Brigitte Buettner / Fall 2005
Hillyer Hall 306; ext. 3125
Office Hours: Mon 1:30 - 2:30 pm & Wed 3 - 4 pm
email: bbuettne@smith.edu
ARH 234: THE AGE OF CATHEDRALS
(Art in Northern Europe, 13th-15th centuries
Graham Auditorium
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course will explore a select group of representative Gothic and late medieval monuments and images in order to
understand the characteristics of the architectural and visual language of this period. The first part of the course focuses
on architecture and related monumental arts. The second highlights small-scale formats, illuminated manuscripts as well
as examples of the sumptuous arts (metalwork, ivory carving, textiles, etc.). Accordingly, our attention will shift from
public and civic to private and courtly patronage.
Special emphasis will be given to cross-disciplinary perspectives so as to embed the works of art into their historical and
social contexts. Particular themes that we will stress include: the urbanization of Europe; the social, economic, and
technical aspects of the construction of the cathedrals; changes in religious, specifically devotional, attitudes;
the function of art in the formation of court society and, more generally, as a political tool; patronage, including the
important role played by women.
COURSE FORMAT
Class meets MWF 11am - 12:10pm. Though a lecture class, it consists of a mixture of lectures and discussions, both
informal and formal (discussion of scholarly texts). Your class participation will be solicited throughout the semester,
and will be taken into in your final evaluation.
Please note that there will be a field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, on Saturday October 22, to
view the special exhibition “Prague, Crown of Bohemia.”
READINGS ASSIGNMENTS
Readings are listed on the syllabus after the lecture schedule for each week. Most are scholarly articles or chapters of
books, representing a broad cross-section of art historical methodologies, both past and current. The readings will
introduce you to different ways of interpreting art as well as to some influential scholars of Gothic art. Readings
might be added during the course of the semester, as they come to my attention. Because the readings are an essential
complement to the lectures (and indeed an essential component of the course), I will refer to them and assume that
you have read the assigned texts for each week.
Our textbook is Michael Camille, Gothic Art: Glorious Visions (1996). You can either purchase it at the Campus Center
bookstore or read it from Reserve. However, insofar as it does not move chronologically, we will not read it segment by
segment to match the lecture schedule. Instead you need to read it on your own early in the semester; on October 28 you
are asked to hand in a short paper on this book and discuss it (I will hand out specific guidelines).
Should you have little prior knowledge in art history, I would also recommend that you read the brief but incisive book
by John Berger, Ways of Seeing, 1972, as well as the relevant chapters on Gothic art in art history survey books, such as
Gardner’s Art Through the Ages (last ed., 2005), Larry Silver, Art in History (1993), or Maryling Stokstad
As a historical introduction to the Middle Ages, you can read through C.W. Hollister, Medieval Europe: A Short
History, 1990 (6th ed.), part II, pp. 141-348 (on Reserve).
INSIGHT & BLACKBOARD
Insight is Smith’s image database. I am posting appropriate materials for our course, which you can review
in the folder “Cathedral” under my name. You can access Insight on all computers in the libraries or in the Imaging
Center (Hillyer 3rd floor) from the Library’s homepage (you ID + password: student). You may also download it
from: http://www.smith.edu/insight onto your own computer, in which case you need to get your own password from
the Imaging Center (or send an email to dbridgma@email.smith.edu ). You are asked to review the images posted on
Insight for the in-class quizzes.
Many images are of course also available through the Web. I am putting a selection of interesting links into
the “external links” folder on our Blackboard site, where you will also find the most useful research databases for
articles and image searches in art history and/or medieval studies.
Most of the required texts that we will read are available either in hard copy (on reserve) or in electronic
format on Blackboard/Course Documents (which will link you to e-reserve).
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
There are three different kinds of assignments, meant to draw on and develop your analytical, synthetic, and critical
skills respectively.
1. Research Paper
Circa 10 double-spaced, typewritten pages in normal pitch and font
- short description of topic & 2-page bibliography
- draft
- final paper due in class
40%
October 14
November 4
December 14
I will schedule individual appointments early in the semester, so that I can help you define a topic, find relevant
visual material as well as get to know you individually. The bibliography is graded; the outline is not though I will
make extensive comments. I will distribute specific requirements and a guideline in class.
2. Three + one Short papers
Circa 1-page long papers on 3 assigned texts + MET exhibition on Bohemian Gothic Art.
See schedule below. Specific guidelines will be handed out.
25 %
3. Three Short in class quizes
These will be slide discussions and/or comparisons. See schedule below.
25 %
4. Class Participation
10 %
Please note that extensions on written work will not be granted unless you have a justification from your class dean.
Make your travel arrangements accordingly. Grades will be lowered for each late day (from A to A-; A- to B+; etc.).
Let me remind you that per College legislation, A/A- means excellent; B+, very good; B/B-, good; Cs, fair; D, poor;
E, failure. Let me also stress that you are graded on the result not the effort, and that grading is made by comparison
(and not against some abstract and absolute standard, the “what the instructor expects”). Finally, and although I do
not take roles, your regular attendance is crucial for a successful performance in this class.
SCHEDULE
Sept 9
Introduction & Definition of Gothic Art
_____________________________________________________________________________
Sept 12 & 14
The Gothic Landscape; Saint-Denis, Blueprint for the "French manner”
Sept 16
Viewing of David Macaulay’s Film, “Cathedral” (prior to class, peruse the excellent site
on Amiens Cathedral, createdb by Stephen Murray: http://www.learn.columbia.edu/Mcahweb/index-frame.html)
Required: Panofsky, Abbot Suger, De consecratione, 87-97 & Suger, De administratione, 61-67 (e-reserve); Scott, The
Gothic Enterprise, 76-90 (e-reserve); Stoddard, Art and Architecture, 93-111
Optional: Saalman, Medieval Cities, 11-45; Frankl, Gothic Architecture, 1-60; Bony, French Gothic, 45-155;; Duby,
The Age of the Cathedrals, 97-135;
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Sept 19-23
Building & Elements of a “Classic” Gothic Cathedral
Required: Scott, The Gothic Enterprise, 103-20 & 147-170 (e-reserve); Von Simson, Gothic Cathedral, "The Palace of
the Virgin", 159-182
Optional: Frisch, Gothic Art, 33-37 & 43-61; Branner, Chartres Cathedral, 91-103; Jantzen, High Gothic, 80-98;
Gimpel, Cathedral Builders ; Stoddard, Art and Architecture, 167-241
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Sept 26-30
Speaking Facades: Sculptural Programs
Sept 30
In-class quiz
Required: Spitzer, "The Cult of the Virgin"; Camille, "In the Margins of the Cathedral," Image on the Edge, 77-97
Optional: Katzenellenbogen, Sculptural Programs, 3-49; Mâle, Gothic Image, 231-266 (on iconography of the Virgin)
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Oct 3 & 5
Speaking Windows: Stained Glass
Oct 7
Discussion of : Trachtenberg
Required: John Gage, "A Dionysian Aesthetic". Color and Culture, 69-78 (e-reserve)
Optional: Grodecki & Brisac, Gothic Stained Glass, 1-33; Kraus, Gold was the Mortar, 63-99
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Oct 10
No class: Autum Recess
________________________________________________________________
Oct 12 & 14
Oct 14
Oct 16
Gothic Splendors: Liturgical Objects and Reliquaries
Bibliography for Paper due
No class
Required: Cherry, Medieval Craftsmen: Goldsmith’s, 11-23 + browse through rest of book (no e-reserve)
Optional: Henk van Os, The Way to Heaven & Gauthier, Highways of the Faith: Relics and Reliquaries from Jerusalem
to Compostela
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Oct 17 -21
13th-Century Arts and Royal Patronage in France, Spain & Italy
Required:
Sadler, “The King as Subject, the King as Author”
Optional: Stoddard, Art and Architecture, 279-310; Branner, Manuscript Painting, "The Making of Illuminated
Manuscripts," 1-21;Weiss, "Architectural Symbolism"
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
Saturday Oct 22
Trip to MET to view: Prague, the Crown of Bohemia
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
Oct 24 & 26
Gothic Art in Germany
Oct 28
Discussion of: Camille, Glorious Visions
Required: J. Hamburger, "The Visual and the Visionary: The Image in Late Medieval Monastic Devotions", Viator, 20
(1989), 161-182 (e-reserve)
Optional: Hamburger, Rotschild Canticles (browse)
______________________________________________________________________________________________
Oct 31- Nov 4
Gothic Art in England
Nov 4
Paper Draft due & In class quiz
Required: Wilson, The Gothic Cathedral, 160-223
Optional: Kidson, English Architecture, 67-115; The Age of Chivalry, 74-91; Calkins, Illuminated Books, 207-25 ("The
Psalter")
______________________________________________________________________________________________
Nov 7 - 9
The Rise of Secular Concerns in the Early 14th Century
Nov 11
Viewing of manuscript facsimiles in library
Required: Randall, Richard, “Popular Romances Carved in Ivory,” in Barnet, Peter, Images in Ivory, 63-97; Campbell,
“Courting, Harlotry, and the Art of Gothic Ivory Carving,” (e-reserve)
Optional: Wieck, Time Sanctified, 33-44
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Nov 14-18
Art and Politics of Court Society I
Nov 21
Discussion of: Holladay & Caviness, both on Jeanne d’Evreux
Optional: Bell, "Medieval Women Book Owners;" Buettner, “Women and the Circulation of Books;”; Avril, Golden
Age (browse)
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
Nov 23 & 25
No class: Thanksgiving
______________________________________________________________________________________________
Nov 28 – Dec 14
Art and Politics of Court Society II
Dec 5
In-class quiz
Dec 14
Final version of paper due in class
Required: Camille, “Laboring for the Lord;” Alexander, "Labeur and Paresse;"
Optional: Perkinson, “Engin and artifice”; Meiss, French Painting. Late 14th Century, 3-67; Les Fastes du Gothique
(browse)
ARH234 / The Age of Cathedrals
Brigitte Buettner
Fall 2005
BOOKS ON RESERVE
(* books to browse with good illustrations for paper topics)
. for electronic resources, check our Blackboard site under “external links”; always a good place to start research
is groveart.com, the most complete and trustworthy online encyclopedia for the visual arts
General
*Age of Chivalry: Art in Plantagenet England (1200-1400), exh. catalogue. London, 1987
*Les Fastes du Gothique: Le siècle de Charles V, exh. catalogue. Paris, Grand Palais, 1981
The Holy Bible, English Douai Version. Baltimore, 1971
Camille, Michael. Image on the Edge. Cambridge, 1992
---. Gothic Art : Glorious Visions (Prentice Hall, 1996) Textbook
---. The Medieval Art of Love: Objects and Subjects of Desire, 1998
Duby, George. The Age of the Cathedrals: Art and Society (980-1420). Chicago, 1981
Erlande-Brandenburg, Alain. The Cathedral: The Social and Architectural Dynamics of Construction. Cambridge, 1994.
*---. La Conquête de l'Europe (1260-1380). Paris, 1987
Frisch, Teresa G. Gothic Art (1140-c 1450): Sources and Documents. Englewood Cliffs, 1971
Hollister, C.W. Medieval Europe: A Short History. New York, 1990 (6th ed.)
Huizinga, Johan. The Autum of the Middle Ages. Chicago, 1996
Mâle, Emile. The Gothic Image: Religious Art of the Thirteenth-Century. New York, 1972
Saalman, Howard. Medieval Cities. New York, 1968
*Sauerländer, Willibald, ed. Le Siècle des cathédrales (1140-1260). Paris, 1989
Snyder, James. Medieval Art. Englewood Cliffs, 1989
Architecture
*Bony, Jean. French Gothic Architecture of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries. Berkeley, 1983
Branner, Robert. Gothic Architecture. New York, 1965
---. Chartres Cathedral. New York, 1969
Fitchen, John. The Construction of Gothic Cathedrals: A Study of Medieval Vault Erection. Chicago, 1977
Focillon, Henri. Art of the West in the Middle Ages: Gothic. Oxford, 1980, vol. II
Frankl, Paul. Gothic Architecture. Harmondsworth, 1962 (Pelican History of Art)
*Grodecki, Louis, and Anne Prache, and Roland Recht. Gothic Architecture. New York, 1977
Jantzen, Hans. High Gothic: The Classic Cathedrals of Chartres, Reims and Amiens. New York, rev.ed., 1967
*Kimpel, Dieter, and Robert Suckale. Die gotische Architektur in Frankreich (1130-1270). Munich, 1985
Kraus, Henry. Gold Was the Mortar: The Economics of Cathedral Building. London, 1979
Panofsky, Erwin. Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism. New York, 1957
---. Abbot Suger on the Abbey Church of Saint-Denis and its Art Treasures (1944). Princeton, 1979
Scott, Robert A. The Gothic Enterprise: A Guide to Understanding the Medieval Cathedral (Berkeley, 2003).
Simson, Otto von. The Gothic Cathedral. Princeton, 1956
Stoddard, Withney. Art and Architecture in Medieval France: Medieval Architecture, Sculpture, Stained glass,
Manuscripts, the Art of the Church Treasuries, 1972
Wilson, Christopher. The Gothic Cathedral: The Architecture of the Great Church (1130-1530), New York, 1990.
Painted, Sculpted and Sumptuous Arts
*Barnet, Peter, ed. Images in Ivory: Precious Objects of the Gothic Age, exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts, 1997
* Van Os, Henk. The Way to Heaven: Relic Veneration in the Middle Ages, exh. cat., Amsterdam and Utrecht, 20002001
Campbell, Jean C. “Courting, Harlotry, and the Art of Gothic Ivory Carving,” Gesta 34/1 (1995): 11-19.
*Cavallo, Adolfo Salvatore. Medieval Tapestries in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993.
*Dupont, Jean, and Cesare Gnudi. Gothic Painting. Geneva, 1954
*Gauthier, Marie-Madeleine. Highways of the Faith: Relics and Reliquaries from Jerusalem to Compostela (London,
1986)
*Gaborit-Chopin, Danielle. Ivoires du Moyen Age. Fribourg, 1978
*Grodecki, Louis, and Catherine Brisac. Gothic Stained Glass (1200-1300). Ithaca, 1985
*Sauerländer, Willibald. Gothic Sculpture in France (1140-1270). London, 1972
Spitzer, Laura. "The Cult of the Virgin and Gothic Sculpture: Evaluating Opposition in the Chartres West Facade
Capital Frieze." Gesta, XXXIII/2, 1994, 132-50.
Williams, Jane Welch. Bread, Wine, and Money: The Windows of the Trades at Chartres Cathedral. Chicago, 1993
Illuminated Manuscripts
Alexander, Jonathan J.G., "Labeur and Paresse: Ideological Representations of Medieval Peasant Labor." Art Bulletin,
LXXII/3, 1990, 436-52 (e-reserve)
*Avril, François. Manuscript Painting at the Court of France: The XIVth Century. New York, 1978
*---. L'enluminure à l'époque gothique : 1200-1420. Paris, 1995
Backhouse, Janet. Book of Hours. London, 1985
Bell, Susan G. "Medieval Women Book Owners: Arbiters of Piety and Ambassadors of Culture." Signs, 1982 (ereserve)
Branner, Robert. Manuscript Painting in Paris during the Reign of Saint Louis. Berkeley, 1977
Buettner, Brigitte. “Women and the Circulation of Books," Women and Book Culture in Late Medieval and Early
Modern France, Journal of the Early Book Society, 4 (2001): 9-31 (e-reserve).
Calkins, Robert. Illuminated Books of the Middle Ages. Ithaca, 1983
Hamburger, Jeffrey. "The Visual and the Visionary: The Image in Late Medieval Monastic Devotion." 1989 (e-reserve)
*Marks, Richard, and Nigel Morgan. The Golden Age of English Manuscript Painting (1200-1500). London, 1981
*Meiss, Millard. French Painting in the Time of Jean de Berry: The Late XIVth Century and the Patronage of the Duke.
London, 1967
---. French Painting in the Time of Jean de Berry: The Boucicaut Master. London 1968
---. French Painting in the Time of Jean de Berry: The Limbourgs and Their Contemporaries. London, 1974
*Randall, Lillian. Images in the Margins of Gothic Manuscripts. Berkeley, 1966
*Sterling, Charles. La peinture médiévale à Paris (1300-1500). Paris, 1987, 2 vols.
*Thomas, Marcel. The Golden Age of Manuscript Painting at the Time of Jean, Duke of Berry. New York, 1979
*Wieck, Roger. Time Sanctified: The Book of Hours in Medieval Art and Life. New York, 1988
We also have an extensive collection of facsimiles and other publications on specifc illuminated manuscripts, in which
you’ll find a wealth of images (browse in the stacks around call numbers ND2900-ND3330)
Useful periodicals ( many of which are now available electronically through J-STOR)
The Art Bulletin, Art History, Cahiers de Civilisation Médiévale, Gesta, Journal of Medieval History (Neilson), Journal
of the Society of Architectural Historians, Speculum (Neilson), Scriptorium, Viator (Neilson)