Seeing Th Rough Screens: Th E Gothic Choir Enclosure As Frame
225577-085577-08 JJungung pp184-213.indd184-213.indd 118484 88/23/06/23/06 66:08:45:08:45 PPMM Seeing T rough Screens: T e Gothic Choir Enclosure as Frame + Jacqueline E. Jung n the later medieval West, the “sacred screen” at the threshold between clerical sanctuary and congregational space went by many names.1 Some arose from its liturgical function as a platform for the reading of Scriptures: thus the Germans, adapting the Latin term lectorium, called it a Lettner, and the French, citing the benediction that opened the Gospel reading (Iube domine benedicere), called it a jubé. Some designations emerged from the structure’s spatial positioning: in Italy, for example, it might be named ponte in reference to its bridgelike form, whereas in the Netherlands the term doxaal signaled its location at the rear portion (in Latin, dorsale) of the liturgical choir. Other names indicated the role of this furnishing as a monumental pedestal for works of representa- tional art: the English term rood-screen or rood-lof directs attention to its purpose in supporting the monumental sculpted crucif xion group—Christ, Mary, and John the Evangelist— that dominated the church interior from on high. 1 For an overview of the morphology and terminology of French and German choir screens, see G. Servières, “Les jubés (origine, architecture, décoration, démolition),” GBA, 4 ser., 14 (1889): 355–80; E. Doberer, “Der Lettner: Seine Bedeutung und Geschichte,” Mitteilungen der Gesellschaf für verglei- chende Kunstforschung in Wien 9.2 (Dec. 1956): 117–22; K. Gamber, “Der gotischen Lettner: Sein Aussehen und seine liturgische Funktion, aufgezeigt an zwei typischen Beispielen,” Das Münster 37 (1984): 197–201; and J.
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