open access

https://hdl.handle.net/2115/83764

The Capitals of Moutiers-Saint-Jean and the West Portal of Cluny III

日本語

クリュニー

2009-03

美術史学会

美術史

58(2)

215-234

Moutiers-Saint-Jean (Cote-d'Or), one of the daughter monasteries of Cluny, was destroyed after the French Revolution and nothing of the monastic complex remains today. Many capitals derived from Moutiers-Saint-Jean, however, are now housed in the Fogg Museum (Harvard University), the Louvre Museum, the Archeological Museum of Dijon, and elsewhere. These extant capitals, both narrative and foliate, are mostly in good condition and are of very high quality, thus constituting a valuable group of works for our understanding of Romanesque sculpture in Burgundy. Further, the Moutiers capitals seem to provide important clues for illuminating the hitherto obscure west portal sculpture of Cluny III. Hence, this study has a dual purpose: first, to elucidate characteristics of Moutiers capitals; second, to investigate the stylistic relationship of the Moutiers workshop with other Romanesque churches in Burgundy in order to place Moutiers in historical perspective. Special attention is given the sculptural fragments of Cluny III, which were excavated by J.K. Conant and remain mostly unpublished. Before scrutinizing the sculptural styles of the Moutiers capitals, the sole etching showing the monastic complex of Moutiers-Saint-Jean as of 1689 was compared with the extant part of Cluny III and relevant churches so that one can conjecture the original architectural matrix into which the Moutiers capitals were integrated. All of the Moutiers capitals show the detached-necking system, meaning that the necking and basket of each capital were made up of separate blocks of stone. When the architectural style of Cluny III prevailed in Burgundy after 1120, this system gradually replaced the traditional attached-necking system. These considerations indicate the time frame from the early 1120s to the early 1130s for construction of Moutiers­Saint-Jean, thereby coinciding with the account of a historical document stating that Abbot Bernardus II (tenure 1109-1133) constructed the monastery anew from the ground up. Observations of the styles and carving of Moutiers narrative capitals indicate four hands named after their respective iconographies: Master of Emmaus capital, Master of Zachariah capital, Master of Cain and Abel capital, Master of Daniel capital. The result of this identification of the hands consequently refutes the assumption proposed by Zarnecki who attributed the Emmaus and the Cain and Abel capitals of Moutiers and two more capitals of Autun to a single sculptor (Gislebertus, Sculptor of Autun, 1961). Characteristics of drapery folds, facial features, coiffures and details of tunics observed on the Moutiers narrative capitals are absent on the ambulatory capitals of Cluny as well as on related works at Avenas, Anzy-le-Duc, and Mâcon, but find almost identical counterparts among the sculptural fragments from Conant's excavations of Pits II and X near the West Portal of Cluny III. It should be also noticed that, unlike the fanciful narrative capitals of Autun and Vezeray, the sculptors of Moutiers, in spite of individual predilections for carving, tend to present the drama of each iconographic scene in a rather sober stage setting based on the observation of contemporary society. Examination of the Moutiers foliate capitals leads to the same conclusion -- their closest counterparts in carving techniques and ornamental motifs are found among fragments from Pits II and X. Such motifs as pine cones and beads, and the complicated carving techniques of swirled-up leaves, unknown to the east end of Cluny and its relatives in southern Burgundy, appear on some foliate capitals on the upper level of the great south transept of Cluny, indicating a·1ater phase of the grand construction campaign. These elaborate motifs common to Moutiers and Cluny also were favorably employed at Autun and Vézelay. With all the visual evidence obtained in this study, one can conclude that the same group of sculptors who worked at Moutiers also sculpted the west portal of Cluny III from the early 1120s to the early 1130s. The fact that stylistic and carving features discussed here are still absent on the eastern part of Cluny and its immediate relatives at Anzy-le-Duc, Montceaux-l'Étoile, and Mâcon requires reconsideration of the relative chronology of their portals, which have generally been considered to have been constructed under the influence of the west portal of Cluny.

学術雑誌論文

Version of Record

初出：美術史 58(2)

0021-907X

AN00207425