Books by William Diebold
Medieval Art, Modern Politics is an innovative volume of twelve essays by international scholars,... more Medieval Art, Modern Politics is an innovative volume of twelve essays by international scholars, prefaced by a comprehensive introduction. It examines the political uses and misuses of medieval images, objects, and the built environment from the 16th to the 20th century. In case studies ranging from Russia to the US and from catacombs, mosques, cathedrals, and feudal castles to museums and textbooks, it demonstrates how the artistic and built legacy has been appropriated in post-medieval times to legitimize varied political agendas, whether royalist, imperial, fascist, or colonial. Entities as diverse as the Roman papacy, the Catholic Church, local arts organizations, private owners of medieval fortresses, or organizers of exhibitions and publishers are examined for the multiple ways they co-opt medieval works of art. Medieval Art, Modern Politics enlarges the history of revivalism and of medievalism by giving it a uniquely political twist, demonstrating the unavoidable (but often ignored) intersection of art history, knowledge, and power.
Papers by William Diebold
Bernard of Angers' Liber miraculorum sancte Fidis, written about 1025 ce, contains a well-known a... more Bernard of Angers' Liber miraculorum sancte Fidis, written about 1025 ce, contains a well-known account of images, including the golden statue of St Foy now in Conques. In his attempt to sanction the existence and use of such images, Bernard made two unusual claims. First, only one iconographic subject, the crucified Christ, should be depicted in three-dimensional sculpture; the saints should only be represented in two dimensions. Second, Bernard grouped wall painting with writing and opposed those flat, two-dimensional media to sculpture. Both of these claims appear to be unique in medieval writing about images. This essay places them in their textual and historical contexts. Bernard's unusual claims about images are sui generis, but were influenced by a variety of factors: Christian theology, especially of the Eucharist; earlier traditions (especially Carolingian) of writing about images; and the recent introduction to Europe of silent, visual reading.
All thoughts about the Middle Ages are implicitly or explicitly engaged with the modern." 1 With ... more All thoughts about the Middle Ages are implicitly or explicitly engaged with the modern." 1 With this striking claim, the medieval historian Otto Gerhard Oexle argued that, since the Middle Ages is a modern invention, medievalists must take modernity into account. The semiotician, novelist, and cultural critic Umberto Eco thought no differently when he wrote of a "continuous return" to and of the Middle Ages: "Modern ages have revisited the Middle Ages from the moment when, according to historical handbooks, they came to an end." 2 Both authors recognized that the relationship between medieval and modern is dialectical rather than oppositional: one does not exist without the other. Our opening sentence can therefore be turned on its head to say that the Middle Ages has functioned as a foundational myth for modernity. But the relationship of medieval to modern is never straightforward or fixed; it evolves over the centuries, sometimes imperceptibly, sometimes abruptly. As Eco put it: "Since the Middle Ages have always been messed up in order to meet the vital requirements of different periods, it was impossible for them to be always messed about in the same way." 3 Even before Italian humanists in the mid-fourteenth century invented the Middle Ages as a distinct period and negatively labeled them "Dark Ages," the visual culture of the preceding centuries was continually being invented and reinvented. 4 This reception process continued through the early modern period to reach a peak during the second half of the nineteenth century, a period marked by intense historicism. The active engagement with medieval art and architecture did not cease then. Quite the contrary, as the bulk of this volume's essays, focused on the period from 1850 to 2000, forcefully evinces. Together, the contributions in Medieval Art, Modern Politics demonstrate that, like anything from the past, medieval art was never experienced "as is": it was always mediated to suit the needs of the moment. This is the theme at the heart of this volume.
Illuminating a Legacy: Essays in Honor of Lawrence Nees, 2024
Probably in the second half of the 10th century CE, a traveler from Spain, Ibrahim ibn Ya'qub, vi... more Probably in the second half of the 10th century CE, a traveler from Spain, Ibrahim ibn Ya'qub, visited the monastery at Fulda in central Germany. There, he saw figurative images of Christ on the cross and of Fulda's patron, Boniface. Ibrahim classed these images as "idols." Ibrahim's text, written by either a Muslim or a Jew, provides an exceptionally rare contemporary glimpse of how early medieval Christian art was viewed by a non-Christian. This paper provides a commentary on Ibrahim's text about Fulda, which is almost unknown to art history. It places it in two contexts: 1) the monastery of Fulda in the Ottonian era and 2) the early medieval discourse of idols. The paper also discusses the relationship of Ibrahim's text to another famous medieval representation of a Christian idol: Bernard of Angers's account of the statue of St. Faith in Conques.
Critical Inquiry, 2023
On 7 December 1911, Heinrich Wölfflin gave a lecture to the Prussian Academy of Sciences on the p... more On 7 December 1911, Heinrich Wölfflin gave a lecture to the Prussian Academy of Sciences on the problem of style in the visual arts. This lecture, 1 in which Wölfflin's thoughts on the most universal and fundamental art-historical problem were presented in a manner that is systematic and conclusive (at least until the promised, more comprehensive publication), is of such methodological importance that it seems inexplicable and unwarranted that neither art history nor aesthetics has yet taken a position on the views expressed there. The following attempts to make up for this situation. 2
The Legend of Charlemagne. Envisioning Empire in the Middle Ages,, 2023
«We stand before the first things made on the Rhine. They will be the last, if we do not grasp th... more «We stand before the first things made on the Rhine. They will be the last, if we do not grasp them now.» 1 With those apocalyptic words, Hermann Schnitzler ended the brief introduction to the catalogue of the exhibition of Romanesque art he curated in Cologne in 1947. Romanische Kunst [hereafter RK] was one of several medieval exhibitions held in that almost totally destroyed city immediately after World War II, but it is unusual because Schnitzler, surrounded by destruction both external and internal, found a safe haven in the portable works of Romanesque art he displayed, works that had been sheltered during the War. The status of the objects in RK as rare and fortunate survivals was vividly apparent because they were on view in the same city in which their contemporaries, Cologne's famous crown of Romanesque churches, stood is various states of destruction. Surrounded by such destruction, survivals can become highly auratized, their significance overdetermined. Both of those tendencies characterize Schnitzler's exhibition. This paper presents RK, which has never been studied before, and tries to explain what made Schnitzler, in the ruins of Cologne, able to claim that seeing his exhibition would cause a viewer, «perhaps for the first time in years, again to feel what it means to be secure». 2 In doing that, it illuminates a prime example of the ‹narrows of trans-mission› to which this issue of kritische berichte is devoted. RK opened on 6 September 1947 in Cologne's Alte Universität. Little is known of the planning for the exhibition. Schnitzler, the curator of Cologne's Schnütgen Museum, was assisted by a working committee of Leopold Reidemeister, the head of the city's museums; Willy Weyres, the Dombaumeister; Joseph Hoster, a priest at the cathedral and the head of Cologne's diocesan museum; and the art historian and gallerist Hans Melchers. This roster makes clear that RK was a Cologne-centered operation, but unlike Meisterwerke aus Kölner Museen and Kölner Glasmalerei vom 13. Jahrhundert bis zur Gegenwart, two exhibitions of primarily medieval art held in the city the previous year, RK did not display objects only from Cologne's collections. As a result, it far surpassed these earlier exhibitions in size and conceptual ambition. RK was still a relatively small show, but it was full of major works. These included such Cologne pieces as the ivory Heribert comb, the Gero Cross, the doors of St. Maria in Kapitol, and the shrines of Heribert and Anno, but also loans from further afield: the Essen Golden Madonna; all four of the Ottonian-era crosses from the Essen treasury; parts of the Barbarossa chandelier from Aachen; and the Werden bronze crucifix. The 135 objects were listed in a slim catalogue comprising 29 pages of text and 18 black-and-white illustrations (Fig. 1). Evidence about the appearance of RK is extremely scarce. No photographs of the exhibition are known. According to one review, the galleries were simple and light. 3 The still ruinous state of Cologne meant that the show had something of the provision
American Journal of Medical Genetics , 2021
Christ on the Cross, 2020
Die Handschriften der Hofschule Kaiser Karls des Großen,, 2019
Whose Middle Ages? Teachable Moments for an Ill-Used Past, 2019
The Long Lives of Medieval Art and Architecture, 2019
Traditional histories of medieval art and architecture often privilege the moment of a work's cre... more Traditional histories of medieval art and architecture often privilege the moment of a work's creation, yet surviving works designated as "medieval" have long and expansive lives. Many have extended prehistories emerging from their sites and contexts of creation, and most have undergone a variety of interventions, including adaptations and restorations, since coming into being. The lives of these works have been further extended through historiography, museum exhibitions, and digital media. Inspired by the literary category of biography and the methods of longue durée historians, the introduction and seventeen chapters of this volume provide an extended meditation on the longevity of medieval works of art and the aspect of time as a factor in shaping our interpretations of them. While the metaphor of "lives" invokes associations with the origin of the discipline of art history, focus is shifted away from temporal constraints of a single human lifespan or generation to consider the continued lives of medieval works even into our present moment. Chapters on works from the modern countries of Italy, France, England, Spain, and Germany are drawn together here by the thematic threads of essence and continuity, transformation, memory and oblivion, and restoration. Together, they tell an object-oriented history of art and architecture that is necessarily entangled with numerous individuals and institutions.
Orient oder Rom> History and Reception of a Historiographical myth (1901-1970), 2018
is one of the most controversial figures in the history of art history. Part of that controversy ... more is one of the most controversial figures in the history of art history. Part of that controversy stems from his art-historical ideas, including his Orient oder Rom thesis. And part of it has to do with the degree to which Strzygowski's art history and politics were entwined, especially towards the end of his life. This is the period when, by most accounts, Strzygowski's thought moved from the controversial to the crazy. This paper examines a 1936 article by Strzygowski, "Ruins of Tombs of the Latin Kings on the Haram in Jerusalem". 1 By placing this article in various contexts, we can see just how complicated a figure Strzygowski was. Although Strzygowski's 1936 article was published at a time when the bulk of his work had become unreadable, I argue that it is still well worth reading, both as an art-historical contribution to its subject and as a guide to Strzygowski's thought and character. I claim, further, that the history of this article's reception, especially its Anglophone reception, tells us much about both Strzygowski and about art history as an institution. 1936 was an eventful year for western Europe; the Spanish Civil War began, Italy annexed Ethiopia, and Germany reoccupied the Rhineland territories lost after the World War I. It was also an eventful year for Strzygowski. He had always been a prolific author but, even by his standards, 1936 was special, for he published two books. One of these, Aufgang des Nordens. Lebenskampf eines Kunstforschers um ein deutsches Weltbild [The Rise of the North. An art historian's lifelong struggle for a German world view], is typical of Strzygowski's publications between his retirement from his teaching position in Vienna in 1933 and his death in 1941. 2 I would like to thank Francesco Lovino for his kind invitation to participate in the Brno * conference that gave rise to this volume.
he last two decades have seen a spate of museum exhibitions in Germany devoted to the art and cul... more he last two decades have seen a spate of museum exhibitions in Germany devoted to the art and culture of the Ottonian era, the era named for the dynasty that ruled Germany from 919 to 1024. This recent boom in interest in the Ottonians is intriguing because, between the end of World War II and 1989 there had been no German museum exhibitions devoted to the dynasty. This article, part of a larger study of the exhibition of medieval art in Germany since 1900, seeks to understand this recent surge of interest in Ottonian art, culture, and history in the German museum world. 1 It argues that the representation of bishops played an important role in this surge, for the first two exhibitions to break the Ottonian taboo were devoted not to the kings or emperors who give the Ottonian era its name, but to two bishops, Egbert of Trier and Bernward of Hildesheim, who in 1993 were celebrated with shows in their respective episcopal cities. In hindsight, these two episcopal exhibitions of 1 This article forms part of a book in preparation on exhibitions of medieval art in twentiethcentury Germany and is based on talks given at the International Congress of Medieval Studies in 2011 and at the annual meeting of the Medieval Academy of America in 2010. Research for it was supported by Reed College, especially its Michael E. Levine Faculty Research Fund, and the American Philosophical Society. I would also like to thank Sigrid Danielson, Evan Gatti, John Ott, and the press's anonymous reader.
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Books by William Diebold
Papers by William Diebold