From Minor to Major: The Minor Arts in Medieval Art History ed. by Colum Hourihane (review)

This is a magnificently presented volume produced under the auspices of the Index of Christian Art in Princeton. Focusing on the so-called minor arts, each of the sixteen essays is accompanied by a generous collection of coloured photographs that, in their beauty, challenge assumptions about major and minor arts. The approaches to the question around which the originating conference was organised are also varied. Some of the authors provide thought-provoking discussions of assumptions made in their discipline while others present very useful scholarly introductions to their fields and overviews about the history of research.

An examination of hierarchies in the arts is both useful and, to some degree, anachronistic. As someone working in a department dominated by modernists, however, these hierarchies are still surprisingly strong, particularly in New Zealand where books on local art are often focused solely on painting. I was stunned to discover when I first arrived here that manuscript illumination was considered by some so minor as to be not worthy of inclusion among the Fine Arts, while architecture was of little interest. These assumptions have been rightly challenged both in contemporary art practice and in the study of earlier periods.

At the same time, the inclusion of a variety of works in different media and genres has been salutary. The presence of seals, coins, pilgrimage badges, and misericords is a useful reminder of how rarely these items are discussed and how frequently they are skated over in general survey courses or in specialised research. The authors also remind us of the very different expectations of artists and patrons in the high Middle Ages. As Paul Binski points out in his thoughtful essay questioning these very hierarchies, magnificence and wonder and respect for the artist’s skill were also highly valued. The separating of media into high and low categories also overshadows our perceptions of influence and regard. Goldsmith was a label given to many medieval artists and, as Binski argues, the influence of small works could have a significant effect on the larger arts, such as architecture. Cynthia Hahn, writing on medieval enamels, examines the impact of what are much more accessible works on our perceptions of medieval art. These works are often small in scale and highly portable, as is demonstrated by their presence in collections internationally. Her essay, together with its excellent photography, does much to evoke the charm and power of the small, as well as its great beauty and the wonder of its glowing preciousness.

Colour, ornament, and decoration are words that are also explored in these essays. Thomas Dale draws on historiography to examine nineteenth-century century connoisseurship and the ravages of time as well as the impact of understandings of significance of scale in the valuing of art in his essay on colour and, in particular, wall-painting. Dale, like Binski and others, also underlines the importance of the integration of different media in his readings of Romanesque wall paintings, as well as the combining of liturgy and ritual objects such as vestments and metalwork to create sacred spaces. Neglected media such as tiles, and regional differences, or biases, are also brought up in Sharon Gerstel’s discussion of ceramic revetments and paving tiles, as are the influences of Byzantine artistic practices on the West. Alicia Walker also examines Byzantine ‘decorative arts’ such as metalwork, ivories, and woven garments, which she points out were as loaded with social and artistic meanings as any other ‘fine arts’. She demonstrates too how ornamentation has been crucial to the renewed interest in these works, and also the impact of new areas of thought including material culture, visual culture, and thing theory in this reappraisal.

Stained glass and tapestries are two art forms that have strongly influenced our understandings of Gothic art. Michael Cothren’s essay on stained glass...