Medieval Reliquaries

Videoconferenza disponibile su YouTube al link allegato. Si propone un itinerario tra le sete ispirate alla vita romanzata del re persiano Bahràm V (421-439 d.C.). Grazie a questi preziosi manufatti, l'eco di un racconto orientale si è diffusa nel cuore dell'Europa nell'età di Carlo Magno.

n the period of the Middle Ages the special role in the religious life both of eastern and western Christians played the relics. Their cult was one of the characteristic attributes of the cult of saints. The relics were strictly connected with the pilgrimage places (centers), they were also the objects of the reciprocal exchange, which was connected with the particular alliance between the both sides participating in this procedure. The cult of relics came to Prussia together with the, invited here, Teutonic Order. They were placed in the majority of the castle chapels. The Teutonic knights not seldom brought them from their home land, some of them could come from Holy places in Palestine, part of them were undoubtedly the gifts of the sovereigns of the neighboring countries. The his- tory proved that the relics often were found among the war captures. In the present article the relics from the castle in Ostróda (formerly Oster- ode) are described. According to the registers of the appointment of the castle chapel from the period between 1411 and 1516 we can draw a conclusion that there were here the relics of the following saints: saint Sigismund, saint Helen, saint Martin, saint Catherine, saint Hubert and Eleven thousand of Virgins. The Reformation and the acceptance of the Luther belief by the last Master of the Teutonic Order in 1525 brought the end to the cult of relics. After this peri- od some of them were taken away some other were dispersed and forgotten

This book investigates the origins and transformations of medieval image culture and its reflections in theology, hagiography, historiography and art. It deals with a remarkable phenomenon: the fact that, after a period of 500 years of absence, the tenth century sees a revival of monumental sculpture in the Latin West. Since the end of Antiquity and the "pagan" use of free-standing, life-size sculptures in public and private ritual, Christians were obedient to the Second Commandment forbidding the making and use of graven images. Contrary to the West, in Byzantium, such a revival never occurred: only relief sculpture – mostly integrated within an architectural context – was used. However, Eastern theologians are the authors of highly fascinating and outstanding original theoretical reflections about the nature and efficacy of images. How can this difference be explained? Why do we find the most fascinating theoretical concepts of images in a culture that sticks to two-dimensional icons often venerated as cult-images that are copied and repeated, but only randomly varied? And why does a groundbreaking change in the culture of images – the "revival" of monumental sculpture – happen in a context that provides more restrained theoretical reflections upon images in their immediate theological, liturgical and artistic contexts? These are some of the questions that this book seeks to answer.The analysis and contextualization of the revival of monumental sculpture includes reflections on liturgy, architecture, materiality of minor arts and reliquaries, medieval theories of perception, and gift exchange and its impact upon practices of image veneration, aesthetics and political participation. Drawing on the historical investigation of specific objects and texts between the ninth and the eleventh century, the book outlines an occidental history of image culture, visuality and fiction, claiming that only images possess modes of visualizing what in the discourse of medieval theology can never be addressed and revealed.

Review, Saints and Sacred Matter: The Cult of Relics in Byzantium and Beyond ed. by Cynthia Hahn and Holger A. Klein. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library & Collection, 2015, 376 pp. ISBN: 978-0-88402-406-4, Hardback, £71.95, in: Journal of History and Cultures 7 (2017), 50–52.

Cet ouvrage rassemble quinze articles explorant les deux aspects, distincts mais imbriqués, de la fabrication et de la réception des œuvres d’orfèvrerie à l’époque gothique. Embrassant la période qui va du début du XIIIe au début du XVIe siècle, ces études s’appuient tant sur les œuvres elles-mêmes, qu’elles soient célèbres ou peu connues, que sur les sources écrites afin d’éclairer, sur un espace qui s’étend de l’Angleterre à Chypre et de la Catalogne à Prague, les attentes des commanditaires, le goût des élites, les usages de l’orfèvrerie sacrée ou profane, leur rôle respectif dans la mise en scène du pouvoir, la circulation des produits de luxe, les conditions de travail des orfèvres, l’organisation des ateliers… Par la variété des auteurs (chercheurs jeunes ou confirmés, appartenant tant au monde des musées qu’à celui de l’Université), de leurs questionnements et de leurs choix de méthode, ce recueil s’inscrit dans un renouveau des études sur les arts précieux qu’il espère ainsi conforter.

Inwieweit die Im vorliegenden Beitrag wird der Versuch unternommen, in der typologischen Ähnlichkeit beider Porträtgattungen einen Ansatzpunkt zu finden. Darüber hinaus weisen die Beispiele aus der Porträtpraxis darauf hin, dass dem profanen Bildnis zum einen eine Behandlung zukommen konnte, die den Kultbildern analog war, und zum anderen mit dem Begegnungsproblem von Prototyp und Porträt Anhaltspunkte vorliegen, die für eine Präsenzerfahrung bei den Betrachtern sprechen. Die Bedeutung der 'virtus' des Heiligenporträts scheint für das profane Porträt nicht ausgeschlossen, nur ihre Qualität muss vorerst anders eingestuft werden, denn als mirakulös dürften sie nicht gegolten haben. Hierfür jedenfalls liegen keine konkreten Quellen vor, wenngleich sich der Verdacht aufdrängt, dass für die offensichtlich kultische Verehrung der beschriebenen Papstporträts (Julius II., Gregor XV.) eine gewisse Erwartungshaltung der Zeitgenossen an das Bildnis vorauszusetzen ist. In beiden Fällen ist von einem postumen Bildniskult die Rede, der eine Sakralisierung des jeweiligen Porträts möglich erscheinen lässt. Die Übertragungskausalität der 'virtus' vom Prototyp auf sein Porträt, wie sie für das Heiligenporträt belegt ist, ist für das profane Porträt offensichtlich dann nachweisbar, wenn der Dargestellte noch lebt und seinem eigenen Bildnis während des Zeremoniells nicht begegnen darf. Das Begegnungsproblem unter der Voraussetzung der Präsenzerfahrung, wie sie bei den Herrscher-Funeralien und den frühneuzeitlichen Reitermonumenten zu registrieren war, weist auf ein Forschungsdesiderat hin, das vermutlich ohne den zeitgenössischen virtus-Begriff nicht auskommen wird. Der Mehrwert des Porträts und seine Aura als samenartiges Kraftpotential (ratio seminalis) bezeichnet den theoretischen Rahmen, innerhalb dessen der Porträtbegriff weiter zu verhandeln ist.

This article discusses aspects of interactions between image and frame in the context of medieval devotional images. In the later Middle Ages the mimetic strategies to convey the figure’s presence in the image were complemented by pieces of bones inserted into the frame.
I argue that this practice belongs to a longer medieval tradition of frameworks, in which different kinds of references and types of materials were developed to turn the frame into a central site of meaning. As a depository for relics in the realm of the cult image, the frame intensified the presence of the image by counterposing its strategies of mimesis against the relic’s immanent material traces. This phenomenon, however, fused what otherwise would have been distinct entities of image and relic, which was regarded as a serious problem in the context of image veneration. I show that an entirely different type of frame, one that worked with the inclusion of text, addressed precisely this problem. Here the frame addressed the artificial nature of the representation with the aim of creating distance between viewer and image.

Un affascinante viaggio nel mondo (Italia, Spagna, Francia, Corsica, Germania, Stati Uniti d’America, Inghilterra, Filippine, Croazia e Slovacchia) alla ricerca delle mille reliquie di San Cesario, o Cesario, di Terracina; un giovane diacono che ha avuto un destino incredibile dopo il martirio, in quanto, fin dalla prima età cristiana, fu il santo scelto per il suo nome a consacrare alla fede di Cristo i luoghi che già appartennero ai Cesari pagani. Le traslazioni delle sue ossa, avvenute nel corso dei secoli da parte di santi, Padri della Chiesa, papi, imperatori, re, vescovi, duchi e cavalieri hanno contribuito alla storia della cristianizzazione di Roma e del mondo intero.

This dissertation re-contextualizes the types, uses, and meanings of reliquaries in the Middle Byzantine period (843–1204). Relics are the remains of—or the materials associated with—Christ, the Mother of God, apostles, martyrs, and saints. For the faithful, they were the physical presence of the divine, imbued with miraculous power and grace. Reliquaries are the containers that enshrined, protected, and displayed this sacred matter. They are/were made of lavish materials—gold, silver, gems, and pearls—which conferred honor upon, and testified to the spiritual value of, the contents.

Numerous Middle Byzantine reliquaries survive or are known through textual descriptions, but there has not been a study that examines these objects as a group. This dissertation fills this gap, charting out a paradigm for understanding the forms and functions of these objects. I take as my focus those reliquaries inscribed with metrical inscriptions, or epigrams. These texts provide a great deal of information about reliquaries, and they served a variety of functions—as ex-voto prayers, as expressions of identity, as performative texts, and as descriptions of the objects that they accompany. I demonstrate that epigrams are also visual, functioning as but one part of the reliquaries’ complex visual programs in which word, image, and sacred matter converge, complement, and interact with each other. I examine the mechanisms of these interactions, revealing the messages they conveyed on behalf of the patrons and the ways in which reliquaries and epigrams functioned in the artistic and literary culture of Byzantium.

Chapter 1, “Introduction,” defines the critical terms of this dissertation, presents an overview of the scholarship, and outlines my methodological contributions. Chapters 2 and 3 introduce the reader to the forms and functions of reliquaries in the Middle Byzantine period, and are thus the foundation for the dissertation. Chapter 2 outlines the different types of reliquaries that were inscribed with epigrams. It presents aspects of their design and form, including imagery and the placement of the epigrams. Chapter 3 provides a brief historical survey of the various contexts in which reliquaries were used, from personal possessions to public veneration practices. Chapters 4–6 focus on epigrams. Chapter 4 examines the ways in which epigrams—both in content and placement—function to make relics visually and haptically accessible to the faithful. Chapter 5 explores the relationship between reliquary and metaphor. What are the ways in which the ekphrastic character of epigrams describes, interprets, and presents reliquaries for and to their owners? Chapter 6 situates reliquaries in the context of religious gift-giving by addressing the various ways in which a patron articulates his/her identity, connection with a holy figure, and what he/she hopes to receive in return. Chapter 7 presents my conclusions concerning the forms of reliquaries, relic accessibility, viewer interpretations, and patron motivations. The Appendices catalogue the 74 Middle Byzantine reliquaries inscribed with epigrams.

The case studies I present in these chapters demonstrate that Middle Byzantine reliquaries with epigrams are/were a complex system of texts, images, relics, and materials that interact with each other. I demonstrate that epigrams—in addition to being textual—have visual and spatial dimensions, wrapping the exterior, interior, front, back, and sides of reliquaries. They are dynamic texts that pulled the viewers in and taught them how to see, interpret, and handle the reliquaries, and how to access relics.

The 30 miscellaneous liturgical objects are described with their inscriptions dating from after 1136 to the 20th century. The 140-page “Catalogue of the Liturgical Metalwork,” describes, illustrates, and presents all inscriptions on each of some 100 of the most important pieces of Armenian Church from the large and historical collection of formerly part of the treasury of the Catholicosate of Cilicia in Sis, now the core of the Cilician Museum in Antelias, Lebanon at the seat of the Holy See of Cilicia. It represents one of the most important and authentic pre-Genocide collections of Armenian religious art to have reached us. Despite centuries of invasion and strife by determined enemies of the Cilician state and its catholicosate, including the final solution of the Young Turk government of the Ottoman Empire in 1915, which resulted in the total destruction of its former capital and religious headquarters of seven centuries, these objects survived. Thanks to the desperate attempt on the part of a few clergymen to save as many of its important movable and sanctified liturgical treasures, a miraculous and representative collection is now securely preserved to be visited and admired by Armenians and non-Armenians alike. The collection is a tribute to those spiritual leaders who sacrificed everything to preserve these inanimate relics that have been touched by the grace of centuries of faith and reverence. The catalogue is divided into four parts: I. Reliquaries, pp. 158-188; II. Chalices, pp. 189-217; III. Silver Bindings, pp. 218-249; IV. Miscellaneous Liturgical Objects and Xač‘k‘ars, pp. 250-283. The work will be presented in four posts each followed by the Notes, Glossary of Technical Terms, Liturgical Vessels, Bibliography, pp. 284-297.

En este texto se presenta un estudio del culto a los zapatos de la Virgen María, reliquia de carácter singular que fue muy popular tanto en la Edad Media como en época Moderna. Focalizamos nuestra atención en las diferentes obras artísticas y populares que surgieron alrededor de estos vestigios santos, profundizando especialmente en los ejemplares que se exhibían en Soissons, Valencia y el monasterio de les Avellanes en Bellpuig, así como algunos fragmentos de las mismas que viajaron por el Occidente europeo.

My dissertation examines the Cámara Santa of the Cathedral of Oviedo as both a medieval and modern monument, shaped by twelfth-century bishops and twentieth-century restorers. I consider the space as a multi-media ensemble, containing manuscripts, metalwork, and sculpture, arguing that we must view it as a composite—if fragmented—whole. My analysis focuses on the twelfth century, a crucial period during which the structure, decoration, and contents of the Cámara Santa were reworked. A key figure in this story is Bishop Pelayo of Oviedo (d. 1153), who sought to enhance the antiquity and authority of the see of Oviedo by means of the cult of its most important reliquary: the Arca Santa. I argue that this reliquary shapes the form and function of the twelfth-century Cámara Santa, considering the use of the space in the context of liturgy and pilgrimage. Finally, I consider the sculpture that lines the walls of the space, arguing that it animates and embodies the relics contained within the Arca Santa, interacting with the pilgrims and canons who used the space. Thus, this sculpture represents the culmination of the long twelfth-century transformation of the Cámara Santa into a space of pilgrimage focused around the Arca Santa and the memory of the early medieval patrons of the Cathedral of Oviedo, a memory which abides to this day. What is importantly new about my project is this historiographic frame, combined with a theoretical approach that challenges traditional methods and interpretations. I foreground the importance of the Cámara Santa for both regional and national identity. My reflexive reading of the medieval and modern histories of the Cámara Santa offers alternative interpretations for a space whose meaning has long been presented as ideologically fixed.  NOTE: this copy presented without images owing to copyright issues.

Summary/Zusammenfassung:
The medieval rock crystal vessels produced in the empires of the Abbasid and Fatimid Caliphs are outstanding masterpieces of their age, comparable only to the hardstone carvings of imperial Rome. In the last 100 years these objects were mostly seen as genuine works of Fatimid art. The aim of this book is to question this common attribution and to examine and differentiate the surviving material in a comparative iconographical and technical study.
As a result these rock crystal carvings appear not longer as an isolated phenomenon within medieval Islamic art, but as part of a longstanding tradition, reaching back to the empires of the Byzantines, Sasanians and Romans. Furthermore the book discusses the history of the rock crystal objects, from their production in the medieval Islamic empires to their arrival, re-use and reinterpretation in European church treasuries.


Die mittelalterlichen Bergkristallgefäße aus den islamischen Reichen der Abbasiden und Fatimiden sind herausragende Meisterwerke ihrer Epoche, einzig vergleichbar mit den Steinschneidearbeiten der römischen Kaiserzeit. Die Forschung betrachtete die Objektgruppe bislang weitgehend pauschal als Produkt der fatimidischen Kunst. Der vorliegende Band hinterfragt diese mehr als 100 Jahre alte Zuschreibung kritisch und differenziert das erhaltene Material in einer vergleichenden ikonografischen und technischen Studie.
Im Ergebnis stellt sich der Bergkristallschnitt nicht mehr als isoliertes Phänomen der islamischen Kunst des Mittelalters dar, sondern erweist sich als Teil einer dichten technischen Überlieferungstradition, die über das byzantinische und das sasanidische Reich bis in die Antike zurückreicht. Zugleich wird der Weg der Bergkristallobjekte von ihrer Entstehung in der islamischen Welt bis in die europäischen Kirchenschätze nachgezeichnet, in denen sie vielfach bis heute verwahrt werden.

Count Pere II d’Urgell (ca. 1339/1343-1408) is one of the most outstanding artistic promoters of the gothic centuries. He, along with his wife, Margarida de Monferrato (1364-1420), set in motion an artistic policy that was developed in different fields, the maximum exponent of which is the renovation of the residence that the counts had in Balaguer, the so-called Castell Formós. Throughout his life Pere and Margarida showed a special interest in jewels and luxury objects, which on some occasions were given as a present to churches and religious centers as an example of piety and magnificence. It could be the case of the pastiglia casket from Santa Maria de Bellpuig de les Avellanes (Museu de Lleida: diocesà i comarcal), which contained an important relic, the Santa Sandàlia (Holy Slipper) of the Virgin, which in this study we present as a possible donation of the counts to this monastery. The same goes for an enamelled ciborium, of great quality and with the mark of Barcelona, preserved in the Hermitage Museum (Saint Petersburg, Russia), which has at the base the double heraldry of Count Pere. We do not know its origin, but it is feasible that this luxurious object was a present of the count to one of the churches located within its domains.

Résumé Une grande partie des objets produits par les orfèvres mosans étaient destinés à orner les autels et à magnifier ses différentes fonctions, à commencer par la célébration de l'eucharistie et le culte des reliques. Cet article tente de montrer comment les images développées sur les retables, les staurothèques et les châsses appartenant à ce corpus évoquent conjointement ces deux fonctions. La présence des reliques a été rappelée par plusieurs scènes de transitus, tandis que la destinée de l'âme détachée de son corps a fait l'objet d'une représentation foncièrement originale sur le retable de Stavelot où saint Remacle est accueilli dans un paradis céleste distinct du royaume des cieux. Et de manière tout aussi exceptionnelle, on a signifié que les reliques étaient destinées à se recomposer en représentant la résurrection des saints au moment du Jugement dernier sur le triptyque de Sainte-Croix de Liège et sur deux des quatre pignons qui flanquaient la châsse de saint Servais à Maastricht. Si ces thèmes demeurent exceptionnels, il en va tout autrement pour les représentations hiératiques du saint qui occupent systématique-ment un des deux pignons des châsses mosanes auxquelles s'ajoutent les exemples rhénans. La comparaison avec les statues-reliquaires suggère que ces images étaient destinées avant tout à servir de support à la dévotion. Ces thèmes hagiographiques cohabitent avec des images interprétables dans une perspective eucharistique, comme le Christ en buste et la croix ou la Crucifixion que combinent régulière-ment les staurothèques. L'examen des textes liturgiques, des livres de l'officiant et des décors d'autel montre que ces images évoquant le Christ glorieux et le Christ souffrant se réfèrent aux rôles de sacrificateur et de victime qu'il remplit simultanément au moment de la consécration. Sur les reliquaires mosans, cette signification est attestée par une remarquable série d'indices visuels : un autel orné de candélabres, des anges entonnant le Sanctus ou transférant les oblats [Recepción del artículo: 26/09/2016] [Aceptación del artículo revisado: 23/11/2016]

In this paper the first sacred art exhibitions organized on the Italian soil are illustrated, from the 1870 Roman Exposition to the 1900 Bologna Exhibition of ancient diocesan art. During the last three decades of the 19th century, following the Capture of Rome, a triumphal sequence of public sacred art exhibitions took place. Such events were generated by different circumstances, they could celebrate festivities connected to a pope, eucharistic national congresses, centenaries of a miraculous event or anniversaries of saints, be conceived as small charity events or part of imposing national exhibitions. Such a variety of events is placed in the socio-political context of the growing conflict between the unified Italian State and the Catholic Church and analyzed through the nature and meaning of the material exhibited, the individuals that shaped the cultural profile of each show, their impact on tourism and on studies in the field.

Colección de estudios sobre la villa y tierra de Yanguas (Soria, España). Studies about the villa y tierra de Yanguas (Soria, Spain).
Incluye los siguientes estudios:
- Materiales para un estudio histórico y arqueológico de Yanguas y su tierra. Origen y evolución de la villa de Yanguas y su tierra.
- Vida y semblanza de un ilustre caballero yangüés: Ruy Díaz de Yanguas. Los orígenes de la fiesta en honor al Santo Cristo de la Villa Vieja y el culto a la reliquia del Lignum Crucis.
- De Yanguas a Zacatecas. Un recorrido a través de la devoción al Santo Cristo de Yanguas en el Virreinato de Nueva España.
- A propósito de un “descuido cervantino”: la alternancia yangüeses/gallegos en el Quijote.
- De nuevo sobre los yangüeses del Quijote.

The Vatican pilgrim casket (sometimes referred to as the Sancta Sanctorum pilgrim
box), containing relics from the Holy Land, reveals important changes in the history of devotional art. In revisiting the increasing use since late antiquity of a linear narrative
in Christian decorations,1 the author relates the three modes of representation in and on the pilgrim casket to three concepts of time—history, memory, and vision—testifying to the establishment of a new pictorial and iconographic Christian tradition, shaped by vision- ary experiences at holy sites, favoring narrative scenes. Beginning in the sixth century, pilgrims’ reliquaries increasingly showed events from the holy sites from which the relics came, images that gained impact as a medium in themselves, as an aid to memory and/or to meditation. The author demonstrates how the visionary experiences that took place at holy sites, recorded in early pilgrim accounts, shaped these iconographic traditions.