Images of Letters.

人文科學 제114집 2018년 12월

Vincent Debiais (1)

1 EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales

This article aims to put the notion of “bimediality” in perspective with the visual documentation of the Western Middle Ages, especially with Romanesque sculpture, to show the intellectual and aesthetics implications of the gathering of different types of signs within a single work of art. It starts with two observations: 1) the practice of art has always used visual devices mixing or merging iconic signs with other media (music, singing, letters, dance...) in order to create complex discourses; 2) medieval art is not different in this aspect: writing is everywhere in painting, sculpture, mosaics, stain glasses, etc. This article intends to emphasize the functions and status of epigraphic inscriptions on these materials and their impact on the meaning and effect of images in liturgical or religious contexts. It speculates that the bimedia devices were used during the Middle Ages to make images and what they figure present and active into the visual world.

Mots clés: Moissac; Romanesque Sculpture; Aesthetics; medieval epigraphy; Medieval Art

Domaines: Art et histoire de l'art

Vincent Debiais. Images of Letters.: Writing and Image Making in Western Europe Romanesque Sculpture. Inmunkwahak – The journal of the Humanities , 2018, 114 (03), pp.1-25. ⟨halshs-02155782⟩