The Bronze Object in the Middle Ages Ittai Weinryb Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-12361-8 - The Bronze Object in the Middle Ages Ittai Weinryb Frontmatter More information THE BRONZE OBJECT IN THE MIDDLE AGES This book presents the first full-length study in English of monumental bronzes in the Middle Ages. Taking as its point of departure the common medieval reception of bronze sculpture as living or animated, the study closely analyzes the practice of lost-wax casting (cire perdue) in western Europe and explores the cultural responses to large-scale bronzes in the Middle Ages. Beginning with mining, smelting, and the production of alloys, and ending with automata, water clocks, and fountains, the book uncovers networks of meaning around which bronze sculptures were produced and consumed. The book is a path-breaking contribution to the study of metalwork in the Middle Ages, and to the reevaluation of medieval art more broadly, presenting an understudied body of work to reconsider what the materials and techniques embodied in public monuments meant to the medieval spectator. Ittai Weinryb is an assistant professor at the Bard Graduate Center in New York. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-12361-8 - The Bronze Object in the Middle Ages Ittai Weinryb Frontmatter More information © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-12361-8 - The Bronze Object in the Middle Ages Ittai Weinryb Frontmatter More information THE BRONZE OBJECT IN THE MIDDLE AGES ITTAI WEINRYB Bard Graduate Center, New York © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-12361-8 - The Bronze Object in the Middle Ages Ittai Weinryb Frontmatter More information University Printing House, Cambridge cb2 8bs, United Kingdom Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence. www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781107123618 © Ittai Weinryb 2016 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2016 Printed in the United States of America by Sheridan Books, Inc. A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Weinryb, Ittai. Title: The bronze object in the Middle Ages : sculpture, material, making / Ittai Weinryb. Description: Cambridge, United Kingdom : Cambridge University Press, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: lccn 2015039547 | isbn 9781107123618 (Hardback : alkaline paper) Subjects: LCSH: Bronzes, Medieval–Europe–History. | Monuments–Europe–History– To 1500. | Bronzes, European–History–To 1500. | Bronze sculpture, European–History– To 1500. | Metal-work–Europe–History–To 1500. | Bronze–Europe–History–To 1500. | Art, Medieval–Europe–History. | Art and society–Europe–History–To 1500. | Europe–Social life and customs. Classification: lcc nk7908 .w45 2016 | ddc 739.5/120940902–dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015039547 isbn 978-1-107-12361-8 Hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-12361-8 - The Bronze Object in the Middle Ages Ittai Weinryb Frontmatter More information In loving memory of Ofra Weinryb © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-12361-8 - The Bronze Object in the Middle Ages Ittai Weinryb Frontmatter More information © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-12361-8 - The Bronze Object in the Middle Ages Ittai Weinryb Frontmatter More information CONTENTS List of Figures page xi List of Maps xvii Acknowledgments xix 1 2 I N T R O D U C T I O N : O F BR O N Z E T H I N G S 1 Matter 4 Fabrication 8 Medium 9 Generation 11 MA K I N G 16 The Aachen Moment 16 Mainz Amplification 23 Metal Necessities 26 Cultures of Alloy 27 A Hildesheim Moment 30 Alchemy 33 Recipe Books 35 Alloys and Idolatry 37 The Aachen Courtyard, Again 39 Lost-Wax Casting Technique 44 Animation through Making 53 SI G N I F I C A T I O N 55 Formless Signification 56 Signification through Form 73 Profane Signification 77 Bronze and Spatial Imagination 86 vii © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-12361-8 - The Bronze Object in the Middle Ages Ittai Weinryb Frontmatter More information viii CONTENTS 3 4 Material Ekphrasis 87 Canosa di Puglia 88 Aes Sonans – Signification through Sound 96 Bells 100 Animation through Signification 107 ACTING 108 Apotropeia 109 The Doors of San Zeno in Verona 110 Brazen Serpents 115 On Similarity 121 Troia 124 The Apotropaic Image in Action 128 The Evil Eye 131 Bells and Apotropeia 134 The Griffin of Pisa and Other Animals 140 Pisa – Animation through Spectacle 143 BE I N G 147 Marvel 148 Automata 152 Water Clocks 163 Marvelous Monuments 170 The Object and the Community – The Birth of the Public 172 Barisianus of Trani and the Birth of the Monumental Bronze Industry 173 The Central Communal Object 180 Fountains 187 The Perugia Fountain 191 Animation through Being 198 The Future of the Bronze Object 198 Appendix 1: Adhémar of Chabannes (988–1034), Making a Crucifix 201 Appendix 2: Hugh of Fouilloy (ca. 1096–1172), On the Cast Sea in the Temple 203 © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-12361-8 - The Bronze Object in the Middle Ages Ittai Weinryb Frontmatter More information ix CONTENTS Appendix 3: On the Benediction of Bells, excerpt from the Gellone Sacramentary 205 Notes 207 Bibliography 257 Index 291 © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-12361-8 - The Bronze Object in the Middle Ages Ittai Weinryb Frontmatter More information © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-12361-8 - The Bronze Object in the Middle Ages Ittai Weinryb Frontmatter More information FIGURES 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Romualdo Moscioni, bronze statue in Barletta, also known as the “Colossus of Barletta,” h. 450 cm, albumin print, before 1893 (37.6  25.2 cm) inv. no. 4210 (Photothek des Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut) page 2 St. John, wax figurine on a wooden core, h. 20 cm, Fritzlar, Dommuseum (Photo: Dommuseum Fritzlar) 5 Avar Belt Fitting, eighth century (4.8  3.9  0.6 cm) (Metropolitan Museum of Art, OASC) 6 Trial Bone, Lagore, Co. Meath, eighth century (This image is reproduced with the kind permission of the National Museum of Ireland.) 7 Wooden doors, Santa Maria im Kapitol, Cologne, around 1049, h. 485 w. 248 cm (Rheinisches Bildarchiv Köln) 10 Bronze doors, Cathedral of St. Mary, Aachen, Main Portal, late eighth century, h. 392 w. 268 cm (Photo: Author) 17 Details of Fig. 6 18 Bronze mirror, Asia Minor, ca. 350–325 BC (OASC, Metropolitan 19 Museum of Art) Bronze railings, Cathedral of St. Mary, Aachen, late eighth century, 122  425 cm (Bildarchiv Foto Marburg) 20 Mold casting remains of the bronze railings of Aachen, casting mold remains, late eighth century (Bildarchiv Foto Marburg) 21 Dyptich of the Lampadii, ivory, Museo Santa Giulia, Brescia, 21 fifth century, 27  9  2 cm (Archivio fotografico Musei di Brescia) Equal-Arm Brooch, Northern France, 7th–8th century, 4.3  2  1.8 cm (Metropolitan Museum of Art, OASC) 23 Bronze doors, Mainz Cathedral, ca. 1000, 370  209 cm (Photo: Author) 24 Candlesticks, silver alloyed with copper with gilding and niello; iron core, Hildesheim, before 1022, h. A: 41cm B: 42 cm (Dommuseum Hildesheim. Photo: Frank, Tomio) 31 Bamberg Apocalypse, Staatsbibliothek Bamberg, Msc.Bibl.22, fol. 31v (Photo: Gerald Raab) 38 Limoges, Fountain of Constantine, drawing, Historique monumental de l’ancienne province du Limousin. T. 1 p. 66 (Bibliothèque nationale de France) 40 xi © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-12361-8 - The Bronze Object in the Middle Ages Ittai Weinryb Frontmatter More information xii FIGURES Pine Cone Fountain, bronze, Cathedral of St. Mary, Aachen, ca. 800 or ca. 1000, h. 91, w. 59.5 cm (Photo: Author) 18 Drawing of the Pine Cone Fountain, St. Peter’s, Rome, Anonymous after 1489. Uffizi, Florence Gabinetto dei Disegni, Santarelli 157v (Photo: Minitereo dei beni e le Attività culturali) 19 and 19a Doorknockers, bronze, trier, Cathedral Treasury, first half thirteenth century, 29  11.4 or 11.7 cm (Photo: Rita Heyen) 20 Bernward Cross, silver alloyed with copper, Hildesheim Treasury, before 1022, base: fourteenth century, height without base: 20.2 cm (Dommuseum Hildesheim. Photo: Frank, Tomio) 21 Berward Crucifix, detail of Fig. 20 from rear (Dommuseum Hildesheim. Photo: Frank, Tomio) 22 The Creation of Eve, detail of Fig. 33 (Dommuseum Hildesheim. Photo: Frank, Tomio) 23 Doorknocker, bronze, Brioude, Cathedral of St. Julien, early twelfth century, diameter 26 cm (Photo: Patrick Monchicourt) 24 Reliquary, bronze, height 22.9 cm, width 29.6 cm, depth 15 cm, second half of eleventh century, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg (Photo: Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg) 25 Censer, bronze, height 15.1 cm, maximum width 8.1 cm, diameter of base 8.1 cm, eleventh century, Kunstgewerbe Museum, Berlin, inv. no. 1881.167 (Photo: bpk, Kunstgewerbe Museen/Saturia Linke/Art Resource, NY) 26 Hezilo Evangeliary, Hildesheim Cathedral, MS DS 34, fol. 164r, frontispiece to Gospel of John, early eleventh century, Dommuseum Hildesheim (Photo: Ulrich Knapp) 27 Manchester, John Rylands Library, MS Latin 98, fol. 154r, frontispiece to Gospel of John, late tenth century (Photo: reproduced by courtesy of the University Librarian and Director, The John Rylands Library, The University of Manchester) 28 Gospels, from Paderborn, St. Peter and St. Paul Abdinghof Abbey, Berlin, Staatliche Museen Kupferstichkabinett, MS 78 A 3,fol. 207r, frontispiece to Gospel of John, second half of eleventh century (Photo: bpk, Berlin/Staatliche Museen/Volker-H. Schneider) 29 Bernward Bible, Hildesheim Cathedral, MS DS 61, fol. 1r, nimbed male figure (St. John or Bernward) presenting a book to the personification of the Church (sometimes interpreted as the Virgin), early eleventh century (Photo: Dom-Museum Hildesheim/Renate von Issen) 30 Burkhardt Evangeliary, Würzburg, Universitätsbibliothek, MS M.P.Th.F. 68, back cover with Maiestas Domini, pierced and engraved copper–silver alloy, late eleventh century (Photo: Bildarchiv Foto Marburg) 31 St. Hubert Bible, Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale Albert I, MS 36, fol. 6v, frontispiece to Genesis with bust of Christ and personifications of the four elements, ca. 1070 (Photo: Foto Marburg) 17 © in this web service Cambridge University Press 41 42 45 47 48 50 53 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-12361-8 - The Bronze Object in the Middle Ages Ittai Weinryb Frontmatter More information xiii FIGURES 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 Bronze doors, Hildesheim, bronze, before 1015, h. 472 cm, w. left panel 112 cm; right panel 114 cm (Photo: Dommuseum Hildesheim/Frank, Tomio) The Denial of Blame, detail of Fig. 32 (Photo: Dommuseum Hildesheim/Frank, Tomio) Baptismal font, attributed to Renier of Huy, bronze, ca. 1125, Liège, Saint-Barthélemy (formerly in Liège, Notre-Dame-aux-Fonts) (Photo: Scala/Art Resource, NY) Lex de Imperio Vespasiani, Capitoline Museum, Rome, 69 AD, 164  133 cm (Vanni Archive/ Art Resource, NY) Epitaph for Pope Hadrian I, Marble, Vatican, St. Peter’s, ca. 795, 220  117 cm (Photo: Joanna Story) Lupa Capitolina, Capitoline Museum, Rome (Vanni Archive/Art Resource, NY) Bronze she-bear, currently at the Cathedral of St. Mary, Aachen (Author) Bronze doors, Cathedral of Sant’Andrea, Amalfi, ca. 1066 (Author) Bronze doors, Capella Palatina, Palermo, ca. 1143, 250  80 cm (Bildarchiv Foto Marburg, Photo: Albert Hirmer/Irmgard Ernstmeier) Bronze doors, Casauria, Church of San Clemente, ca. 1184 (Author) Bronze doors to the Mausoleum of Bohemund I Canosa di Puglia, before 1119, left panel: 202  56cm, right panel: 200  58cm (Photo: Scala/ Art Resource, NY) Detail of Fig. 42 Detail of Fig. 42 Detail of Fig. 42 Detail of Fig. 42 Detail of Fig. 42 Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek: Cod. Guelf. 334 Gud. Lat., fol. 1v (Photo: Herzog August Bibliothek) Johannes Cotto, De Musica, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München, Clm 2599, fol. 96v (Photo: Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München) Bell from Canino, Central Italy, ninth or tenth century, Musei Vaticani (Pio Cristiano), inv. 31412 (ex 41). Inscription: D[omi]NI N[RI IESU] CHRISTI ET S[an]C[t]I [MIHAEL]IS AR[c]HANGELI (Reproduced by kind permission of the Archivo Fotografico, Musei Vaticani) St. Conall Cael’s Bell, Inishkeel, County Donegal, Ireland, seventh to ninth century, now at the British Museum (Reproduce courtesy of The Trustees of the British Museum) Bell of St. Godeberthe, Notre Dame Cathedral, Noyon, seventh century (bpk/Ministère de la Culture – Médiathèque du Patrimoine, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais/Félix Martin-Sabon (70112563)) Saufang Bell, Cologne, seventh century, Schnutgen Museum (Rheinisches Bildarchiv Köln, Photo: Wolfgang F.Meier) © in this web service Cambridge University Press 71 72 74 78 79 80 81 83 84 85 89 90 91 92 93 94 97 99 101 102 102 103 www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-12361-8 - The Bronze Object in the Middle Ages Ittai Weinryb Frontmatter More information xiv FIGURES 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 Semantron, wood, contemporary, Stavronikita Monastery, Mount Athos, Greece (Photo: Robert S. Nelson) Themel battling the Saracens of Taurus with a Semantron, Madrid skylitzes MS Graecus Vitr. 26–2 fol. 135va, Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional de Espagña (Photo permission: Biblioteca Nacional de Espagña) Inscribed bronze panel, after 822 and before 885, Höxter-Corvey, St. Stephanus und Vitus, West-work, 173.3 left side 88.5 right side 85.5  4 cm (Photo: Author) Bronze doors, San Zeno, Verona, ca. 1080–1179, h. 480 w. 390 cm (Author) Detail of Fig. 57 Detail of Fig. 57 Bronze doors and façade, San Zeno, Verona ca. 1080–1179 Detail of Fig. 57 Brazen Serpent, Sant’Ambrogio, Milan, (Photo: Julie A Wolf) Moses and the Brazen Serpent Mosan, Belgium, ca. 1160 (Victoria and Albert Museum, London) Moses and the Brazen Serpent, Mosan, Belgium, ca. 1160 (Courtesy of Sam Fogg, London) Brazen Serpent, base of the Cross of St. Bertin, Godefroid de Huy (1130–1150) (Musee de l’Hotel Sandelin, Saint-Omer, France/Bridgeman Images) Bronze doors, Troia Cathedral, South Portal, ca. 1127, 284  158 cm Southern Side (Alinari/ Art Resource, NY) Bronze doors, Troia Cathedral, West Façade, ca. 1119, 284  158 cm (Author) Bronze doors, doorknockers, Troia, detail of Fig. 67 (Author) Johann Adam Delsenbach, Ceremonial Girdle, Vienna, Kunsthistoriches Museum, (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna) Beatus of Liébana, commentary on the Apocalypse (The ‘Silos Apocalypse’), British Library Add MS 11695, fol. 223 (Published courtesy of The British Library Board.) Lion, bronze, Braunschweig, ca. 1166 (Bildarchiv Steffens/Bridgeman Images) Bronze goat, Museo Archeologico, Palermo, ca. fourth century (www.arachne.uni-koeln.de, FA 3894) Bronze griffin, Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Pisa (Alinari/ Art Resource, NY) and 74a Pisa, view on the Cathedral Choir, South Transept and bronze griffin (Author) St. Denis, window depicting the Brazen Serpent (After: Louis Grodecki: Les Vitraux de Saint-Denis. Étude sur le vitrail au XIIe siècle, Bd. 1, Paris: 1976 S. 93) Bronze doors, Pisa, South Transept of the Cathedral (Porta dei Ranieri), ca. 1180, 470  302 cm (Scala/ Art Resource, NY) © in this web service Cambridge University Press 105 105 110 111 112 113 114 116 119 120 120 121 125 126 127 138 139 140 141 141 142 143 144 www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-12361-8 - The Bronze Object in the Middle Ages Ittai Weinryb Frontmatter More information xv FIGURES Pisa, Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, wooden inlay, ca. 1600 (De Agostini Picture Library / G. Nimatallah/Bridgeman Images) 146 77A Doorknocker, bronze, Brioude, Cathedral of St. Julien, early twelfth century, diameter 26 cm (Photo: Patrick Monchicourt) 155 78 Throne, bronze, Goslar, second half of the eleventh century, backrest: 89.3  65.8 cm, siderest: 60  61 cm (Photo: Volker Schadach, Goslar) 157 79 Front view of Fig. 78 (Photo: Volker Schadach, Goslar). 157 80 Altar, bronze, Goslar, Krodo Altar, ca. 1100, 73.5  100  73.5 cm 158 (Photo: Volker Schadach, Goslar) 81 Aeolipile, Vienna Kunsthistoriches Museum, ca. twelfth century 161 (Photo: Kunsthistorisches Museum, Wien) 82 Austrian National Library, ÖNB Wien: Cod. 12.600, fol. 30v, the Four Elements (Photo: “ÖNB Wien) 162 83 The horologium of Hârûn al-Rashîd presented to Charlemagne – reconstructed by Ulrich Alertz according to the instructions of al-Jazarî (Photo: Ulrich Alertz) 165 84 Alternate view of Fig. 83 (Photo: Ulrich Alertz) 166 85 Water clock inscription, Capella Palatina, Palermo (Photo: Author) 167 86 Water clock, Bible Moralisee, Oxford, Bodlian Library, MS Bodl. 2607 fol. 183 v (Photo: The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford) 168 87 Pallazo del Cavallo, Peompeo Sarnelli, Guida de’forestieri, p. 44 (Courtesy of the John Work Garrett Library, The Sheridan Libraries, Johns Hopkins University) 171 88 Bronze doors, Santa Maria Assunta, Ravello, ca. 1179, 378  266 cm (Bildarchiv Foto Marburg, Photo: Albert Hirmer/Irmgard Ernstmeier) 174 89 Bronze doors, Santa Maria Assunta, Ravello,– detail (Bildarchiv Foto Marburg, Photo: Albert Hirmer/Irmgard Ernstmeier) 175 90 Bronze doors, Cathedral of San Nicola Pellegrino, Trani, ca. 1180, 492  276 cm (De Agostini Picture Library / A. de Gregorio / Bridgeman Images) 176 91 Detail of the bronze doors of the Cathedral of San Nicola Pellegrino, Trani, Apulia, Italy, twelfth century (Photo: Author) 177 92 Detail of portal of the bronze doors of the Cathedral of the San Nicola Pellegrino, Trani, Apulia, Italy, twelfth century (De Agostini Picture Library / A. de Gregorio / Bridgeman Images) 178 93 Detail of portal of the bronze doors of the Cathedral of San Nicola Pellegrino, Trani, Apulia, Italy, twelfth century (Photo: Author) 179 94 Bronze doors, Cathedral, Monreale, ca. 1185–1189, 423  215 cm, detail (Author) 179 95 Bronze doors, San Zeno, Verona, detail (Photo: Author) 180 96 Perron, Theux (Photo: Jean-Pol Grandmont) 181 97 Perron-Fountain, Liege (Bildarchiv Marburg/Art Resource, NY) 182 77 © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-12361-8 - The Bronze Object in the Middle Ages Ittai Weinryb Frontmatter More information xvi FIGURES 98 Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München, Glossarium Salomonis Clm. 13002, fol. 4v (Photo: Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München) 99 View of Constantinople, Notitia Dignitatum, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Canon Mis 378 fol. 84 r (The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford) 100 Opicinus de Canistris, Pavia Regiosole, Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vatican City, Pal. Lat. 1993 101 St. Mark’s Square in Venice, fifteenth century, Ms 799/1344 fol. 4v (Musee Conde, Chantilly, France/Bridgeman Images) 102 and 102a Braunschweig, Ebstorf World Map (bpk, Berlin/ Art Resource, NY) 103 Fountain, Papal Palace, Viterbo, (Photo: Michael Krier, www.pilgrimstorome.org.uk) 104 Fountain of Folcardus, St. Maximin, Trier, (Franz Xaver Kraus, “Der Brunnen des Folcardus in S. Maximin bei Trier,” Bonner Jahrbücher 49 (1870)) 105 Fontana Maggiore, Perugia (Photo: Author) 106 Porta della Postierla Cathedral, Orvieto, (Author) 107 and 107a, b and c Orvieto, Cathedral, Façade, bronze sculpture of the evangelists (Brian J. Geiger. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License) 108 Bronze basin with Caryatids, winged Lions and Griffins, Fontana Maggiore, Perugia, (Alinari/ Art Resource, NY) 109 Winged Lions and Griffins of the Perugia Fountain, Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, Perugia (Scala/ Ministero per I beni e la attivita’ culturali/ Art Resource, NY) 110 Fontana Maggiore, Perugia, Detail (Author) 111 Boniface VIII, Museo Civico Medievale, Bologna (Scala/ Art Resource, NY) © in this web service Cambridge University Press 183 184 185 186 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 194 195 197 www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-12361-8 - The Bronze Object in the Middle Ages Ittai Weinryb Frontmatter More information MAPS 1 Rammelsberg and Its Vicinity (Jack McGrath) page 32 xvii © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-12361-8 - The Bronze Object in the Middle Ages Ittai Weinryb Frontmatter More information © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-12361-8 - The Bronze Object in the Middle Ages Ittai Weinryb Frontmatter More information ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This book originated in a dissertation completed at Johns Hopkins University in 2010. I thank my adviser Herbert L. Kessler as well as Michael Fried, Henry Maguire and Stephen Campbell for providing a rigorous art historical education. As a doctoral student, I was fortunate to become one of Gerhard Wolf’s medievalists as a fellow at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz. I would like to thank him and the institute’s other director, Alessandro Nova, for creating and sustaining a most stimulating intellectual environment. Since 2010 I’ve been Assistant Professor at the Bard Graduate Center; I would like to thank the director, Susan Weber, and dean, Peter N. Miller, for creating a unique environment for the study of the history of crafted things. This book was formed through discourse with many colleagues and friends at the Bard Graduate Center and I cannot imagine how it would have looked without them. A blissful year at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, brought the book project to completion. I thank Yve Alain Bois and Patrick Geary for their encouragement on this project. It is a pleasure to thank all the friends and colleagues without whom this book would have never been written in this manner. Hannah Baader, Marisa Bass, Brigitte Bedos-Rezak, Elena Boeck, Pete Dandridge, André Dumbrowski, Jas’ Elsner, Ayelet Even-Ezra, Barry Flood, Beate Fricke, Romy Golan, Almut Goldhahn, Sarah Guérin, Cynthia Hahn, Yitzhak Hen, Daniel Hershenzon, Lauren Jacobi, Aden Kumler, Richard Leson, Lior Levy, Maria Loh, Wolf-Dietrich Löhr, Gerhard Lutz, Griff Mann, Megan Mcnamee, Christina Neilson, Richard Neer, Assaf Pinkus, Oded Rabinovich, Alberto Saviello, Uri Shachar, Avinoam Shalem, Benjamin Tilghman, Nat Silver, Stefan Trinks, Elly Truitt, Joyce Tsai, Frédérique Woerther and Christopher Wood. Benjamin Tilghman, Sarah Guérin, Assaf Pinkus and Elazar Weinryb have all read various drafts of this book. I thank them as well as the two anonymous readers appointed by Cambridge University Press for their comments and suggestions. I thank Nicole Pulichene and especially Rona Johnston Gordon for taking on the task of copy-editing the manuscript. All Latin translations are mine unless otherwise noted. I thank Magda Hayton and Daniel Houston for xix © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-12361-8 - The Bronze Object in the Middle Ages Ittai Weinryb Frontmatter More information xx ACKNOWLEDGMENTS their help with the editing of the Latin translations. Tarek Ibrahim assisted in securing the images for publication. At Cambridge University Press, I would like to thank Asya Graf, Gillian Dadd and Royce Fernandez for their hard work and their attentive support in transforming the manuscript into a book. This book is published with the aid of a grant from the International Center for Medieval Art and the Kress Foundation and a generous publication grant from the Bard Graduate Center. Sections of chapter 2 have been previously published in the journal Gesta. I visited many of the monuments discussed in this study with my parents Ofra and Elazar Weinryb, without whom all of this would have not been possible. My mother, Ofra, did not live to see this book published, although she witnessed many of its phases, and so I dedicate this book to her memory. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-12361-8 - The Bronze Object in the Middle Ages Ittai Weinryb Excerpt More information INTRODUCTION Of Bronze Things There is nothing in this world as invisible as a monument. They are no doubt erected to be seen – indeed to attract attention. But at the same time they are impregnated with something that repels attention, causing the glance to roll right off, like water droplets off an oilcloth without even pausing for a moment. Robert Musil Monuments1 On an old photograph found in the photo archive of the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence (Fig. 1), a man in uniform stands next to a large bronze sculpture. The sculpture is located on the threshold of the church of San Sepolcro in Barletta. In the foreground of the photograph is a streetlamp, somewhat isolated from the man and the colossal sculpture. There is a paradox in the juxtaposition. The sculpture makes the streetlamp look small, but at the same time the streetlamp situates the sculpture as a thing of the past. In an echo of Musil’s words cited above, both sculpture and lamp seem invisible to the man, who appears to be occupied with something else in this public street, where one living human interacts – or perhaps does not interact – with these two objects. The street lamp and the sculpture are technological feats: as a device designed to generate light by use of gas lamps, the streetlamp has a utilitarian function; the achievement of the sculpture lies in the technique of bronze casting – the focus of this study. The bronze in the photograph is the Colossus of Barletta, a late-antique sculpture of a Roman emperor more than 5 meters in height that occupies a public space in the square of the medieval city of Barletta, in southern Italy. 1 © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-12361-8 - The Bronze Object in the Middle Ages Ittai Weinryb Excerpt More information 2 OF BRONZE THINGS 1. Romualdo Moscioni, bronze statue in Barletta, also known as the “Colossus of Barletta,” h. 450 cm, albumin print, before 1893 (37.6  25.2 cm) inv. no. 4210 (Photothek des Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut). © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-12361-8 - The Bronze Object in the Middle Ages Ittai Weinryb Excerpt More information 3 OF BRONZE THINGS Above all else, the sculpture is a monument to monumentality itself, its grandeur announced by its size even in relationship to its modern surroundings such as the street lamp.2 Monuments are legendary. They are presented as memories, and they are perceived as myths. The reception of sculpture can therefore be studied through legends, which reflect the cultural intelligence of the historical past and thus illuminate how objects of the past were received and perceived by their viewers. This book is very much about legends and the place they hold in our imagination through one specific material, bronze. Bronze sculpture elicited a unique form of engagement of humans and objects that is a result of the particular nature of its medium. According to legend, the Colossus of Barletta drifted to shore from the sea.3 Beginning in the seventeenth century, the tale was told that the sculpture washed ashore from a Venetian ship that had sunk offshore, filled with booty looted from Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade.4 An earlier account of the sculpture is found in an edict issued by Charles II of Anjou in 1309 that describes the Colossus as an image made in metal (ymaginem metallis).5 The Colossus proved to be more than simply an image, for it provided a rich seam to mine, literally as well as metaphorically.6 The lower sections of the sculpture, which included the part below the waist, were melted down and recast as new objects, this time not as images in bronze but as bells for the newly constructed church in the nearby town of Siponto.7 The ability to extract material from older sculpture and to recast it resulted in an ever-changing map of bronzes. We can assume that many medieval bronzes were cast from ancient sculptures that had been melted down to be made anew, while much of the bronze sculpture of the Renaissance was similarly made from medieval bronzes melted down and reused in turn.8 The biography of the bronze object is therefore embedded in the material rather than in the form. In the intrinsic particles of the bronze object lies what we might term its hereditary code, for the material from which it is composed may in the past have formed and in the future form the body of another object. Those particles give the various copper alloys similar material structures and density.9 The Colossus of Barletta undoubtedly holds the material structure or composite of an earlier bronze object and thus carries a hereditary lineage in which an alloy is transmuted from one object to the other. Symbolically, at least, the church bells cast from the legs of the Colossus retained some of the qualities of the feet of the Colossus, transformed from supports for the body of an emperor into sound-making devices.10 As an object, then, the Colossus went through a process of making, disappearance, rediscovery and partial destruction and, in a later period, through a process of ascribing and prescribing the personality of the emperor it portrayed, of reinstallation and reappropriation. But most of all, the Barletta statue has © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-12361-8 - The Bronze Object in the Middle Ages Ittai Weinryb Excerpt More information 4 OF BRONZE THINGS offered forms of monumentality. Occupying a civic space in the medieval city of Barletta, the sculpture has been ascribed various identities, as representing everyone from a late Roman emperor to Charlemagne himself. This debate was mainly the antiquarians’ prerogative, while the Colossus itself, guarding the threshold of the church at Barletta, came to be known through the fifteenth century as the sedile del popolo – the Seat of the People. Its monumentality became an object of public pride. The unifying statue was part of civic memory, where it enabled the association of an antique object with an imagined historical narrative. This marvel was amplified by the sheer size of the sculpture and the valuable material from which it had been wrought. Some of its intrinsic worth was extracted for the fabrication of the church bell, whose reverberations brought the community of worshippers together and which marked, like the Colossus at the threshold, the place of the church. Bell and sculpture were fabricated by the same method, the lost-wax technique – a commonality that further strengthened their ties. In varied monumental forms, both bell and sculpture occupied the public space of the medieval town. This study argues that bronze sculpture has a unique place within the history and historiography of medieval art and material culture. That unique place is derived from the distinctive, almost enchanting, qualities of the technical complexity of lost-wax casting and from material qualities distinct to the medium. Together, these give monumental cast bronze its particular place and impact in shaping the historical progress of medieval art. matter Bronze is a copper alloy consisting of copper and tin. Brass is also copper based but with zinc as the additive. While today we have clear definitions of both alloys, the understanding of what was brass and what was bronze were more fluid in the Middle Ages. Unlike silver or gold, both elemental materials, copper-based alloys were not clearly defined. Some objects labeled as bronze actually contained zinc, and some “brass” objects consisted mostly of tin and copper. The percentage of tin or zinc in medieval alloys varied across the centuries, and so too did definitions of what was bronze and what brass.11 We do not know whether medieval craftsmen were aware of whether they were producing bronze or brass, and whether this distinction was significant for their practice. We can find copper alloyed with tin or with zinc, and analysis of bronze objects has shown that not just zinc and tin were added to the alloy but also materials such as iron, nickel and lead.12 Thus, strict modern definitions of copper-based alloys such as bronze and brass cannot be applied to the study of bronze from the Middle Ages. Our definition of the material used must be looser, in keeping with the very nature of the alloy as it was perceived in the Middle Ages.13 © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-12361-8 - The Bronze Object in the Middle Ages Ittai Weinryb Excerpt More information MATTER 5 The medieval distinction between bronze and brass was blurred, and the Latin term aes was used to designate both. Only in the late thirteenth century can we see a clear attempt to conceptualize brass semantically, with the word aurichalcum. Metallic zinc became available in Europe in the sixteenth century, but in the Middle Ages zinc was produced from calamine ore, a mineral rich in zinc.14 It is important to underscore that many medieval alloys contained both tin and zinc, in different quantities, further clouding the distinction between bronze and brass. We should also note that though the levels of tin and zinc in bronze and brass copper alloy changed through time, the alloy’s definition as bronze or brass remained the same. As we shall see, the ambiguous characterization of 2. St. John, wax figurine on a wooden core, alloys such as bronze and brass is indicative h. 20 cm, Fritzlar, Dommuseum (Photo: Dommuseum Fritzlar). of the flexible relations between man and material, a flexibility that impacted perceptions of the fabricated bronze object. In light of such flexibility, this book will not attempt to distinguish between the different types of copper alloys and will regard all copper-based cast metals as bronze.15 Bronze will be examined in this study almost exclusively through one means of manufacture – the lost-wax cast.16 The technique of lost-wax casting (cire perdue) originated sometime before 4,000 BCE. It designates a process whereby a model composed of soft fungible materials such as wax or tallow with a solid core was encased in a plaster mold. The wax or tallow was then melted, creating a “lost” image inside the mold. Next, molten bronze was poured into the mold, generating the image that had previously been in wax. A rare surviving wax figurine, dated to 1179, exhibits what such a wax prototype would have looked like before it was enclosed in a mold (Fig. 2). Lost-wax casting was the prevalent technique for the production of cast objects in Europe all the way through to the end of the Roman Empire. A recent study by Götz Lahusen presents a head of an empress in Nis that is dated to the fifth century as the last surviving cast object of the Roman world.17 Literary sources provide later examples, such as the description of the equestrian statue of Emperor Theodoric taken by Charlemagne from © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-12361-8 - The Bronze Object in the Middle Ages Ittai Weinryb Excerpt More information 6 OF BRONZE THINGS Ravenna to his newly formed capital at Aachen, indicating that lost-wax casting continued in the later decades of the fifth century and into the sixth century.18 In Europe, small-scale cast objects such as brooches and pendants were manufactured throughout the Middle Ages using the lost-wax technique.19 For example, an Avar bronze belt fitting ( Fig. 3) displays a griffin in its center and was manufactured according to the lost-wax technique by using a relatively small quantity of wax, resulting in a solid bronze object. By contrast, large-scale cast bronze objects are typically hollow, avoiding the need to fill an entire mold with molten metal. For these, the wax model was shaped around a clay or wooden core, enabling the caster to create a hollow mold. The thickness of the metal of the final bronze cast is determined by the thickness of the layer of wax between the core and the mold.20 From Ireland in the Middle Ages, bones have been found with intricate ornamental motifs incised into their surfaces (Fig. 4). These designs were most likely impressed on a wax model before the wax itself was enclosed in the clay mold that was then filled with molten metal. This process produced a small-scale bronze cast ornament and could be repeated by pressing another piece of wax into the same design and repeating the casting process.21 These 3. Avar Belt Fitting, eighth century (4.8  3.9  0.6 cm) (Metropolitan Museum of Art, OASC). © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-12361-8 - The Bronze Object in the Middle Ages Ittai Weinryb Excerpt More information 7 MATTER 4. Trial Bone, Lagore, Co. Meath, eighth century (This image is reproduced with the kind permission of the National Museum of Ireland). early medieval objects tell of a basic ability to cast objects in open molds, generating casts that were very thin, thus eliminating the need for material saving hollow casting. The persistence of the casting of wearable jewelry throughout the early Middle Ages and the survival of a number of large-scale cast objects from the first centuries after the end of Roman hegemony in Europe demonstrate that although objects were no longer produced using the lost-wax technique on the same scale, the method was not entirely forgotten. Thus it is wrong to characterize the Late Antique period as time when knowledge of the lost-wax casting of large-scale objects was lost. Rather, we should think of the change between Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages as a period when the ability to extract metal from mines declined, resulting in a reduced supply of raw material for casting and, as a result, an increase in the melting-down and recasting of ancient bronze sculpture. We should also bear in mind that this period can likely be characterized as one in which the taste and material need for large-scale bronze objects decreased, in a reflection of the rather small and transitory settlements of that age in the Latin West.22 Evidence of large-scale bronze casting in northwestern Europe in the late eighth century therefore, speaks not of a rediscovery of this method but rather of its intensification. That growth may indicate that the metal ingredients were more readily available because copper and tin mining revived in the eighth century. The copper mines of Germany and northern Italy will play a vital role in this study, for their existence enables us to understand the place of bronze sculpture in the Middle Ages. With a work such as the Colossus of Barletta very much in mind, my primary concern is with the intensification of the production of large-scale bronze objects using the lost-wax technique and the implications of such objects for the construction of the medieval environment.23 © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-12361-8 - The Bronze Object in the Middle Ages Ittai Weinryb Excerpt More information 8 OF BRONZE THINGS fabrication Bronze cast in the lost-wax technique is the subject of this study, but the bronze objects have something else in common – they are all monumental. Monumentality is not an easy term. Monumentality does not describe the “monument” that is a solemn, single, public structure, but rather has a flexibility that is useful for art-historical analysis. Alois Riegl distinguished between intentional and non-intentional monuments, recalling the value that age bestows upon the monument with the passing of time, which is indexed, especially in bronze, through the presence of corrosion. Riegl also notes the sheer directness of engagement with the monument, an engagement that requires no a priori knowledge.24 He writes: These monuments are nothing more than indispensable catalysts, which trigger in the beholder a sense of life cycle, of the emergence of the particular from the general. This immediate emotional effect depends on neither scholarly knowledge nor historical education for its satisfaction, since it is evoked by mere sensory perception. Hence it is not restricted to the educated (to whom the task of caring for monuments necessarily has to be limited) but also touches the masses independent of their education.25 Monuments offer accessibility. The notion of monumentality can be ascribed to objects that remain steadily and consistently accessible to their viewers, even if these viewers are from different segments of society, be that clerical or lay, aristocratic or poor. And additionally, the object’s monumentality enables access throughout both day and night and both ritualized and non-ritualized forms of viewing. This study does not engage with the question of who viewed these objects, for the majority of the objects in this study were placed outside buildings, readily accessible to all types of viewers, from all segments of society. More recently, Wu Hung has proposed that monumentality can be recognized in a category of objects – some of which were miniscule – in light of their specific interaction with their viewer and, in particular with a public of viewers.26 Any work of art, however small, retains aspects of monumentality that stem from how it is perceived. We can think of liturgical rites as moments in which sacred objects are granted visibility and thus attain monumentality. The object could achieve monumentality through its exhibition or through ritualistic commemoration. This study addresses the construction of monumentality specifically in relation to large-scale bronzes made with the technology of lost-wax casting. This book is thus a study of large-scale bronzes made by the lost-wax technique and placed in the public realm, objects whose monumentality is founded on their accessibility. The three prerequisites for inclusion in this study – bronze, lostwax technique, accessibility – enabled a specific form of engagement with the © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-12361-8 - The Bronze Object in the Middle Ages Ittai Weinryb Excerpt More information 9 MEDIUM object. There was a public monument in the Middle Ages, this study argues, and that public monument functioned within a medieval environment constituted through community. medium The historical background to this book lies in the premise that the lost-wax technique enabled a growth in the production of sculpture. We will follow the historical trajectory of the development of that technique, running from its first notable centers in Germany southward toward Italy. Exchange between north and south is an essential part of the discussion, an exchange not just of objects but also of ideas. Germany as well as parts of northern Italy were and are renowned for their metal deposits, and their copper and tin mines supplied the material basis for the production of alloys. As the main source of raw material, the north is vital to this narrative; supply is key to understanding the place of bronze in the Middle Ages. The book is divided into four parts, each of which addresses one aspect of the place of bronze sculpture in medieval Germany and Italy. Chapter 1 deals with the act of Making. Chapter 2, Signification, considers how the bronze sculpture gained significance after the moment of production, separated from the mundane and ushered into the realm of the distant and marvelous. Chapter 3, Acting, focuses on the relationship of bronze sculpture to a series of responses that ascribed the production of the sculpture with supernatural qualities. Chapter 4, Being, deals with forms of reception of bronze sculpture – as something that is, as something whose existence is an integral part of its function, as something appreciated, almost passively, as an object that “is there.” The four chapters of this study, Making, Signification, Acting and Being, form together a cultural as well as an intellectual history of bronze casting in medieval Europe. They follow a non-diachronic division of knowledge, an approach also found in the organization of the Warburg Library, London, into Image, Word, Orientation and Action; with the entire structure of the library presenting an organization of knowledge that is different from traditional trajectories, light is shed, by means of classification, on traditionally lesser visible cultural nodes.27 The four chapters present a historical trajectory that starts in the early ninth century in Germany and ends in south and central Italy somewhere around the mid-thirteenth century. The aim of this study is to manufacture a history of the reception, response, and, above all, instrumentality of the bronze monument in the Middle Ages.28 With the combination of the relative scarcity of its material and the complexity of its technique, bronze casting provides a framework for interpretation that is more complex than an approach based on the materiality of the fabricated object alone.29 Thus through analysis of material and technique, we will © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-12361-8 - The Bronze Object in the Middle Ages Ittai Weinryb Excerpt More information 10 OF BRONZE THINGS attempt not to comprehend the allencompassing materiality of bronze but rather to construct a thick image of the medieval mentalité as expressed in the reception of the bronze object.30 The majority of the artifacts considered across this study are bronze doors, and while they can be compared and studied with other bronze objects, bronze doors are the most notable category of surviving monumental bronze objects from the Middle Ages. Sometimes these doors are made of a single metal object, with the entirety of each door-wing made of a solid piece of bronze, but in other examples bronze doors are made of individual bronze panels nailed onto a wooden core. Most of the surviving bronze doors are embedded with pictorial representations and are decorated with historiated narrative scenes taken chiefly from the Bible or from Christian hagiography. Ute Götz and Margaret English Frazer have tried through different 5. Wooden doors, St. Maria im Kapitol, forms of analysis to find common themes 31 Cologne, around 1049, h. 485 w. 248 cm and iconographical motifs in bronze doors. (Rheinisches Bildarchiv Köln). The historiated wooden doors from the church of St. Maria im Kapitol in Cologne dated to 1049 (Fig. 5) present, however, similar themes, notions of narrative, and even ornamental schemes to those of bronze doors from the same period.32 And when we turn to liturgical rites, we find ritual benediction of church doors but no specific ritualistic consecration of bronze doors.33 Thus the attempt to find an all-encompassing quality in bronze doors that will constitute them as separate from doors fabricated from other materials, in terms of iconography, figural motifs, or ritualized consecration, is futile. Here, then, is more reason to consider a category of monumental bronze objects that includes various types, including free-standing sculpture and even fountains, and not solely doors. Furthermore, although I write of doors, I am not concerned here with the experience of a historical spectator as he or she marched over the threshold of the church, passing the open bronze wings of the doors.34 In the medieval period, church bronze doors would have been kept closed most days of the week and would have been opened only on certain feast days and Sundays. Thus, throughout the week the doors presented a bronze tableau installed on © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org