L'Agenda des Médiévistes

Click on the link ‘Online content‘ for a preview of the book (21 pages) and a free copy of Volume 15 The Ghent Altarpiece. A Bibliography (98 pages).

The outer panels of the Ghent Altarpiece had been overpainted to a considerable extent. The virtuosity of the Eyckian technique and aesthetics remained hardly visible. And yet, this had never been observed before the start of the conservation treatment.

By removing the overpaint, the tonal richness and the coherent rendering of light and space once again came to the fore. Especially the suggestion of volumes and the spaciousness of the ensemble gained strength because of the virtuoso play of deep shadows and bright light accents, and not in the least because of the surprising trompe-l’oeil effect of the frames conceived as a stone framework.

Or to put it in the words of the comments of one of the experts, dr. Maryan Ainsworth: The paintings live and breathe again in the time of the Van Eyck brothers. The sharp observation skills, the quick, accurate execution, the knowledge, curiosity and ingenuity about all the things that are depicted, are now unveiled after centuries. The profit for the knowledge of and further research into the essence of Eyckian aesthetics is considerable. And finally there is the discovery that the much-discussed quatrain was applied simultaneously with the polychromy of the frames: a real ‘coup de foudre’ in the discourse of the current art-historical research!

The subtleties of the Eyckian technique could also be mapped out in more detail. How the Van Eycks managed to keep the final result and the desired effect in mind during every phase of the execution, from imprimatura to finishing touch. The artists made a statement about the art of painting, giving ‘technique’ as such a new prominence. The Ghent Altarpiece may be understood at some point as a major showpiece for a highly sophisticated pictorial technique.

We hope that this publication of the results of the research and conservation campaign on the exterior of the altarpiece can help future researchers to ask better questions. Questions, and answers, that may produce a more balanced picture of Van Eyck’s techniques, methods and materials.

Table des matières :

Foreword – Ludo Collin
Preface – Hilde De Clercq, Christina Ceulemans

Introduction – Maximiliaan Martens, Christina Ceulemans, Ron Spronk, Anne van Grevenstein-Kruse
Transformations in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries – Hélène Dubois
Frames and Support: Technique and Structural Treatment – Jochen Ketels, Jean-Albert Glatigny, Anne-Sophie Augustyniak
Paint and Polychromy: Chemical Investigation of the Overpaints – Jana Sanyova, Geert Van der Snickt, H Koen Janssens, Peter Vandenabeele

Conservation and Restoration Treatment 

The Painted Surface – Livia Depuydt-Elbaum, Fran
The Frames: In Search of Lost Unity – Anne-Sophie Augustyniak, Laure Mortiaux

The Van Eycks’ Creative Process

The Paintings: from (Under)drawing to the Final Touch in Paint – Marie Postec, Griet Steyaert
The Frames: an Exceptional Polychromy – Anne-Sophie Augustyniak, Laure Mortiaux, Jana Sanyova
The Authenticity of the Quatrain and the other Frame Inscriptions – Susan Frances Jones, Anne-Sophie Augustyniak, Hélène Dubois
Imagining the Original Display – Bart Fransen, Jean-Albert Glatigny
Restoring in the Public Eye – Bart Devolder

Epilogue: Implications and Perspectives – Cyriel Stroo, Maximiliaan Martens

Documentation

Photography before and after Treatment – Stéphane Bazzo, Jean-Luc Elias, Katrien Van Acker
Inscriptions on the Exterior – Susan Frances Jones, Marc H. Smith
The Quatrain: a New Reconstruction – Marc H. Smith, Susan Frances Jones, Anne-Sophie Augustyniak
Dimensions of Frames and Supports – Jochen Ketels, Jean-Albert Glatigny, Anne-Sophie Augustyniak
The Ghent Altarpiece: a Bibliography – Dominique Deneffe, Jeroen Reyniers

Bibliography
Project Participants
Photographic Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Index of Names
Index of Works of Art

Informations pratiques :

The Ghent Altarpiece Research and Conservation of the Exterior, dir. Bart Fransen et Cyriel Stroo, Turnhout, Brpeols, 2020 (Contributions to the Study of the Flemish Primitives, 14). X+430 p., 220 x 280 mm. ISBN: 978-2-930054-38-4. Prix : 66,40 euros.

Source : Brepols

This volume enhances our understanding of the various strategies used by early Norman rulers of Sicily and Southern Italy – but above all Roger II of Sicily – to establish authority and cultivate identity in the Mediterranean world.

Roger II (c. 1095-1154), Sicily’s first king, was an anomaly for his time. An ambitious new ruler who lacked the distinguished lineage so prized by the nobility, and a leader of an extraordinarily diverse population on the fringes of Europe, he occupied a unique space in the continent’s charged political landscape. This interdisciplinary study examines the strategies that Roger used to legitimize his authority, including his relationships with contemporary rulers, the familial connections that he established through no less than three marriages, and his devotion to the Church and Saint Nicholas of Myra/Bari. Yet while Roger and his family made the most of their geographic and cultural contexts, it is convincingly argued here that they nonetheless retained a strong western focus, and that behind the diverse mélange of Norman Sicily were very occidental interests.

Drawing together sources of political, social, and religious history from locations as disparate as Spain and the Byzantine Empire, as well as evidence from the magnificent churches and elaborate mosaics constructed during his reign, this volume offers a fascinating portrait of a figure whose rule was characterized both by great potential and devastating tragedy. Indeed, had Roger been able to accomplish his ambitious agenda, the history of the medieval Mediterranean world would have unfolded very differently.

Table des matières :

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Introduction

Part I. Social Strategies: The Marriage Ties of Roger II

Chapter 1. The Appeal of Alfonso VI of León-Castile’s Legacy
Chapter 2. Opportunities in the Kingdom of Jerusalem and in the Principality of Antioch

Part II. Spiritual Strategies: St Nicholas of Myra

Chapter 3. The Saint’s Cult in Norman Bari, c.1071 – c.1111
Chapter 4. The Devotion of Roger II

Part III. Cultural Strategies: The Royal Mosaic in Santa Maria dell’Ammiraglio

Chapter 5. French Connections: The Significance of the Fleurs-de-Lis
Chapter 6. The Message of the Antiquated Loros

Conclusion

Brief Glossary
Bibliography
Index

Informations pratiques :

Dawn Marie Hayes, Roger II of Sicily. Family, Faith, and Empire in the Medieval Mediterranean World, Turnhout, Brepols, 2020 (Medieval Identities: Socio-Cultural Spaces, 7). 221 p., 18 b/w ill., 4 b/w tables, 156 x 234 mm. ISBN: 978-2-503-58140-8

Source : Brepols

En trois parties, les dix-huit chapitres de ces actes passent en revue cet objet complexe, du Moyen Âge à la Révolution, sous les angles divers des institutions autant que de la philosophie, du droit, de la religion ou de la société, pour en révéler le caractère de creuset d’une modernité politique.

Table des matières : ici

Informations pratiques :

Au cœur de l’État. Parlement(s) et cours souveraines sous l’Ancien Régime, dir. Isabelle Brancourt, Paris, Classiques Garnier, 2020 (Constitution de la modernité, n° 20). 431 pages. ISBN : 978-2-406-09785-3.

Source : Classiques Garnier

Guillem de Torroella est un noble majorquin qui a assisté à la chute du règne autonome. Dans sa faula, « fable », il relate son voyage vers l’île mystérieuse où séjourne Arthur depuis la bataille de Salisbury. On trouvera ici l’édition critique du texte catalan, ainsi que la première traduction française.

Table des matières : ici

Informations pratiques :

Guillem de Torroella, La faula, éd. Anna Maria Compagna, trad. Jean-Marie Barberà, Paris, Classiques Garnier, 2020 (Textes littéraires du Moyen Âge, n° 55 / Textes catalans du Moyen Âge, n° 1). 218 pages. ISBN : 978-2-406-09353-4. Prix : 34 euros.

Source : Classiques Garnier

In this book, Lisa Reilly establishes a new interpretive paradigm for the eleventh and twelfth-century art and architecture of the Norman world in France, England, and Sicily. Traditionally, scholars have considered iconic works like the Cappella Palatina and the Bayeux Embroidery in a geographically piecemeal fashion that prevents us from seeing their full significance. Here, Reilly examines these works individually and within the larger context of a connected Norman world. Just as Rollo founded the Normandy ‘of different nationalities’, the Normans created a visual culture that relied on an assemblage of forms. To the modern eye, these works are perceived as culturally diverse. As Reilly demonstrates, the multiple sources for Norman visual culture served to expand their meaning. Norman artworks represented the cultural mix of each locale, and the triumph of Norman rule, not just as a military victory but as a legitimate succession, and often as the return of true Christian rule.

Lisa Reilly is Associate Professor in the School of Architecture, University of Virginia. She is the author of An Architectural History of Peterborough Cathedral (1997) and Vassar College (2004), editor of Skyscraper Gothic (2017), and served as the editor of Gesta.

Table des matières :

1. Introduction
2. Vikings into Normans
3. Anglo-Norman England: from duke to king
4. Norman Sicily: the invention of a kingdom
5. Conclusion
Selected bibliography
Index.

Informations pratiques :

Lisa Reilly, The Invention of Norman Visual Culture. Art, Politics, and Dynastic Ambition, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2020. 224 pages. ISBN : 9781108488167. Prix : 65,00 £.

Source : Cambridge University Press

La carrière de Simon de Montfort – seigneur français, earl anglais, croisé en Terre sainte et dans le Midi de la France – n’a pas cessé de marquer ses contemporains et sa postérité. Bien de ses compagnons d’armes ont vu en lui le plus pieux et le plus courageux des héros, le modèle du chevalier du Christ (miles Christi). Cette image prestigieuse a cours de son vivant et après son prétendu martyre au service du combat contre la dépravation hérétique. Cependant, dans les contrées occitanophones et dans la péninsule Ibérique, sa réputation devient aussi celle d’un brigand, d’un barbare, d’un intrus étranger, cupide et sans scrupules. Les actes du colloque tenu à Poitiers en 2018 reviennent sur sa vie et sur son lignage afin de comprendre l’homme dans toutes ses contradictions : le croisé incorruptible en Terre sainte, mutilant toute une garnison en Languedoc, le vainqueur du roi d’Aragon, soumettant toutes ses conquêtes au roi de France, le spoliateur des seigneurs légitimes du Midi, protégeant les veuves et le clergé local, le membre d’un puissant lignage franco-normand dont son héritage se perpétue dans toute l’Europe. Simon est à la fois le produit de son temps et l’agent de son devenir, un conquérant et un perdant. Caractère sombre et puissant, il semble être à l’image de son emblème héraldique: un lion à la queue fourchée.

G.E.M. Lippiatt est Leverhulme Early Career Fellow à l’University of East Anglia et auteur de Simon V of Montfort and Baronial Government, 1195-1218 (OUP). Il habite à Norwich avec sa femme et ses deux filles.

Laurent Macé est professeur de l’histoire médiévale à l’Université de Toulouse 2-Jean Jaurès et membre du laboratoire Framespa (Toulouse). Ses travaux de recherche portent essentiellement sur les comtes de Toulouse des XIIe et XIIIe siècles.

Martin Aurell est professeur d’histoire médiévale à l’Université de Poitiers et directeur du Centre d’Études Supérieures de Civilisation Médiévale. Il a publié de nombreux livres sur la culture seigneuriale au Moyen Âge, y compris Des chrétiens contre les croisades (Fayard).

Table des matières :

Gregory Lippiatt, Introduction

Simon et la croisade Albigeoise

Jean-Louis Biget, Tenir la pays : Montfort entre villes et châteaux d’Occitanie
Gregory Lippiatt, Reform and Custom. The Statutes of Pamiers in Early Thirteenth-Century Christendom
Martín Alvira, Simon et Pierre II d’Aragon : Faits et mémoire
Damian J. Smith, Simon of Montfort and the Orphan King

Simon : le baron, ses hommes et ses représentations

Nicholas Vincent, Exiled Hero or Absconding Alien? Simon V de Montfort in England
Laurent Macé, Le sceau de majesté de Simon V de Montfort, comte de Toulouse, princeps et monarcha (1216-1218)
Daniel Power, The Albigensian Crusade after Simon of Montfort (1218-1224)
Lindy Grant, The Montforts and the Capetian Court. Amaury V and His Family

Le lignage de Simon et sa culture

Sophie T. Ambler, Simon of Montfort (d.1265) and Montfortian Family Memory
Amicie Pélissié du Rausas, Un croisé en Gascogne. Simon VI et la Gascogne Plantagenêt (1248-1252)
Rodolphe Billaud, Simon VI et l’occupation du comté de Chester (1264-1265)
Catalina Girbea, Les Montfort et l’héraldique imaginaire

Conclusions

Martin Aurell, Conclusions

Informations pratiques :

Simon de Montfort (c. 1170-1218). Le croisé, son lignage et son temps, éd. Gregory Lippiatt, Laurent Macé, Martin Aurell, Turnhout, Brepols, 2020 (Histoires de famille. La parenté au Moyen Age , 21). 286 p., 2 b/w ill., 2 b/w tables, 156 x 234 mm. ISBN: 978-2-503-58224-5. Prix : 65 euros.

Source : Brepols