caviness simple perception of matter

"The Simple Perception of Matter" and the Representation of Narrative, ca. 1180-1280Author(s): Madeline H. CavinessSource: Gesta, Vol. 30, No. 1 (1991), pp. 48-64Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the International Center of Medieval ArtStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/767009 .

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"The Simple Perception of Matter" and the Representation of Narrative, ca. 1180-1280*

MADELINE H. CAVINESS Tufts University

Abstract

The first and lowest corporeal mode of seeing was defined by Richard of Saint-Victor, about 1170, as "the simple perception of matter" and given no theological significance. Closer to 1200, when Aristotle's works on the natural sciences were influential, and especially in the thirteenth century in the circle of Robert Grosse- teste and his followers at Oxford, it was acknowledged that higher truths could be reached through visual perception. Sporadic Aristotelianism in the thirteenth century privileged the first mode of seeing in narrative rendering, and it was promoted by the Franciscans in the early fourteenth century, but it did not dominate in such a way as to give anything resembling stylistic unity. Thus, although a fundamental shift in attitude to perception and to optical truth coincided with the beginning of a period that art historians formerly struggled to identify as "proto-Gothic" and "Gothic," claiming it to be stylistically distinct from "Romanesque," it is suggested here that the association of the visual arts with terms coined to describe architecture is arbitrary. The "simple perception of matter" remained only one of several modes of seeing.

Art historians have traditionally been concerned with the dynamics of change: continuities, developments, revi- vals, innovations. Driven by the increased tempo of change and transmission in our own era, they have especially sought innovative trends and breaks with tradition. Even recently, changes that occurred in architecture in France in the second half of the twelfth century have been equated with the social and political changes of the French Revolu- tion.' The changes in Gothic architecture were manifest in construction, engineering, materials, design concepts, spatial planning, scale, decoration, manipulation of light, and expressive effect.2 An analogous change in other media should involve materials and technique, design principles, scale, rendering of natural objects and space, and expressive effect; theoretically, such changes could give visible form to a worldview that was as radically different as a Gothic from a Romanesque cathedral.3 Yet the situation in the representational arts is not as clear.4

I shall contend that the case may be argued either way depending on the selection of examples." If, for instance, we were to juxtapose photographs of the Romanesque Last Judgment tympanum of Sainte-Foi of Conques (ca. 1135) and Gothic Last Judgments of the south transept of Char-

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FIGURE 1. The Last Judgment, Conques, Sainte-Foi, west portal tympanum (photo: S.P.A.D.E.M.).

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FIGURE 2. The Last Judgment, Bourges, Sainte-Etienne, central west portal tympanum (photo: S.P.A. D. E.M. /Art Resources).

tres Cathedral (ca. 1210), of Notre-Dame of Paris (ca. 1225), or of Bourges Cathedral (ca. 1240), we would find similar compositions, highly ordered and hierarchical, with contrasting groupings of serene figures entering heaven, and dishevelled, contorted creatures in Hell (Figs. 1 and 2).6

48 GESTA XXX/1 ? The International Center of Medieval Art 1991



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FIGURE 3. Matthew Paris, "The Loss of Jerusalem, 1244," Chronica Majora, Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 16,

fol. 170v, detail (photo: Con- way Library).

Each rendering of the theme is, of course, datable by an

analysis of the treatment of details such as drapery, but it would be hard to claim a fundamental change of vision of the kind I outlined above; indeed, it is tempting to invoke the French maxim "plus 9a change, plus 9a reste le meme." As I have indicated elsewhere, I believe these images of divine order belong to a distinct mode of medieval expression that transcended period styles and that corresponded to the third or spiritual mode of seeing applied by Richard of Saint-Victor to visions.7 This mode is based in Neo-

platonic thought, and transcended the stylistic categories applied by the modern discipline of art history, spanning the first millennium and a half of Christian art.

Yet, coincidentally with the spread of Gothic architecture, there was a fundamental change in another mode of

expression, which we might call narrative, in the sense that a major concern of artists and patrons seems to have been to depict an event, or a sequence of events, in terms of the

specific locus, time, participants, actions, and human ex-

perience. As a point of departure, it is instructive to compare two scenes of warfare, one in the Bayeux tapestry depicting the Battle of Hastings (1066), and one in the Chronica Majora of Matthew Paris showing the loss of Jerusalem (1244), each executed very soon after the event (Figs. 2 and 3).8 Conceptually, the works have a good deal in common; in both cases it is unlikely that the artists witnessed these battles, but they might have seen others, and they almost certainly had access to eyewitness accounts. Their works also share certain formal characteristics: Both have chosen to render color rather schematically, leaving the ground, whether of undyed linen or of parchment, blank, so that the viewer is free to imagine infinite space, although there is no indication of recession; the loci are only sporadically referred to, in the outline of a hill or the indication of a swamp in the tapestry, and in the city gate of the drawing; and each scene presents a series of confronta- tions, which may be understood either in temporal or in

topographical sequence.9 There are also obvious differences: the tapestry is a continuous strip, allowing events to unfold as though without breaks between them; the scenes are

normally confined within upper and lower borders, though here the action spills over into the lower zone, turning it into a schematic foreground.'o By contrast, the Matthew Paris drawings are illustrations to his text-in other words, they depict selected events-and the scenes, though confined by the page format, seldom have borders; the action moves freely across the bas-de-page of recto or verso below the two columns of script, and occasionally extending upward in the margins. Second, the scale is very different; the tapestry belongs to the genre of monumental works, evidently meant to be hung in a large building as a mural decoration, whereas the manuscript renders figures in miniature scale, and was intended for more private use." Thirdly, the different media have an impact on the forms; embroi- dery lends itself to unbroken outlines of even thickness and filling of solid color or textural patterns such as circles or

stripes, whereas the pen of the manuscript illuminator allows a more varied and expressive contour, and the color washes can be handled so lightly that they give the barest suggestion of local tints and of modelling.'2 This difference of technique and handling has a direct bearing on the expressive effect of the works; the drawing, since it is more

impressionistic and has the air of rapidity of execution, conveys action more effectively; despite their contorted movements, the horses in the tapestry appear frozen and decorative by comparison.

The conception is also different; although Matthew Paris is content to resort to stereotypical rocking-horse gaits and repetitious groupings that effectively and perfunc- torily suggest the collective noun "cavalry," he also is able to capture the plunging motion of a horse that seems to have fallen and recovers its footing only to expose its rider to the attacker's spear; the straining neck and hindquarters, and the way the rider tries to support himself with a hand

49



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FIGURE 4. "The Battle of Hastings," Bayeux Tapestry, Bayeux, Muske de la Tapisserie (photo: Percy Hennell).

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FIGURE 5. Drawings for Montfaucon of two medallions from the Crusading Window of Saint-Denis, Paris, Biblioth que Nationale, MSfr. 15634 (1), fol. 150 (photo: Bibliothbque Nationale).

on the animal's croup, lend an authentic touch that is quite unexpected in medieval art.13 The event becomes entirely believable, despite the impossibly long spear that pierces the rider, and other shortcomings-from an academic point of view-in rendering anatomy and proportion. It is also believable because of the intensity of emotion evident in the facial expressions and body language, and the dramatiza- tion of the psychological exchange between Muslim con-

queror and suppliant knight. None of these levels of physical and psychological experience are investigated in the Bayeux tapestry, despite a certain descriptive accuracy

in rendering such things as tools, harnesses, boats, etc.14

Nor is this power in Matthew Paris restricted to events for which he may have had eyewitness accounts; it is equally impressive in the scene of the capture of the relic of the True Cross by Saladin, which had occurred in 1187.15

Within the narrative mode, the comparison seems to argue a convincing case for a fundamental revision of style, and the new style suggests another of those terms that are so problematic for art historians, verisimilitude or "realism"; to double our problems, we might invoke "Gothic realism" in the sense of the "realism of particulars" found

50



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FIGURE 6. "Joshua and the Israelites attacking Hai," Mor- gan Bible Picture Book, New York, The Pierpont Morgan Library, MS 638, fol. 10, detail (photo: Morgan Library).

sporadically in the thirteenth century, and again about 1400 in northern painting.16 Several nonsemantic questions are also raised. Are these drawings almost unique, perhaps deriving their nature from the unusual combination of verbal and visual talents of Matthew Paris, and therefore not representative of the major change in art? If not, what was the basis for the change, and how far back can we trace it? A negative response to the first question could be argued from multiple examples, but one of the most compelling is the comparison between crusading battle scenes executed in stained glass about mid-twelfth century for Abbot Suger's new (Gothic) chevet at Saint-Denis and the many Old Testament battles in a Bible "picture book" of about a century later; the differences cannot be accounted for by modes, because the Crusading Window illustrated medieval events in a highly stereotyped way, whereas the biblical scenes are couched in terms of contemporary events (Figs. 5 and 6).

The Saint-Denis glass, known only from eighteenth- century drawings that, however, can be proved in other cases to be very accurate, shows a series of cavalry encounters in which the participants confront each other heraldi- cally, and in four of these five scenes they are massed together on prancing steeds; in the fifth, Duke Robert of Normandy runs his spear through the neck of a Muslim whose horse reels under the impact, its head turned back like the mount on the left in the detail from the Bayeux tapestry (Fig. 4)."17 In four of these medallions, the terrain is abstracted into a series of arcs; in the fifth, fallen soldiers occupy the lower exergue. These stereotyped compositions were most probably adapted from earlier representations of

biblical scenes, such as a tenth-century illustration of the book of Maccabees in a St. Gall manuscript.18 In the Morgan Bible Picture Book, on the other hand, many battles are presented pell-mell with an extraordinary variety of postures, facial expressions, even racial types, and contemporary armor, arms, and war machines.19 There is some repetition of moduli for individual figures, but more often they are adapted to new compositions.20 Only one scene uses the old stereotyped cavalry confrontation; it is rather small, and serves as the introduction to all the battles that follow; it might be claimed that it was found archaic by the patron or head of the illuminator's shop and therefore was not repeated.21

Although the Morgan manuscript is generally thought to have been made in Paris about 1230-50, or at least for Louis IX, Branner suggested that it is from the north of France or England; perhaps he was thinking of the Matthew Paris compositions.22 A later date, argued by Backhouse, would allow ample time for an assimilation of Matthew's influence, but it is less plausible and, whatever its date, this French book does not lead us to the origins of Matthew's style.23 Yet the Bible Picture Book is a clear indication of the way the new realism permeated illustrations of sacred history, and was not confined to the depiction of contemporary events. The Bible stories gain a certain dramatic power and sense of immediacy through this rendering, but their allegorical and symbolic meanings are largely sup- pressed.24 Nonetheless, the conduct of Old Testament kings in battle is held up as an example to Christian kings embarking on crusade, and this was probably the function of the book. In much the same way, the stories of Joseph

51



FIGURE 7. Matthew Paris, "Elephant given to Henry III, 1255, " Miscellaneous Collec- tion, London, British Library, Cotton MS Nero D I, fol. 169v

(photo: British Library).

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and the Prodigal Son have been told in the glass of Chartres Cathedral as examples of filial piety,25 and the exploits of Old Testament heroes and heroines stood as moral ex-

amples to Louis IX in his Sainte-Chapelle.26 As for the problem of the origins of Matthew Paris's

narrative style, the sources of his realism might be sought in three broad areas: one is observation of the natural world, and this is the one least often considered for the Middle Ages; the second is a dependence on a vivid, perhaps eyewitness account, but this still begs the question of how form was given to the images; the third is the copying of older works of art, whether ancient or recent, and this is generally thought to be the common practice of medieval

artists.2 I will examine each in turn. Although an elephant is not an event, the arrival in

London of a beast given by King Louis of France to Henry III in February 1255 was a memorable happening that very much interested Matthew, and he made his own verbal and

pictorial notations from life ("ipso elephante exemplariter assistente"-the very elephant serving as a model) as he says in the Chronica Majora.28 He observed that it was grayish black, with rough skin but no fur, that it used its trunk in eating and drinking, that its eyes were small and set high in its head, and that it was altogether prodigious and monstrous; but Vaughan also noted that he borrowed a

variety of misinformation from several literary sources, including the belief from the bestiaries that it had no joints in its legs. Surprisingly, this is contradicted by a clear indication of joints in the drawing, although the legs are

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rather straight (Fig. 7). I have chosen to illustrate what I believe to be the first drawing; it shows two positions of the trunk, and one must be impressed with the deftness of Matthew's descriptive notation in capturing its swinging curves and the elasticity of the tip. A more finished drawing in the Chronica Majora chooses the curled-under position

52



of the trunk, schematizes the wrinkles into regular curves, and loses the sense of folded and stretched skin that is so vivid here over the tusk and at the juncture of the foreleg with the belly.29 It is also important to notice that the picture here was done before the description was written in to the right, since the lines of script follow the outline of the beast.30 This was not a case of drawing by combining the verbal description with a standard rendering of an elephant, as may be seen by the contrast with an example of the late twelfth century, from the Ashmole Bestiary (Fig. 8)." The comparison also confirms the revolutionary nature of the new realism. On the other hand, drawing from nature was probably not the norm at any time in the Middle Ages, even with Matthew Paris, and it is debatable how far it could revise authoritative images.32 An example of its limitation is in the sketchbook of Villard de Honnecourt, whose lion,

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FIGURE 9. Villard de Honnecourt, "Lion drawn from life, "Sketchbook, Paris, Bibliothcque Nationale, MSfr. 19093,fol. 24v (photo: Bibliothbque Nationale).

though he claims it is "contrefais al vif"-drawn from life-is actually based on a modulus (Fig. 9).33 Rarely, new subjects became available; Camille has pointed out that, later in the thirteenth century, the newly invented windmill was associated with the newly discovered text of Aristotle on the winds.34

The second type of source mentioned above is verbal or literary. An example occurs in the same volume of the Chronica Majora that contains the other scenes we have examined. Matthew describes and depicts the death of Gilbert Mareschall which had occurred in 1241 (Fig. 10). The facts are carefully recorded verbally and visually: the knight was riding a new horse from Italy when the reins broke, causing him to fall backward, and he was dragged to his death by one stirrup.35 The horse, however, leaves the scene with the same rocking-horse motion that we have noted as the stock-in-trade of earlier artists. Thus, in this case we might identify the verbal description as the dominant source, translated into an image through the use of a standard modulus; but observation of contemporary knights must have played a part in precision of rendering of details of saddlery and armor.

Another scene of violent death seems to have depended predominantly on the third kind of source, an earlier modulus. For a depiction of the death of Engelram de Coucy in 1244, a handy model was the fall of Pride, since Coucy fell over his horse's head; the model needed only the addition of the river into which he fell, complete with fish, and his sword, by which he was pierced (Fig. 11).36 The model may have resembled the drawing of Pride by Villard de Honnecourt, probably executed somewhat earlier by this itinerant French artist (Fig. 12).37 The allusion to the depiction of Pride, however, may have been deliberately made in order to add an allegorical dimension to that event; Matthew describes the death of de Coucy as extraordinary, perhaps implying that, like Pride, he was struck down by

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FIGURE 10. Matthew Paris, "Death of Gilbert Mareschall, 1241, "Chron- ica Majora, Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 16, fol. 147v (photo: Conway Library).

53



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FIGURE 12. Villard de Honnecourt, "The Fall of Pride, " Sketchbook, Paris, Bibliothbque Nationale, MSfr. 19093, fol. 3v (photo: Bibliothbque Nationale).

divine providence." The judicious use of models to enrich meanings shows that he did not lack originality but, as we have seen, the allegorical mode is seldom a concern of Matthew's.39

Leaving aside for the moment the immediate sources for Matthew's style, I propose now to survey attitudes toward direct narrative depiction, and some examples in art, between the construction and glazing of Saint-Denis in the early 1140s and about 1220-30, when Matthew Paris reached maturity at St. Alban's. In the still "Romanesque" glass of Saint-Denis, the symbolic and narrative modes of depiction are sharply distinguished, despite a certain schema- tization noticed earlier in the crusading panels.40 Panels from the "anagogical" window have a diagrammatic clarity of composition; figures and forms are symmetrically ar- ranged and silhouetted against an abstract blue ground; and inscriptions form an integral and important part of the composition (Fig. 13).41 The figures are static, and there is no reference to physical place or time; the expression belongs to a type that has been called a "style of being."42 The most extreme example of the narrative mode is the surviving panel of the martyrdom of St. Vincent, presum- ably from a window depicting his life, which is presented in a "style of becoming" (Fig. 14).43 Movement is stressed through the asymmetric composition and the gestures, which break through the boundaries of the medallion; spatial depth is implied by the placement of the figures and grill in successive layers. There is even a contrast in colors; in the martyrdom, brilliant, hot hues of red and yellow heighten the dramatic impact; in the anagogical panels, softer greens and purples have a calm and contemplative effect. However, the rendering of physical details such as the anatomy of the naked saint or the postures of the tormentors depends on older twelfth-century moduli, and shows no sign of renewed interest in the real world.44

I believe it is significant that Abbot Suger referred to none of the narrative windows in his writings on the new chevet-neither to the lives of St. Benedict and St. Vincent, which were probably made for crypt chapels, nor to the Crusading and Infancy of Christ windows, which were made for the upper church; the last omission is particularly surprising since the suppliant Abbot appears in the bottom of the window, and it was placed in the axial chapel.45 Evidently he considered it worthwhile to mention only the Jesse Tree window, which illustrates a prophetic metaphor, not an event; the story of Moses, which is figured as an allegory of the Redemption; and the anagogical window, with its elaborate symbolism.46 Suger would probably have concurred with the Neoplatonic separation of corporeal from spiritual modes of seeing, as formulated by Richard of Saint-Victor some thirty years later.47 Each mode was subdivided by Richard into two: the lowest consists merely

54



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FIGURE 13. "'The Quadriga of Amminadab,'" Anagogical Window, Saint-Denis (photo: Corpus Vitrearum, France).

of opening one's eyes to the exterior and visible world, thus seeing "the figures and colors of visible things," but this mode is restricted to the "simple perception of matter." Clearly theology did not allow high value to be placed on observation from nature for its own sake. The second mode begins by one observing the "outward appearance or physical action," but seeing a "mystical significance" in it; this could be applied to Suger's typological program for the lost, great altar cross, and the verses he inscribed on the retable.48 It also applies to the Moses scenes, such as the brazen serpent above which Christ on the cross is revealed.49 The third mode, according to Richard of Saint-Victor, consists in discovering the "truth of hidden things.., .by means of forms and figures and the similitude of things." This corresponds to the visions of St. John. It would also encompass the anagogical window of Suger, with its diagrammatic rendering of the Ark of the Covenant combined with the Quadriga of Amminadab, the four winged beasts of Ezekiel's vision, and the Almighty holding Christ on the Cross; none of these elements refer to outward appearance or physical action.5o The fourth mode, virtually unattain- able by the artist, eliminated even the similitudes of things and involves only the "pure and naked seeing of divine reality."5'1

Despite the low value placed by theologians on the mere observation of the exterior visible world, there was a great deal of artistic interest in the latter part of the twelfth century in the pursuit of a more naturalistic rendering of all

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FIGURE 14. "'The Martyrdom of St. Vincent," dep6t des Monuments

Historiques, from Saint-Denis (photo: Corpus Vitrearum, France).

forms of life. This phase, variously characterized as part of the "twelfth-century renaissance" or the "style 1200," at- tracted a great deal of scholarly attention following the publication thirty years ago of Panofsky's broad study.52 Most importantly, a number of works that he accepted as thirteenth-century were redated in the twelfth, so that a painter such as the great Methuselah Master of the Canter- bury windows emerged as a contemporary of the humanist scholar John of Salisbury (d. 1180) (Figs. 15 and 16).53 Also active in this period was a genuine precursor of Matthew Paris, Gerald of Wales, who in 1187 made marginal drawings of local costume and customs in the autograph manuscript of his Topographia Hibernica (Fig. 17).54 Such vignettes of real life, however, are not recombined as yet to create a whole new mode of biblical illustration; they are used by manuscript and glass painters in combination with other sources, out of respect for higher modes of seeing. At the same time, a new awareness and aesthetic appreciation of works of classical antiquity supplemented observation from life to aid in giving an impression of authenticity to events.55

An analysis of some scenes by the Methuselah Master, probably created about 1175-80 for the second typological window in the monk's choir at Canterbury, will demonstrate the exegetical function of his skillful blending of sources (Fig. 15). The literal or historical sense of scripture is emphasized through verisimilitude in rendering. Among many examples are the negroid features of the Queen of

55



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Sheba's attendants, and her dark skin (in the lowest register, Fig. 15); the camels in this scene, with their big cloven hooves, curving necks, and large nostrils and upper lips, rival Matthew Paris's elephant; Balaam's donkey and the Magi's horses in the top register are carefully distinguished, their gaits are remarkably correct, and dapples are painted on the outer surface of the white rump, while the unnatural- istic purple that has to substitute for brown in the glass painter's palette is assiduously painted brown.56 A comparison of the shepherds, who huddle uncertainly before the Virgin and Child in the Adoration scene, with Gerald of Wales's sketch of Irish peasants, suggests the group is based on a notation from life (Figs. 16 & 17). Roman statuary was surely also a source that helped to lend an authentic touch; in one case a bronze cult statue is depicted with such remarkable sensitivity that the viewer is fully persuaded of the powerful allure of the pagan gods (Fig. 15, center register).7 In other cases, reminiscences are less specific, but the Master seems to have learned both about ancient

costume (in the chlamys worn by the Gentiles here) and about the natural fall of drapery over the moving body from high quality Roman works; he may also have been instructed in portraying the calm yet expressive and varied faces of his crowd of Israelites, and the psyches and physical proportions of children.58

Yet the literal events of history were not privileged in the program of the Canterbury choir windows; indeed, although the narrative sequence of the New Testament unwinds vertically in the center of the window, it is sand- wiched between types, so that allegory is given greater weight than narrative (Fig. 15).59 Thus, in the second register from the top, on either side of Herod instructing the Magi to return to him, are the Crossing of the Red Sea (Pharaoh ordering the return of the Israelites) and a very unusual scene of Christ leading the Gentiles away from pagan gods (or the pagan gods calling back the Gentiles, to maintain the allegory); the latter scene was not an actual event but may be understood as a metaphor.6o The relation-

56



?i?

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FIGURE 16. The shepherds, detailfrom "The Adoration of the Magi and the Shepherds, " Second Typological Window, north choir aisle, Canter- bury Cathedral (photo: Victoria and Albert Museum, Crown copyright reserved by courtesy of the Dean of Canterbury).

ships of the three scenes are partially expressed in the leonine hexameter inscriptions of the flanking panels:

EXIT AB ERUMPNA POPULUS DUCENTE COLUMPNA

STELLA MAGOS DUXIT: LUX CHRISTUS UTRISQUE RELUXIT

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FIGURE 17. Gerald of Wales, "Irish Peasant," Topographia Hibernica, London, British Library, Roy. MS 13 B viii, fol. 30 (photo: British Library).

STELLA MAGOS DUXIT ET EOS AB HERODE REDUXIT

SIC SATHANUM GENTES FUGIUNT: TE CHRISTE SEQUENTES

(The people came out of tribulation led by a pillar. The star led the Magi; to both Christ shone as a light. As a star led the Magi and led them away from Herod, so the Gentiles following thee, O Christ, flee from Satan.) The cadence of the verses, with their rhymes and caesuras, finds a visual counterpart in the compositions: Christ and Moses "rhyme" in posture and both Herod and the pagan deity reach across a "caesura" toward the retreating people; these relationships are enhanced by color repetitions.61 Visually, the Red Sea becomes a type of the baptismal font; the pillar of fire,

57



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Christ's cross; Moses' rod, the scroll of the new law; and Pharaoh, the devil and heathen cults. These ideas were expressed exactly in a sermon of Honorius of Autun earlier in the century.62

A third level of reading gives a tropological or moral meaning that the Master has ingeniously transposed from an iconographic modulus. In the Psychomachia of Pru- dentius, which existed in early medieval recensions in most monasteries including Christ Church, the combat between Faith and the cult of the gods took place before Christian and pagan altars of the types show in the glass; the "quotation" of this formula makes Christ a figure of Faith.63 The fourth level of scriptural exegesis was expressed through the inscription in his scroll, now obliterated; it was from John 8:12: "I am the light of the world; he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness," thus adding an eschato- logical reference that was visualized abstractly in terms of light.

The work of the Methuselah Master at Canterbury marks a high point of the twelfth-century renaissance, linking naturalism with humanism in a way that is almost antique in spirit. There, as elsewhere, however, the trend toward naturalism went through a rapid mutation. By 1220 the Trinity Chapel at Canterbury had been glazed with narrative windows recounting the recent martyrdom and miracles of Thomas Becket; events are depicted in a dramatic, shorthand style, with enough characterization and props to tell the stories clearly and convincingly.64 The example illustrated here shows little Robert-or Phillip (the texts supply both)-stoning frogs with his friends and

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falling in the river; next, the friends run for help; his parents arrive at the scene to find him unscathed-the inscription tells the literate viewer that this was due to their prayers to St. Thomas (Fig. 18). The events are so straightforwardly told that they have the air of a secular chronicle. In the sculpture and glass of Chartres also there is a new interest

58



in storytelling, but at the expense of naturalistic rendering of detail.65 Even the large column statues, which on the center portal of the north transept are invested with such individuality, become more stereotyped and abstracted on the south side a few years later.66 It is tempting to associate this retreat from observation and rendering of nature, and from the study of antique statuary, with the prohibition of Aristotle's works on the natural sciences in 1210 at the University of Paris.67

It is also tempting to associate the new-and conceptually very different-naturalism of Matthew Paris with renewed interest in Aristotle later in the century. Indeed, at Oxford the writings of Aristotle were still studied after 1210.68 Matthew knew the great Franciscan thinker Robert Grosseteste; although he did not approve of him, at least in his capacity as Bishop of Lincoln, he may have made use of his Oxford lectures on optics of the 1230s.69 These had a major impact on thirteenth-century learning, especially on ways of understanding visual perception.70 It is precisely in the events Matthew chronicled after 1236, and which he seems to have recorded and illustrated in the 1240s and 50s, that we find the most startling examples of his realism.71 Although he was impatient with the Franciscans, he could not have failed to recognize the importance of Grosseteste's postulates as a manifesto for art: Grosseteste claimed that light, the divine energizing force of the universe, could be studied through optics in order to arrive at both a meta- physical and a physical understanding of the universe. He thus banished the profane from scientific observation.

Yet Matthew Paris's new realism was short-lived, being replaced by more conservative devotional trends.72 And in 1270-77 Aristotle's works on the natural sciences were once more under attack in Paris and Oxford.73 About 1270, however, in the Douce Apocalypse, a new and more powerful naturalism in the rendering of landscape and light was used as a vivid, persuasive device to confirm the "truth" of

St. John's Apocalyptic visions (Fig. 19).74 This appropriation of the first mode of seeing to visionary experience laid the way for the dominant trends of the next century. The Franciscans, furthermore, continued to be closely allied with Grosseteste's ideas; friars such as Roger Bacon and John Pecham wrote influential works on the new optics in the latter part of the century." It is not surprising that the next phase in developing a vivid narrative mode, as I indicated at the outset of this paper, occurred largely in Franciscan circles in Italy. The "innovations" of Giotto's generation should be seen in light of the earlier traditions, including the legacy of the twelfth century.76

In conclusion, it seems valid to recognize two distinct periods in the representational arts of the "Gothic era," during which there was a strong orientation toward verisimilitude in the depiction of events. One followed a generation after the first Gothic architecture and is closely associated with a cultural movement usually referred to as the twelfth- century renaissance.77 The phase that followed soon after 1200 is exemplified by the great narrative cycles that decor- ated the new cathedrals (e.g., Fig. 18); it involved a prefer- ence for straightforwardness and rapidity in order to create a narrative mode, at the expense of naturalistic detail. From this trend there developed sporadically a renewed pictorial enrichment in the rendering of details, culminating in the narrative paintings of trecento Italy. In both periods of "realism"-that is, the late twelfth century and the period from the mid-thirteenth century on-there was some acceptance of Aristotelianism, albeit an uneasy one. The first mode of seeing, looked down upon by earlier theologians, came to the fore in the thirteenth century but it did not entirely replace the symbolic modes, as we saw at the outset. Its validity was established first by the insis- tence on historical exegesis, which is evident in the Methu- selah Master's work, and later by the emphasis placed on observation.

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FIGURE 20. Matthew Paris, "The Magi Riding, " Chronica Majora, Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 26, fol. 32 (photo: Conway Library).

59



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A fundamental difference between the two phases is apparent in that statement: whereas the Methuselah Master was concerned with historicity, involving archeological accuracy (as in the costume of the Gentiles), Matthew Paris and the illuminators of the Old Testament Picture Book created histories that are a flat backdrop, a moving pageant without perspective depth or distance (Figs. 3, 6, 7, 10, 11, 15). Even though at times the Methuselah Master seems to negate temporal differences, as when Balaam on his ass hurries to catch up with the star that is sighted by the Magi, the effect is to demonstrate the unification of history through prophecy and allegory (Fig. 15). The event as told by Matthew Paris seventy years later, for all the realism of the camels ridden by the Magi, slips by without drawing our attention to its theological significance (Fig. 20). The parataxis of verse has given way to the cadence of prose, and the narrative mode has triumphed.

Despite a far greater skill in rendering, the same might be said of Giotto's Paduan cycle (and its textual analogue in Bonaventura's life of Christ): a sign that in the thirteenth- century sculpture of Amiens Cathedral had signified Lewd- ness was reassigned to a narrative moment in the greeting of the Virgin's parents, Joachim and Anna, at the Golden Gate (Figs. 21 and 22). The more concrete the rendering of human experience, the less evident were the spiritual truths of sacred history. Yet even Giotto balanced the "simple perception of matter" in these narrative scenes between the allegories of virtues and vices, and the vision of the Last Judgment, which, respectively, constitute the second and third modes of seeing.78

NOTES

* Parts of a paper entitled "Art around 1200: Gothic Style or Narrative Mode?" given in 1981 at the symposium Event and Image (Barnard College, Medieval Studies Program) are incorporated here, as are passages from a lecture "From the Material to the Immaterial: The Arts of the Orders in the Twelfth Century" for the Delaware Valley Medieval Association (1985). I am indebted to both audiences for their discussion and critical comments, and to the many readers of subsequent versions, which I have used in teaching. The present paper has been substantially revised in accordance with newer art historical theories, and parallel results from a wealth of recent studies have been acknowledged in the footnotes.

1. Session entitled "Technique, structure et style de l'architecture gothique," L'Art et les Revolutions: XVIIIe Congrbs International d'His- toire de l'Art (Strasbourg, 1989), in press.

2. Changes in construction have been emphasized by E. E. Viollet-le- Duc, Dictionnaire raisonne de I'architecture frangaise du XIe au XVIe, 9 v (Paris, 1854-68); for a critical analyses of his approach see: P. Abraham, Viollet-le-Duc et le rationalisme midikval (Paris, 1934), and R. Mark, "Robert Willis, Viollet-le-Duc and the structural approach to gothic architecture," Architectura, VII (1977), 52-64, and E.-E. Viollet-le-Duc, The Architectural Theory of Viollet-le- Duc: Readings and Commentary, ed. M. F. Hearn (Cambridge,

60



1990), esp. 7-19. Among modern studies of construction are J. Fitchen, The Construction of Gothic Cathedrals (Oxford, 1961; reprint, Chicago, 1981); J. Acland, Medieval Structure: The Gothic Vault (Toronto, 1974); R. Mark, Experiments in Gothic Structure (Cambridge, Mass., 1982), and Light, Wind, and Structure (Cam- bridge, 1990), esp. 91-135. The theological and philosophical cor- relates of change were studied by O. von Simson, The Gothic Cathedral: Origins of Gothic Architecture and the Medieval Concept of Order (Chicago, 1955), and E. Panofsky, Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism (Latrobe, Pa., 1951). For all aspects see: P. Frankl, The Gothic: Literary Sources and Interpretations through Eight Centuries (Princeton, 1960), and the section "The General Problems of the Gothic style" in his Gothic Architecture (Harmondsworth & Baltimore, 1962), 217-70; more recently: C. M. Radding and W. W. Clark, "Ab61ard et le batisseur de Saint-Denis; etudes parallbles dans l'histoire des disciplines," Annales, E. S. C., XLIII (1983), 1263-290; P. Crossley, "Medieval Architecture and Meaning: The Limits of Iconography," BM, CXXX (1988), 116-21; M. R. Bismanis, "The Necessity of Discovery," Gesta, XXVIII (1989), 115-20; and Stras- bourg, Ancienne Douane, Les batisseurs des cathedrales gothiques, R. Recht et al. (Strasbourg, 1989), esp. 9-36.

3. It is tempting to dismiss the question as a semantic one, since "Gothic" is an invention of relatively modern critics and scholars; for the origins of its use see: E. S. de Beer, "Gothic: Origins and Diffusion of the Term; the Idea of Style in Architecture," JWCI, XI (1948), 143-62 and W. Dynes, "Concept of Gothic," Dictionary of the History of Ideas, ed. P. P. Wiener (New York, 1973), II, 366-74. Such a problematic term should perhaps simply be dropped from use, and replaced by incontestable terms such as "thirteenth-century" or the "art of the reign of Louis IX." As an example of the latter: R. Branner, Manuscript Painting in Paris during the Reign of Saint Louis: A Study of Styles (Berkeley, 1977) (although he refers, viii, to these works as "the 'fountainhead' of Gothic illumination"). L. Gro- decki, "Les problbmes de la peinture gothique," Critique, XCVIII (1955), 611, suggested one might do no more than speak of painting of the Gothic era as defined by the limits of the style in architecture and sculpture, but he went on to argue otherwise. W. Sauerlinder, "Erfahrung der Wirklichkeit: Das Herrscherbild," in Die Zeit der Staufer, 5, Geschichte, Literatur, Kunst (Stuttgart, 1979), 119-22, and "Style or Transition? The fallacies of classification discussed in the light of German architecture 1190-1260," Architectural History, XXX (1987), 1-29, emphasizes the problems that have arisen from insisting on a linear development from one style to the other.

4. Some varying views may be sampled in: W. Worringer, Formprob- leme der Gotik (1st ed., Leipzig, 1910), translated, with an introduction by H. Read, Form in Gothic (New York, 1927; 2nd edition 1957); L. R6au, L'Art gothique en France: Architecture, sculpture, peinture, arts appliques (Paris, 1945); cf. J. Baum, "Ger Geist der Gotik," Kunstchronik, NS XXIX (1917-18), 145; M. Baud, Les

charactbres hitbradoxes de l'art gothique (Paris, 1913); K. Gersten- berg, Deutsche Sondergotiz, Eine Untersuchung iiber das Wesen der deutschen Baukunst im spaiten Mittelalter (Munich, 1913); A. Lind- blom, La peinture gothique en Suede et en Norvbge (Stockholm, 1916), 4-5. For painting, see: A. Haseloff, "La miniature dans les pays cisalpins depuis le commencement du XIIe siecle," in A. Michel, Histoire de l'Art, II, part 1 (Paris, 1906), 329-41; Grodecki, Critique (as cited above, n. 3), 611-18, and "Les probl~mes de l'origine de la peinture gothique et le 'Maitre de Saint Ch6ron' de la cath6drale de Chartres," La Revue de l'Art, 40-41 (1978): 43-64. A confusing opposition of views is presented by O. Homburger, "Zur Stilbestim- mung der figiurlichen Kunst Deutschlands und des westlichen Europas in Zeitraum zwischen 1190 und 1250," Formositas Romanica, ed. J. Gantner (Frauenfeld, 1958), 31-45, who characterizes all the English works discussed in this paper as late Romanesque together with the continental works, such as the enamels of Nicholas of Verdun and the

Ingeborg Psalter, whereas the latter are called early Gothic by F. Deuchler, Gothic Art (New York, 1973), 53-70 and 112-17, whereas he referred to "additive" composition as a hallmark of true Gothic (133).

5. I have deliberately omitted the usual canon that has been used to demonstrate a "mainstream development" of Gothic style in sculpture, metalwork, and painting; it was selected to prove linear theories of change.

6. For Conques see: C. Bernoulli, Die Skulpturen der Abtei Conques- en-Rouergue (Basel, 1956); J. Bousquet, La sculpture a Conques aux Ile et 12e siecles (Lille, 1973); illustrations are in H. Focillon, The Art of the West, I (Ithaca, 1983), fig. 98, and in Caviness (see below, n. 7). For the Gothic tympana, see: W. Sauerlinder, Gothic Sculpture in France, 1140-1270 (New York, 1972), figs. 108, 147, 292.

7. M. H. Caviness, "Images of Divine Order and the Third Mode of Seeing," Gesta, XXII (1983), 99-120.

8. Complete black-and-white reproduction, and useful essays on various aspects of the tapestry, are in The Bayeux Tapestry: A Compre- hensive Survey, ed. Sir F. Stenton (London, 1957). More recently: C. H. Gibbs-Smith, The Bayeux Tapestry (New York, 1973); N. P. Brooks & H. E. Walker, "The Authority and Interpretation of the Bayeux Tapestry," Proceedings of the Battle Conference on Anglo-Norman Studies, I (1978), ed. R. A. Brown (Ipswich, 1979), 1-34 and 191-99; and D. Wilson, The Bayeux Tapestry (New York, 1985). The drawings of Matthew Paris (ca. 1200-1259) were first studied by M. R. James, "The Drawings of Matthew Paris," Walpole Society, XIV (1925-26), 1-26; F. Wormald attributed the drawings in Oxford, Bodleian Library, Ashmole MS 304, to him ("More Matthew Paris Drawings," Walpole Society, XXXI (1942-43), 109- 12. All the illustrations in the Chronica Majora (Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MSS 26 and 16) are catalogued by James. R. Vaug- han, Matthew Paris (Cambridge, 1958), 21, 35-37, and 59-61, has concluded that both volumes are largely autograph, and that Mat- thew wrote them between about 1240 and 1253. These judgments are accepted by A. Gransden, Historical Writing in England c. 550 to c. 1307 (Ithaca, 1974), 356-74, and by S. Lewis, The Art of Matthew Paris in the Chronica Majora (Berkeley, 1987), 9.

9. Separation of episodes in the tapestry is sometimes suggested by the placement of a tree, and of the description of the action beginning HIC...., UBI ..., or ET... ; e.g., Stenton, Bayeux Tapestry, figs. 10, 12, 14, 17, 35, 39, 54, 59, 67. The conjunction in Fig. 2 could be understood to indicate action occurring at a different time or in another place, or both.

10. The use of the lower margin as "foreground" occurs only in the battle scene; J. B. McNulty, however, has ingeniously argued that in another case marginal subjects illustrate the subject of a conversation about past events, which of course would not fit the temporal sequence of the main field: "The Lady Aelfgyva in the Bayeux Tapestry," Speculum, LV (1980), 659-68.

11. The tapestry is 20" high and extends 230' and 10/4"; the standard view is that it was hung in Bayeux Cathedral since it has been stored in the treasury there at least since 1476; see Stenton, Bayeux Tapestry, 9-11 and 88. The maximum size of the bas-de-page drawings in MS 16 is 2-by-8 inches (see facsimile plates in James). Gransden, Historical Writing, 358, states that Matthew's historical works were intended for monks, and the parochial nature of the later sections of the chronicle would be of little interest outside the London area.

12. The same differences are apparent between the tapestry and the kinds of Anglo-Saxon drawings and paintings that were the basis for its design, as established by F. Wormald in Stenton, Bayeux Tapestry, 30-33, and figs. 4, 8, 11-13, 15 and 16.

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13. The phrase in quotation marks was very effectively used by D. Pear- sail in his discussion at the Event and Image symposium, and is indeed the one needed to describe Matthew Paris's work.

14. As noticed by D. J. Bernstein, The Mystery of the Bayeux Tapestry (London, 1986), 70-71 (his term "naturalism" goes too far).

15. In the first volume of the Chronica Majora, MS 26, fol. 279, illustrated in P. Brieger, English Art 1216-1307 (Oxford, 1957), fig. 45c, and discussed on 145; as he says, the composition was "hardly to be surpassed till Leonardo's Battle of Anghiari, two hundred and fifty years later."

16. "Realism of particulars" is the term used by H. W. Janson, History of Art: A Survey of the Major Visual Arts from the Dawn of History to the Present Day (New York, 1969), 252-53 (where he refers to the Labors of the Months sculpted on the west facade of Amiens Cathedral ca. 1225-35, fig. 403) and 281. Unusual early thirteenth- century studies of plant life in Cistercian sculpture were recently presented by E. C. Nelson and R. A. Stalley, "Medieval Naturalism and the Botanical Carvings at Corcomroe Abbey (Country Clare)," Gesta, XXVIII (1989), 165-74, with a provocative critique of any theory that would too easily associate all such occurrences with Aristotelianism (pp. 171-72).

17. L. Grodecki, Les vitraux de Saint-Denis: etude sur le vitrail siecle, Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi: France, Serie Etudes, I (Paris, 1976), figs. 164, 168, 170, 171, 173. For a careful reexamination of the subject matter of this window: E. A. R. Brown and M. W. Cothren, "The Twelfth-Century Crusading Window of the Abbey of Saint- Denis: Praeteritorum enim recordatio futurorum est exhibitio," JWCI, XLIX (1986), 1-40.

18. Leyden, University Library, MS Perizoni 17, fol. 46, illustrated and discussed with other sources in M. H. Caviness, "Suger's Glass at Saint-Denis: The State of Research," Abbot Suger and Saint-Denis: An International Symposium, ed. P. Gerson (New York, 1986), 262-64.

19. New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, MS 638; see the facsimile edition by S. C. Cockerell and J. Plummer, Old Testament Minia- tures: A Medieval Picture Book with 283 Paintings from the Creation to the Story of David (New York, 1969), e.g., fols. 10v, 11, 24, 24v, 29v, etc., which include cavalry encounters with details of various arms; fols. 16v, 24, 36v with hand combat; fol. 29v includes a black soldier; fol. 40 shows ladders and grappling irons used for scaling walls; fol. 23v, a huge sling; fol. 12v, a cart and harness; fol. 10v, a

gallows.

20. E.g., fols. 33 and 39, the dead knight in the left foreground.

21. Fol. 9v; the armies of Joshua and Amalek confront one another and

occupy only a quarter of the page; all the other battles spread the full width of the pages, and some take up both zones.

22. Grodecki argued a very close relationship to the Judith window of the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, glazed by 1248 for Louis IX; he even

suggested the artists were the same (L. Grodecki, Sainte-Chapelle [Paris, 1961], 100). See also Cockerell and Plummer, Old Testament Miniatures, 3, where an earlier opinion of Branner is cited, connect- ing the manuscript illuminators with the painters of medallions on the walls in the Sainte-Chapelle. More recently Branner rejected the view that the manuscript was made for the court and suggested the artists were English: Manuscript Painting in Paris during the Reign of Saint Louis: A Study of Styles (Berkeley, 1977), ix; on p. 139 he refers to it with a group of north French or English books of ca. 1250. No doubt if he had lived to see the book through final revisions he would have clarified this.

23. J. Backhouse, review of Branner, BM, CXIII (1971), 279-80, suggests it was made for the French king's brother-in-law, Charles of Anjou, after he took Sicily in 1266, and discusses Byzantine influences.

24. There are a few cases of presenting scenes out of order, however, apparently to juxtapose events with thematic connections, such as the Sacrifice of Noah on the lower right of fol. 2v and the Sacrifice of Abraham on the lower left of fol. 3. I owe this observation to Carole de Cosse (paper for FAH 121, Tufts University, fall 1982).

25. See M. H. Caviness, The Early Stained Glass of Canterbury Cathe- dral, circa 1175-1220 (Princeton, 1977), 40-41, 95-96, figs. 195 and 196.

26. L. Grodecki in M. Aubert et al., Les vitraux de Notre-Dame et de la Sainte-Chapelle de Paris, Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi: France, I (Paris, 1959), 78-84, esp. 82.

27. In fact even in the postmedieval era artists have usually tempered their observation from nature with borrowings from older works; this is as true for Realists such as Gustave Courbet, who resorted to Spanish Baroque masters and popular prints, as it is for Raphael or Michelangelo.

28. Corpus Christi MS 16, fol. iv-v; see: James, "Drawings," 7 and pl. VI; Vaughan, Matthew Paris, 256-57, pl. XXIa; Lewis, Chronica Majora, 4, 212-16, fig. 129.

29. The picture in the Chronica Majora is more formal; it is framed as a

frontispiece to the description, more finished, and has the elephant keeper sketched in to provide a scale: "From the size of the man drawn here one can get an idea of the size of the beast"; see n. 28 above for illustrations. Lewis, Chronica Majora, 215, fig. 131, con- curs with my opinion.

30. Vaughan, Matthew Paris, 213-14, gives other examples of this

practice in the chronicle.

31. For this and other examples: M. R. James, The Bestiary (Oxford, 1928); see also M. Rickert, Painting in Britain: The Middle Ages, 2nd ed. (Baltimore, 1965), 87-88. In the illustration for an elephant parade at Cremona (Corpus Christi College, MS 16, fol. 151v), however, Lewis has shown this to have been the case: Chronica Majora, 282, figs. 177-78.

32. Vaughan, Matthew Paris, 254, discusses the parhelion that is illustrated in the Liber Additamentorum, London, British Library, Cotton MS Nero D i, fol. 185; although the drawing is copied from one by an eyewitness, there are many inaccuracies.

33. H. R. Hahnloser, Villard de Honnecourt: Kritische Gesamtausgabe des Bauhiittenbuches ms. fr 19093 der Pariser Nationalbibliothek, 2nd ed. (Graz, 1972), figs. 163, 166, and 374 n. 75, compares the

drawing to an illustration in the Liber Floridus of Lambert of Saint- Omer; see also R. Recht, "Sur le dessin d'architecture gothique," Etudes d'art medieval offertes a' Louis Grodecki, ed. S. Crosby et al.

(Paris, 1981), 235, who supposes that "al vif" referred only to a

specific model, and that Villard's view of a real lion was shaped by traditional images. The genesis of Villard's architectural drawings is far more problematic: C. F. Barnes, Jr., Villard de Honnecourt, the Artist and his Drawings: A Critical Bibliography (Boston, 1982), and most recently M. F. Hearn, "Villard de Honnecort's Perception of Gothic Architecture," Medieval Architecture and its Intellectual Context: Studies in Honour of Peter Kidson, ed. E. Fernie and P. Crossley (London, 1990), 127-36.

34. M. Camille, "Illustrations in Harley MS 3487 and the Perception of Aristotle's Libri Naturales in Thirteenth-Century England," England in the Thirteenth Century: Proceedings of the 1984 Harlaxton Sym- posium, ed. W. M. Ormrod (Grantham, 1985), 37, fig. 10.

35. James, "Drawings," 14.

36. James, "Drawings," 17; Brieger, English Art (see above, n. 13), 141.

37. B. Kurth, "Matthew Paris and Villard de Honnecourt," BM, LXXXI (1942), 227-28; she concludes the two drawings are not directly

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related. She and Hahnloser (Villard, figs. 50, 51) compare Villard's

drawing to Pride in the south portal sculpture of Chartres.

38. "Mirabilis" is not as strong as miraculous, but implies something of the sort. Vaughan, Matthew Paris, 149, has pointed out that Matthew used the term "martyr" rather freely for any suffering Christian rather than for true saints.

39. Gransden, Historical Writing (n. 6 above), 365: "Matthew liked spec- tacular and sensational rather than pious or edificatory illustrations."

40. Louis Grodecki and Catherine Brisac, Le vitrail roman (Fribourg and Paris, 1977), 91-103, include Saint-Denis, along with the "retar- detaire" Romanesque glass of Germany.

41. Grodecki, Vitraux de Saint-Denis (n. 15 above), pls. V and XI.

42. The term, used by M. Schapiro, "Style," Anthropology Today, ed. A. Kroeber (Chicago, 1953), 298, is adapted from P. Frankl, Das

System der Kunstwissenschaft (Brtinn & Leipzig), 1938; Schapiro, 293, touched on the adoption of these polar styles or modes accord-

ing to subject matter.

43. Grodecki, Vitraux de Saint-Denis, pl. XIII; cf. also N.Y., The

Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Royal Abbey of Saint-Denis in the Time of Abbot Suger 1122-1151 (New York, 1981), figs. 16 and 19.

44. Caviness, "Suger's Glass" (n. 16 above), figs. 12 and 13, where I

compare the three-quarter back-view figure in this scene with one in the Lobbes Bible of 1084 (Tournai, Bibliothbque du Seminaire, MS 1, fol. 131v).

45. E. Panofsky, Abbot Suger on the Abbey Church of St.-Denis and its Art Treasures, 2nd ed. (Princeton, 1979), 205-6 and fig. 17) was the first to acknowledge the St. Vincent panel as part of the original glazing of the abbey church; he noted the presence of a relic of the

saint, and a stylistic affinity with the portal sculpture. For a full discussion of the placement of this window, and the reconstructed Life of St. Benedict window, see Grodecki, Vitraux de St.-Denis, 28, 106-7, 108-14. The First Crusade and Charlemagne panels recorded

by Montfauqon, of which two survive in America, are reconstructed

by Grodecki in two windows of the ambulatory of the chevet, and dated in the time of Suger (Vitraux de Saint-Denis, 115-21). For the

Infancy Window see ibid., 81-92.

46. Suger's chapter XXXIV of the de Administratione, dealing with the new windows, is edited and translated by Panofsky, Abbot Suger, 72-77. See also Grodecki, Vitraux de St. Denis, 71-80, 93-102.

47. Richardus a Sancto Victore, In Apocalypsim Joannis, ed. Migne, PL, CXCVI, cols. 686-87. I am indebted to the translation and discussion in B. Nolan, The Gothic Visionary Perspective (Princeton, 1977), 36-38. See also Caviness, "Images of Divine Order" (n. 5

above). G. A. Zinn, "Suger, Theology, and the Pseudo-Dionysian Tradition," Abbot Suger, ed. Gerson (n. 16 above), 33-37, has noted coincidences in thought and wording between Suger and the Vic- torines, especially Richard's predecessor, Hugh. For further discussion see: C. Rudolph, Artistic Change at Saint-Denis (Princeton, 1990). Medieval history writing might also be analysed in these terms: Annals (mere notations of events following a year date) connote the first mode, chronicles the second. For these see: H. White, The Content of the Form: Narrative Discourse and Historical Represen- tation (Baltimore and London, 1987), 4-25. I would add hagiography as a third level of narrativity.

48. Panofsky, Abbot Suger, 58-59, 62-63.

49. The example cited by Richard is the Burning Bush as a type of the Virgin Birth. It is noticeable in the Saint-Denis panel that the inscription gives that scene a more spiritual significance, relating it to ardent belief rather than to an historical allegory; see Panofsky, 74-

75, and L. Grodecki, "Les vitraux all6goriques de Saint-Denis," Art de France, 1 (1961), 36.

50. For the textual sources, especially the Pauline Epistles, and icono-

graphic traditions, see Grodecki, "Vitraux all6goriques," 20-35; J. Hayward, in Metropolitan Museum, Royal Abbey, no. 16, 86; also K. Hoffman, "Sugers 'Anagogisches Fenster' in St. Denis," WRJ, XXX (1968), 57-88.

51. Some cosmic diagrams, such as those of Opicinus of Canistris, may correspond to this level; see Caviness, "Images of Divine Order," 110, 115, and fig. 25.

52. E. Panofsky, Renaissance and Renascences in Western Art (Stock- holm, 1960; New York, 1979), 55-113. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Year 1200, I, The Exhibition; II, A Background Survey (New York, 1970); III, A Symposium (New York, 1975).

53. For twelfth-century dates now accepted for the sculpture of Senlis, Laon, etc., see Sauerlainder, Gothic Sculpture, passim: L. M. Ayres, "The Work of the Morgan Master at Winchester and English Paint- ing of the Early Gothic Period," AB, LVI (1974), 201-23, has argued for a date before 1186 for the Winchester Bible illustrations. My "early" dating for the Methuselah Master's work at Canterbury is largely argued in The Early Stained Glass (n. 23 above), 49-58, with synopsis of new datings, 151-55. It is accepted by L. Grodecki, "A propos d'une 6tude sur les anciens vitraux de la cath6drale de Canterbury," CCM, XXIV (1981), 63.

54. Gransden, Historical Writing, 242-43, 244-46, 365, pl. VIII.

55. For the appreciation of pagan classical works by English prelates in the twelfth century see Panofsky, Renaissance, 72-73. Villard de Honnecourt copied a number of Roman works in the next century; his gladiators with lions are far more lifelike than the lion drawn "al vif" and are closely related to the ancient tradition: Hahnloser, Villard, figs. 157-59.

56. Illustrated in Caviness, The Early Stained Glass, figs. 19, 21, 23, 44; Corpus Vitrearum, pl. VI.

57. Cf. Caviness, The Early Stained Glass, fig. 40. Villard's effort at

recording such an image lacks this sensitivity: Hahnloser, Villard, fig. 139, cf. 139a.

58. Compare, for instance, the Ara Pacis reliefs: Caviness, The Early Stained Glass, fig. 36.

59. This point has also been stressed by W. Kemp, Sermo Corporeus: Die Erziihlung der mittelalterlichen Glasfenster (Munich, 1987), 86- 87 and figs. 40-41.

60. For a full discussion of the iconography: Caviness, The Early Stained Glass, 120, and Corpus Vitrearum, 91-93.

61. Caviness, Corpus Vitrearum, pls. VII, VIII.

62. Honorius of Autun, Opera Liturgica: Gemma Animae, Migne, PL, CLXXII, col. 742: "Aegyptus est iste mundus, Pharao diabolus, Haebraicus populus est Christianus populus, quem Moyses, id est Christus, de potestate Pharaonis, id est diaboli, liberavit. Per mare Rubrum, id est per baptismum, sanguine Christi rubricundum duxit." (Egypt is the world, Pharaoh the devil, the Israelites the Christian people, whom Moses, that is Christ, frees from Pharaoh, that is the devil. He leads through the Red Sea, that is through [the waters of] baptism, reddened by the blood of Christ.) See also col. 690.

63. Caviness, The Early Stained Glass, fig. 42.

64. For the hagiographical mode, and the textual sources, see Caviness, The Early Stained Glass, 139-50, and Corpus Vitrearum, 158-60, 177-214, figs. 244-366, pls. XIII-XV.

65. Such as the south transept portal, tympanum of the right doorway, where scenes of St. Martin and St. Nicholas are included instead of

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one major subject; Sauerlinder, Gothic Sculpture, fig, 119. For the glass, Caviness, The Early Stained Glass, 40-41, 96, figs. 195, 196; for complete reproductions of the windows, Y. Delaporte and E. Houvet, Les vitraux de la cath&drale de Chartres, Chartres, 1926. The Prodi- gal Son Window is a particular focus for Kemp's new study, Sermo Corporeus, 34-46 and passim, and narrative structures are explored by J.-P. Deremble and C. Manhes, Les Vitraux lkgendaires de Chartres, des recits en images (Paris, 1988).

66. Sauerlinder, Gothic Sculpture, figs. 82, 83, cf. 110-11; the earlier figures are conventionally dated about 1205-10, the others ca. 1210-15.

67. Caviness, The Early Stained Glass, 153, with references.

68. Camille, "Perception of Aristotle," 31; he also stressed the importance of Aristotle's texts on visual perception (p. 39).

69. Matthew inserted a letter from Grosseteste in the Chronica Majora about 1237; see Vaughan, Matthew Paris, 132-34. For Matthew's negative view of Grosseteste's administration, ibid., 138-39.

70. S. Y. Edgerton Jr., The Renaissance Rediscovery of Linear Perspec- tive (New York, 1975), 74-76, has stressed the importance of Gros- seteste's tracts de Lineis ... and de Luce in changing the worldview of his time; a slightly older contemporary of Matthew, he died in 1253. More detailed assessments of his ideas and their sources are given by S. P. Marrone, William of Auvergne and Robert Grosse- teste: New Ideas of Truth in the Early Thirteenth Century (Princeton, 1983), 142-43 and 153-54, and by J. McEvoy, "The Chronology of Robert Grosseteste's Writings on Nature and Natural Philosophy," Speculum, LVIII (1983), 614-55.

71. Vaughan, Matthew Paris, 212-15, has argued that the most creative and productive period was before about 1245-50; he finds the later work hurried. However, he also notes that volume II of the chronicle (MS 16) is more profusely illustrated than volume I (MS 26). Lewis, Chronica Majora, 414-18, gives a useful overview of the chronology of his work.

72. Brieger, English Art, 150-54, has commented on the new phase which led away from Matthew Paris, in the hagiographical books concerned with St. Alban and St. Edward the Confessor; more gold is used, and the figures are slender and not contorted by their actions. In France also the Psalter of St. Louis of ca. 1255-70 represents a high point of the new style; see Branner, Manuscript Painting in Paris, 132-37, figs. 395-400. The Old Testament illustrations form an interesting contrast to the Morgan Bible Picture Book.

73. Edgerton, Renaissance Rediscovery, 75 and 19; Camille, "Percep- tions of Aristotle," 34-35.

74. Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Douce 180; see most recently: N. Morgan, Age of Chivalry: Art in Plantagenet England 1200-1400, ed. J. Alexander and P. Binski (London, 1987), 351-52, no. 351, with bibliography.

75. D. C. Lindberg, "Lines of Influence in Thirteenth-Century Optics: Bacon, Witelo, and Pecham," Speculum, XLVI (1971), 66-83.

76. D. Wilkins, "The Meaning of Space in Fourteenth-Century Tuscan Painting," By Things Seen: Reference and Recognition in Medieval

Thought, ed. D. L. Jeffrey (Ottawa, 1979), 117-19, has stressed the Franciscan contribution to the new naturalism in narrative painting. H. Belting, "The New Role of Narrative in Public Painting of the Trecento: Historia and Allegory," Pictorial Narrative in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, ed. H. L. Kessler and M. S. Simpson, Studies in the History of Art, 16 (Washington, 1985), 151-66, presents a rather traditional Vasarian view of the genesis of this movement, but his insights concerning the appropriation of the narrative mode to

allegorical subjects are useful. About 1335-36, however, Opicinus was still depicting his visions in a fundamentally different mode from his observations or recollections of the real world: See n. 51 above and R. Krautheimer, "Appendix" in R. Salomon, Opicinus de Can- istris: Weltbild und Bekenntnisse eines avignonischen Klerikers des 14, Jhs. (London, 1936), 325-37 (tr. "The Twin Cathedral at Pavia," in R. Krautheimer, Studies in Early Christian, Medieval, and Renais- sance Art [New York and London, 1969], 161-80).

77. Also called a "proto-Gothic" period: L. Grodecki, "Problbmes de la

peinture en Champagne pendant la seconde moiti6 du douzibme siecle," Studies in Western Art, ed. M. Meiss (Princeton, 1963), I, 140; for a discussion of this and other terms, see: W. Sauerlander, "Exhibition Review: The Year 1200," AB, LIII (1971), 506.

78. For the position of these frescoes of ca. 1304-15 in the Scrovegni Chapel, see: J. Stubblebine, ed., Giotto: The Arena Chapel Frescoes (New York, 1969), pls. 3-6; for the allegories, pls. 56-69; the Last Judgment, pls. 74-77. It is possible that Giotto's radical physicality incurred the criticism of Benvenuto da Imola, ca. 1376, but that discussion belongs to another chapter; he is quoted by M. Meiss, Painting in Florence and Siena after the Black Death (Princeton, 1951), 4-5. By 1502 a bishop is reported to have found a picture of Joachim and Anna kissing heretical, since it encouraged the popular belief that conception occurred at that instant: J. Molanus, De historia SS. imaginum et picturum libror quatuor (Louvain, 1771), 393.

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caviness simple perception of matter