In the Beginning: Theories and images of creation in Northern Europe in the twelfth century

Abstract

The twelfth century witnessed a phenomenal explosion of interest in creation theory, an interest that was accompanied by an equally phenomenal increase in creation imagery of almost 900 per cent over the previous century. Often taken at face value by scholars as straightforward creation scenes or as the unique iconographical expressions of various patristic or contemporary writers on creation without reference to the larger, on‐going dialectical struggles of which these writings and the artworks were a part, these images should instead be seen as active factors in the process of forming elite opinion as a prelude to conditioning public opinion on a broader, lower level.

Liminal Images: Aspects of Medieval Architectural Sculpture in the South of England from the Eleventh to the Sixteenth Centuries

“…Diseased or monstrous progeny frequented medieval folklore, their conception blamed upon deviant sexual practices that violated categories, for example, between human and divine, human and demonic, human and animal, and clean and unclean.^ One of the earliest stories relates how the encounter of the rebel angels with mortal women (Genesis 6) produced a terrible brood, the giant, destructive and perpetually hungry 'mighty men', the Nepluhm ("unnaturally begotten men" or "bastards", from nepel^ "aboftion" or "miscarriage'') (McKenzie, 1965: 612). It has been convincingly argued that the source of the story, the apocryphal Book of Enoch, influenced such literary works as the poem Beowulf and therefore provided a means for its transmission into Middle Ages in the image of God as primal architect of the cosmos (see Rudolph, 1999;10). ' Etymologically, the word "hybrid", li terally an animal or plant produced by crossing two different species, varieties, races or breeds, highlights these interconnected paths of meaning.…”

“…AH of these examples appear to have given up the power of reason to become a slave to one's passions, violent, sexual, or otherwise. In this state it was believed that one was incapable of worship and thus became Hce the irrational animals (Rudolph, 1990;123).…”

“…The appropriate passage from the may be found in Schaptro, 1977Schaptro, [1947: 6 and Rudolph, 1990;11-12. For a concise introduction to the context in which Bernard wrote the text see Matarasso, 1993. Bernard's main objection to the carvings pivots upon the subtle power of the fantastic shapes to distract the brothers from the art that lay at the basis of monastic life -reading and meditating upon scripture (Rudolph, 1990: 104-124). The seductive power of the grotesque forms represented a profound spiritual danger, for although curiosity was a necessary and appropriate monastic attribute if directed toward spiritual matters it was perilous should the focus of attention become the material world.…”