hrvatski

Medieval Crosses: Scale, typology and materials

The present paper seeks to address the issue of scale of medieval objects by focusing on twelfth- and thirteenth-century wooden and painted crosses, from the wider Adriatic region. In particular, the paper will deal with the seminal studies on crosses from the first half of the twentieth century, which paid special attention to the relations between crosses of different size. One can observe that the earliest historiographical attempts to catalogue and interpret a vast number of preserved crosses, rather than focusing on iconography, were concerned with the size of the objects studied. In short, smaller bronze crosses were seen as group of crosses that witnessed innovation. Considering the easy dissemination from several centers of production, they were granted the status of disseminators of forms and iconographies. Following this reasoning, sizeable (mostly wooden) crosses would have been but their “monumentalised” specimens – smaller crosses reproduced in greater scale. Given that much of the recent work on crosses builds upon this straightforward and somewhat oversimplified scheme of transmission of forms (and iconographies) from minor to major scale, the paper aims at understanding how the scale of medieval objects has conditioned scholarly views on the processes of their making.

medieval crosses ; crucifixes ; materiality ; size ; scale ; historiography

Sudjelovanje na skupu je potpomogao Sackler Research Forum.