The Allegory of the Church : : Romanesque Portals and Their Verse Inscriptions / / Calvin Kendall.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Toronto Press eBook-Package Archive 1933-1999
• VerfasserIn: Kendall, Calvin,
• Place / Publishing House: Toronto : : University of Toronto Press, , [2016]; ©1998
• Year of Publication: 2016
• Language: English
• Series: Heritage
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (408 p.)

Verse inscriptions in stone appeared in abundance on the fa¦ades of Romanesque churches in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Marking the place where medieval worshippers were transported from secular to sacred space, portal verse inscriptions provide important, and often overlooked, insights into the dynamic function of the portals and their art.The Allegory of the Church is the first full-length study of Romanesque verse inscriptions in the context of church portals and portal sculpture, and is the product of a twenty-year study. Calvin B. Kendall demonstrates how these inscriptions served to express the role of the church building as a concrete allegory of Christ and the Church. Describing them in detail, he traces the history and nature of the changes in allegorical interpretation of the inscriptions until, as medieval assumptions about language and rhetoric changed, they were finally abandoned by Gothic artists. An exemplary work of interdisciplinary scholarship, The Allegory of the Church includes a detailed catalogue of Romanesque verse inscriptions.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Illustrations, Text Figures, and Maps -- Preface -- Part One. The Making of Meaning -- 1. The Allegory of the Church -- Part Two. The Early History of Christian Verse Inscriptions -- 2. Constantine and the Mosaics of Rome -- 3. Portal Inscriptions, Liminal Transformation, and the Creation of Sacred Space -- Part Three. Visions and Voices: Allegorizing the Romanesque Church -- 4. 'I am the door': Typological Allegory and the Design of the Romanesque Portal -- 5. The Voice of Allegory: Language and Form in Romanesque Verse Inscriptions -- 6. The Portal as Christ: Personification or Real Presence? -- 7. Portal Inscriptions as 'Performatives' -- 8. Conditional Transcendence: Movement between the Literal and Spiritual Levels of the Allegory of the Church -- 9. Anagogical Allegory and Imagery: Gate of Heaven, Gate of Life, Fountain of Life -- 10. Moral Allegory: Admonitory and Pax Portals and the Tympanum of Jaca -- 11. Visions of Allegory: The Archivolts of Aquitaine -- Part Four. Secular Transformations -- 12. The Search for the New: Politics, Pilgrimage, and Economics -- 13. Artists and the Pursuit of Fame -- 14. Allegory Undone: Patronage and the Shift to Representational Symbolism -- Catalogue of Romanesque Verse Inscriptions -- Notes -- Bibliography of Works Cited -- Index