DOI Artikel:
Pastan, Elizabeth Carson: A window on Panofsky’s Gothic architecture and scholasticism
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.59426#0085
scholarly texts. The De Natura Rerum of Isidore of Seville
(c. 560-636), which was one of the most important medi-
eval school texts, was referred to throughout the Middle
Ages as the Liber Rotarum because of Isidores frequent
recourse to the rota, to summarize visually what he had
explained in pages of text.65 As such, the rota was both
a tool and an emblem of medieval learning, involving the
reader-viewers reasoning to actively connect disparate
arguments and synthesize them into a single memorable
form (or contrasting pair). Given the important heuristic
role that the rota played in medieval scholarly texts, the
appearance of early rose windows may also refer to the ac-
tivity the rota signals — its role as a visual instrument that
stimulated its beholders to think connectively. Here then
is a scholarly connection of the kind Panofsky provokes us
to think about, compatible with, yet expanding beyond,
what he outlined in Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism.
As my remarks have sought to make clear, Panofsky’s
text can only be recommended with reservation as a sus-
tained examination of the development of 12th- and 13th-
century architecture, as a consideration of questions of
artistic agency, or as an investigation of rose windows.
But as a short, thesis-driven study introducing key prin-
ciples of Gothic architecture and its context in a stimulat-
ing way, it remains a study that is good to think with and
a springboard for further work.
SUMMARY
Elizabeth Carson Pastan
A WINDOW ON PANOFSKY’S
GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE AND SCHOLASTICISM
Erwin Panofsky’s Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism,
an essay-length work of little over 100 pages, has been
garnering scholarly attention ever since it was written in
1951. His interdisciplinary approach to church buildings
and analogies he sought to establish with the structure of
arguments advanced by scholars at the university of Paris
have made it a foundational work in the study of icono-
logy. Yet it has also been the subject of numerous critiques
as a “master narrative” of the study of Gothic architecture.
In this essay, I focus on his discussion of the placement of
rose windows in the facades of Gothic buildings in order
to highlight what was important about Panofsky’s work,
what he might have developed further, and in some cases
did develop in other writings, and what kinds of current
thinking did not figure in his argument.
65 Noted in H. Bober, ‘An Illustrated Medieval School-Book’, p. 85,
n. 43 (as in note 56); M. Evans, ‘The Geometry of the Mind’,
pp. 42-43 (as in note 55); and also E Wallis, ‘What a Medieval
Diagram Shows: A Case Study of Computus’, Studies in Iconogra-
phy, 35, 2014, pp. 1-40, with extensive further bibliography, esp.
pp. 1-4, and p. 37, n. 35.
(c. 560-636), which was one of the most important medi-
eval school texts, was referred to throughout the Middle
Ages as the Liber Rotarum because of Isidores frequent
recourse to the rota, to summarize visually what he had
explained in pages of text.65 As such, the rota was both
a tool and an emblem of medieval learning, involving the
reader-viewers reasoning to actively connect disparate
arguments and synthesize them into a single memorable
form (or contrasting pair). Given the important heuristic
role that the rota played in medieval scholarly texts, the
appearance of early rose windows may also refer to the ac-
tivity the rota signals — its role as a visual instrument that
stimulated its beholders to think connectively. Here then
is a scholarly connection of the kind Panofsky provokes us
to think about, compatible with, yet expanding beyond,
what he outlined in Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism.
As my remarks have sought to make clear, Panofsky’s
text can only be recommended with reservation as a sus-
tained examination of the development of 12th- and 13th-
century architecture, as a consideration of questions of
artistic agency, or as an investigation of rose windows.
But as a short, thesis-driven study introducing key prin-
ciples of Gothic architecture and its context in a stimulat-
ing way, it remains a study that is good to think with and
a springboard for further work.
SUMMARY
Elizabeth Carson Pastan
A WINDOW ON PANOFSKY’S
GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE AND SCHOLASTICISM
Erwin Panofsky’s Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism,
an essay-length work of little over 100 pages, has been
garnering scholarly attention ever since it was written in
1951. His interdisciplinary approach to church buildings
and analogies he sought to establish with the structure of
arguments advanced by scholars at the university of Paris
have made it a foundational work in the study of icono-
logy. Yet it has also been the subject of numerous critiques
as a “master narrative” of the study of Gothic architecture.
In this essay, I focus on his discussion of the placement of
rose windows in the facades of Gothic buildings in order
to highlight what was important about Panofsky’s work,
what he might have developed further, and in some cases
did develop in other writings, and what kinds of current
thinking did not figure in his argument.
65 Noted in H. Bober, ‘An Illustrated Medieval School-Book’, p. 85,
n. 43 (as in note 56); M. Evans, ‘The Geometry of the Mind’,
pp. 42-43 (as in note 55); and also E Wallis, ‘What a Medieval
Diagram Shows: A Case Study of Computus’, Studies in Iconogra-
phy, 35, 2014, pp. 1-40, with extensive further bibliography, esp.
pp. 1-4, and p. 37, n. 35.