The Age of the Cathedrals: Art and Society, 980-1420

This very interesting book is an extended interpretative essay relating Medieval art to its social context. Duby moves across the whole Medieval period tracing innovations and changes in artistic traditions and relating them to political, social, economic, and intellectual phenomena. To a large extent, Duby is using Medieval art as a window into Medieval society. A very erudite book, Duby draws on a truly impressive knowledge of Medieval art and life. This book is written clearly (and apparently translated very well) and Duby's arguments are presented very well. To get the full benefit of this book, however, at least a basic knowledge of Medieval history is required. Duby very much sees the different forms of Medieval art as resulting from complex and often inter-related changes in political structures, economics, and intellectual life. A number of his analyses of changes in art forms and traditions are brilliant examples of inter-disciplinary analysis. A consistent theme is the importance of art, especially during the earlier Medieval periods as a form of worship. His discussion of the emergence of the Gothic style at the monastery of St. Denis under the direction of the famous Abbot Suger is a good example. Duby traces the important role of St. Denis as a royally sponsored and affluent institution. The increasing affluence of Northern France and expanding power of the French monarchy brought needed resources and prestige to St. Denis. The monks of St. Denis, including Suger, were heavily influenced by the mystical writings of Dionysius the Areopagite, whom they identified with their patron saint. Dionysius' mystical association of God with light apparently inspired Suger to construct the first Gothic church - one that emphasized the entry of light into the place of worship. At the same time, Suger's ability to attract craftsmen from a broad swathe of western Europe resulted in a synthesis of previously somewhat disparate artistic traditions. Duby has several similar analyses in which he ties economic, political, and intellectual currents to art. The explosive development of Gothic churches all across Europe testifies to vigorous economic growth, the re-emergence of vigorous urban centers, and a migration of priestly power away from monasteries to bishoprics. The development of the great cult of Mariolatry and use of the Virgin in high Gothic art reflects partly the development of a vigorous, independent church led by ambitious popes. The late Medieval emergence of more humanistic and individually oriented figurative art has something to do with the emergence of William of Ockham's disjunction of faith and reason. One defect of this book is the lack of illustrations showing many of the specific works that Duby discusses in his text. A more expansive edition with a high number of illustrations would be useful.

Now, don't get me wrong, this book is a very serious scholarly work packed with facts and dates, notes and references. However, according to the author -renowned French historian and member of the Académie Française Georges Duby, who died in 1996- History should be considered, and worked as, a literary genre. And hence his care with vocabulary and narration, his pains to characterize the frame of mind of those who populated the age he was a specialist in: the European Middle Ages. This book is maybe his most significant contribution to understanding the artistic heritage of those years, and he certainly succeeds with it in making us grasp some of the feelings and visions of the world that are behind some of the most striking monuments ever made by men: the gothic cathedrals. Duby's aim is, as usual, to explain through carefully crafted narration how the society that erected such awe-inspiring monuments behaved and tried to understand itself; how cathedrals are a product of it, and also which were the powers that guided that society. But although some representatives of those powers (church and monarchy) may have been wholly convinced that Cathedrals where ultimately monuments to their glory, Duby shows us throughout the pages of this wonderful book how the architects and the workers, the masons, the servants, the monks, but also the priests and nobles, artists and scholars, contributed with their work and their blood, to make cathedrals maybe the most astounding homage to the power of Life, with its terror and its beauty. Terror is what you will find at the very beginning of the book(in the year 1000 approx.): the terror of living in the wild forested land that then was Western Europe, trying to scratch a living out of the unyielding land, trying to survive and understand the scourge of terrible plagues or murderous invasions that decimated the few and scattered settlings. The amazing pungency of this beginning totally catches us (who probably expected an arid compilation of dates and battles) unawares and takes us from the basest level of medieval society (especially that of France) up through different layers to the powers that governed lives and souls and who decided where and when one of these fabulous temples should be erected. Even if you are not a catholic or Christian, even if you are an atheist, when you walk into one of these striking temples you can't help but notice -at ground level, near your feet- how there are numerous tombs of kings, priests, powerful people, that will make you think about the unavoidable mystery and darkness of death; how higher up there are paintings and works of art depicting good and evil, the fights and the fears, the knowledge and redemption to be sought and found throughout life; and when you raise your eyes to the stained-glass windows and the soaring spires....the wonder and the bliss, the whole power of Life. So, if you are considering a visit to one of these greatest of human works of art, the go