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Courtly images far from court: The family Saint-Floret, representation, and romance PDF

318 Pages·2003·25.284 MB·English
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HARVARD UNIVERSITY Graduate School of Arts and Sciences THESIS ACCEPTANCE CERTIFICATE The undersigned, appointed by the Division Department Qf History of Art and Architecture Committee have examined a thesis entitled Courtly Art far from Court: The Family Saint-Floret, Representation, and Romance presented by Amanda Luyster candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and hereby certify that it is worthy of^^ptanp^; Signature ------ Typed name .................... Signature .T.'.T.TrrrrrrnTrr......................... Typed name B.r ....Day id. Roxburgh.............................. Signature Typed name fir V ir^inie.. Greene Signature.... Typed name Date L Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Courtly Images Far from Court: The Family Saint-Floret, Representation, and Romance A thesis presented by Amanda Rosenstock Luyster to The Department of History of Art and Architecture in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the subject of History of Art and Architecture Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts May 2003 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 3091628 Copyright 2003 by Luyster, Amanda Rosenstock All rights reserved. ® UMI UMI Microform 3091628 Copyright 2003 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. © 2003 - Amanda R. Luyster All rights reserved. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. iii Thesis Advisors: Amanda R. Luyster Dr. Jeffrey Hamburger, Harvard University Dr. David Roxburgh, Harvard University Dr. Virginie Greene, Harvard University Abstract Courtly Images Far from Court: The Family Saint-Floret, Representation, and Romance The murals at the chateau of Saint-Floret (France, Auvergne, c. 1350) provide the most extensive depiction of romance in surviving French wall-painting. They are also, most unusually, accompanied by substantial extracts of painted text. Life-size images of jousts and lovers' meetings cover the walls of a large hall, depicting a romance of Tristan and Iseut, two of the most famous doomed lovers in western culture. Only a few pages have been dedicated to these wall-paintings in published scholarship, sometimes naming the paintings "courtly" (while ignoring the apparent contradiction of their rural surroundings) and largely devoted to identifying the text to which the images relate. My argument addresses the paintings' role in courtly culture and their use of visual rhetoric. In particular, I argue that the chateau and its wall-paintings provide evidence of a considered relation to at least three traditions of courtliness. By means of the style and form of the narrative which they present, the murals visually negotiate between the courtly visual culture of Paris, that of papal Avignon, and the locally-rooted troubadour society in southern France. The murals, therefore, provide evidence not only of sophisticated cultural production in areas outside the heavily-studied "centers" of the Middle Ages, but also of the strength of various strands of courtly tradition. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. What emerges most pointedly from the analysis is the vital social role of the paintings, the realization that the narrative images at Saint-Floret were not “mere decoration”; they mattered. They create an arena in which certain topics had already been put into play, and they act as an invitation to enter a dialogue. The viewing experience at Saint-Floret shapes viewers' consciousness of being part of a social group and simultaneously allows the opportunity for monologue, dialogue and performance. The paintings at Saint-Floret highlight the role of romance material in constructing and presenting an image of a self - particularly a noble self - in the Middle Ages. They allow their patron to show himself as a cosmopolitan member of the nobility, accomplished in the courtly codes and the material of romance, to the extent that he could “author” a visual text. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. V Table of Contents CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION____________________________________________________1 The Wall-Paintings at Saint-Floret l Arthurian Art: The Study of Text and Image 4 “Reading” the Paintings: Courtly Skills and Courtly Knowledge 21 The Social Role of Courtly Narrative at Saint-Floret 27 CHAPTER 2 THE CHATEAU AND LORDS OF SAINT-FLORET____________________36 Overview of the Chateau 36 The Room of the Paintings 43 The Courtyard and Inner Rooms 51 The Village Below 55 L’Eglise du Chastel 59 Troubadours and the Family Saint-Floret 66 Trade and Neighbors: The Wider World 76 CHAPTER 3 A SENSE OF PLACE. A SENSE OF STYLE___________________________ 86 The Use of Style and the Court Style 86 Style at Saint-Floret 90 Fourteenth-Century French Traditions 96 Influence from the South: Avignon and Italy 108 Saint-Floret: A Place In Between 127 CHAPTER 4 THE ROMANCE PAINTINGS AND THE MEL1ADUS_________________134 The Paintings, the Inscriptions, and Their Relation to Literature 135 The Meliadus and its Illustrations: A Fragmentary Tradition 162 Proposed Reconstruction of the Cycle at Saint-Floret 171 CHAPTER 5 VISUAL NARRATIVE_____________________________________________ 185 NARRATIVE STRUCTURE AT SAINT-FLORET 185 The Role of the Inscriptions 191 Movement through Time and Space 196 The Visual Rhetoric of Wall-Painting: Framing and Illusion 199 CHAPTER 6 AFTERMATH: WAR AND THE DUC DE BERRY____________________223 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. War and Plague: The Saint-Floret and the “Crisis” 1348-1392 223 JEHAN DE JEHAN AND THE Due DE BERRY 230 CHAPTER 7 CONCLUSION____________________________________________________ 236 APPENDIX A. A HISTORY OF THE FAMILY SAINT-FLORET___________________241 APPENDIX B. INDIVIDUAL RECORDS AND SOURCES_________________________ 252 APPENDIX C. THE PAINTINGS: DISCOVERY AND RESTORATION_____________286 Works Cited 292 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. List of Figures All figures not otherwise credited are copyright of the author. The following copyrighted images are used with permission: © Art Resource: Art Resource, New York. © Bibliotheque Nationale: Bibliotheque Nationale de Paris. © British Library: British Library, London. © Choplain-Maston: Inventaire General, AD AGP, Clermont-Ferrand. Cliche R. Choplain - R. Maston. © Getty: J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cloisters Collection. Figure 2.1. View of the chateau Saint-Floret from across the river (looking north).....................37 Figure 2.2. Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, Ms. fr. 22297, Fol. 323. L'Armorial d'Auvergne, BOURBONNAIS ET FOREZ, BY GUILLAUME REVEL. DRAWING OF SAINT-FLORET. FRENCH, C. 1450. © Bibliotheque Nationale............................................................................................................................................................37 Figure 2.3. Plan of the castral complex at Saint-Floret. Drawn after drawings and plans from the Saint-Floret file in the Mediatheque du Patrimoine, Paris..................................................38 Figure 2.4. Cutaway view of the second corps-de-logis at Saint-Floret. Drawn after Serre 1975............................................................................................................................................................................................................42 Figure 2.5. Exterior of the chateau Saint-Floret. Entrance from the village to the salle at LOWER RIGHT; ENTRANCE TO THE UPPER COURTYARD THROUGH THE GAP TO THE UPPER LEFT................44 Figure 2.6. North wall. Interior of the chateau Saint-Floret............................................................................44 Figure 2.7. West wall and northwest corner. Note sculpted consoles. Interior of the chAteau Saint-Floret................................................................................................................................................................45 Figure 2.8. East wall, southeast corner, and south wall. Interior of the chateau Saint- Floret......................................................................................................................................................................................................45 Figure 2.9. Inscription covering stones incorporated in the framing of the window. East wall, NORTHEAST CORNER. INTERIOR OF THE CHATEAU SAINT-FLORET...........................................................................47 Figure 2.10. Sculpted console; a crowned woman. Interior of the chateau Saint-Floret...........47 Figure 2.11. Rib vault. Interior of the chAteau Saint-Floret..............................................................................48 Figure 2.12. Exterior of the Eglise du Chastel, Saint-Floret.................................................................................61 Figure 2.13. The Virgin, John the Baptist, and the family of Jehan de Jehan. North chapel, Eglise du Chastel, Saint-Floret..........................................................................................................................................61 Figure 2.14. John the Baptist presenting Jehan de Jehan and Isabeau de Chaslus. North chapel, Eglise du Chastel, Saint-Floret..........................................................................................................................................62 Figure 2.15. The daughters of Jehan de Jehan and Isabeau de Chaslus. North chapel, Eglise du Chastel, Saint-Floret.................................................................................................................................................................62 Figure2.16. Thesonsof Jehan de Jehan and Isabeau de Chaslus. North chapel, Eglise du Chastel, Saint-Floret.................................................................................................................................................................63 Figure 2.17. Map of the environs of Saint-Floret (Auvergne)...............................................................................78 Figure 2.18. Local area around Saint-Floret.....................................................................................................................81 FIGURE 3.1. NORTH WALL. INTERIOR, CHATEAU SAINT-FLORET..........................................................................................93 Figure 3.2. View toward upper register, left side, north wall. Fragments of a horse (Adventure in the Perilous Forest). Interior, chateau Saint-Floret................................................93 Figure 3.3. London, British Library, Add. 12228, fol. 187v-188r. Meliadus and Mark in a tournament. Meliadus. Neapolitan, 1352-62. ©BritishLibrary............................................................97 Figure 3.4. New York, The Cloisters, The Hours of Jeanne d'Evreux. The Annunciation. Executedc. 1325-28 by Jean Pucelle. The Cloisters Collection, 1954(54.1.2f. 16). ©The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cloisters Collection............................................................................97 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

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