SENSATIONAL RELIQUARIES: DEVOTION AND EXPERIENCE IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY A THESIS SUBMITTED ON THE TWENTY-THIRD DAY OF NOVEMBER 2020 TO THE DEPARTMENT OF ART HISTORY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE SCHOOL OF LIBERAL ARTS OF TULANE UNIVERSITY FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTERS OF ARTS BY MADELINE CONWAY BROWN APPROVED: HOLLY FLORA, Ph.D. DIRECTOR OF THESIS LESLIE GEDDES, Ph.D. SECOND READER ADRIAN ANAGNOST, Ph.D. THIRD READER i ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements............................................................................................................iii List of Figures................................................................................................................................iv Introduction..........................................................................................................................1 Part I: Crosses and Crusaders.............................................................................................5 Part II: Vision, Visuality, and Multisensory Experiences..................................................25 Conclusion.........................................................................................................................52 Figures................................................................................................................................60 Bibliography......................................................................................................................66 Biography...........................................................................................................................71 iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Dr. Holly Flora for her guidance and feedback throughout the development of this thesis, as well as for her patience and encouragement. I would also like to extend my gratitude to my committee members, Dr. Leslie Geddes and Dr. Adrian Anagnost. I am also grateful to Ms. Alice Yelen-Gitter and Dr. Gitter for the opportunity to work with their collection of American folk art and for sharing their extensive knowledge on the topic. I also want to extend thanks to Dr. Leo Mazow for encouraging me to pursue art history at a higher level. Finally, I would like to thank my friends and family for their undying support and love throughout my graduate career and throughout my life. iv LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 Reliquary Cross of la Roche Folques, 12th century Figure 2 Reliquary Cross, 1180 (Cloisters Reliquary) Figure 3 Double-Arm Reliquary Cross, 12th century (Cleveland Reliquary) Figure 4 Pilgrim’s Flask (Church of the Holy Sepulchre and Descent into Hell), ca. 1150-1200 Figure 5 Pilgrimage ampullla from Jerusalem (Church of the Holy Sepulchre and Two Warrior Saints), ca. 1150-1200. Figure 6 Illustration from the British Museum’s website of Pilgrimage ampullla from Jerusalem with depictions of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (front) and two warrior saints (reverse) second half twelfth century. 1 Introduction The purpose of this project is to consider how medieval devotees experienced a specific set of reliquaries and their holy contents as well the obstacles they faced in doing. By placing these objects in dialogue with contemporary theological discourse on the nature of vision as it relates to access and knowledge of God, I will attempt to reconstruct and identify the meaningful connections one could have formed in the presence of relics and reliquaries. I aim to challenge reductive ways of framing medieval thought and experience by attending to and attempting to understand the experience of the medieval viewer. By focusing the discussion to this set of relics central to the Christian narrative, I will limit the complication of iconography. The cross as a symbol resists iconoclastic criticism yet is highly legible and functions to remind viewers of the crucifixion. Only in the conclusion does iconography enter the conversation, and here is limited to small reliefs on pewter ampullae. My argument is focuses on the Holy Land, specifically Jerusalem, during the twelfth century. This critical period, sparked by the First Crusade in 1099, led to more people making pilgrimages from the West and an increased movement of relics primarily from Constantinople, and in some cases reliquaries, from the Jerusalem. The vast majority of Christians in Europe, including those who made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, accepted relics as genuine, and for the sake of this project, I will assume the same. The sustained faith in the veracity of True Cross relics, reinforced by a widespread desire for ownership of these relics, ultimately overrides concerns about their veracity. Part I introduces the objects central to this project: three cross-shaped reliquaries that once contained relics of the True Cross on which Christ was crucified. Much of the chapter is dedicated to establishing the historical context in order to convey the what is at stake. I provide a 2 brief history of the True Cross, including the legend of its discovery and its incorporation into liturgical practices. By considering the history and historiography of relics more generally, I aim to address issues of value, classification, as well as some of the ways in which they were in the twelfth century and earlier. The capacity of the True Cross to perform miracles is another source of its undeniable significance, as is the case with many relics. This framework allows for a discussion of how the True Cross related to the absence of the body of Christ and reminded the viewer of the His bodily assumption that occurred many years ago and of a future bodily assumption anticipated with the rapture. As the Latin kingdom claimed authority over the Holy Land during the Crusades, the cross evolved into an even more iconic symbol, used on the uniforms of soldiers and to claim spaces as exclusively Christian. This symbol is presented in opulent forms in the reliquaries discussed here, made of precious metals and decorated with gems or colored glass. I will discuss the religious tensions that circulated around materiality and decoration and the effects of presentation on the viewer. By parsing out the complex relationship between relics and reliquaries, we can better understand how they act and depend upon one another and the viewer. Versatility of reliquaries. Part II investigates looking as a means of developing one’s faith and attempting to know God. There were numerous medieval thinkers who proposed theories on how people acquired information about the outside world through the eyes. Vision was believed to be special and different from the other senses, having an inner analog. Rhetoric about the inner and outer eye is appealing on an almost instinctual level from a metacognitive stance: we see things in the world and are also able to conjure images in the mind without external stimuli. I provide an overview of theories of outer vision in the Middle Ages during an early period of assimilating Arabic and 3 relevant scientific advancements. The argument then shifts towards how theologians reconciled inner and outer vision with the conviction that inner vision had spiritual ramifications for the individual. Several theologians were concerned about potential obstacles and dangers in this relationship between the physical and the spiritual. These concerns extended to visual arts most notably for our purposes in terms of materiality. The twelfth century was an unusual period wherein Byzantine liturgical practices had some influence in the West. I consider how those influences relate to the stylistic qualities of the True Cross reliquaries and to the larger influx of relics into Western Europe following the Sack of Constantinople. Even in light of new discoveries and debates over the nature of vision, Augustinian perspectives on the matter remained prevalent. Based on this, I attempt to deconstruct Augustinian vision as presented in Book XII of The Literal Meaning of Genesis and apply it to one of the True Cross reliquaries. Returning to True Cross relics and their presentation in cross- shaped reliquaries, I apply contemporary theological concerns over inner vision and argue that Byzantine visuality are relevant and applicable. Drawing on the work of Bissera Pentcheva, I discuss the concept of visual tactility and relate it to inner vision and the construction of faith. The presentation of reliquaries in the twelfth century was conducive to reciprocal interactions between viewer and object that relied on memory, belief, and being physically in the presence of holy objects. The conclusion will discuss the contrast between the True Cross reliquaries and contemporary ampullae that were more easily accessible to pilgrims who visited Jerusalem. I explore the in between the materials between the two, the role of iconography, and the practical and experiential disparities between viewing an ornate reliquary from afar during a procession 4 and looking at and holding a small pewter reliquary obtained during one’s pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Much of the existing literature on reliquaries tends towards a survey format, covering greater geographies and more objects over extended periods of history. With this approach of selecting a very limited number of similar objects, I hope to synthesize of the elements of the experiential, theological, and material. 5 Part I: Crosses and Crusaders In the twelfth century several churchmen transported a gold and bejeweled double-armed cross containing a relic of the True Cross (fig. 1) from Jerusalem, where it was created,