Theophilus, Techniques and Theology

The treatise on „The Various Arts“ written in the first quarter of the twelfth century by an unidentified and unlocalized German monk who called himself “Theophilus”, is famous for its very practical instructions on painting, glass painting and metalwork. Divided into three separate books, the treatise is also famous for the theological introductions to each part, legitimizing the practice of the “Various Arts”, i.e. of craft, as a spiritual exercise in the service of divine liturgy. Painters, glass painters, and metalworkers as well as historians of technology have all separately examined, tested and researched the instructions of Theophilus for their own crafts.

In the course of work on a catalogue of medieval censers Dr Westermann-Angerhausen has found that the description of two censers in two different techniques in book III is central to the theological and liturgical context of this astonishing work. This has led to the conclusion that Theophilus clearly intended a graded valuation of techniques and that he ties the techniques he demonstrates to very deliberately chosen objects - with glass painting right in the centre of his treatise.