What Was The Focus Of Medieval Art?
Figures 1&2 (above)
Figure 3
The Smithfield Decretals. Created by both a French scribe and groups of British Artists. [around c1400]. From the British Library. Figure 1, 2 ,3.http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/ Viewer.aspx?ref=royal_ms_10_e_iv_fs001r1
Images are bright mirrors that reflect the realities of the religious area in the Middle Ages.
Having the same function, images on manuscript The Smithfield Decretal showed secrets of churches in the Late Medieval period. More importantly, they help us interpret people’s real thoughts towards churches, presenting us with a clearer picture to understand the religious life at that time.
The Smithfield Decretals, originally made in 1300 in the south of France, is a copy of the glossed Decretals of Pope Gregory IX, an important source of Canon Law. Canon Law is a 2 code of ecclesiastical laws governing both the Catholic Churches and the life of every monk, so it was indispensable to churches. Therefore, after the dissemination of the book in 1234, 3 4 it soon became widespread with 675 copies even surviving today, a big number showing its significance. What’s more, each copy of it was highly expensive: according to the History of 5 Medieval Canon law, copies of the Decretal (£25-£100) could be more costly than a house (£30) in San Felice. Thus, copies of the Decretals of Pope Gregory IX were valuable.
What makes the Smithfield Decretals stand out from other copies is its extraordinary marginal paintings.
Marginal paintings mean paintings on margins of the manuscript. As discussed, the volume was created in France in 1300, but later in 1340, someone in London purchased this manuscript and commissioned a group of artists to add these beautiful paintings on the blank margin (figure 3), which initially might be designed for notations.6
This change of possession gave the manuscript a special dual identity that shows us 2 different owners’ distinct attitudes to churches.
Siege of Constantinople
The first image of the manuscript (figure 2) was painted by a French artist hired by the scribe, depicting Pope Gregory IX distributing copies of the Decretals of Pope Gregory IX. It’s the 7 only image in the original copy (done in 1300), located in the center of the first page, telling us its importance to the entire decretals and the scribe himself. If we move our eyes to the sentences surrounding the painting, we could see how careful the scribe was when he copied the decretals: the neat handwriting and beautiful structure of the page are signs of his respect for the book. We could thus reasonably guess that he deeply respected the churches, or that he was a pious religious member.
However, if we turn pages and look at the marginal illuminations later added by London artists, we could recognize that they’re different from figure 2. Many of them are sarcastic and mock the church. The use of marginal paintings to mock the religious area is not rare: early back in the ninth century, marginal paintings on the Chludov Psalter depict crazy iconoclasts torturing Christ, while Christ just calmly looks at them. The contrast of facial 8 features between iconoclasts and Christ alludes to irony and the owner’s contempt towards iconoclasm, a movement of destroying icons in the Byzantine period.
The marginal painting on the Smithfield Decretals (figure 3) has the same effect. It illustrates a fox priest standing in front of several birds. Fox was a common representation of cunning and of those who don’t listen to God, so here it might represent a cunning priest cheating people. 9
To understand the deeper meaning of the image, we can look at The Canterbury Tales written by Geoffrey Chaucer.
“A monk there was… an outrider, who loved his venery.” The monk who was no longer abstinent is parallel to the priest who cheated believers and was no longer pious. Together, it’s understandable that figure 3 represents the corruption of churches. One of the reasons for corruption might be power gaining from pilgrimages as learned in class.
As birds were naturally prey of foxes, they represented people who were fooled. The fox raised his eyes and never looked at the believers, which could be interpreted as arrogance and contempt, while the flock of birds still looked straight at him, which could be an allusion to blindness. With this sarcastic image, those London artists criticized churches and conveyed different attitudes to churches compared to the French scribe’s learned from figure 2.
In conclusion, images from the Smithfield Decretals not only tells us the truth of churches’ corruption but shows people’s real thought of church: some people were still faithful believers of the religion, but more and more started to reject, even debase the church. Lastly, thanks to the marginal images and their dual identity, we could understand the realities of the religion more completely.
Written by Yujun Song
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Bibliography:
“Smithfield Decretals”, The British Library, accessed 1 February 2021, https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/the- 2 smithfield-decretals.
“Canon Law | USCCB”, Usccb, accessed 1 March 2021, https://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what- 3 we-believe/canon-law.
Unknown. “The Smithfield Decretals,” c. 1400, the British Library, accessed February 1, 2021, http:// 1 www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=royal_ms_10_e_iv_fs001r
Wilfried Hartmann and Kenneth Pennington, The History Of Medieval Canon Law In The Classical Period, 4 1140–1234., 1st ed. (repr., Washington, D.C: The Catholic University of America Press, 2008), 102.
Spencer McDaniel, “What’s Up With All Those Weird Doodles In The Smithfield Decretals? – Tales Of Times 5 Forgotten”, Tales Of Times Forgotten, 2019, https://talesoftimesforgotten.com/2019/12/02/whats-up-with-all those-weird-doodles-in-the-smithfield-decretals/.
Spencer McDaniel. 6
Spencer McDaniel. 7
“Canon Law | USCCB”. Usccb. Accessed 1 March 2021. https://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and teachings/what-we-believe/canon-law.
“Chludov Psalter – Fol. 67R The Iconoclasts And The Crucifixion”. Projects.Leadr. Accessed 1 March 2021. http://projects.leadr.msu.edu/medievalart/exhibits/show/iconographyofchrist/ the_iconoclasts_and_the_crucif.
Pennington, Kenneth, and Wilfried Hartmann. The History Of Medieval Canon Law In The Classical Period, 1140–1234. 1st ed. Reprint, Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2008.
“Chludov Psalter – Fol. 67R The Iconoclasts And The Crucifixion”, Projects.Leadr, accessed 1 March 2021, 8 http://projects.leadr.msu.edu/medievalart/exhibits/show/iconographyofchrist/the_iconoclasts_and_the_crucif.
Hans-Jörg Uther, “The Fox In World Literature: Reflections On A “Fictional Animal”, Asian Folklore Studies 9 65, no. 2 (2006): 139, https://www.jstor.org/stable/30030396.
McDaniel, Spencer. “What’s Up With All Those Weird Doodles In The Smithfield Decretals? – Tales Of Times Forgotten”. Tales Of Times Forgotten, 2019. https://talesoftimesforgotten.com/2019/12/02/whats-up-with-all-those-weird-doodles-in-the smithfield-decretals/.
“Smithfield Decretals”. The British Library. Accessed 1 February 2021. https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/the-smithfield-decretals.
The British Library, Accessed February 1, 2021, http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx? ref=royal_ms_10_e_iv_fs001r.
“The General Prologue – The Monk”. Owl Eyes. Accessed 1 February 2021. https:// www.owleyes.org/text/canterbury-tales/read/the-monk#root-218780-1. Uther, Hans-Jörg. “The Fox In World Literature: Reflections On A “Fictional Animal””. Asian Folklore Studies 65, no. 2 (2006): 139. https://www.jstor.org/stable/30030396.
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What Was The Focus Of Medieval Art?
