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"Church" and "Synagogue" in Religious Art
Once early Christianity became the dominant religion in Western Europe, the Eastern story of a Jewish messiah in a culture under Roman...
Carolyn Whitson
Feb 2410 min read
44 views
0 comments
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...
Carolyn Whitson
Nov 20, 202410 min read
128 views
1 comment
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...
Carolyn Whitson
Feb 7, 202411 min read
700 views
0 comments
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...
Carolyn Whitson
Feb 3, 20245 min read
405 views
0 comments
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...
Carolyn Whitson
Nov 6, 20222 min read
67 views
0 comments
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...
Carolyn Whitson
Aug 16, 20225 min read
101 views
0 comments
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...
Carolyn Whitson
Jul 10, 20214 min read
135 views
0 comments
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,...
Carolyn Whitson
May 19, 20219 min read
180 views
2 comments
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...
Carolyn Whitson
Apr 9, 20217 min read
164 views
1 comment
Apocalypse Wow--The Sainte-Chapelle Rose Window
The stained glass in Sainte Chapelle (building completed in 1248) represents the highest achievement of the form. When you enter the...
Carolyn Whitson
Mar 5, 20219 min read
1,973 views
0 comments
Creation and Expulsion of Adam & Eve in the Stained Glass of Chartres Cathedral
To tell the story of Mary through a medieval church's lens, one must have at least one space to tell the story of Eve. At Chartres...
Carolyn Whitson
Feb 9, 20215 min read
2,056 views
0 comments
Notre Dame de Paris' Tympanum
This image features the fate of the damned--stretching from their judgment by Saint Michael (upper-left), across to punishments for...
Carolyn Whitson
Jan 22, 20212 min read
545 views
0 comments
Remembering the Notre Dame de Paris Interior, Part 1
Notre Dame de Paris was engulfed in a terrible fire in 2019. Here, I include some of my photos of the interior, taken in 2018. I don't...
Carolyn Whitson
Jan 22, 20213 min read
1,553 views
1 comment
Remembering the Notre Dame de Paris Interior, Part 2
This entry continues an analysis of the thirteenth century choir screen of Notre Dame de Paris, with photos taken in 2018, before the...
Carolyn Whitson
Jan 22, 20215 min read
254 views
0 comments
Remembering the Notre Dame de Paris Interior, Part 3
One thing that revolutionized looking at medieval stained glass for me was using a serious zoom lens, and then spending time in...
Carolyn Whitson
Jan 22, 20214 min read
116 views
0 comments
Chartres Cathedral--another temple to Mary the Queen
Chartres isn't very far from Paris, by modern standards, and its veneration of Mary is an occasion for comparisons to Notre Dame de Paris....
Carolyn Whitson
Jan 22, 20213 min read
1,007 views
3 comments
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