1,720,975 research outputs found
The Beginning of Wisdom: Imagining fear in French Romanesque portal sculpture, c.1080-1140
Full text linkThis thesis examines the role of fear in the design and function of Romanesque portal sculptures c.1090-1140 to understand how representations of the majestas Domini, Last Judgment and Hell were intended to guide their audiences towards an emotional state of terror and wonder that would lead to wisdom. It focuses on a small collection of important sites in Burgundy and the regions of Aveyron and Tarn-et-Garonne in south-western France to examine the development of monumental sculpture as a means of conveying and formulating theological concepts to lay and monastic audiences. Through an analysis of their iconography and composition in relation to exegetical and literary interpretations of divine majesty, judgment and eternal damnation, it offers new perspectives on pre-Scholastic art and thought, and contributes to current scholarship on affective devotion and emotional response in the context of Romanesque and Gothic sculpture. The new imagery created for the medium of portal sculpture is contextualised within the iconographic traditions which developed from Late Antiquity and continued to evolve over the early Middle Ages.
The role of emotions, particularly fear, in the devotional cultures of the early twelfth century also presents new insights into the nature of visuality and spiritual sight in the Middle Ages. Portal sculptures were designed to prompt their audiences to develop the fearful attitude shared by the prophets, and which would remain even after the Last Judgment. Representations of response and the replication of divinely-created images encouraged those viewing the sculpture to imagine them as if they were real to participate in the visionary experience of the prophets or terror of the resurrected dead at the Last Judgment
'Enlightening the laity': learning and seeing in English and French late- thirteenth to early fourteenth-century illuminated manuscripts
No full textThis thesis examines, for the first time, a type of image, where figures are depicted in the confines of the letter form, looking out at or engaging with their accompanying texts or images (throughout described as 'head initials'). In a series of four case studies, this research investigates the potential role and function of these image types in illuminated devotional manuscripts made in late thirteenth- and early fourteenth-century France and England. While each manuscript's contents and decorative programme vary, each shares the collective desire to improve the laity's spiritual edification and bring them closer to God by providing a deeper understanding of divine truths and mysteries.
This research also considers the concurrent changes in theology and developments in optical theories as a framework to examine the iconography of head initials. During this period, medieval theologians began to think and preach that vision occurred through a reciprocal relationship between an external object and a viewer. A process that fundamentally required the viewer's soul to actively participate and judge visual forms within the mind's eye and interior senses. By examining these contemporary developments, this research sheds light on how scholastic understandings of vision may have informed artists' decisions to develop and use this iconographic type within the four case studies.
This thesis argues that the rise in popularity and sustained use of head initials alongside devotional texts, emphasised this new perception of vision, with images no longer being static representations, but active and receptive within the devotional correspondence between image and viewer. It seeks to ask scholars to look again at these case studies of head initials and their ability to encourage spiritual meditation beyond the page, as forms of instruction to facilitate access to God
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Remembering Kortrijk: Civic Pride & Cultural Memory in Flanders c. 1302 - c. 1348
Full text linkEmploying an interdisciplinary methodology across three case studies, this thesis examines the development and manifestation of civic pride and cultural memory in fourteenth-century Flanders. Object, text, and image are brought together to explore how the guilds of West Flanders and their descendants saw themselves in the context of their communities and constructed complex political and cultural narratives that portrayed them as active participants in the tragedies and triumphs of their time
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Imagining the Unimaginable: The Iconography of the Trinity in England, c. 1000-1300
Full text linkThis thesis explores the ways in which medieval artists visualised the Trinity. It seeks to understand how an 'unimaginable' and paradoxical idea - that God is one being and yet three, Father, Son and Holy Spirit - was depicted in visual form. The study focuses primarily on English visual culture from c. 1000-1300, where the two most common representations of the Trinity, the Seated Trinity and the Gnadenstuhl, developed. It offers new perspectives on the eleventh- and twelfth-century contexts in which these influential Trinitarian images appeared, tracing their transmission across many types of media, from manuscript illumination to wall paintings, stained glass, metalwork and sculpture in stone, ivory and wood. It shows how, at the turn of the thirteenth century, the Seated Trinity and the Gnadenstuhl evolved from images known and used in relatively limited circles to the two most common representations of the Trinity. This process is contextualised within the broader shifts in theology and debate during this period, where both Trinitarian ideas and images underwent momentous and radical changes.
This thesis also examines how the standardisation and proliferation of the iconography of the Seated Trinity and Gnadenstuhl over the course of the thirteenth century paved the way for new and exciting visualisations of the Trinitarian God. Whether adapting and manipulating conventional iconography, or crafting an image that departed radically from these more standardised forms, artists working in this period turned to increasingly inventive and unusual designs as a means of communicating something new about the triune nature of God. Both the invention of 'conventional' images of the Trinity and the re-invention of these standardised forms in the production of 'unusual' Trinitarian images demonstrate the remarkably imaginative, inventive and innovative nature of artistic and visual culture in this period
Ring the changes: the cult of Saint Edward the Confessor in Kent
No full textSince the discovery of a monumental wall painting of Saint Edward the Confessor enacting the so-called Legend of the Ring on the south wall of the Thomas Becket Chapel, Saint Mary's Church, Faversham, Kent in 1851, little has been done to evaluate its style and composition, nor its meaning for the patron, Robert Dod and his community.
Depicting the most famous of Saint Edward's miracles and dating to c. 1307, this Gothic painting depicts King Edward presenting his royal ring to Saint John the Evangelist who is disguised as a pilgrim. The pictorial use of this miracle was somewhat "commonplace" amongst the radius of Westminster Abbey and the court of King Henry III. However, because of scant evidence otherwise, scholarship has often determined that this image, and Edward's cult, was confined to Henry's court and Westminster Abbey, and/or that interest in Saint Edward waned after Henry's death in 1272, albeit with a brief revival during the reign of Richard II. This fourteenth century painting in a parish church in Kent, therefore, challenges these assumptions and has presented an opportunity to shed new light on the cult of Saint Edward the Confessor.
In 1874 another monumental painting was discovered in the same chapel: That of a life-sized martyrdom of Saint Thomas Becket that was coeval to Saint Edward's and positioned directly opposite it. This is a seemingly "unusual" pairing: A saint king opposite an archbishop murdered by royal knights allegedly on the orders of Henry II. Evidence is presented here for the first time to show that the cults of Saint Edward and Becket were commingled in Kent with a focus on Canterbury Cathedral, Saint Mary's Church, Faversham and the Maison Dieu at Ospringe.
Structured across five chapters, this thesis aims to offer fresh perspectives on the enduring popularity of the cult of Saint Edward the Confessor - highlighting East Kent as an additional cult centre - while also exploring its intersections with the cult of Saint Thomas Becket and contributing to broader understandings of the cult of saints
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