Gertsman Abstraction in Medieval Art Beyond the Ornament Edited by Elina Gertsman Abstraction in Medieval Art Medieval in Abstraction Abstraction in Medieval Art Abstraction in Medieval Art Beyond the Ornament Edited by Elina Gertsman Amsterdam University Press The publication of this book is made possible by a grant from the Hallinan Fund at Case Western Reserve University. Cover illustration: Figure 11 from Hrabanus Maurus, In Praise of the Holy Cross, 847, Mainz. Paris, Bibliothè- que nationale de France, MS lat. 2422, fol. 13v. Photo courtesy of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Cover design: Coördesign, Leiden Lay-out: Crius Group, Hulshout isbn 978 94 6298 989 4 e-isbn 978 90 4854 267 3 doi 10.5117/9789462989894 nur 684 © The authors / Amsterdam University Press B.V., Amsterdam 2021 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book. Every effort has been made to obtain permission to use all copyrighted illustrations reproduced in this book. Nonetheless, whosoever believes to have rights to this material is advised to contact the publisher. Table of Contents Acknowledgments 7 Preface: Withdrawal and Presence 17 Elina Gertsman Part I Abstraction / Aporia / Unknowability 1. Colour as Subject 33 Vincent Debiais 2. Abstraction’s Gothic Grounds 55 Aden Kumler 3. Abstraction in the Kennicott Bible 89 Adam S. Cohen and Linda Safran 4. Back-to-Front: Abstraction and Figuration in Bosch’s Visions of the Hereafter 115 Robert Mills Part II Abstraction / Figuration / Signification 5. The Painted Logos: Abstraction as Exegesis in the Ashburnham Pentateuch 141 Danny Smith 6. The Sign within the Form, the Form without the Sign: Monograms and Pseudo-Monograms as Abstractions in Mozarabic Antiphonaries 167 Benjamin C. Tilghman 7. Ornament and Abstraction: A New Approach to Understanding Ornamented Writing in the Making of Illuminated Manuscripts around 1000 191 Gia Toussaint 8. The Double-Sided Image: Abstraction and Figuration in Early Medieval Painting 213 Nancy Thebaut Part III Abstraction / Epistemology / Perception 9. Birds of Defiance: Jewelled Resistance to Modern Abstractions 245 Danielle B. Joyner 10. Early Romanesque Abstraction and the ‘Unconditionally Two- dimensional Surface’ 267 Megan C. McNamee 11. Functional Abstraction in Medieval Anatomical Diagrams 285 Taylor McCall 12. Imaging Perfection(s) in Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts 309 Julie A. Harris 13. Response: Astral Abstraction 329 Herbert L. Kessler 14. Coda: Carolingian Art As Conceptual Art? 355 Charlotte Denoël Index 381 Acknowledgments My utmost thanks to my contributors for their infinite patience and perseverance in the face of the pandemic, which slowed us down considerably; to the Hallinan Fund at Case Western Reserve University that made it possible for this book to be published in brilliant colour; to Erika Gaffney, who shepherded this volume with a serenity peculiar to her and her alone; to my fantastic PhD students and research assistants Russell David Green and Reed O’Mara for their heroic work on the volume; and to my beloved family, as always. Illustrations Figure 0-1. Matzah, the Hispano-Moresque Haggadah, 1275-1324. London, British Library, Or. 2737, fol. 22r. Photo: The British Library. 18 Figure 0-2. ‘Matzah’, the Hispano-Moresque Haggadah, 1275-1324. London, British Library, Or. 2737, fol. 21v. Photo: The British Library. 19 Figure 1-1. Silos Beatus, 1091-1109. London, British Library, Add. 11695, fol. 125v. Photo: The British Library. 35 Figure 1-2. Urgell Beatus, c. 975. Seu d’Urgell, Museo Diocesano, ms. 501, fol. 123v. Previously reproduced in Francisco Prado-Vilar, “Silentium: El silentio cósmico como imagen en la Edad Media y la Modernidad,” Revista de poética medieval 27 (2013): 21-43. 36 Figure 1-3. Cologne Gospels, c. 1030. New York, Morgan Library, ms. 651, fols. 8v-9r. 38 Figure 1-4. St. Vitus Sacramentary, c. 1050. Freiburg, Universitätsbiblio- thek, cod. 360a, fol. 20r. 40 Figure 1-5. Biblical narratives on the vault, c. 1100. Saint-Savin-sur- Gartempe, abbey church, nave. Photo: Vincent Debiais. 43 Figure 1-6. Gospels of St. Andrew of Cologne, end of the 10th century. Darmstadt, Hessisches Landesmuseum, Inv. Nr. KG 54: 213a, b, fol. 126v. Previously reproduced in Herbert Kessler, Seeing Medieval Art (Broadview Press, 2005), cover. 47 Figure 2-1. Guillaume de Digulleville, Pèlerinage de l’âme, c. 1404-1405. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS fr. 829, fol. 219v, detail. Photo courtesy of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. 57 Figure 2-2. Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum historiale, 1346. Lyon, BM, MS fr. 182 (110), fol. 233r. Photo: IRHT, courtesy of the IRHT and the Bibliothèque municipale de Lyon. 59 Figure 2-3. Guillaume de Digulleville, Pèlerinage de l’âme, c. 1404-1405. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS fr. 829, fol. 39r. Photo courtesy of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. 60 Figure 2-4. Guillaume de Digulleville, Pèlerinage de l’âme, c. 1404-1405. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS fr. 829, fol. 10v. Photo courtesy of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. 61 Figure 2-5. Guillaume de Digulleville, Pèlerinage de l’âme, c. 1404-1405. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS fr. 829, fol. 39r. Photo courtesy of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. 62 Figure 2-6. Grandes Chroniques de France, after 1380. London, British Library, Royal MS 20.C.VII, fol. 107v, detail. Photo courtesy of the British Library Board. 64 10 Figure 2-7. Guillaume de Digulleville, Pèlerinage de l’âme, c. 1390-1401. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS fr. 12465, fol. 147v, detail. Photo courtesy of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. 66 Figure 3-1. Front (right) and rear (left) bindings with abstract ornament in relief, the Kennicott Bible, 1476. Oxford, Bodleian Lib., MS. Kenn. 1. Photo © The Bodleian Libraries, The University of Oxford. 90 Figure 3-2. Front (right) and rear (left) pastedowns, the Kennicott Bible, 1476. Oxford, Bodleian Lib., MS. Kenn. 1. Photo © The Bodleian Libraries, The University of Oxford. 92 Figure 3-3. Joseph ibn Hayyim, abstract ornament, the Kennicott Bible, 1476. Oxford, Bodleian Lib., MS. Kenn. 1, fols. 119v (strapwork panel at end of Deuteronomy) and 120r (‘carpet’ page with interlace frame for bleed-through of first page with Temple implements). Photo © The Bodleian Libraries, The University of Oxford. 92 Figure 3-4. Joseph ibn Hayyim, abstract ornament, the Kennicott Bible, 1476. Oxford, Bodleian Lib., MS. Kenn. 1, fols. 121v (bleed- through of ‘carpet’ page with Temple implements) and 122r (carpet page with dragons in spandrels). Photo © The Bodleian Libraries, The University of Oxford. 93 Figure 3-5. Joseph ibn Hayyim, abstract ornament, the Kennicott Bible, 1476. Oxford, Bodleian Lib., MS. Kenn. 1, fols. 122v (interlaced six-pointed star in interlace roundel) and 123r (‘carpet’ page with gold on blue strapwork forming eight-pointed stars). Photo © The Bodleian Libraries, The University of Oxford. 93 Figure 3-6. Joseph ibn Hayyim, abstract ornament, the Kennicott Bible, 1476. Oxford, Bodleian Lib., MS. Kenn. 1, fols. 317v–318r, ‘carpet’ pages with micrographic interlace composed of verses from Psalms. Photo © The Bodleian Libraries, The University of Oxford. 94 Figure 3-7. Joseph ibn Hayyim, abstract ornament, the Kennicott Bible, 1476. Oxford, Bodleian Lib., MS. Kenn. 1, fols. 352r (left; strapwork panel at end of Chronicles) and, on the reverse (right), fol. 352v (‘carpet’ page preceding Psalms on fol. 353r). Photo © The Bodleian Libraries, The University of Oxford. 94 Figure 4-1. Hieronymus Bosch, Visions of the Hereafter, c. 1505-1515, featuring from left to right The Fall of the Damned, The River to Hell (or Purgatory), The Garden of Eden, and The Ascent of the Blessed. Oil on oak panel, each panel approx. 89 × 40 cm. Venice, Museo di Palazzo Grimani. Source: Bosch Research and Conservation Project, http://boschproject.org. 116 ILLusTRATIONS 11 Figure 4-2. Hieronymus Bosch, images on reverse of Visions of the Hereafter panels, c. 1505-1515. Source: Bosch Research and Conservation Project, http://boschproject.org. 117 Figure 4-3. Jan Provoost, exterior wings from Triptych with the Virgin and Child, John the Evangelist, and Mary Magdalene, c. 1520-1525. Oil on panel, 44.3 × 30.5 cm. The Hague, Mauritshuis. 118 Figure 4-4. Workshop of Hieronymus Bosch, exterior wings of Job Triptych, c. 1510-1520. Oil on oak panel, left wing 98.1 × 30.5 cm, right wing 97.8 × 30. 2 cm. Bruges, Stad Brugge, Groeningemuseum (on loan from Church of Saint James the Greater, Hoeke, Damme). Source: Musea Brugge, www.lukasweb.be—Art in Flanders, photo Hugo Maertens. 119 Figure 4-5. Hieronymus Bosch, detail of reverse of The Ascent of the Blessed panel from Visions of the Hereafter. Source: Bosch Research and Conservation Project, http://boschproject.org. 122 Figure 4-6. Hieronymus Bosch, detail of The Ascent of the Blessed panel from Visions of the Hereafter. Source: Bosch Research and Conservation Project, http://boschproject.org. 127 Figure 5-1. Creation, Ashburnham Pentateuch, 6th century, with 9th-century repainting. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS nouv. acq. lat. 2334, fol. 1v. Photo courtesy of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. 142 Figure 5-2. God the Son, Ashburnham Pentateuch. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS nouv. acq. lat. 2334, fol. 1v, detail. Photo courtesy of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. 143 Figure 5-3. Barnett Newman, Onement 1, 1948. Oil on canvas and oil on masking tape on canvas. 27 1/4 × 16 1/4” (69.2 × 41.2 cm). 390.1992. Museum of Modern Art, New York, Gift of Annalee Newman. © 2018 Barnett and Annalee Newman Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.