The elephant in the room (at Notre-Dame de Gourdon, Burgundy)-Reference-Cited by-同舟云学术

The elephant in the room (at Notre-Dame de Gourdon, Burgundy)

Published:2023-11-01 Issue: Volume:36 Page:182-203
ISSN:0709-5201
Container-title:Florilegium
language:en
Short-container-title:Florilegium

Author:

Osborne John¹²

Affiliation:

1. Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario

2. Past President, Canadian Society of Medievalists / Ancien président, Société canadienne des médiévistes

Abstract

John Osborne begins this paper with a question: what was an elephant doing on the wall of a Romanesque church dedicated to the Virgin Mary’s Assumption? He answers by considering first the placement of the elephant in the other art of the building and the relationship of the lower part of the wall-painting (called the dado) to the higher images; then by considering what medieval Europeans would have known about elephants from natural history books, bestiaries, and imported silks; some would also have seen live animals, the rare gifts to monarchs from Eastern rulers, and would have extensive knowledge of the ivory trade.

Publisher

University of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress)

Subject

General Engineering

Link

https://utpjournals.press/doi/pdf/10.3138/flor-36.010

Reference55 articles.

1. Gregory of Tours, Glory of the Confessors, trans. Raymond Van Dam, Liverpool, Liverpool University Press, 1988, 91.

2. Reiche, Jens, “Gourdon, église Notre-Dame,” Monuments de Saône-et-Loire: Bresse bourgignonne, Chalonnais, et Tournugeois (Congrès archéologique de Saône-et-Loire 2008), Paris, Société française d’archéologie, 2010: 205-216 (210), contends that it was built by the same team of masons as the church at nearby Mont-Saint-Vincent, a known dependency of the Cluniac house at Paray-le-Monial.

3. English translation from Caecilia Davis-Weyer, Early medieval art, 300-1150 [Medieval Academy Reprints for Teaching 17], Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1986, 124.

4. The current dedication dates only from the nineteenth century. For the architecture, see Reiche, Jens, 2002, Architektur und Bauplastik in Burgund um 1100: die Kirchen von Gourdon und Mont-Saint-Vincent, Petersberg, Michael Imhof Verlag; and idem, “Gourdon, église Notre-Dame.” For a range of photographs and a ground plan, see also consulted December 30, 2018. An identical elevation may be found in the more-or-less contemporary church of Saint-Jean-Baptiste (formerly dedicated to Saint Martin) at Toulon-sur-Arroux, situated a few kilometres to the west.

5. Reiche, Jens, “Le décor sculpté de Gourdon et de Mont-Saint-Vincent: Un atelier charolais du début du XIIe siècle,” in Nicolas Reveyron, Michel Rocher, and Marie-Thérèse Engel (eds.), Le renouveau des études romanes (IIe colloque scientifique international de Paray-le-Monial (2-3-4 octobre 1998), Paray-le-Monial, Amis de la Basilique Romane de Paray-le-Monial, 2000, 239-255; and idem¸ “Gourdon, église Notre-Dame,” 210-213.