The Romanesque Frieze and its Spectator (review)

224 Short Notices Having said this, the omission is not Kahn's alone. It is one of the most unfortunate aspects of art history that its political setting is often relegated to only a slight 'lull'. Having carped enough, I would repeat that this is a very fine book indeed, which is handsomely illustrated and which I have found extremely stimulating. John James Lawsons Long Alley Hartley Vale N S W 2790 Kahn, Deborah, ed., The Romanesque Frieze and its Spectator, London, Harve Miller, 1992; cloth; pp. 232; 117 b / w plates; R.R.P.£120.00. Judged by the title, this collection is only half a success. Amongst a distinguished band of scholars, only Walter Cahn deals seriously with the issue of the spectator, quoting Kant's view that art requires 'disinterested contemplation'. N o Romanesque artist would ask his viewer to be merely 'reflective'. H e savoured his passion, relished the depth of feelings that the mystical flavour of his figures imparted and enticed the viewer into a subjective and certainly not 'disinterested' attentiveness. Elaine Vergnolle discusses the extraordinary Romanesque penchant for slipping odds and ends of sculpture into walls and piers, many of which were carved decades before, to produce a pastiche, as if nothing could be wasted. Perhaps that was the truth. Lech Kalinowski, in discussing the frieze at Malmesbury, compares its horizontal angels with a signed altar in Toulouse, a capital in Moissac, and one of the voussoirs at Vivray. At first sight it may seem far-fetched to link items from sites spread over more than a thousand kilometers. But in the next piece Christine Verzar mentions that the Lombard sculptor Nicholaus worked in Saxony. I have recently found that a number of French carvers trained north of Paris around 1120 then journeyed to Lombardy before returning home in the mid-1130s, working at Toulouse and on the carved portals of Bourges on the way. It is now becoming clear that sculptors and masters travelled very great distances to find work. I a m coming to suspect that masons worked on all carved stones, from curved torus moulds to plain walling and window frames, and that those w h o could carve were asked to do one capital each. This single stone was a signature of their presence on the site. Willibald Sauerlander, the most perceptive observer of medieval sculpture alive today, wrote that the sculpture of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries 'have to be read as symbols or a poster in stone'. At Autun, on the most awesome tympanum remaining to us, Christ is enthroned above a terrifying and absolutely final message. Written without compassion, under a patriarchal Short Notices 225 figure of the most sombre and implaccable countenance, are the words 'Omnia dispono solus' or 'I alone dispose of everything'. As spectator face to face with that figure of passionless judgment and timeless finality I am happier to be alive in this century, difficult as thesetimesmay be. John James Lawsons Long Alley Hartley Vale N S W 2790 Meale, Carole M., ed., Women and Literature in Britain 1150-1500 (Cambrid Studies in Medieval Literature 17), Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, second ed., 1996; paper; pp. xxxviii, 236; 2 b / w illustrations, chronological table; R.R.P. AUS29.95. Carol Meale's collection of essays, now re-issued in paperback, offers delightful variety of opinions, perspectives and insights into women's writing and the represented activities and identities of w o m e n in the Middle Ages. Principally, this volume recognises the ambiguous position that w o m e n held in male dominated medieval culture; w o m e n were both attached to, and detached from, the patriarchal order. So argues Judith Weiss w h o explores the power and weakness of w o m e n in Anglo-Norman romance. Women, she says, were excluded in many different ways 'by virtue of their o w n rank' (p. 11). Yet, those w h o had the good fortune to receive some education were, says Weiss, able to 'indirect[ly] exercise power'. Heroines were 'energetic, able, even formidable—despite being held in check by misogynistic comment, threatened with violence or married...