Abstract

This article focuses on one of the most intensely ‘graphic’ artefacts produced during the Middle Ages in Western Europe: the so-called Bury St Edmunds Cross or Cloisters Cross. As this fascinating object has been thoroughly studied in many aspects, especially epigraphically, it can seem presumptuous to go back to one of the best-known artefacts of medieval art and epigraphy. This article, however, does not pretend to discuss the content of the texts or the exceptional nature of the object, but rather the graphic and pragmatic means used to compose a discourse of great theological richness around it. In essence, it returns to the degré zéro of the analysis of the cross, to address what it materially means ‘to combine’ writing and image. Starting from the example of the Cloisters Cross, the article applies this kind of ‘low-regime’ analysis to painting, sculpture, stained glass, mosaic, and any artform where the encounter of texts and images is the result of planning, adapting, and composing gestures that reflect the semiotic and aesthetic ambitions of visual creation during the Middle Ages.

摘要

本文重点介绍中世纪西欧生产的最“生动”的人工制品之一：所谓的 Bury St Edmunds Cross 或 Cloisters Cross。由于这个迷人的物体已经在许多方面进行了彻底的研究，特别是在金石方面，回到中世纪艺术和金石学中最著名的人工制品之一似乎是冒昧的。然而，这篇文章并没有假装讨论文本的内容或对象的特殊性质，而是讨论用于围绕它构成丰富神学话语的图形和实用方法。本质上，它回到了零度对十字架的分析，以解决它在物质上意味着“结合”文字和图像的含义。从修道院十字架的例子开始，本文将这种“低制度”分析应用于绘画、雕塑、彩色玻璃、马赛克和任何艺术形式，其中文本和图像的相遇是规划、调整和调整的结果。构成反映中世纪视觉创作的符号学和美学野心的手势。