Exposition des ymages des figures qui sunt: discourses about images in Medieval Occident

• Main Author: Maria Cristina Correia Leandro Pereira
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade Estadual de Londrina 2016-09-01
• Series: Antíteses
• Subjects: imagens; discursos; Ocidente medieval; artistas; textos
• Online Access: http://www.uel.br/revistas/uel/index.php/antiteses/article/view/24695

Contrary to what indicates the famous – and questionable – formula "Bible des illetrés”, the medieval discourses on images went well beyond just highlighting its didactic function. In this article, we present a sample of this diversity, analyzing a number of medieval texts dealing with images, which we have divided into five broad categories (not mutually exclusive: on the contrary, sometimes complementary). The first and most numerous are the theoretical discourses on images involving theological questions. Then, still based on arguments of theological order, a second group corresponds to those texts that seek to intervene in the practice of images through normative propositions. As a result from the previous two types is the third group: the speeches dealing with the reception of images and the reactions they cause. A fourth group are the writings that mention the producers of images: both practical documents and those that express value judgments about their Works. And finally, there are texts that describe the images, both their iconographic content and their materiality.