Vox populi: Visual rhetoric methodology for medieval Apocalyptic Art

307 Pages·2011·18.397 MB·English

by  Dixil L. Rodriguez

VOX POPULI: VISUAL RHETORIC METHODOLOGY
FOR MEDIEVAL APOCALYPTIC ART
A DISSERTATION
SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
IN THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE
TEXAS WOMAN’S UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH, SPEECH, AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
BY
DIXIL L. RODRIGUEZ, B.A., B.S., M.A.
DENTON TEXAS
DECEMBER 2011
UMI Number: 3493841
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iii
DEDICATION
This document is dedicated to several people. To my parents, Dr. and Mrs. Angel
M. Rodriguez, for teaching me how to live with courage, dignity, and providing a home
built on amazing grace. To Edlyn Enid Rodriguez-Aldridge for being the big sister that
still holds my hand across the streets of life. To Alan Adams for his support in my
endless research travels. To Dr. Mark Aldridge for the generous time offered discussing
academics. To my two sweet nieces, Maricelis and Ariela, who kept me grounded with
laughter and inspiration beyond words.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Though only my name appears on the cover of this dissertation, credit for this
effort must also be given to the numerous individuals who supported and guided me
through my academic journey of the past six years.
I would like to express my sincere appreciation and gratitude to my research
advisor and dissertation chair, Dr. Lou Thompson for her advice, guidance, direction, and
willingness to provide numerous research letters for international travel on my behalf.
Over the course of my doctoral studies, she has been a selfless mentor and inspiring role
model. My educational experience would not have been as productive without her
presence. I would also like to express my great appreciation to Dr. Hugh Burns, for the
challenge to embrace sprezzatura in my current and future research. Dr. Litton, I thank
you for encouraging me to step into the rhetorical arena and fearlessly challenge the
tradition with new theories.
The members of my dissertation committee, Dr. Lou Thompson, Dr. Hugh Burns,
and Dr. Guy Litton, all contributed immensely to this effort. I thank them all for being so
gracious with their time, reading my manuscript and providing valuable advice.
Finally, I extend a heartfelt gratitude to my family for their enduring support,
kindness, understanding and love. I will never be able to thank them enough for helping
me realize this goal of completing my doctoral studies.
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ABSTRACT
DIXIL L. RODRIGUEZ
VOX POPULI: VISUAL RHETORIC METHODOLOGY FOR
MEDIEVAL APOCALYPTIC ART
DECEMBER 2011

Apocalypticism has been a major element in faiths and religions worldwide. The
influence of the Christian Apocalypse in Western philosophy, spirituality, religion,
imagery, iconography, and social thought is present in almost every form of visual
rhetoric we know: photography, art, paintings, sculptures, illuminations, and
cinematography. Christian Art is permeated with images of the Apocalypse. Particularly
the art of the Middle Ages.
During the Middle Ages, the Book of Revelation was seen as a text to be
interpreted for a specific audience in need of the cryptic message. The “interpreter” was
the Catholic Church, who claimed to have the vox Dei (voice of God) and was privy to
the apocalypse to come. The audience was the populi, the individuals that comprised the
medieval towns and were not members of the church or the monarchy. The Catholic
Church embarked on a visual rhetoric campaign in order to convert the populi into
Christianity. The visual artifact of choice: The Book of Revelation. The Catholic Church
did not foresee that the populi would present a visual rhetoric counterargument to the
apocalyptic images introduced for conversion purposes. The monstrous images of the
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populi served not only as counter arguments to the Catholic Church’s elegant artistic
renditions of the apocalypse, the images also served as a claiming of identity and voice
by the populi: the vox populi. Apocalyptic art of the populi was a response, an utterance,
to what the religious hegemony was imposing in terms of ideology and socially
prescribed identity. The images presented by the populi in the Middle Ages were a visual
rhetoric argument towards social change and reform outside the religious milieu.
The focus of this study is to introduce a visual methodology process that can
provide an artistic rubric (stemming from visual rhetoric theory) from which to analyze
specific Apocalyptic Art outside the strictures of a religious milieu. The methodology
uses the classical argument to demonstrate the visual rhetoric tools used to deliver the
message of the apocalypse.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
COPYRIGHT ..................................................................................................................... iii
DEDICATION ................................................................................................................... iv
ACKNOWLEDMENTS ......................................................................................................v
ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... vi
LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................. xi
LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... xii
Chapter
I. THE VOX DEI AND THE VOX POPULI
1.1 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................1
1.2 THE PROFESSIONAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY .....................2
1.3 THE RHETORICAL ARTIFACT: MEDIEVAL APOCALYPTIC ART ..8
1.4 A CLOSER LOOK AT THE MIDDLE AGES ...........................................9
1.5 THE PROBLEM STATEMENT ...............................................................10
1.6 AN OVERVIEW OF THE METHODOLOGY ........................................12
1.6.1 Table: Aristotle’s Rhetorical Genres .............................................13
II. COLLECTION OF BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DATA
2.1 INTRODUCTION .....................................................................................18
2.2 REFERENCING THE APOCALYPSE ....................................................21
2.3 REFERENCING THE VOX POPULI ......................................................25
2.4 CRITERIA FOR REFERENCE INCLUSION ..........................................26
2.4.1 Format for Bibliographical Entries ...............................................28
III. MEDIEVAL RHETORIC: BIBLIOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH
3.1 INTRODUCTION .....................................................................................30
3.2 PRIMARY SOURCES ..............................................................................33
3.2.1 Bibliographical Entries ..................................................................36
3.3 SECONDARY SOURCES ........................................................................55
3.3.1 Bibliographical Entries ..................................................................57
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3.4 TERTIARY SOURCES .............................................................................62
3.4.1 Bibliographical Entries ..................................................................63
3.5 CRITICAL THEORY COLLECTION & REFERENCE MATERIAL ....64
3.6 MEDIEVAL BOOK SERIES ....................................................................68
3.6.1 Bibliographical Entries ..................................................................69
3.7 MEDIEVAL PRINT JOURNALS AND ONLINE JOURNALS ..............72
3.7.1 Bibliographical Entries ..................................................................72
3.8 MEDIEVAL RESEARCH DATABASES AND WEBLIOGRAPHY......73
3.8.1 Bibliographical Entries ..................................................................75
3.9 CRITERIA ASSESSMENT OF BIBLIOGRAPHICAL MATERIAL .....78

IV. CLASSICAL RHETORIC AND BIBLICAL THEORY IN THE LATE
MEDIEVAL EPOCH
4.1 INTRODUCTION .....................................................................................88
4.2 PRIMARY SOURCES ..............................................................................93
4.2.1 Bibliographical Entries ..................................................................94
4.3 SECONDARY SOURCES ......................................................................104
4.3.1 Bibliographical Entries ................................................................106
4.4 TERTIARY SOURCES ...........................................................................112
4.4.1 Bibliographical Entries ................................................................113
4.5 CRITICAL THEORY COLLECTION & REFERENCE MATERIAL ..115
4.5.1 Bibliographical Entries ................................................................116
4.6 CATALOGUED BOOK SERIES............................................................118
4.6.1 Bibliographical Entries ................................................................119
4.7 PRINT JOURNALS AND ONLINE JOURNALS .................................124
4.7.1 Bibliographical Entries ................................................................125
4.8 RESEARCH DATABASES &WEBLIOGRAPHY ................................126
4.8.1 Bibliographical Entries ................................................................127
4.9 CRITERIA ASSESSMENT OF BIBLIOGRAPHICAL MATERIAL ...130
V. THE MEDIEVAL APOCALYPSE AND VISUAL RHETORIC
5.1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................133
5.2 A BRIEF SURVEY OF MEDIEVAL RULE ..........................................135
5.3 THE APOCALYPSE ...............................................................................139
5.4 VISUAL RHETORIC METHODOLOGY FOR THE POPULI’S
APOCALYPSE ........................................................................................149
1.6.1 Table: Aristotle’s Rhetorical Genres ...........................................151
5.5 ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTION TO SCHOLARSHIP.............................162
5.6 PRIMARY SOURCES ............................................................................219
5.6.1 Bibliographical Entries ................................................................220
5.6.2 Bibliographical Entries ................................................................229
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5.7 SECONDARY AND TERTIARY SOURCES ........................................240
5.7.1 Bibliographical Entries ................................................................241
5.7.2 Bibliographical Entries ................................................................243
5.7.3 Tertiary Source ............................................................................246
5.7.4 Tertiary Sources ...........................................................................247
5.8 RESEARCH RESOURCES ....................................................................248
5.8.1 Bibliographical Entries ................................................................249
5.8.2 Bibliographical Entries ................................................................251
5.9 JOURNALS, LIST SERVS, DATABASES AND
WEBLIOGRAPHY..................................................................................252
5.9.1 Bibliographical Entries ................................................................253
5.10 CRITERIA ASSESSMENT OF BIBLIOGRAPHICAL MATERIAL ...255
VI. THE VOX DEI AND THE VOX POPULI: CONCLUSION
6.1 INTRODUCTION(cid:1)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)258
6.2 APPLICATION OF RHETORICAL GENRES IN ARISTOTLE’S
RHETORIC(cid:1)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)260
1.6.1 Table: Aristotle’s Rhetorical Genres: Forensic Analysis .......... 262
1.6.1 Table: Aristotle’s Rhetorical Genres: Epideictic Analysis ........ 267
6.3 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................271

APPENDIXES
A. Research Map.......................................................................................................275
B. Copyright and Permit Letters ...............................................................................277
C. Glossary of Terms ................................................................................................283

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