Political Life and the New State

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Political Life and the New State

Achievement of the Royal State.

By the later Middle Ages the various European states reached a crucial stage in their political development. England, France, and the Spanish kingdoms were each able to consolidate power and territory, asserting royal prerogatives and centralizing the administration of the realm. In France of the Capetian and Valois dynasties (987–1498) and in England of the Plantagenet dynasty (1154–1399), particularly, this resulted in the achievement of the royal state—the predecessor of the modern nation-state. The case of France is especially important because it is there that centralized political authority coincided with the development of the Gothic style—the prevailing style of European art in the later Middle Ages. Generally associated with the patronage of Abbot Suger of Saint-Denis in the 1140s, outside of Paris, and emerging first in architecture, the new style very quickly came to be thought of as both "modern" and native to France. Leaving behind all notions of aesthetic and spiritual austerity, Gothic art fully embraced visual splendor for the greater glory of God, not to mention the glory of the monarchs, bishops, and noble individuals that promoted it. It was elegant and awe-inspiring, human-centered and otherworldly. The Gothic spread rapidly throughout the Ile-de-France (Paris and the surrounding region) and then on to England and elsewhere. It is found first in architecture but soon became predominant in all the visual arts, in fashion, and even in the design of mundane and everyday objects.

The Gothic as a French style.

If the maturity of the Gothic style in France and its dissemination throughout Europe can be associated with the reign of a single monarch, then that ruler is King Louis IX (r. 1226–1270). This "most Christian king" (Louis was made a saint 27 years after his death) patronized the arts in grand fashion as part of his effort to glorify Paris as the "new Jerusalem" and exalt the French nation as the "true Israel." Convinced he was favored by God and destined for greatness, Louis spared no expense in pursuing his ambitious plans, both at home in Paris and on Crusade in the Holy Land. Because Paris became such an important and influential center during Louis' 44-year reign, the mature Gothic style found its way from there to all corners of Europe. As a strong monarch and a patron of the arts, Louis came to be a model for other late medieval kings, most notably his contemporaries kings Henry III of England (r. 1216–1272) and Alfonso X of León-Castile (r. 1252–1284), as well as later rulers like King Charles V of France (r. 1364–1380) and King Edward III of England (r. 1327–1377).

ABBOT SUGER ON ALTAR DECORATION

introduction: Suger (1081–1151), abbot of Saint-Denis outside of Paris from 1122 onward, is one of the most famous and best-documented medieval patrons of the arts. The text below comes from Book XXXIII of De Administratione (1144–1149), Suger's treatise detailing the change in his abbey's economic fortunes and the remodeling and artistic embellishment of the church's interior. It is one of three treatises he wrote concerning the rebuilding and redecorating campaign that he led. In it, we see Suger's effort to glorify as well as describe; he was well aware of the artistic importance of his patronage. The latter part of the excerpted passage describes the "anagogical" power attributed to religious art by Suger: this is the ability of art and material beauty to help transport the human spirit into closer proximity to the Divine.

We hastened to adorn the Main Altar of the blessed Denis where there was only one beautiful and precious frontal panel from Charles the Bald, the third [Carolingian] Emperor; for at this [altar] we had been offered to the monastic life. We had it all encased, putting up golden panels on either side and adding a fourth, even more precious one; so that the whole altar would appear golden all the way round. On either side, we installed there the two candlesticks of King Louis, son of Philip, of twenty marks of gold, lest they might be stolen on some occasion; we added hyacinths, emeralds, and sundry precious gems; and we gave orders carefully to look out for others to be added further …

But the rear panel, of marvelous workmanship and lavish sumptuousness (for the barbarian artists were even more lavish than ours), we ennobled with chased relief work equally admirable for its form as for its material, so that certain people might be able to say: "The workmanship surpassed the material. …"

Often we contemplate, out of sheer affection for the church our mother, these different ornaments both new and old…Thus, when—out of my delight in the beauty of the house of God—the loveliness of the many-colored gems has called me away from external cares, and worthy meditation has induced me to reflect, transferring that which is material to that which is immaterial, on the diversity of the sacred virtues: then it seems to me that I see myself dwelling, as it were, in some strange region of the universe which neither exists entirely in the slime of the earth nor entirely in the purity of Heaven; and that, by the grace of God, I can be transported from this inferior to that higher world in an anagogical manner.

source: Abbot Suger On the Abbey Church of St.-Denis and its Art Treasures. 2nd ed. Eds. and trans. Erwin Panofsky and Gerda Panofsky-Soergel (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1979): Book XXXIII, 64–65.

The Psalter of Saint Louis.

Created between 1253 and 1270 for the private devotion of the French king, the Psalter of Saint Louis defines the Gothic as a courtly French art. This exquisite small-format manuscript (5 cm x 3.5 cm), along with the many other high-quality illuminated manuscripts produced for the royal court of France during this time, earned for France its reputation as a center of Gothic art and culture. As a bibliophile whose library was famous throughout the royal courts of Europe, King Louis commissioned the psalter to be decorated with more than 78 full-page illustrations of Old Testament scenes. Each scene is set in an architectural frame adorned with lancets, pinnacles, tracery, and rose windows that seem to echo in miniature the architectural elements of Louis's newly built Sainte-Chapelle (1243–1248). Along the borders run scrolls with an ivy leaf motif and fantastic animals in the corners. The program of illustrations lacks a clearly-defined relationship with the psalter text, and the choice of scenes—many of which concentrate on biblical heroes, such as Abraham and David—suggests that Louis probably intended there to be an association between himself and the biblical figures who were seen as his prototypes. In one example two episodes from a biblical story are depicted, conveniently separated by an oak tree. On the left, three strangers appear before the bearded and kneeling Abraham; on the right, the men have been invited in to break bread with their host, who has just learned that Sarah—who peeks through the open curtain in the back—will bear a child. Such a story would have been understood in thirteenth-century Christian Europe as a prefiguration of the Annunciation to the Virgin, a pattern of symbolism in which the Old Testament episode was intended to foreshadow a New Testament event, thus showing that the New Testament stories fulfilled prophecies in the Old. For Louis, programmatic and jewel-like works of art like this psalter were part of a coordinated cultural policy that exalted the ruler as saintly and his kingdom as a latter-day Israel, chosen by God and destined for greatness.

BOOK
of Hours

One of the most popular types of privately owned books in the later Middle Ages was the illuminated Book of Hours (called horae in the Latin plural). A devotional book, almost always illuminated, it was intended for laypeople so that they could imitate the devotions of the monastic hours followed by monks and nuns. They did, in fact, contain liturgical texts borrowed from the Breviary, the book used by monks that contained the complete service for the Divine Office (the daily cycle of prayers for the eight canonical hours). At the heart of the Book of Hours was the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin (or Hours of the Virgin), a series of prayers to be recited at seven different times during the day: matins and lauds at daybreak, prime at 6 a.m., terce at 9 a.m., sext at noon, nones at 3 p.m., vespers at sunset, and compline in the evening. This was supplemented by many other elements, such as a calendar, a litany of saints, the Office of the Dead, the Penitential Psalms, other offices (of the Trinity, of the Passion, etc.), and other prayers and suffrages (which typically contained a picture and a prayer to a specific saint).

Texts varied quite a bit depending upon the needs and preferences of each owner; for example, books of hours owned by women often had prayers for St. Apollonia, connected with childbirth, and St. Anne, who taught Mary to read. Likewise books often provide clues to their region of origin. The calendar of a Book of Hours intended for someone living in Paris, for example, would contain the festival days for certain saints such as Dionysius (St. Denis) who was especially venerated in central France, while a Book of Hours for Oxford (called "Oxford use") would include the city's patron saint, Frideswide. Even the date of the book can sometimes be determined by its content, since suffrages for St. Sebastian and St. Roche, associated with protection from plague, would have begun to appear only after 1349. The book of hours assumed its standard form in the thirteenth century and continued to be produced in large numbers, especially in northern Europe, until the sixteenth century, when print versions with hand-colored woodcuts replaced painted decoration. Its popularity was an expression of the growing piety of laypeople in the later Middle Ages, though books of hours also showcased the wealth and taste of patrons. Typically, major divisions would feature an illustration or a cycle of illustrations, and decoration throughout the book could be quite extensive.

The Spread of the Gothic Style.

Within the culture of the aristocratic and royal courts, the arts continued to flourish, sponsored by men and women who shared a common culture and held fast to the noble virtues of rank, wealth, and vestiges of chivalry. These individuals decorated castles, erected public monuments, and sought to commemorate their own deeds and those of their ancestors. They also turned to the visual arts to celebrate the more mundane pleasures and activities of courtly life, such as hunting, jousting, and literary invention. The taste and high standards of the nobility—visualized in illuminated manuscripts, goldsmith work, tapestries, and sculpture—translated into an aesthetic of opulence, elegance, and technical complexity that created a fashion across Europe. Drawing their inspiration from the new Gothic style in architecture, both visual artists and sculptors endowed their works with a decorative style of intricate lacy designs, sinuous curves, and a taste for architectural motifs such as high, pointed arches and pinnacles. Stone- and wood-carvers tended to favor patterns inspired by nature, such as vine and ivy foliage and acanthus flowers. The tomb of King Edward II of England (Gloucester Cathedral, 1307–1327) illustrates all these characteristics and shows how thoroughly this style of French origin was now implanted in England. It features an effigy of the deposed monarch reclining beneath a canopy of marble adorned with high pinnacles and ogival (curved and pointed) arches. With its complex architectural structure, its profuse ornament and overwhelming size, the marble canopy sets the deceased king apart from the viewer as it elevates him to an unattainable heavenly resting-place. Enshrined in this highly decorative structure, the idealized alabaster portrait of the king, contrasting in size and sobriety with the canopy, rests undisturbed in a majestic dignity. Here we see the Gothic in the service of the later medieval royal state, expressing the power and importance of the royal office while commenting upon the greatness of the honored individual.

The Hours of Jeanne D'Evreux.

Charles IV of France was another of the monarchs whose patronage expressed the elegant and aristocratic quality of the Gothic style. His wedding present to his wife, Jeanne d'Evreux, was a precious Book of Hours executed between 1325 and 1328. The small size of this manuscript (8.2 cm x 5.6 cm) made it a perfect present for the queen. Like many other ladies of the court, she most certainly treasured compact and portable manuscripts that could easily be carried in a pouch on the belt and read at intervals throughout the day. Books of Hours were very often personalized with portraits of the owner (Jeanne appears kneeling in an initial D below an image of the Annunciation) and with coat of arms when appropriate, and their pages were also used to press flowers or to hold images of favorite saints on tabs of parchment attached to the margins.

Iconography and Decoration.

Both the iconographic program of the Hours of Jeanne d'Evreux and its decoration point to its essentially aristocratic nature. The book includes a special cycle of devotions to Saint Louis (King Louis IX of France), newly canonized and favored at the French court. In the borders and the lower margins, small human figures and animal or hybrid grotesques are performing courtly games and secular activities such as jousting, hunting, and musical performance, so as to amuse the reader. The famous Parisian illuminator Jean Pucelle was responsible for the majority of the decoration, most notably the innovative technique of grisaille painting in manuscripts. Grisaille or monochrome painting (in shades of gray) was better known as a stained-glass technique and was also used in fresco painting when artists wished to emulate the volumetric quality of sculpture. During his travels in Italy, Pucelle may have been inspired by the works of Italian painters from whom he borrowed technical as well as compositional features. Besides the grisaille technique, he employed the device of the apparently three-dimensional volume of space containing each scene, the mannered drapery of the figures, and their swaying posture. The double page showing the Annunciation and the Betrayal of Christ illustrates some of these characteristics: the architectural device that encloses the Virgin and the archangel Gabriel resembles an Italian loggia, with decorative niches housing cherubs watching the scene. Mary's mannered position and elegant drapery fit the delicate attitude of the court ladies of France, but Pucelle could also have seen examples of this style in Italy. Below, young girls and boys play a game of "froggy in the middle," mocking one of the children, perhaps a deliberate reference to the mocking of Christ. On the facing page, below the Betrayal of Christ, two knights mounted on goats attack a barrel, possibly an allusion to military training.

The International Style.

The Hours of Jeanne d'Evreux expresses a courtly aesthetic that was increasingly international and that would before long give rise to the well-known and aptly-named "International Style" of aristocratic art by the end of the fourteenth century. Following the blood lines and the marriage ties that linked aristocratic courts, the International Gothic style could be found by the later fourteenth century in France, Italy, England, Germany, Bohemia (the western part of the modern Czech Republic), and Aragon. Instrumental in the establishment of interregional connections were the artistic commissions of the papal court in its new surroundings in southern France. By the early fourteenth century, political intrigue had combined with a weakened papacy in bringing about the pope's exile from Rome to Avignon in 1305. This exile lasted for much of the fourteenth century, only to be followed by the Great Schism (beginning 1379), in which two and, at one point, even three rival popes each claimed absolute spiritual authority over Christendom. Pope Clement VI (r. 1342–1352) saw himself as a worldly sovereign and member of the aristocratic elite, and his grandiose palace in Avignon was meant to express this status. He employed both French and Italian artists under the supervision of the Italian master Matteo Giovanetti to decorate his private apartment with scenes that convey all the pleasures of courtly life. The Stag room (or camera cervus), the antechamber leading to the pope's private bedroom, gets its name from one of the scenes that decorate the walls. Each of the four walls presents a large fresco depicting several scenes of fishing, stag hunting, falconry, fruit gathering, and bathing. Only the two windows of the south wall interrupt the scenes, which are set upon a continuous landscape background (complete with animals, men, and all sorts of naturalistic detail), itself presented upon a lavish red ground. In terms of style, the frescoes combine the elegance of Parisian court painting, the realism of Flemish painting, and the Italian fresco technique in a truly international style.