Quick viewing(Text Mode)

Micro-Architecture As the 'Idea' of Gothic Theory and Style

Micro-Architecture As the 'Idea' of Gothic Theory and Style

International Center of Medieval Art http://www.jstor.org/stable/766753 .

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

International Center of Medieval Art is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Gesta.

http://www.jstor.org Micro-Architecture as the 'Idea' of Gothic Theory and Style

FRANCOISBUCHER State University of New York at Binghamton

A definition of the ideal Gothic structure through the both East and West stressed instead the instruments of use of small monuments of architecture usually classified salvation-the reliquaries, shrines, and sometimes the mo- within the "minor arts" is based on the following pre- saics.4 The Second Council of Nicea of 787 A.D which mises: many objects and designs from the late thirteenth had declared against the Iconoclasts by pronouncing that century onwards show that the design theory applied to crosses, images, vessels, and hangings not only "lift men small works was identical to that used for large struc- up to the memory of their prototypes" but that "the tures; contracts show that the boundaries between metal- honor paid to them is passed on to that which the work, carpentry, and construction were fluid; stylistic in- image represents"; statements in the Edicts of Charlemagne ventions were often developed in small works and trans- and many other sources in fact encouraged, or at least ferred to architecture; and, eventually, the trend-setting sanctioned, the human need to escape daily absurdity morphology realized in small objects became so sophis- through a vicarious self-identification with the saints in ticated that it could no longer be duplicated in buildings Paradise. Christ, the martyrs and confessors had replaced which themselves, in a strange reversal of reference, became the and heroes of antiquity, and it was the thrill mere shelters for micro-architecture.* of a physical proximity to their remains-coupled with Some of the subsequent statements are contrary to a the hope for indulgences-which offered a temporary, deritualized 20th-century society, whose outlook is governed powerful catharsis.5 In addition we have underestimated by scientism and a reluctance to view nature as a pos- the importance of a group experience of believers con- sible manifestation of a higher order. We are not pre- fronted with objects of mythical importance. Today, just pared to favor Origen's dictum, deeply anchored in medi- as in yesteryear, intellectuals have reacted negatively to eval perception, that "the visible world contains images emotional mass enthusiasm and even private high emotion of heavenly things in order that by means of these lower Witness the sneering remark of the eleventh-century objects we may rise to that which is beyond".' If we scholar Bernard d'Angers, who, having watched peasants read sources in their totality, we learn to accept that adore a statue, said to his companion: "We would not to the medieval -goer or pilgrim sacred objects tolerate the making of statues of Saints at all were it offered an infinitely more valid transcendental experience not for a habit congenitally ingrained in gross minds."6 and vicarious identification with the Heavenly Jerusalem In tune with medieval intellectuals, architectural historians than the whose structural arrogance only few have largely neglected the "gross minds" and thus mis- could appreciate and even fewer could comprehend.2 The judged the importance of an array bf small sacred objects, sources indicate that even most literati of the Middle which the medieval observer perceived as major mon- Ages took architectural descriptions lightly, and disposed uments.7 of buildings through varied and often brief formulae My hypothesis is corroborated by none other than before turning to the reliquaries and other mementos Suger of Saint-Denis; possessing a first rate organization- which fascinated them.3 With very few exceptions, such al mind, he was a friend of rulers, a Regent of , as Hagia Sophia, Santiago, Saint-Denis, Canterbury and St. and last but not least the propagandist of a new style. Albans, descriptive accuracy applied to structures is hard And yet, his most basic emotional responses were trig- to find. Because redemption mattered, the chroniclers gered by the brilliant magic of small, sacred objects

71 which projected him anagogically into the ecstatic realm only be realized in the structurally forgiving realm of beyond. He did appreciate the fact that his "bright . . . buildings whose extraordinarily daring elevations neces- noble edifice" would be "pervaded by the new light." sitated small size. The complete two-tower church facades But his true and innermost catharthis lay in the con- in the baldachin of the Louvain tabernacle indicates its templation of the "multifarious wealth of precious stones" "true" immensity and therefore resolves the dilemma on the high altar, topped by the cross of St. Eloi as between the poetic and the realizable building. (P1 7, b) seen in a late 15th-century panel by the Master of St. It is with Roman de Troie with its complex tombs, Giles. (Plate la). With his view of architecture largely with the Norman epic Eracle of 1164 describing the blocked by an array of "minor" structures, Suger, primed throne of "Cosdroe" under a domed, star-studded , by the Dionysian theory of light was "transported from and with the description of the palace of Prester John this inferior to that higher world in an anagogical in the Land of Cocaigne (1165 A.D.) with its grandiose manner."8 No wonder then, that Bernard of Clairvaux cantilevered warning mirror that we begin to enter the lashed out against those who "currunt ad osculandum" Gothic realms of fantastic architectural daring. It is such and to venerate the "sacra." But at the same time he works which inspired Albrecht von Scharffenberg's prophetically criticized a nascent megalomania by inveighing Younger Titurel of ca. 1270 A.D. In the long poem against the size of Cluny III, its "oratoriorum immensas the hero builds a temple of the Grail on a polished altitudines, immoderatas longitudines, supervacuas latitu- onyx cliff on top of Monserrat. The air conditioned rotunda ines . . . ".9 measures 100 fathoms in diameter. Its central tower bears From the 1160's onward the construction of churches a gold and enamel roof and above it an immense carbuncle could no longer be separated from the dynamism of the The thirty-six octagonal, six story towers are crowned by cities with their ambitious building committees. The cost ruby knobs carrying crystal crosses which become trans- of the structures increased, and with it the prestige of parent supports for hovering eagles. The astronomical the lay architects who fulfilled the demand for ever in- is studded with sapphires and carbuncles. There is "not creasing scale until the end of Gothic gigantism around one hands's breadth without decoration." Ciboria house 1300. From then on the competition for height and struc- doves which gently lower angels carrying hosts The tural daring was restricted to the more identifiable, mighty building rests on a crystal sea with sham mobile mon- towers which not only symbolized ecclesiastical power, sters. In the center there is a small version of the same but equally also civic pride."' The discovery of virtues in structure. It is this miniature which contains the Grail less extravagant trend-setting examples such as the Sainte The final fourteenth-century version of the story, the Chapelle, or Santa Maria della Spina in had raised Marienloh, transformed Scharffenberg's structure into a the architects' awareness of challenges in more modest mere annex to a church of Mary whose 500 choirs were projects. It was in the mid-thirteenth century that they overshadowedby a tower which, according to Frankl, would began to impose their aesthetic vocabulary upon the world have been 1920 m. or over a mile high. Immediately there- of reliquaries, stalls, fonts, , tombs, etc.; in short after the architectural fantasies shrank, dainty details be- micro-architecture. These small structures changed from gan to be emphasized, as in Chaucer or Lydgate. Finally coffin, chest or tent-like shapes into small buildings, in the fifteenth-century anonymous Amadis de Gaula the which then fell within the purview of builders who sub- structures became small and more gadgety." These verbal jected them to ever more stringent design requirements buildings often rest on slender supports, are of precious, By taking over the increasing market for small struc- polished materials and are covered with jewels and orna- tures, produced for the heightened emotional needs of the ments. With the possible exceptions of Hagia Sophia, population and for new and inventive liturgical complex- San Vitale, the Sainte Chapelle and Karlstejn, few existing ities, the architects had entered a realm of activities monuments any longer give us the sense of unreality which was not only lucrative, but also allowed them to projected by these poetic visions. Their extravagant vast- perform sophisticated model experiments. ness, and later their complex daintiness is reflected in manu- Fantastic buildings in medieval literature and not scripts like the Tres Riches Heures of Jean Duc de Berry historical descriptions demonstrate the desire to couple of ca. 1413 A.D. But they were realized equally well in the gigantic size with emotionally laden small spaces con- hypnotically crafted small structures containing objects re- taining important mythological objects. Along the way lated to romantic, heroic or transcendental traditions (see literary accounts also adopted a shift from raw immen- Pls. 2, 6, 7). sity toward ever more sophisticated, small-scale complex- The following briefly identified examples must be viewed ity. In its many forms these architectural narrations as objects which represented a central focus for church- colored the fabric of medieval thought. The Heavenly goers. The importance of these objects for the architect Jerusalem of St. John and the poets formulated and ac- is demonstrated in Villard de Honnecourt's concern for curately defined the architectural utopias of their age, lecterns, stalls and gadgets such as an angel automatically fantasies which were beyond the capabilities of any pointing at the sun.12 His unexpected emphasis on non- builder. In the North their images of resplendent, anti- structural elements simply confirms the traditional wish rational edifices became so extravagant that they could of architects-including Wright, Ie Corbusier, Mies and

72 others-to control all phases of design, including furniture to say non-imitative, precise structures in their own right.'9 and hardware. We must therefore ask when, through which Their uniqueness is enhanced by other less precisely de- methods and how completely the medieval builder gained signed objects, which largely neglected contemporary access to the exotic realm of micro-architecture. building styles and gave the viewer the impression of Many surviving works show that before the intrusion greater antiquity, which reinforced the authenticity of the of strict architectural design procedures into the realm of relic. small-scale objects, the reliquaries, Holy Sepulchres, stalls, In a not yet fully urbanized society the Romanesque etc., were retardataire in comparison with large-scale architect had not yet achieved the accolade bestowed upon structures. The powerful twelfth-century reliquary of Am- Pierre de Montreuil as a "doctor lathomorum." The cen- bazac (Plate 1, b) is fairly typical of the heavy sarco- tral role the Gothic architects played with their control phagus approach.13 The same stance affected even the of immense projects, allowed them to break down the famous works of Nicolas de Verdun. His shrine of the boundaries between the creative professions. Having be- Three Kings, begun in 1181 and completed ca. 1230, come the main administrators of patronage to the crafts, represents a two-aisled . The sculptural work on they could impose upon them stylistic changes The his shrines is of the highest, pioneering quality, and their architecturalization of small, three-dimensional objects architectural design mediocre.14 The style of most re- thus occurs at the height of Gothic and is based on the liquaries until the mid-thirteenth century goes back to two formulation of a new building theory in the mid-thir- major Carolingian and Ottonian prototypes. They include teenth century. Even before the Gothic canon could exert house-reliquaries, model churches covered with jewels, a pervading influence on objects as secondary as censers, plaques and sometimes statuary as well as the Heavenly the precision of the style was imposed upon the shrine City type. The latter could be expanded into a 72 gate of St. Taurin in Evreux of 1240-1255 (Plate 2, a) The corona luminaria of Hezilo (1054-1079) in ; most spectacular work of this breakthrough period is the could be reduced to a palace of crystal turrets in the Gertrudis Shrine in Nivelles. Based on a design (pourtra- Philactery of Arnac of ca. 1200; or might be as tiny as tnrc) of the cleric Jakenez of Anchin, and a model, it the arcaded structures on the crux gemmata of Lothaire, was begun September 18, 1271 by Nicolas Colars of or a similar example in Osnabriick, which were copied Douai and Jacquenon of Nivelles. Translucent enamel roun- as late as the thirteenth century in the cross of Eymou- dels attached to the rose windows crafted by the royal tiers.15 Architectural facsimiles like the Arch of Einhard goldsmith Guilleaume Julien, completed the work in 1298 (815-30) which imitated the Arch of Titus, the Goz- (Plate 2, b).20 With this and similar objects we reach bert Censer of ca. 1000 A.D. from (?) which gives the nexus between architecture and goldsmithing which us a building model of 's temple in the form was to last beyond Gothic. Limited only by the protec- of a central plan Ottonian Church, or the charming tive solidity necessary for a container, these shrines fol- English twelfth-century coffret in the Victoria and Albert lowed and almost immediately refined the design vocabu- Museum (Plate 1, c), or the reliquary of Sayn near Kob- lary used for the most recent monuments, the Sainte lenz (1180-1200) which is made of walrus plaques and Chapelle (1243-48) and the choir of (begun gives a fairly accurate view of a four tower basilica, can 1248). Increasingly screens, stalls, lecterns and baldachins all be included in the model category.'6 Tiny buildings, began to turn into magnificently abstract works of re- which were rarely precise portraits of existing structures, fined architecture. The stone structure of ca. 1290 above continued to be made well into the Middle Ages.'7 The the archaizing shrine of St. Elizabeth in Marburg, and type proliferated in the mid-thirteenth-century archaizing the very advanced of 1308-31 as well as the group of one- or two-story churches from the abbey of elevation inscribed upon the wooden reredos of Grandselve which are now in Bouillac and other simi- the main altar in the Liebfrauenkirche in Oberwescl of larly charming toy buildings, and city mo- ca. 1330-40 show that the design procedures of the era dels from to Flanders.18 had been integrated into non-structural objects (Plate 2, c) The two important reliquaries from the work- The architects now began to use small works as a labor- shop of Gregorius in the area of Cologne give us the atory for stylistic refinement. This is true for the Ne- first indication of rigidly controlled and predictable design ville Screen which was carved, perhaps by Yevele, in procedures applied to an intimate scale. Commissioned London and shipped to Durham before 1380.21 Its ten after Henry the Lion's return from the Holy Land in slender limestone turrets housed 107 statues which gave 1172, the first contained the head of Gregory of Nazian- it a sense of a much larger scale. It is here and in simi- zus and became part of the Guelph treasure. The second, lar Italian monuments, for example, Orcagna's Orsan- probably also for an eastern relic, was in Hochelten and michele tabernacle in (after 1337), in works by is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Plate 1, d) Balduccio, Bonino da Campione, and finally in the altar Both represent a Byzantine church topped by exquisite reredos in S. Francesco in Bologna erected by the archi- enamel . Both were subjected to the same clearly tect-sculptors Jacobello and Pier Paolo dalle Masegne, additive, that is, Romanesque, proportional schema. They that turreted baldachin cities received increased emphasis are thus certainly examples of micro-architecture; that is as concepts of the Heavenly Jerusalem.22 After 1300

73 these gem-like buildings began to assume a formidable shows a tabernacle base (P1. 3, a). The geometric net life of their own. Leaf 16889 in the Akademie der now includes carefully balanced 22 1/2? "stops" for the Bildenden Kiinste, Vienna, which I published earlier, square shafts which rise above the cantilevered five-pointed shows three hexagonal spaces supporting pentagonal domes. stars. A. Seeliger-Zeiss has recently proven that the The dainty buttresses preclude a large size. Even if the drawing is based on a sketch by Lorenz Lechler, one drawing is fifteenth-century, it nevertheless gives us a of the foremost theoreticians of late . late version of sophisticated designs underlying such monu- The plan and an accompanying elevation (P1. 3, b) were ments as the tomb of John XXII who died in used in 1486, for the playful tabernacle in St. Diony- on December 4, 1334, or the somewhat less sius, Esslingen (P1. 3, c).2' elegant tomb of Innocent VI in the Chartreuse of The drawings were increasingly based on triangles and Villeneuve-les-Avignon (Plate 2, d).23 rotating polygons which underly the often marvelously We now must show that architectural design methods prickly execution of fonts, pulpits, monstrances, piers, and were indeed imposed upon micro-structures, and if so, even ornamental vaults executed in wood, stone and analyze the results of a symbiotic relationship between metal. It must remain clear that under the seeming dis- architects, carpenters, and metal workers. Gothic design array of ever more complex cantilevering, branchwork, theory had stabilized by 1300 A.D. in the rotation of double curved and utterly surrealistic ribs and bent finials and squares, triangles polygons generating predictable lies the pitiless orderly precision of Euclidean geometry proportional series. Its very simplicity also led to a An upward view of the tabernacles in the south tran- quick exhaustion of basic variations.24 More daring, but sept of Frankfurt cathedral (P1. 3, d) and of even more always logical design combinations were thus invented and daringly cantilevered structures such as Pilgram's Vienna applied first to small structures, tracery, and then to (1515), Syrlin's stalls in Ulm (1469-74) and (Plate 3, a). vaulting Kraft's tabernaclein Niirnberg (1493-96), demonstrate why The background which necessitated these developments the symbiosis between macro- and micro-architecture had must be seen in with the end of thirteenth- conjunction to falter. Heavy undercutting, extreme slenderness of The of Beauvais in century optimism. collapse 1284, double-curved ornamentation and other design realizations the Exile of the the start Babylonian Papacy (1304-76) possible in small monuments were complexities unthink- of the Hundred Years' War in 1337, the catastrophic able in large buildings whose shapes were governed by devaluations of 1285-1314 which were followed monetary the structural strength of stone.28 The differences are the failure of the Bardi and Peruzzi Banks in 1345, by especially glaring in the comparison of large and small the Black Death of 1347-1350 and finally such popular commissions undertaken by the same builders, eg Konrad rebellions as those of the Ciompi and Wat Tyler, brought Roriczer or Madern Gerthner. about a reduction in Parish major patronage. churches, The following selected survey of types of small and civic and financed projects, privately architectural environ- large scale objects which influenced each other makes a ments became the main source of revenue for the archi- case for close contacts between the arts, and similar, if tect.25 The reduced size was counterbalanced enrich- by not identical, theory underlying them. In fact many archi- ment of details, treatment of materials and sophisticated tects either received their training in another discipline, Simultaneously the mood led to daring designs. changed or moved easily from one craft to another. Giotto, Giovanni liturgical innovations such as the cult of the . Pisano, Syrlin, Soenning, Griinewald, Gil de Siloe and Tabernacles, baldachins, rood-screens, Holy Sepulchres, others had experience in either or carving, or, like more ornate and monstrances and pulp'its fonts, sediliae, Griinewald, in civil engineering. Andrea and Nino Pisano, became de for status-conscious revamped reliquaries rigeur I.orenz and Moritz Iechler, Syfer, Schmuttermnayerand later Because of their attractiveness and parishes. manageable Brunelleschi were trained goldsmiths or casters Antonio costs the small monuments moved out of doors quickly Filarete's statement of 1464 A.D. that "transalpine"Gothic into the and in the form of city beyond Montjoies, rollos, was developed by goldsmiths ((refici) and "carried over to innumerable cantilevered oriels, baldachins over memorials, architecture" is therefore not without basis at the time '" fountains, wells and even galleries for cross-bow clubs. The contracts for internal structures some of which reached Some 800 surviving designs for such items show that heights over 40', often show the architect in charge of the from 1400 onward small commissions accounted for about "Rys" or design, as well as the supervision of the exucution of 25% the output of Northern workshops. If we include by sculptors and painters whose techniques he had to bannisters, tracery and small vault design which were understand. Once we accept the architects' leading role often executed for altars and also for private patrons, in cooperative efforts as axiomatic, the currents between the percentage rises to over half of the production. We objects of varying scale become obvious, especially if we must add that these drawings, especially in their pre- keep in mind that many small works must be concep- paratory stage, are among the most intimate statements tualized within a metaphysical scale. in the history of design and thus offer precise insights From 1350 onward the osmotic process between the into the mind 26 creative of the late Gothic architect three dimensional arts became more explicit. Visual puns A drawing from the Amerbach collection, for instance, based on a playful interchange between stone and metal

74 PIATE I R

C

a

b d

c) 12th century, a) Mass of St. Giles, Coffret, (?), Victoriaand Albert Museum. Master of St. Giles, c. 1495. National Gallery, London. d) Cupola Reliquaryfrom Hochelten, c. 1175, Victoria and Albert Museum. b) Shrine of St. Stephen of Muret, Ambazac, c. 1180. 75 rl-, ?LP,

P, X P, ?h\

X 9, O X X rr

X

oC Cc G\ CCS ru h, c; r\ X O ?r X

?N ;Z SC SC X X '% I CC

" C7 X a, o X FY ?N4 5 4 1 I a

o

Y ?L" 9, W- Cy hi 9, tj LS )5 O 9,

Lr: ?N -QZ F: X '% P, X

c; h C I -aa ? lr sl ? IB a, O fi! w 'r 0, c a: c; P4 U r\ PLATE III

d

C

b a) Base of Tabernacleafter L. Lechler c. 1486. ~~d~ c) Tabernacle by L. Lechler, 1486, St. Dionysius, Esslingen.

hb Base of Tabernacle after L. Lechler. c. 1486. d) Tabernacles, Frankfurt Cathedral c. 1500. 77 8L

'1S 'll pltd (q -7v'.paqivL)o0a!t9o0 'vuuasA 'uaqcdalS avl't UOUV, 'uUn.pod UVdro ' 'out.tvs uv' pvaH(p ' !00,1 asrg (v '0'-ggI Jfo Gvnb;as (paiJ"aat ' duviUa9ca /no 'a9pvusavL iof q

F PLATE V

a C

b a) Engravingfor a Censer. MartiinSchonglauer. before 1491. c) Elevation for an Altalr c. 1500.

h) Mount of Oli0ves,Hanns B'iblinger. 1447-77. 79 PILATEVI

a b

C a) Reliquary of St. Margaret, c. 1250, d b) Three Tower Reliquary, c. 1370, 80 The Cloisters, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art , Palace . c) Fons Vitae, Van Eyck School, c. 1430, Prado. Madrzd. d) Tabernacle, M. de Layens (?), St. Pierre, Louvain c. 1490. PLATE VII

a

b a) Retahlo, Hans of Schu'ibisch-Gmuiind. d c) Custodia. De los Arfe Family, Zaragoza, Cathedral, 7473-77. 1515-23, Toledo, Cathedral. h) Retahlo. , 1500-15. d) Custodia, Enrique de Arfe, 81 hefore 1511, Saha,un. work are frequent. In a magnificent lectern signed by were used in the creation of multiple, sharply undercut ele- Jean de Joes of Dinant ca. 1370, a triangular, buttressed ments from censers to piers. The precision of the formal filigree tower with advanced gables carries a large eagle. vocabulary, shared by specialists, emerges in a comparison The famous Ratingen of 1394 A.D. which of Martin Schongauer's engraving for a censer (before 1491 is constructed as a "floating" supported by four A.D.) with a representation of Matthew Boblinger's Mount sophisticated buttressing turrets above a crystal cylinder of Olives in Ulm of 1447-77 (P1. 5, a, b). The ever thinner has correctly been related to contemporary works by the architectural elements of late Gothic eventually led to ab- Parlers in Prague and Kolin. The flared hexagonal foot stract, wire-like drawings for small creations (PI. 5, c) In and general monstrance treatment appearing on a very actual execution in wood or metal and even in stone these large tabernacle design in the State Museum of West objects reached a state of ethereal intangibility.33 Berlin is closely related to a similar foot and to the Much of this ecstatic formal syntax was specifically adap- cathedral treatment given a monstrance of Leau in Bra- ted to the charisma of "Heiltiimer" and monstrances bant of ca. 1450 A.D. The kinship between a sketch housing the Eucharist for the public worship introduced in for a tabernacle base in the Victoria and Albert Museum 1264, sanctioned during the Jubilee of 1300 and widely pro- (shown upside down in P1. 4, a), and the organ podium pagated through sermons, liturgical innovations, proces- by Anton Pilgram of 1513 A.D. in St. Stephen in Vienna sions, religious brotherhoods and furnishings throughout seems uncanny (PI. 4, b). The double-curved arch the following two centuries. By 1400 these furnishings appears in the wooden 's throne in Exeter cathedral captured the essence of the Heavenly Jerusalem and became around 1312 and in the slightly later "nodding " the tangible mirrors of salvation. in the Lady Chapel of Ely cathedral. The strange, com- The concept of the reliquaryas a symbolic embodiment of pletely atectonic arches thus emerged in small examples, Paradise within the equally symbolic form of a church build- and one would like to assume that they originated in ing had never quite vanished. Scharffenberg's Holy Grail metalwork.30 was after all encased in an exact replica of the huge struc- The introduction of double curves and the increasing use ture surrounding it, and it was this replica which exerted to its size. the of branch work present barely researched questions. Imita- an attraction quite disproportionate Similarly of St. known also as tions of nature which began in jewelry and are found in thirteenth-century reliquary Margaret, the Chasse aux in The Cloisters of the capitals such as those of Reims and Naumburg quickly as- Oiseaux, Metropoli- of New was fashioned into a sumed a major expressive role in objects of wood and tan Museum Art, York, and sacred structure which contained metal. Filtering back into architecture they led to extra- complex complete a and a more than ordinarily surreal examples of "Forest-Gothic" applied both mystical physical reality powerful vitrea to sediliae (Bristol, ca. 1325 A.D.), pulpits, fonts, innumer- its surroundings. (PI. 6, a).34 As a weightless capella able altars and tabernacles. Even more fascinating are the it is connected to earth through elegant figures placed cathe- larger examples such as the balcony of Vladislas II in St. below towers reminiscent of those flanking and Vitus, Prague of ca. 1490 A.D. with its slender, knotted dral. Thus the reliquarymay suddenly switch scale grow branch-ribs and Heydenreich's scurrilous double vaults in into a much larger building. Its facades enclose a of the Liebfrauenkirche of Ingolstadt.31 Much of crystal, which as a substance alone was said to generate the set down Gothic is an organic abstraction and so antistructural that Holy Word. The object seems to have been its re-evaluation in the light of important metal and wood by golden eagles who still hover over crystal spheres monuments as determinants for subsequent dynamic decor- Among many monuments of that type, the two foremost ative schemata seems imperative. are from Aachen: the "Chapel of the Charlemagne Relic" of The openwork of the North, especially those of ca. 1360 A.D. and the "Three Tower Reliquary" dated a Freiburg (completed ca. 1354 A.D.), Cologne (planned decade later (P1. 6, b). The former consists of a base and a 1310-20 A.D.), Vienna (begun 1359 A.D.) and Strasbourg chest carried by angels and saints, from which rise the must also be seen in this context. They are structurally double-story inhabited spirelets of exquisite craftsmanship. so vulnerable that they could only be secured through heavy In contrast to the tightly bunched elements of the "Chapel", iron reinforcement. They are the most spectacular expres- the open and fragile baldachin of the "Three Tower Reli- sions of the crosscurrents between macro- and micro- quary" are far removed from the toy cathedral type repre- architecture and reflect the spirit of the contemporary sented by the shrines of St. Taurin and of Nivelles (Pls 2, The works a tower reliquaries and monstrances, such as the San Savino a, b). Aachen define new structure, namely the the reliquaryin cathedral of ca. 1325-50 A.D. (PI. 4,c). reliquarychurch which was to expand in size until end The numerous designs for small works show a develop- of the Middle Ages, especially in Spain. Governed by the ment toward a more precise and increasingly abstract, linear full rhythms of Gothic geometry, enclosing intangible space transcendence style of draughtsmanship. This approach was propagated and mysteries, it would offer architectural and thus through engravings of Wenzel von Olmiicz, Master E.S., which no longer tolerated a full scale realization, Martin Schongauer and others, which were specifically des- had to exist in the beyond.35 tined for the use of architects, carvers and goldsmiths. They The church choir itself, sometimes enlarged for relics and comprise leaf patterns, baldachin designs, and details which altars, thus became clearly and forcefully identified with

82 the Sancta Sanctorum, the Camera Santa, and finally with costly custodias which were carried through cities which the ostensorium, a permanent habitation for Christ and themselves became the "civitates ad similitudinem para- his saints. L. B. Philip pointed out that the Ghent altar disi."TMThe custodia of Toledo cathedral, constructed (completed before 1426) was also a miracle-machine driven 1515-23 by the de los Arfe family, represents-as seen by a clockwork which offered many variations or views of through eyes which see in "the visible world images of Paradise.36 A simpler, equally lively and perhaps more per- heavenly things"--one of the most stunning constructions tinent alternative is found in a copy from the van Eyck dedicated to the apotheosis of Christ (PI 7, c) "' The circle, the Fons Vitae in the Prado. Its central theme is the fliers, the crown-like dome, the tabernacle around the risen constantly moving stream of hosts symbolizing the sacra- Saviour, etc., are parts of an immensely sophisticated archi- ment of the Eucharist (P1. 6, c). It emerges from a superb tectural entity. If we view the buttress figurines as man- baldachin and re-emerges again from a standard taber- height, the structure would measure ca. three hundred feet nacle, in front of a church in which it would normally have in height. The monstrance would then become comparable been placed. Micro-architecture had by now been so com- to the temple of the Grail, or to the immense cantilevered pletely identified as the iconographic carrier of the celestial mirror near the throne of Chosroes as described in the sphere, that the churches seemed to become mere service poem [lrallc. The custodias and retablos finally give us structures housing the panoply of small, precious buildings the scintillating splendour which Albrecht von Scharffen- The most stunning parallel to the Prado Fonzs Vitae is the berg and others envisioned for the supreme, rotating houses tabernacle in Saint-Pierre of Louvain (PI. 6, d) It rises of worship. Whoever has watched the impact of a custodia from a hexagonal base to the housing for the Eucharist moving and girating above a crowd might understand the and then, in daring cantilevering, is unexpectedly trans- joyful cry of the people: "Ecce tabernaculum Dei cum formed into an incredibly detailed church whose four hominibus" (Revelation, 21:3-4). towers serve as buttresses for a filigreed central spire By 1500 micro-architecture had developed its own sty- which touches the apex of a choir arch. The somewhat istic imperatives and had thus detached itself from the undistinguished basilica of Saint-Pierre thus harbours a exacting architecturaldiscipline of the Gothic age At the much more splendid edifice, which, suddenly and myster- same time its status had become so central that it dragged iously lifted heavenward, reveals the innermost sanctum of imitative, large monuments with it, toward a gloriously Christianity.37 deranged end. The custodia of Sahagun designed before The option to integrate these independent structures into 1511 by Enrique de Arfe is suffused in artistry which smoth- a reredos which would become a dramatic spiritual meta- ers cohesive geometric discipline: in its squat proportions it phor was taken in Italy, and even more decisively in Spain seems an incoherent sacred toy (P1. 7, d). The dissolutely There the great retablos of heroic proportions move us hectic approach invaded larger structures such as the portals into a realm of sacred surrealism. of Louviers of ca. 1510, or Albi which were to be proto- The main retablo of La Seo in Zaragoza for instance, is types of the gates of and instead rise in fuzzy, con- a stunning Heavenly Jerusalem (P1. 7, a). The tripartite trived virtuosity. reredos shows the unlocking of heaven through the ascen- In sum, micro-architecturein contrast to large structures sion and transfiguration which flank an scene could be scale-less, antirational, and of immediate universal- An opening symbolizes Christ's sacral body. The super- ity. It could bear fluidly superimposed systems of decoration structure is the wall of the celestial city which is raised and mix formal bravado with theological complexity in a and reveals the mystery of the two natures of Christ The small space. Its anti-structuralelements helped to propagate retablo in the Capilla Mayor of Toledo cathedral was the English Decorated-and French Flamboyant styles Al- erected by an international crew of nine artists between ways based on strict theoretical principles, it overcame them 1500 and 1510 A.D. (P1. 7, b). The complex central through intense optical and coloristic effects. The Sainte sepulchre and tabernacle, is surrounded by a lofty carved Chapelle in or the in Karlstejn-which were choir, and thus becomes a hermetic monstrance holding to be lit by 14,000 candles-were full scale embodiments of the supreme relic. The opening is protected by an ornate all these possibilities. Micro-architectureas a large collection baldachin which serves as a support of a Nativity.38 The of exemplary models combined the basic tenets of Gothic: reliquary church within the realm of the church edifice has Dazzling structural dexterity, intensely geometric complex- become yet another container for the tabernacle holding ity and a hypnotic dissolution of the structure through the timeless mystery of Christ. light.4' It is in these objects that the idea of Gothic is The Holy of Holies assuming ever more unearthly qual- found in its essence, and it was given to them to physically ities became the ark of the new covenant in the form of the enclose the greatest mysteries of Christianity.

83 NOTES

* This was a study encouraged by grant from the Research Foundation professional architects. Suger's text is transitional, while a palace of the State University of New York. Pioneering statements in the description by Odericus Vitalis dated before 1141 no longer lingers direction of my thesis are found in the following: H. Wolfflin, on details, but on specific uses of building units. (See J. v. Schlosser, "Prolegomena zu einer Psychologie der Architectur", 1886, reprint- " Quellenbuch, 342-44). ed in Kleine Schriften, Basel, 1935, 13-47, where he says: ... in 6. text in the small, decorative arts . . . the feeling of form satisfies itself in The the Liher Miraculorum Sancte Fidis refers to a statue of St. Giraud in the of Aurillac. See "La de the purest way, and it is here that the birthplace of a new style must Abbey J. Hubert, Majeste Sainte de be sought". See also R. Krautheimer, "Introductionto an Foy Conques", Bull. Soc. Nation. Antiq. de France, 1943- 44, 391-93, and R. Rey, "La Sainte Foy du tresor de Conques et la of Mediaeval Architecture",Journal of the Warhurg and Courtauld statuaire sacree avant l'an 4. 1956. Institutes, 5, 1942, 1-33; E. Panofsky, "The Ideological Antecedents mille," Pallas, of the Rolls Royce Radiator," Proceedings of the American Philo- 7. On size and elitism see F. Bucher, "Aesthetic Choices in Engineering, sophical Society, 1963, 237-287; Y. Hirn, The Sacred Shrine, London, Packaged versus Shaped Space", Civil Engineering, History, Heritage 2nd ed. 1958; H. Huth, Kuinstler und Werkstatt der Spaitgotik, and the Humanities, II, Princeton, 1973, 13-32. Darmstadt, 1967. H.R. Hahnloser's early formulation of the ideograph or Gedankenhild-concept found a somewhat diffuse expression in 8. See E. Panofsky, Abhhot Suger on the AhhbbeyChurch of St.-Denit and E.G. Grimme, Goldschmiedekunstim Mittelalter, Cologne, 1972. its Art Treasures, Princeton, 1946, 51ff My special thanks go to Sumner McK Crosby who has always shared with me the liveliest 1. For image and object transferral see A. Grabar, L'iconoclasme hyzan- aspects of his work on Saint-Denis. tin, Paris, 1957, and M. H. Allies, trans. St. John Damascene, Treatise It is interesting to note that Bernard of Clairvaux compared the on Holy Images, London, 1898. union of the soul to with an 'immersion in the infinite ocean of eternal light and luminous eternity." The same sentiment is 2. S. Lewis, "Function and Symbolic Form in the Basilica Apostolorum in found in Hugh of St. Victor who says that light surpasses the senses; Milan, Journal of the Society of Architectural Hirtorians, 28, No. 2, in Grosseteste's statement that corporeity is an agent which introduces 83-98, H. Sedlmayr, Die Entstehung der Kathedrale, Zurich, 1950, dimensions by virtue of its participation in light; and even in Dante, and 0. von Simson, The Gothic Cathedral,New York, 1962. stress a who at the end of his Paradiso finds himself transported into the more abstract, liturgicai and symbolic comparison between the cathe- brilliance of Divine light. dral and the Heavenly Jerusalem or the Temple of Solomon. G. T. 9. 281-85. It must be that Armstrong, in "Constantine's Churches", Gesta, 6, 1967, 1-9, and Opera Bernardi, I.yon, 1583, repeated the of ca. 1125 was addressed to and that Bernard subsequent articles pointed out that the sanctuaries of the Holy Land, Apologia monks, sanctioned decorations and in non-monastic such as the church of the Nativity, or the Holy Sepulchre with its grudgingly statuary sanc- tuaries. See M.A. Dimier, Recueil des "gate of heaven" were reliquarychurches, places for Theophany and plans d'eglises citerciclnnes, 22-26. salvation. The church such as that of Canterbury in Paris, 1949, 1130 produced little more than Henry I's statement that the choir 10. For the civic impact of towers see M. Trachtenberg, The Campanile was "awesome". Processional, liturgical events on the other hand of , New York, 1971, 3-18, 149-79 For Beauvais are more richly documented and even recorded in at least one Caro- see n. 25, for the late Gothic tower concept n. 32 lingian plan. 11. I omit symbolists such as Honorius of Autun, William Durandus, Hugh 3. The ongoing controversy between medievalists as to the merits of of St. Victor, Peter of Roissy and others, whose definitions of parts Bourges versus Chartres or Karlstejn was revived by R. Branner, of churches are too diffuse and too contradictory to have affected P. Frankl, E. Panofsky and myself during a public debate at the practitioners beyond the basic plan, and, perhaps, the often senseless International Congress of Art History in 1961, and further discussed size of roofs. The literary descriptions on the other hand are fuller, at the symposia around "The Year 1200" show in New York during more precise and offer fundamental revelations of the Gothic Kun,.t- which Hahnloser pursued his concept of ideographs. u'ollen and decorative schemes. Some of the texts may reflect des- criptions of a cosmic, rotating rotunda in the Domus Aurea of Nero. 4. For sources see J. von Schlosser, Quellenhuch zur Kunstgeschichte See K. Lehmann, "The Dome of Heaven", Art Bulletin, 27, 1945, des ahendlaindischenMittelalters, Vienna, 1896; E H Swift, Hagia 1-27. The Grail doors, sapphire altars, jewelled win- Sophia, New York, 1940; Jeanne Vielliard, Le Guide du pelerin de Temple's golden dows and arches, bronze columns, pearl and coral encased ribs, St. Jacques de Compostelle, Macon, 1969; T. G. Frisch, Gothic Art, webbings studded with carbuncles, sapphires and hanging gold vines 1140- c. 1450, Sources and Documents, ed. H. W. Janson, Englewood are giant "estrange et merveillox" The crystal rotunda in Cliffs, 1971. For early signs in a decreasing interest in architecture reliquaries, the Amadfs poem rests on 12 columns and is dominated by a giant see RJ.H. Jenkins and C.A. Mango, "The Date and Significance of arrow-shooting automaton visible from the exterior See P Cocozella, the 10th century Homily of Photius", Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 9/10 Ohras Castillanar (in preparation). The letter of Prester John (ca Cambridge, 1956, 125 ff. For Centula see F. Lot, ed., Hariulf 1165) already concentrated on daring details such as a cantilevered Chronicon Centulensis, Paris, 1894, 53-71. mirror within 254 superimposed columns. Complex tombs taber- 5. For Nicea see F. Chambers, The History of Taste, New York, 1932, nacles, shrine-like castles with crystal towers and gold buttresses 5 ff. For a summary on the importance, number and use of relics are much more frequently found in romances, poems, and see Grimme, Goldschmiedekuinzt,11-18, 163-78, and Rhein und Miaas, miniatures. An exception is the frescoe cycle of 1433 in the Gonzaga Kunst und Kultur 800-1400, Schniitgen Museum, Cologne, 1972-73, Palace in Mantua which shows scurillous large structures. See (. II, 65-142. With the increasing importance of relics from the 10th Paccagnini, Gioi'anni Pisanello alla Corte dei Gonzaga, , century onward, precise descriptions of structures became secondary 1972, figs. 37, 60. Compared with the church described in the Although the observations found in Adamnanus, the description of Marienlob whose vaults reach 1722' and its tower 6136', the Prima1mo Jumieges, the Gesta Ahhatum Fontanellensium (St. Wandrille), the Mobile floor of Westminster Abbey, the Li.ebfrauenkirche in Trier, Vita Filherti Ahhbatis,the Disciplina Farfensis, Gervasius of Canter- or even Hagia Sophia and innumerable reliquaries and monstrances bury and other sources used by J. v. Schlosser still contain precise seem, at first glance, only feeble shadows of literary extravaganzas. information and even measurements as well as lengthy descriptions For an exemplary summary of this fundamental, barely researched of relics, accuracy increasingly shifted to contracts and consultants' topic, see P. Frankl, The Gothic, 168-94. See also R Haag-Blettler, reports. This shows a shift from the architecturalconcerns of inform- Bruno Taut and the Scheerhartian Style, Dissertation, Columbia ed amateurs to precise demands of building committees guided by University, 1973.

84 12. Villard de Honnecourt is the most important example of an architect and its cousins in The Metropolitan Museum, New York, the educated in the early . His interests included not only Hessische Landesmusuem in Darmstadt and the Bonn Museum are buildings, but also small objects such as stalls, a tomb, a wind proof discussed by P.Z. Blum, "A Madonna and Four Saints from Angers", lamp, a spill proof hand-warmer, armament and a perpetual motion Essays presented to Sumner McKnight Croshy, Yale University Art machine. The general interest in gadgets is also reflected in Saladin's Gallery Bulletin, 34, No. 3, 1974, 50, in Rhein und Maas, I, 275 gift of a hydraulic automaton to Frederick II in 1232. See H.R, and in The Year 1200, I, 61, II, 383. The date may have to be moved Hahnloser, Villard de Honnecourt, 2nd ed., Graz, 1972, plates 9, toca. 1170. 11-13, 15, 17, 18, 34, 54, 57. 17. The most important French examples are in St. Riquier, St. Omer, 13. The shape and materials used for reliquaries often remain conserva- Charroux and Ur. See Tresors, 25, 34, 67, 186, and for a censer, tive even into the 13th century. A late 12th-century reliquary cart in 325. Orleans cathedral published by Dumuys continues, for instance, the 18. The connectic.is between the figurated Romanesque and Gothic celtic sun chariot tradition. See Tresors des eglises de France, Muse facades and the initially less "populated" reliquaries have not been des Arts Vecoratifs, 2nd ed., Parls, 1965, 99, pl. 83. Roman cameos, carefully explored. For Grandselve and related later monuments see Fatimid earlier enamels, etc. enhanced the authenticity of crystals, Tresors, 279-82 (Bouillac) 164 pl. 194 (La Martyre), 170 pi 195 the relic. The coffin or casket shape remains preponderant A shrine (Saint Nic). "Model buildings" range from the Holy Sepulchre of of the True Cross in Toulouse shows an enamel of representation Gernrode and the Minster of Constance (late 13th cent), the iron Christ's tomb which is identical to the shape of the casket. See tabernacle of the Wenceslas Chapel in Prague's St. Vitus, and even Tresors, 52-62, 86-88, and Rhein und Maas, II, 158-216. For pls. Bonino da Campione's monument to Cansignorio della Scala of ca. the shrine of Ambazac also known as the "Fierte d'Ambazac" see 1375, to the magnificently detailed Holy Sepulchres of Esztergom and 191-92. It measures 72 cms. in but is conceived in a Tresors, length, Karl Marx Stadt. The tradition ends with Vischer the Elder's Sebal- much larger scale. It was offered by Siegburg, of Cologne dusgrab of 1488-1519. Votive cities and town motifs appear in Par- to the abbey of Grandmont at the end of the 12th century For the ma (1248), Ferrara (1441), a German 15th-century city goblet, and history of the cult of relics see F. Pfister, "Der Reliquienkult im in the Ratingen monstrance (late 14th-century), to mention only a Altertum", Religionsgeschichte, Versuch-e und Vorarheiten, V, 2nd few. The type culminated in the silver Soissons model of 1560 ed., 1974, and Monumenta Annonir. YWelthildund Kunst im hohez plated which includes the walls, the churches and a central statue of Mary. Mittelalter, Schniitgen Museum, Cologne, 1957, 163-215 On the See 44, 252; R. des tours de treasures of Mainz and the continuation of overrich ornamentation Tresors, pl. Maere, "Maquette l'eglise St. Pierre a Louvain", Annales de la Societe de in a Gothic throne of God of c. 1250 with a "tabernakel", a "rot- Royale d'Archeologie Bruxelles, XL, 1936, 66; J. Evans, ed., The Flou'ering of the Middle guldin pinakel" and "garg6len", see J. v. Schlosser, Quelleznhuch, Ages, New York, 1966, 150; Rhein und Maas. 464 The roman- 294-300. II, tic toy architecture ignored design discipline and precision of scale and it remained eclectic in its formal 14. For Nicolas of Verdun, see W.D. Wixom, "The Greatness of the so- proportions; vocabulary Some of the most stalls called Minor Arts" in F. Deuchler, ed., The Year 1200, II, 93-132, sophisticated however, such as those in cathedral, Chester cathedral (1380) and Ulm must be viewed as and Rhein und Maas, II, 197. The shrines fall into the years 1181-ca. cities. 1230. The architecture of the shrine of the Three Kings is so unclear architecturallyprecise symbolic that it is impossible to determine if the arcades in the roof panes 19. The proportions consist of additive 1:1 units horizontally and vertical- symbolized colonnades or clerestories. ly. See Grimme, Goldschmiedekunst, 40; Swarzenski, Monuments, 500-502; Rhein und Maas, II, 96, 218-43. The Berlin 15. For the minute (29 cms. high) philactery of Arnac-de-la Poste with figs. reliquary measures 455 x 410 mm. The of the two Fatimid crystals, see Tresors, 193, pl. 72. On the important Hezilo high quality reliquaries is evidenced a with Corona see W. Arenhivel, Der Hezilo Radleuchter in Dom zu by comparison the head-reliquary of St. Oswald above a domed structure of ca. 1176 in Hildesheim cathedral. See Hildesheim, Berlin, 1975. Miniature "cities" found in some early The Year 1200, I1, 145. objects could certainly not be ignored by the artists and the few who fig. handled the reliquaries and book covers. For the late 9th-century 20. The Evreux shrine was commissioned by abbot Gilebertus and re- St. and Lindau made in Reims and the codex covers of Emmeram stored in 1830 (Trcsors, 111-12, pi 113) Cf. with the late 13th-century of of c. 1050 now in Essen see H. cross Theophanu Swarzenski, refined Chasse de St. Romain in Rouen (Tresors, 108, pl 112). 2nd Monuments of , ed., Chicago, 1967, pls 10, 11, The Gertrudis-shrine was destroyed in 1940. Its length was 47,5 for the in the Osnabruck 33. Identical techniques were used crosses cm. The donor may have been Mary of Brabant (Rhein und Maas, and Aachen treasures (Rhein und Maas, II, 186-88) and in I, 356-57). The break-through quality of these works is clear if "A Thirteenth Eymoutiers (P. Verdier, Century Monstrance in the they are compared with the prevalent casket shapes (Tresors, 227, Walters Art in Honor E. Gallery", Gatherings of Dorothy Miner, pi. 60). For a late architectural shrine, namely the reliquary of St.- 257-82). Baltimore, 1974, Germain des Pres of 1408-09 see V. W. Egbert, "The Reliquary of St. Germain", The BurlitngtonMagazine, June 1970, 359-60. 16. For the Arch of Einhard see H. Belting, "Der Einhardsbogen", Zeit- 21. See D. L. "The Oberwesel and the schrift fir Kunstgeschichte, XXXVI, 1973, 93-121, and Grimme, Ehresmann, Altarpiece Origin of the Art A Goldschmiedekunst, 20. The portable altar of King Arnulf of ca. Winged Altarpiece," College lociation Ahltracts. 1974. 870, and especially the reliquary of the Holy Sepulchre in Similar, precisely designed altars include a late 14th-century must be seen as symbolic buildings. (J. Hubert, J. Porcher, W. F. shrine from Cologne (Rhein und Maas, II, 461-62) and Jacques de Volbach, Europe of the Invasions, New York, 1969, 16, and M. Baerze's altar of 1391 for Champmol now in the Dijon Museum (P, Backes, R. Dolling, Art of the Dark Ages, New York, 1969, 131). Kidson, The Medieval World, New York, 1967, 162, and J. Evans, For the Gozbert censer and a related 11th-century (?) example in The Flou'ering, 294). The Neville Screen was restored in 1959. the British Museum, see H. Swarzenski, Monuments, pl. 155, and E. See J. Harvey, The Mediaezal Architect, ILondon, 1972, 188. For Kitzinger, Early Medieval Art, London, 1955, 87, pl 39 Kitzinger the very important, also restored, superstructure of ca. 1290 over connects the city censer with Theophilus' stipulation that they should the Marburgshrine see E. Dinkler von Schubert, Der Schrein der Heili- represent the Heavenly Jerusalem. The Victoria and Albert Museum gen Elizabeth zu Marhurg, Studien zur Schreinikonographie, Marburg, 1964. coffret may have contained a donor document. The Sayn reliquary in the Mus6es Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire in Brussels (Inv no 111/1)

85 22. For Italian examples see E. Lavagnino, ll Medioevo, Turin 1936, known for their intellectual vigor such as the Parlers, Ensinger, 558, 561, 581-86, 590-91, 601-612, 616. A special study of Ried, or theoreticians such as Lechler and the Roriczers experimented the Italian examples would clarify much regarding the transmission most extensively with structural ingenuity and formal virtuosity See of Gothic design methods from the North. It would include the A. Seeliger-Zeiss, Lorenz Lechler von Heidelberg und sein Uwtkreis, tomb of Renb d'Anjou in Naples, 's ciboria, Heidelberg, 1967, and P. Pause, Gotische ArchitekturzeichnunCgen works from Tino da Camaiano, Andrea Orcagna, Giovanni di Bald- in Deutschland, Bonn, 1973, 210 ff. For Konrad Roriczer's triangular uccio's Reliquary shrine in St. Eustorgio, Milan, and the Bologna entrance, see F. Bucher, Derign, 65. In the south reredos (Lavagnino, fig. 715). A discussion of Gothic frames, of of Regensburg cathedral stands a well, constructed by Konrad's son the ivory and bone triptychs of the Embriachi, and reliquaries such Wolfgang who was beheaded on May 30, 1514. The complex stone as Ugolino di Vieri's shrine in Orvieto, and finally the heavily crown consists of two triangular, cantilevered parts, each weighing restored La Spina church in Pisa is overdue, and could establish at least one thousand pounds, and set on two piers. For another, a new context for Italian Gothic. simpler ciborium, also by Wolfgang, see L. Brand Philip, The Ghent and the Art of Jan van Eyck, Princeton, 1971, fig 18. 23. For the Vienna design see F. Bucher, "Design in Gothic Archi- Altarpiece The little known monuments also fall within the range of tecture", Journal of the Soc. of Arch. Historians, XXVII, 1968, following, architectural accents by small scale structures They 69. The rebuilt papal tombs of John XXII and Innocent VI (died major provided are: the of Notre-Dame at Alencon with diagonal flanks Sept. 12, 1362) are surprising in the classical atmosphere of the porch and characterized one author as "no more than a typically papal court. See W. Braxton-Ross, "Giovanni Colonna, Historian by frivolous of late Gothic equivocation"; a mid-15th-century at Avignon", Speculum, XLV, October 1970, 533-63. They depend piece baldachin for a font in Ulm; a aedicula of on English monuments such as the tomb of Edmund Crouchback, triangular triangular 1467 in St. Severus, Erfurt (See P. Frankl, Gothic Architecture, Earl of Lancaster in Westminster Abbey of ca. 1296, the shrine of Baltimore, 1962, 202, 156). The of these monu- St. Alban's in St. Alban's of ca. 1323, and funeral monu- fig. lively tracery especially ments in wooden structures. The boldest is ments such as the very advanced tomb of Edward II in Gloucester originated example in fact the wooden baldachin over the cathedralof ca. 1330. See A. Martindale, Gothic Art, New York, 1967, Joerg Syrlin Younger's Ulm cathedral pulpit, whose spiralling staircase leads to another, 118-19. These small "churches" with painted vaults, a "nave" and unusable under the vault. a "crypt" containing the body, appeared in one form or another pulpit all over the continent and include the nearly perfectly preserved 28. Some of the designs are of such complexity, that the reconstruction tombs in Narbonne cathedral. They were important in developing of the underlying schemata is difficult. This is especially true for the refined sensibilities of later Gothic, such as Guy de Dammartin's drawings which combine triangles, rhombi and polygons in rotat- traceried gables above the fireplace in the Palace of the Counts of ional symmetry with arcs whose centers may lie at a considerable Poitou which were commissioned by Jean, Duke of Berry, between distance from the planned structure. In terms of geometric method- 1348-86. See Kidson, The Medieval World, 155. Simultaneously ology and stress on materials, works such as the tabernacles in Ulm outdoor monuments such as the Spinnerin am Kreuz near Vienna, (1470) or Niirnberg (Adam Kraft, 1493) with its heart-shaped the Hochkreuz in Bad Godesberg, and the Montjoies and Eleanor double curved finials, show as much temerity as Anton Pilgram's Crosses educated both the public and the architect-sculptors to famous Vienna pulpit of 1515. One of the supreme dares in apply tight design controls to monuments other than churches. material minimalism is Simon de Colonia's partially pierced star See J. Zukowsky, "Montjoies and Eleanor Crosses Reconsidered", vault of 1482-94 over the Capilla del Condestable in Journal of the Architectural Historians, XIII 1974, 39- Society of /1, cathedral (Frankl, Gothic Architecture, 197, 146). It was sur- 44. fig. passed only by the completely pierced crossing vault designed by 24. See F. Bucher, "Medieval Architectural Design Methods, 800-1500", Philippe Vigarny ca. 1540 and completed by Jean de I.angres Gesta, XI/2, 1972, 37-51. in 1568 at the cost of more than 20 million maravedis These vaults are the antecedents of the Spanish, 'trasparente'. 25. For a brief summary of the increasing loss of nerve in the 14th (See M. D. Bardeschi,La Catedralde Burgos, , 1967, 5) century see J. Gimpel, La revolution industrielle du Moyen Age, Paris, 1975, 189-224. Beauvais collapsed during the eighth hour 29. Excluding clerics such as Achardus who built churches for Bernard of 1284. to November 29, According Stephen Murray the collapse of Clairvaux, and Benedetto Antelami, a tentative list of professionals affected mainly No. 7, and had been preceeded by an earlier who worked in several arts, guided teams to build small monu- in The of accident 1225. tower by Jan Vaast 1558-69 reached ments, or were active in macro- and microprojects might include 497' and collapsed April 30, 1573. Beauvais offers a medieval ex- the following names: 13th century: Villard de Honnecourt, John ample of the dichotomy between economic viability and status, of Gloucester, Henry de Reyns, Edward the son of Odo; 14th century: fired of an versus engineering hubris which the pride elite. The Lando di Pietro (goldsmithing, architecture, engineering, hydraulics), reckless inter-city competitions which continue to this day interested Giotto di Bondone, Peter Parler, Giovanni, Andrea and Nino Pisano, "man street" or made him the on the only tangentially, uneasy, as Lorenzo Maitani; 15th, early : Jorg Syrlin, Lorenz in films as the Inferno". seen such "Towering Lechler,Caspar and Moritz Lechler, Hans and Lienhard Syfer, Madern Gerthner, Peter Hammer von Anton 26. The Vienna material alone contains 474 designs for small con- Andlau, Pilgram, Jodocus Matthaeus Matthaeus and Lukas Boeb- structions. None has indications of scale which could vary from Dotzinger, Ensinger, Hans, 4" x 7" to 6' x 90', or from monstrances to tabernacles, fonts, linger, Hubert van Eyck, Josse Metsijs, Gil de Siloe, Juerg Seld, Burkhart Nikolaus Hans Schmut- fountains, podiums etc. They follow a 'scale of experience' dictated Engelberg, Gregor Erhart, Queck, Hans Lorenz Matthaeus Griinewald by the knowledge of the breaking point of complex, dowelled stone termayer, Hammer, Spenning, and others. As we advance in architects were in- elements in contrast to the much greater tensile strength of materials time, increasingly volved in metal work and See G. de Benedetto other than stone. See H. Kopf, Gotische Planrisse der Wiener Sam- weaponry. Francovich, Antelami, architetto e scultore et l'arte moderna de suo 2v. mlungen, Vienna, 1969. tempo, Milan, 1952. V. W. Egbert, The Medieval Artist at Work, Princeton, 27. The architects were-and are-interested in small structures and 1967; V. Husa, Traditional Crafts and Skills, Prague, 1967 K. furnishings for several reasons: They could challenge the viewer Gerstenberg, Die deutschen Baumeisterhildnisse des Mittelalters, Ber- at a close, personal range. Being inside, the objects would not lin, 1966. Filarete's statement of 1464 includes the following: Gli lose their pristine quality. They could, without structural punish- orefici fanno loro a quella somilitudine e forma de'tabernacoli e ment, discard simple euclidean design and move into geometric de'turibili da dare incenso; et a quella somilitudine e forma fatti i projections which arestill l vrvery difficult tonalyto analyze. TheT architects dificij perchb a quegli lavori paiano begli; et anche piu si confanno

86 ne'loro lavori, che non fanno ne'dificij. E questo huso e modo anno , Capilla del Condestable, 1482-94; Brou, tomb avuto ... da tramontani, cioe da Todeschi e da Francesi; e per queste of Margaret of Austria, 1513-23. The above are personal statements, cagioni si sono perdute. (Frankl, The Gothic, 858-59). probably imposed by the patron. Tabernacles: Adam Kraft, Niirn- berg St. Lorenz, 1493; Ulm; Esslingen etc. Fonts: St. Severin Erfurt 30. Already Suger had demanded that "costliest things should serve, first of 1467; Strasbourg, Ulm, Basel. Screens: Magdalen church, Troyes, and foremost for the administration of the Holy Eucharist". See E 1508-17; Cologne, St. Pantaleon, 1502-14; Albi cathedral ca 1500 Panofsky, Ahhot Suger, 65. K. Karrer made me aware of the Further to be considered are the pulpits of St. Stephen, Vienna, Testament of St. Francis of September (?) 1226 in which he discussed Basel; the porches or entrances of Albi, Louviers, the St. Lawrence the placement of the "most holy body of Christ": "above everything portal of Strasbourg cathedral, branch work-in Regensburg, St. Pierre else I want this most holy sacrament to be . . . venerated, reserved in Caen and many examples of tracery,niches etc. etc. for places which are richly ornamented." (St. Francis of . Omnibus of Sources, ed. M. A. Habig, Chicago, 1972, 67-70). With the 32. The Freiburg tower measures 380'. The irregular, pierced octa- 1215 edict demanding the protection of relics, the host began to gon spire is over 142' high. It was constructed in brittle sand- be encased in increasingly splendid receptacles, including tabernacles stone over an earthquake fault which explains horizontal and in which the eucharist was 'buried' from Maundy Thursday through vertical distortions which occurred in spite of the heavy iron the of Easter. The monstrances and the tabernacles substantiat- ties in lead beds at each successive storey. The erection of the ed the concept of the eternal mass and asserted Christ's presence 515'6" Cologne spires following the 1310-20 elevation of the as the High Priest of the new covenant, who continuously performed 533' Ulm and the Bern towers, also after late medieval designs, the mystical union between God and the church. The host and the were postponed for financial and technical reasons. The mid-14th- monstrance thus symbolically unify earthly space with Paradise, century North tower of St. Stephen in Vienna, the Tour de Beurre and the believer thus joins the chorus heatorum. Of all objects the in Rouen of 1485, Giotto's campanile in Florence, the South monstrances and tabernacles therefore were to be the most ethereal tower of Strasbourg, and of cathedral were never com- and immaterial, an aim not easily achieved through the use of stone. pleted. The tower was not even started. (See note 10). While most early ostensoria such as the "chapel" from St. Saulve The Burgos spires, begun by Hanns of Cologne on September in Montreuil-sur-Mer of ca. 1275, shown at the Ottawa exhibit of 18, 1442 are small in comparison with the German giants. 1972, or the mid-14th-century monstrance-shaped Parler reliquary The openwork section in Cologne measures over 198', and like in Prague cathedral still are buildings which could be erected in stone, all the other examples, presented dangerous difficulties and an later monstrances became increasingly tenuous. (See P. Brieger, P immediate and constant need for repairs. The advantage of greater Verdier, Art and the Courts, The National Gallery of Canada, 1972, lightness does not outweigh the predictable bother. We must 82, and Rhein and Maas, 11,462-3.) For important examples of taber- therefore presuppose an overwhelming aesthetic imperative. Only nacles and monstrances see Spitgotik am Oherrhein, ed. E. Petrasch, a few open work "spires" in metal dating before 1400 are Badisches LandesmuseumKarlsruhe, 1970, figs. 168-176, Tresors, 416 preserved. Ugolino da Vieri's Sacro Corporale reliquary in Orvieto fig. 151-52, 172, P. Pause, Architekturzeichnungen, 210 ff, F. Bucher, is dated 1337, and the head reliquary of San Savino was created ca. Design, 67, Methods, 45, J. J. F. Davatz, "Zur Hostienmonstranz von 1340. Lando di Pietro's reliquary of San Galgano in Siena dates 1518 in Glarus," Unsere Kunstdenkmaler, 26, 1975, 291-308, Y. between 1311-40 and has a timidly open spire (see Lavagnino, Him, The Sacred Shrine, 89-126, J. Burckhardt, Die Kunst der II Medioevo, 745-48, figs. 525, 847). In the North major in Italien, Leipzig, 1937, fig. 165 (five-storey city 15th-century restorations of tower reliquaries and monstrances monstrance, San Antonio, Padua). The contracts for these works are reported. Two untouched early examples are the Cologne are often precise. Georg Schongauer, older brother of Martin, was ostensorium with pierced gables and roof panes and the splen- even given stylistic advice, "nach deutscher Form", when he began did open work lectern by Jean de Joes of Dinant, ca. 1370 (Rhein und a monstrance in 1488 (E. Petrasch, Gotik, 239, fig. 170). The Maas, I, 72, 400-403, II, 459-63). By 1400 open work "towers" formal vocabulary developed for monstrances and tabernacles was in metal became frequent (see n. 30). The absence of preserved transferred to civic structures such as oriels, fountains; or to in- examples contemporary with the Cologne elevation-short of terior members such as the chiselled ribs of cathedral and censers with functional cover openings-does not disprove my the "metallic" filigree work of its facade; and even more pointedly point. (see n. 35) A clear indication of a sudden infusion of to flying, double curved ribs, arches and hanging keystones. These a formal vocabulary foreign to sound construction is offered by shapes which are adverse to the capabilities of stone had been two 14th-century Strasbourg elevations which show receding introduced in the double-curvedogees of the wooden bishop's throne vertical stories of stone capped by closed, wooden spires (See of ca. 1312 in Exeter cathedral and in the "nodding ogees" in the H. Koepf, Planrisse, figs. 66-67; A. Wangart, Das Miinster in Lady Chapel of Ely cathedral in ca. 1320. These ogees are themselves Freihurg im Breisgau im rechten Mass, Freiburg, 1972, pls. 14, carried by "stamped" membrane-arches with hanging floral knobs 16; F. Bucher, Medieval Design, 41). (H. Bishop and E. K. Prideaux, The Building of the Cathedral of St. Peter in Exeter, London, 1922, 34). For double curved projection 33. For the most important initial study of the development of the see F. Bucher, "The Dresden Sketch-Book of Vault Projection", designs for wooden altars from the simple Schloss Tyrol triptych Acts of the XXII International Congress of Art History, Budapest, of ca. 1370, to the extremely complex multi-panelled late Gothic 1972, 527-37. examples, see H. Huth, Kunstler und Werkstatt der Spatgotik, 2nd ed., Darmstadt, 1967. See also W. Ueberwasser, "Spatgotische 31. The florid Ely arches, the precise botanical exempla of Reims, Naum- Baugeometrie," Oeffentliche Kunstsammlung Basel, 25-27, 1928- burg, St. Catherine in Oppenheim (ca. 1317) are non-structural. Ab- 30, 79-122, and E. Bacher, "Der Bildraum in der Glasmalerei des straction still prevailed in the radiating ribs of the English 14. Jahrhunderts," Wiener ]ahrhuch fuir Kunstgeschichte, 25, houses, and the Jacobins in Toulouse which were uniquely suited to 1972, 87-95. The 1437 sketch-book of leaf patterns only. by organic interpretation. The later branch work is self-conscious and in Hanns von Boeblingen, son of the architect Matthew, is typical competition with altars and metal work (See n. 33) Major examples for the high specialization in the altar-industry which included listed below must be seen as desperately romantic, and, sometimes decorators such as leaf-cutters, statue-painters, gilders and framers. entertaining reactions against the Renaissance. For the Tree Room "Mixed media" altars such as those in Kefermarkt by a Passau in Beckyne Castle and the Alcobaca sacristy see E. Boersch-Supan, master (1491-98), St. Wolfgang by Pacher (1471-81), Garten-, Landschafts- und Paradiesmotive im Innenraum, Berlin, St. Martin Landshut (1424), Frankfurt cathedral (Dormition, 1967, pls. 122-23. Some key monuments: Prague, cathedral, gallery, 1432), Hereford (L. Brand Philip, Van Eyck, fig. 23), Ulm (Jorg 1490; St. Ulrich und Afra, , Simpertus-arch, 1492; Syrlin, ca. 1480) and Rabenden, 1510-15 (J. Rohmeder, "Der

87 Meister des Hochaltars in Rabenden," Munchner kunsthistorische of ca. 1480 now in Ulm; a large elevation for a choir screen Ahbandlungen, 3, Munich, 1971), became showpieces of com- with color schemes, and priests for scale, in Bern, and many plexity. Huth's study shows the close cooperation between archi- other examples. The importance of altars was such that the tect-designers, sculptors, painters, stone-cutters and metal-workers choir of St. Wolfgang was enlarged to house the Pacher altar For visible connections see E. Petrasch, Gotik, figs 14-15, 86-87, 37. No other painting seems to demonstrate the importance of the 164-65, 180-81, 184-85. The work of the architects extended to host for the triumph of the church more potently It was sup- sophisticated public monuments, especially fountains, such as those posedly imported from Bruges and given to the Gerosolimite in Urach by Peter of Koblenz (1495-1500), Niirnberg by Hein- convent of Our Lady of Parral in by Henry IV Trans- rich Parler the Fisch- (?) 1381-90 (restored 1824, 1902, 1945), ferred to Madrid in 1838 it entered the Prado in 1872. It in Ulm of 1482 kastenbrunnen by Jiorg Syrlin (?) Eventually measures 181 x 116 cms. The architecture does not have the sketches for these objects became highly abstract "stenographic" quality found in a fragment in the Musee des Arts Decoratifs line (F. Bucher, Medieval Design, 45) drawings in Paris, which shows a much more masterful hand, perhaps 34. For the reliquary of St. Margaret, see H. R. Hahnloser," Theo- that of Jan van Eyck. The painting is called pre-van-Eyckian, philus Presbyter und die Inkunabeln des mittelalterlichen Kristall- Jan Gossart, etc. See E. Panofsky, Early Netherlandi.h Painting, schliffs an Rhein und Maas," Rhein und Maas, 287-96 Hahnloser Cambridge, 1958, 216; E.W. Weisz, Janc Goart ;lcnanlt discusses the slow process of crystal work with the help of Mahuse, Parchim, 1913. For the Louvain tabernacle attributed to special techniques which included the use of corundum or Al 23. Matthieu de Layens in the last decade of the 15th century, The use of crystal cylinders representing small holy chambers see R. Maere, Maquette des Tours, 62. For Italy see n 22 The was continued to the end of the Middle Ages as seen in the ele- veneration of the host reached a climax in 1433 with pope gant reliquary of the veil of St. Aldegonde in Maubeuge, inaugu- Eugene IV's gift to Philip the Good of a relic of the bleeding ratedJune 16, 1496 (Tresors, 8). host. The costly splendour of private and public reliquaries had become a matter of prestige. The Bohemian reliquary of the precisely 35. The two Aachen pieces are the culmination of the Holy Blood of ca. 1410-20 was still subjected to pseudo-archi- articulated architectural were preceded reliquary type. They tectural logic, while the reliquary from the chapel of the Ordre the mid northern French Holy Sepulchre by important 13th-century du Saint Esprit made after 1400 in Paris became a supremely cathedral whose tiled in slits, in pioneering spire opens refined architecturalbauble (Kunst urn 1400, figs. 18, 19). tri- and quadrilobes. The reliquary chapels of Montreuil-sur-Mer (c. 1275) and the Evreux and Nivelles shrines follow In the 38. The development of the retablo must be connected with earlier mid 14th-century we find the open work Cologne Ursula shrine, reredos-altars in the North. Hans Gimund worked in Ia Seo, the Dinant lectern and the unique private altar from Cologne, Zaragoza, 1467-77; Francisco de Colonia in St Nicolas, Burgos in and in Coimbra now in the Bayerisches Landesmuseum. It is topped by two 1505; Juan de Ypres Other craftsmen from traceried windows and open work spires, and may be a work the North are mentioned frequently. The Zaragoza retablo of Hans Gmiind combines the idea of the monstrance with by the Oberwesel Reredos Master. (See notes 20, 30, 32 and (1473-77), the earlier of the revealed throne of or Christ Rhein und Maat, 461). The Karlsreliquienkapelle is well preserved. concept wisdom The Toledo is a It contains an "arm" of Charlemagne and relics of the Passion of tabernacle central plan structure comprising Christ. The socle of the Three Tower reliquary was repaired in 1829. a progressive change of scale. Focusing on the bottom figure we reach a 40' But the niches for a It contains relics of the Passion and remains of John the Baptist height. provide decreasing scale, and the small us a measurement over 200'. A and Stephen. Both shrines are crowned with sapphires, which, top figure gives of 'three dimensional thus according to Gregory the Great show "the color of air, point progressive theory perspective gives the viewer the achieved a 200' tower. to heavenly workings which express themselves in miracles'. impression by viewing Other of retablos and custodias are in the Grimme points out that the Karlskapelle may have inspired important examples Sta Ana of cathedral (1498), Zamora, , the capella vitrea construction of the new Aachen choir of 1355- Capilla Burgos 1414 (Grimme, Goldschmiedekunst, 73-78. 148-51, Rhein und Sta. Catalina Toledo and . (See F. Chueca, "I.a catedral nueva de Acta Salmaticiensie, 1 1(. ) Maas, I, 72; II, 459-63). The reliquary of St. Louis in S Domen- Salamanca," 4, ico, Bologna was not available to me, while the tower reliquary 39. For Brescia as a simile of Paradise, see I.. Brand Philip, The of Dominic Roseto of 1383 is architectonic, but weak by Jacopo Ghent Altarpiece, 195. Introduced in 1230 by the nun, Juliana, (Lavagnino, 11 Medioevo, 752). Looking at these objects we must of Mont Cornillon, near Liege, the Corpus Christi feast was "realistic" scale. It would an anagogical experi- disregard prevent locally instituted by Robert, bishop of Liege, in 1246 and of- ence which t(xk in a non-euclidean system, and was place space ficially sanctioned by Urban IV in 1264. The encasement of of the "verschiedene Wirklichkeitsbezirke" discussed by H. part relics, mandated by the Lateran Council of 1215 made mon- Beenken, in Jan l-an Munich, 1941. Eyck, strances mandatory. The first Corpus Christi procession took 36. See L. Brand Philip, The Ghent Altarpiece; reviewed by A Stones, place in 1278 at St. Gereon in Cologne. After 1300 the sym- Speculum, XLIX, January 1974, 140-42. The compartmentalized bolism of "sacerdos gerit imaginem Dei" and the even more Heavenly City appears in many manuscripts, such as: the Munich powerful image of the Ark carried through the crowd of the Bihlia Pauperurn;a Book of Hourr of ca. 1312 in Cambrai Iibrary New Covenant became carefully orchestrated even as a Cologne (P. Brieger, P. Verdier, Arts and the Courts, 43); Guiart de text of 1579 proves. Corpus Christi and reliquary processions Moulin's Bihle Historiale (K. Morand, Jean Pucelle,,Oxford, 1972, drew large crowds such as 40,000 people attending the Munich pl. 14); in city monstrances such as the Ratingen monstrance procession of 1392. They were connected with trumpet music, of 1394 (Rhein und Maas, I, 400), and even in some major indulgences, souvenirs and often followed by a fair. Some of chalices in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Many architects these activites are recorded in the magnificent architectural paint- made sketches for the total work, including ornamentation and ing on the Choir screen of (Rhein unLdMLaa., statuary. Among them we find Michael Parler III's elevation II, 81). The impact of processions past and present is shown of the Strasbourg bell-storey (c. 1383), a drawing from the school recorded in a remarkable set of photographs in Rhein und Maai, of Madern Gerthner of ca. 1420 (IEuropdische Kunst umr 1400, II, 60-94, and in V. W. Egbert, The Reliquary, figs 15-17 The Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, 1962, 260-61), Jacques de Coene's representations show that the monstrances and relics had be- show-drawing of the Milan facade requested from the painter- come symbolic of the church itself, deprived, temporarily of a architect in 1399; a sketch for a Paradise altar by Jorg Syrlin solid roof, which was soon to be replaced by a portable baldachin.

88 40. The Toledo custodia is close to 15' high and was gilded in 1470 can still be related to structures such as the North portal 1594 with American gold. It has been considerably restored of Strasbourg, while the shrine of Sts. Gervasius and Prothasius The custodia of Leon was designed by Henry of Cologne in 1501, in Breisach of 1496 is overgrown with expensive but dry leaf which again points to cross-currents to the North. Only the patterns (Spiitgotik, 249, fig. 197, 266, figs. 212-13). The famous architect-engineer Antonio Gaudi revived similar ecstatically ver- "Goldenes Rossel" from Altotting of 1403-04 given to Charles tical formal transports in his Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. For VI by Isabella of shows servants, a horse, a barking dog, reliquaries in a crowd see n. 39 and Rhein und Maas, II, 70-74, Charles VI, Mary, her child and angels before a flowered trellis. 84-89. Like the Order of Saint Esprit reliquary its main quality lies in brazen ostentation (n. 37 and Grimme, Goldschmiedekunst, 158, 41. The following elements of micro-architecture were excluded from fig. 56). With the decline of Gothic architecture, the reliquary consideration here: a) the joint conception of a reliquary and returns to its early character as an expensive object of hypnotic architectural program such as in the Wenceslas chapel in St. charm. The heavily overgrown screen in St. Magdalen of Troyes Vitus, Prague, or in Karlestejn (1348-57); b) the influence of (1500-1507) echoes the trend to impress through precious over- the many architectural models on screens and reliquaries; c) the loading and is reminiscent of the Breisach reliquary (P. Frankl, use of wood, terracotta and papiermache for temporary proces- Gothic Architecture, fig. 157). Finally the well established icono- sional structures, d) a unified theory of optical proportions; graphic type of the two tower reliquary was devaluated in Philip e) the and the character of the emotion- theological complexities the Good's two tower clock of ca. 1430 (Germanisches National- al impact; f) the psychological effects of reflection and trans- museum, Niirnberg). Metaphysical space and time had now been the of stones, metal and parency; g) meaning precious gilded rationalized a which would fix the violent wood from a and alchemical of view. by timepiece precisely symbolic, magical point death of Charles the Bold in 1477, and with it the final moments The very late examples belong to the nick-nack class, often of of medieval nobility. the "Faberge" type. The Hallwyl reliquary in Basel dated before

Photograph Credits: Plate I, a (National Gallery, London); Plate 1, c, d. IV, a (Victoria and Albert Museum, London); Plate Illa, h, V. c, (Oeffen. liche Kunstsammlung Basel); Plate IV, h (Eva Frodl Kraft. Vienna); Plate V, h (Ulmer Museum); Plate VI a-d (Achivo Mas.,Barcelona).

89