The "ornementalité" of the capitals of the cloister of Sant Benet de Bages: the functions of "decor" in the Romanesque art

• Grant number: 12/10418-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: October 01, 2012
• End date: July 31, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - Ancient and Medieval History
• Principal Investigator: Maria Cristina Correia Leandro Pereira
• Grantee: Aline Benvegnú dos Santos
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 13/05425-0 - The ornament in the Romanesque cloister: theory and methodology on the analysis of medieval images, BE.EP.MS

Abstract

The cloister of the Benedictine monastery of Sant Benet de Bages, in the Spanish Catalonia, has a large number and diversity of ornamental elements in their capitals, what sets us a fertile field of study. The few studies on this cloister indicate little attention by art historians to ornamentation, generally engaged in studying the historiated images. This is greatly due to the overvaluation of the medieval idea about images as a "Bible of the illiterate", at the expense of a deeper analysis on the structural presence and complexity of the various elements that compose the images, among which, the ornamental elements. The existing papers on the subject of ornamentation and its presence in medieval images are generally superficial, limited to studies for stylistic categorizations, occupying a marginal place because they are supposed to additional and unnecessary elements.In Sant Benet de Bages, as some other Romanesque cloisters, the amount of ornamental capitals exceeds that of historiated, which reveals the possibility of ornamentation constitute a field critical to the aesthetic f unctioning of medieval art. This research seeks to study such elements present in the cloister considering its structuring aspects in medieval imagetic economy, and the diversity of functions that can carry the concepts of "ornemental" and "ornementalité", proposed by the medievalist and French art theorist Jean-Claude Bonne, opening new possibilities for their study.

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

SANTOS, Aline Benvegnú dos. The \ornementalité\ of the capitals of the cloister of Sant Benet de Bages: the functions of decor in the Romanesque art. 2015. Master's Dissertation - Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD) São Paulo.