13th century
A01=Stephen Murray
amiens
Author_Stephen Murray
Category=QRM
cathedral
catholic church
covenant
doctrine
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
europe
french catholicism
gothic architecture
history
medieval
medieval beliefs
medieval religion
medieval sermon
mother of god
nonfiction
notre dame
oration
oratory
picardy
preach
preacher
priest
redemption
religion
religious experience
repentance
saint mary
saints
salvation
scripture
sculpture
sermon
sinner
spirituality
virgin mary
visual culture
Product details
- ISBN 9780520238473
- Weight: 363g
- Dimensions: 140 x 210mm
- Publication Date: 01 Nov 2004
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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In this groundbreaking work, Stephen Murray seizes a rare opportunity to explore the relationship between verbal and visual culture by presenting a sermon that may have been preached during the second half of the thirteenth century in or near the cathedral of Notre-Dame of Amiens, whose sculptural program was completed at about the same time. In addition to providing a complete transcription and translation of the text, Murray examines the historical context of the sermon and draws comparisons between its underlying structure and the Gothic portals of the cathedral. In the sermon, as in the cathedral, he finds a powerful motivational mechanism that invites the repentant sinner to enter into a new contract with the Virgin Mary. The correlation between elements of the sermon's text and the sculptural components of the cathedral leads to an exploration of the socioeconomic conditions in Picardy at the time and a vivid sketch of how the cathedral and its images were used by ordinary people. The author finds parallels in the rhetorical tools used in the sermon, on the one hand, and stylistic and compositional tools used in the sculpture, on the other.
In addition to providing a fascinating and cogent consideration of medieval beliefs about salvation and redemption, this book also lays the groundwork for a long overdue examination of the performative and textual in relationship to sculpture.
Stephen Murray is Professor of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University. He is the author of Notre-Dame, Cathedral of Amiens: The Power of Change in Gothic (1996), Beauvais Cathedral: Architecture of Transcendence (1989), and Building Troyes Cathedral: The Late Gothic Campaigns (1987).
