revival of the cult of the Anglo-Saxon St Cuthbert at Durham makes a fascinating contrast to the development of the new cult of St Thomas Becket at Canterbury); the revival of the antique tradition of life-size figure-sculpture; the tradition of illuminated manuscripts; and the Cistercian reaction to the mainstream tradition. Overall we shall attempt to grasp something of the extraordinary vitality, quality and variety of the monuments of the period.

Aims

By the end of the module those taking it should have acquired:

• Acquaintance with the major monuments, buildings and works of art of the period
• Acquaintance with the intellectual and cultural contexts of such works
• An understanding of the debates about and approaches to the subject