The Mystic Ark: Hugh of Saint Victor, Art, and Thought in the Twelfth Century

656 Pages·2014·66.093 MB·English

by  Rudolph, Conrad

The MysTic Ark: HugH of Saint Victor, art,
and tHougHt in tHe twelftH century
In this book, Conrad Rudolph studies and reconstructs Hugh of Saint
Victor’s Mystic Ark (c. 1125–1130), one of the most unusual sources we
have for an understanding of medieval artistic culture. In medieval written
sources, works of art are not often referred to, let alone described in any
detail. When they are mentioned, it is seldom with more than a word or
phrase, at the most a sentence. Almost completely ignored by art historians,
The Mystic Ark is a forty-two page description of the most complex indi-
vidual work of figural art of the Middle Ages, a painting that was meant
to be copied by others. Depicting all time, all space, all matter, all human
history, and all spiritual striving, this highly polemical image had an impact
on medieval culture far beyond its original role in the education of socie-
ty’s elite, during one of the great periods of intellectual change in Western
history.
Conrad Rudolph is Professor of Medieval Art History at the University
of California, Riverside. He has received fellowships and grants from
the Guggenheim, J. Paul Getty, Mellon, and Kress Foundations, as well
as from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the College
Art Association. At UC Riverside he has received both the University
Distinguished Teaching award and the University Honors Faculty Mentor
of the Year award. He is a member of the board of editors of Speculum and of
caa.reviews, the online journal of reviews of the College Art Association. He
is author of The “Things of Greater Importance”: Bernard of Clairvaux’s Apologia
and the Medieval Attitude Toward Art (1990); Artistic Change at St-Denis: Abbot
Suger’s Program and the Early Twelfth-Century Controversy over Art (1990);
Violence and Daily Life: Reading, Art, and Polemics in the Cîteaux Moralia in Job
(1997); Pilgrimage to the End of the World: The Road to Santiago de Compostela
(2004); and “First, I Find the Center Point”: Reading the Text of Hugh of Saint
Victor’s “The Mystic Ark” (2005).

tHe MyStic ark

HugH of Saint Victor,
art, and tHougHt in
tHe twelftH century
conrad rudolpH
university of california, riverside
32 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10013-2473, USA
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Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781107037052
© Conrad Rudolph 2014
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 2014
Printed in the United States of America
A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication data
Rudolph, Conrad, 1951–
The Mystic Ark: Hugh of Saint Victor, art, and thought in the twelfth century / Conrad Rudolph.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-107-03705-2 (hardback)
1. Hugh, of Saint-Victor, 1096? – 1141 – Criticism and interpretation. 2. Hugh, of Saint-Victor,
1096? – 1141. De arca Noe mystica. 3. Hugh, of Saint-Victor, 1096? – 1141. Mystic ark (Painting)
4. Art and society – Europe – History – To 1500. I. Title.
ND553.H82R83 2013
759.02′1–dc23 2013003486
ISBN 978-1-107-03705-2 Hardback
Additional resources for this publication at http://mysticark.ucr.edu
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs
for external or third-party Internet Web sites referred to in this publication and does not
guarantee that any content on such Web sites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
To my son,

John

contentS

List of Figures page ix
Preface xiii
1 tHe MysTic Ark lectureS 1
Introduction .......................................................................................1
Order and Method ...................................................................19
The Intellectual and Political Environment of The Mystic Ark:
The “Old” and “New” Theologies, the Ecclesiastical Reform
Movement in Northern France, and The Mystic Ark ........................33
Hugh as Master of the School of Saint Victor and the Ark Lectures ...42
The Format of the Ark Lectures as a Response to the
“New Theology” ......................................................................46
The Mystic Ark as a Work of Art ...................................................49
The General Sources of The Mystic Ark .........................................51
Concluding Remarks ................................................................56
2 tHe image of The MysTic Ark 59
Introduction .................................................................................59
Hugh’s Introduction to the Mystic Ark Lectures 62
I. The Ark of Noah: The Ark According to the Letter and the
Politics of Exegetical Method ...................................................66
Introduction, 66 • I.1. “Form and Size,” 67 • I.2. Hugh and 
the Iconographic Tradition of the Ark of the Flood, 77 •  
I.3. Conclusion: A Literal Ark?, 84
II. The Ark of the Church: The Ark According to Simple
Allegory and the History of Salvation .......................................85
Introduction, 85 • II.1. The Majesty, 89 • II.2. The Works of 
Creation: The Six Days, 101 • II.3. The Works of Restoration: 
The Ark, 117 • II.4. The Cosmos and the Majesty, 190
III. The Ark of Wisdom: The Ark According to Anagogical
Allegory and Building the House of God ................................220
Introduction, 220 • III.1. The Moral Ark, Book One: Hugh’s
Introduction to The Moral Ark and the Context of the Ark of
Wisdom, 222 • III.2. The Moral Ark, Book Two: Reading the
vii
viii contentS
Ark of Wisdom According to Anagogical Allegory, 231 •  
III.3. The Moral Ark, Book Three: Breaking Away from
the Ark, 241 • III.4. The Moral Ark, Book Four: The Ark of
Wisdom and Order in Building the House of God, 244 •  
III.5. The Closing Statement of The Moral Ark, 255
IV. The Ark of Mother Grace: The Ark According to Tropology
and Adorning the House of God .............................................258
Introduction, 258 • IV.1. The Body of Christ and the 
Appropriation of the Neoplatonically Based Macro/
microcosm, 261 • IV.2. The Vertical Ark: The Three Stages and 
the Four Ascents, 271
3 concluSion: The MysTic Ark and tHe
multiplication and SyStematization of imagery 343
The Four Arks .......................................................................343
“Only One Ark Everywhere”: The Need for a Work of Art .............353
The Mystic Ark and a Systematized Middle-Ground Worldview ........357
The Afterlife of the Mystic Ark Lectures: The Reportatio ...................359
The Afterlife of the Mystic Ark Lectures: The Inventions of the
Gothic Portal and the Exegetical Stained-Glass Window at
Saint-Denis ............................................................................364
Concluding Remarks: “And the Painting, What Else Does It
Tell You?” ...............................................................................374
appendix: tranSlation of The MysTic Ark, witH
art HiStorical commentary 379
I. Technical Aspects of The Mystic Ark ..............................................379
The Text and Translation of The Mystic Ark, 379 •  
The Construction of the Image of The Mystic Ark, 380
II. Translation of The Mystic Ark, with Art Historical Commentary ....393
II.1. Art Historical Commentary: Introduction, 393 •  
II.2. The Structure of The Mystic Ark, 395 • II.3. Translation of 
The Mystic Ark, with Art Historical Commentary, 397
Notes 503
Bibliography 573
Index 597