MEDIEVAL MILLENNIUM

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• MEDIEVAL MILLENNIUM
• OBJECTS OF DESIRE
• April 29
• DEATH AND DYING

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Head of effigy of Francis I de la Sarra, Chapel
La Sarraz (Vaud)
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Pendant (terminal of a rosary of
chaplet)Northern France or FlandersEarly 16th
century. Ivory and uncut emerald (Metropolitan
Museum)The theme of vanitasAdam and EveThe
contract with death
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Chaplet or shortened Rosary with Busts of Men and
Women with Skull as Terminal Bead.Ivory, early
16th C, GermanCOGITA MORI SVE VOT
ERISMeditate on Death. This is what you will be
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• Reading Paul Binski, Medieval Death. Ritual and
  Representation, Cornell, 1996
• Introduction, The Roots of Medieval Death
  Culture, pp 8-28
• Like Peter Brown, Binski emphasizes the enormity
  of the Christian revolution in attitudes to death
• Pre-Christian concept of complete separation
  between the living and the dead NON FUI FUI
  NON SUM NON CARO
• Christians built a link between the living and
  the dead using 1. the physical remains of the
  dead 2. Images 3. Ritual They collected the
  bones and skulls of criminals who had been put to
  death for numerous crimes and made them out to
  be gods and thought that they became better by
  defiling themselves at their graves. Martyrs
  the dead men were called and ministers of a sort,
  and ambassadors with the Gods to carry mens
  prayers. (Eunapius of Sardis)
• Two principal forces behind the power of the
  Church
• Mediation (through images and allegories)
• Continuity and transformation (through miracles)
• Top-down/bottom-up culture ? Control??
  Deception??? Exploitation???

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Entombment of Christ and Pieta, from the Château
of Biron, c 1515, donors Pons de Gontaut and his
brother Amand (also Jonah and Isaac)
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Sarcophagus of a Physician, Ostia, Italy, 300-325
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Scene of Martyrdom, 3-4th C Rome ?ANUM NOVUM
TIBI FAUSTUMHappy New Year
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Ivory plaque, Crucifixion with Ecclesia and
Synagoga Longinus and Stephaton sun and
moonHoly Women at the Sepulchre. Metz
School.Some remnants of color in the borders
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Pyxis with the Holy Women at the Sepulchre of
Christ, 6th C(Syria or Palestine?)
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Koimesis (Death of the Virgin), ivory, 10th C,
Constantinople
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The Riha Paten, c570Silver gilt. The communion
of the Apostles
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Nativity, Champlevé, Mosan, 1165
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Jonah Swallowed and Cast Up by the Whale, Marble,
300-25, Asia Minor
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• Death as a threshold or passage (A. van Gennep,
  Rites of Passage) discussed in Binski, Chapter 1.

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Baptismal Font, marble 1137, S.
ItalyInscription In the times of the powerful
King Roger II, King of Sicily the most holy
Luke having been appointed to rule the monks,
their font was wrought ain the fifth and fortieth
six hundred and sixth thousand passage of time
(1137)
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Sigma Table, Rome (?) 5-6th C
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• The importance of the Good Death

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The good death of St Louis (d.1270 in Tunis) from
the Hours of Jeanne dEvreux, 1325-8

• Finally, my very dear son (Philip) have Masses
  sung for my soul and prayers said for me
  throughout your kingdom and give me a full and
  special share in all the good you do. My own
  dear child, I give you all the blessings a good
  father can give his son. May the blessed Trinity
  and all the saints keep and defend you from all
  evils and may God grant you grace to do his will
  always. Amen When the good king had given
  these instructions to his son the illness from
  which he suffered began to take stronger hold on
  him. He asked for the sacraments of the Holy
  Church and received them with a clear mind and in
  full possession of his faculties The king then
  had himself laid on ashes arranged on the floor
  in the shape of a cross. And died. (Joinville)

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The Ars Moriendi Published by Nicolas Gotz,
Cologne c1496 (Metropolitan Museum)Text
intended nor only for religious and devout men
but also for carnal and secular men. Little
mention of clergy--perhaps for the Plague
years.Five subjects faith, despair, impatience,
vainglory and avarice.This scene shows final
deathbed (impatience) as dying man yields to the
devil and kicks out his doctor. How well I have
deceived him. See how much pain can be endured
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• The architectural context for the good death

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The Vigils of the Dead from a French Book
The Mass of the Dead from the Milan of Hours
Book of Hours
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Amiens Cathedral, west portals, c1220-40
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Amiens Cathedral, Central (Last Judgment) portal,
c1240Adam and Eve from south portal
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Amiens Cathedral, Central (Last Judgment) portal,
c1240
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Two Pilasters with Pairs of Angels Blowing the
Trumpet of the Last Judgment, Giovanni Pisano,
Pisa, c1305-10
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Amiens Cathedral, Central (Last Judgment) portal,
c1240
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Amiens Cathedral, Central (Last Judgment) portal,
c1240
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Amiens Cathedral, Beau Dieu c1230 tomb of Bishop
Evrard de Fouilloy d 1222
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Amiens Cathedral, tomb of Canon Adrien de
Henencourt
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Fontevrault, founded in 1110, burial site of the
Plantagenets 1189-1204
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Eleanor of Aquitaine and her son, Richard Coeur
de Lion The effigy (gisant) and the covered
beds create the illusion of reality. The
Uncanny.
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S-Denis
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S-Denis tombs, Clovis (high relief) and Childebert
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The Bayeux Tapestry (1080s) the death of Edward
the Confessor
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Reliquary casket with scenes from the martyrdom
of Thomas BecketEngland c 1173-80
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Canterbury Cathedral
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Westminster Abbey, Romanesque and Gothic
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Cambridge Univ Llibr. MS Ee.3.59 (Estoire) the
dream of Bishop Brithwold of St Peter crowning St
Edward
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Shrine of Edward the Confessor
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The niched Roman Cosmati tomb of King Henry III
(d1272) in Westminster Abbey
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The tomb of Edmund Crouchback, Earl of Lancaster
(d. 1296), Westminster Abbey
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Healing at the tomb of Edward the Confessor,
Westminster
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Ermengol VII, Count of Urgell, Spain, 1300-1350,
from S. Maria de Bellpuig de las Avellanes nr
Lleida (reassembled 18th c)
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• Article The Making of Monastic History by
  Timothy Husband in the The Cloisters Studies in
  Honor of the 50th Anniversary, 355-379.
• 1928 the Cloisters acquired through Rockefeller a
  tomb ensemble thought to have housed the remains
  of Ermengol VII count of Urgell. The ensemble
  first housed in the Barnard Collection. Soon
  afterwards 3 more tombs associated with the same
  family were acquired.
• Monastery of Bellpuig de las Avellanas was
  founded in 1146 by Ermengol VII, count of Urgell
  (d. 1184). In the 14th century the monastery was
  subsumed into the kingdom of Aragon.
• Timothy Husband suggested that the tomb was,in
  fact, from an unknown source and was reassembled
  in the 18th century to honor the legendary
  founder, Ermengol VII and to support the
  monasterys claims for local jurisdictions and
  rights to water.

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Tomb of Ermengol X, Count of Urgell (or his
brother), Spain c 1350 (sarcophagus is 18th C)
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Tomb of Ermolgol, Count of Urgell, Spain c 1350
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Tomb of a Lady from priory of N-D du Bosc, near
Le Neubourg (Margaret of Gloucester, wife of
Robert II baron of Neubourg?)
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Tomb of Jean dAlluye, from the Cistercian Abbey
of La Clarté Dieu nr Tours, c 1248
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Pieta with Saints Peter, John Baptist, Andrew and
Michael, Spanish, 15th c
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Virgin and Child with scenes from the Life of the
Virgin, Aragon, 15th C
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Leaf from a Diptych with Entombment, Paris, 1300
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