Lost Architecture Remodeling: An Iconographic Reading

Abstract

In the Middle Ages, images had useful functions, particularly among illiterates. In holy places pictorial representations helped to instruct illiterates, making them understand the stories that were represented, recognize the Saints, and perceive the meaning of their attributes. The representation of a miniature model of a church associated with a saint often denotes that he had erected holy places as symbols of the ‘building up’ of the Church through the Doctrine and his own theological writings. A model of a town often refers to the town where the church holding the painting was located. A miniature model of a medieval town is usually offered to the Virgin by the patron saint of the city which is represented. This article intends to illustrate how the representation of an architectural miniature model, as the main attribute of a saint in medieval iconography, has influenced the process of remodeling lost architectures that have changed shape over the centuries due to reconstruction or restoration. Architectural miniature models, represented as an iconographic attribute of a saint, are shown in numerous 14th to 15th century paintings. The usefulness of a maquette, in remodeling both the aspect and the style of a structure, is underlined by impressively precise architectural details which characterize the suggestive and eloquent examples of maquette examined in this study.