Strangers from a Strange Land: "Monstrous Races" in Medieval Religious Art
Triton, ridden by Poseidon, backgammon game piece, walrus ivory, Louvre Museum, Norway or Cologne origin, late 12th c. Mythical...
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Carolyn Whitson
Feb 711 min read
Welcome to the Working Week...Demons and their Jobs in Medieval Art
In my last post, I began the Herculean task of trying to give a general overview of demons in medieval art. I came away from writing...
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Carolyn Whitson
Feb 35 min read
Devil's Gonna Get You!
13th c. capital of a sinner being devoured, Saint Pierre, Chauvigny, France A nasty case of Covid pretty much bankrupted my energy for...
327 views0 comments
Carolyn Whitson
Dec 28, 20239 min read
Angels We Have Seen On High
I thought I'd finish out our year with something light-hearted and ravishingly beautiful. The West Window of Worcester Cathedral was...
79 views0 comments
Carolyn Whitson
Nov 27, 202310 min read
Everything Old is New Again: The Watts Memorial Chapel
One of the bittersweet realities for lovers of Romanesque art is that the majority of it exists in a state of decay and dislocation. ...
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Carolyn Whitson
Sep 5, 20235 min read
The "Three Living Meet Three Dead" Fresco by Buonamico Buffalmacco, 1336
Some art seems to have a life of its own, its own vitality and presence which can make it seem like a character in its own right. The...
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Carolyn Whitson
Aug 10, 20239 min read
What Becomes a Martyr Most? Part 3 of the di Balduccio Monument of Milan
di Balduccio monument for Saint Peter of Verona, 1339 After having examined the larger sculptures at the base of this monument, we arrive...
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Carolyn Whitson
Jul 18, 20237 min read
di Balduccio Monument--The Christian Virtues
Capturing the back of the sarcophagus of Saint Peter Martyr is much trickier than photographing the front. The apse is quite close by,...
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Carolyn Whitson
Jul 9, 20236 min read
The di Balduccio Tomb--the Pagan Virtues
As much as I love medieval art that strikes me as bizarre, I really love it when I come across works which are marvels of symbolic...
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Carolyn Whitson
Nov 6, 20222 min read
Origins of Sirens
On October 25th, 2022, I gave a lecture at Metropolitan State University on the Origins of Sirens. In the presentation, I trace how...
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Carolyn Whitson
Aug 16, 20225 min read
Time Travel through the French Monuments Museum in Paris
I love when a museum makes learning fun. The French Monuments Museum (FMM, for brevity here) in Paris gives a presentation that is...
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Carolyn Whitson
Dec 26, 20216 min read
What Child is *This*?
Medieval artists had a standard repertoire of scenes from the life of Jesus to reproduce in churches and personal religious items. ...
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Carolyn Whitson
Sep 5, 20217 min read
Crypt of the Original Sin
Caves evoke mystery to a modern person. We're so used to having all the light we want, wherever and whenever we go. Our interiors are...
341 views0 comments
Carolyn Whitson
Jul 10, 20214 min read
The Lion King, Part 2
The use of lions in medieval religious and political art hews closely to the traditions inherited from around the Mediterranean. Lions...
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Carolyn Whitson
Jun 5, 20219 min read
The River God(father)
Baptism changed both in its practice and its artistic representation from its introduction in the Gospels to its depictions across...
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Carolyn Whitson
May 19, 20219 min read
Chasing a Ghost Along the Pilgrimage Trail
When I began to study medieval art in graduate school, I found myself often puzzling over murky, low-contrast images in black-and-white,...
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Carolyn Whitson
Apr 30, 20216 min read
"A Present of Things Past . . . A Present of Things to Come"
In this post, a few thoughts on why medieval churches cover themselves in stories. There are three times: a present of things past, a...
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Carolyn Whitson
Apr 22, 20215 min read
What Lies Beneath, Part 2
For such a small patch of excavated floor, the mosaic pavement in the abbey at Bobbio (under the current basilica) has a number of...
119 views0 comments
Carolyn Whitson
Apr 16, 20216 min read
What Lies Beneath, Part 1
The lovely town of Bobbio has always been small and out of the way, but in the early 600s, this was exactly what the Irish abbot St....
120 views0 comments
Carolyn Whitson
Apr 9, 20217 min read
Fabulous Fakes
Many's the time I've gotten excited by the prospect of visiting a medieval church, only to find that "medieval" mostly referred to the...
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