Monastic Art and Architecture

Western monastic art and architecture, as widespread and various as Christianity, takes its special character from the aspirations of members of monastic religious communities who have turned their thoughts away from the world and dedicated themselves to living under a regula ("rule"). In the West, monasticism, or monachism, was a strong force in the shaping of political, social, and artistic events for about 1,200 years, from the 6th through the 18th centuries.

Early Monastic Architecture.

A monastery is the place of prayer, worship, and residence of a religious community whose members are bound by religious vows that cut them off from the world and its distractions and make them economically self-sufficient. Western monasticism is closely associated with Saint Benedict of Nursia (c.480-c.550), who founded the Benedictine order and the Abbey of MONTE CASSINO in southern Italy about 529. The architectural implications of the Rule of Saint Benedict are perhaps most fully spelled out in the ideal plan of Saint Gall (c.820), Switzerland.

The origins of the typical monastic plan are obscure. To the extent that it is inward looking, with the intention of seclusion, it has the general characteristics of the courtyard structures of much Mediterranean architecture. Central to the monastery plan, as it had evolved by the 9th century, was the CLOISTER, from the Latin word claustrum, "a shut-in place." All the buildings normally used by the inhabitants opened off the cloister--in particular the church (see CATHEDRALS AND CHURCHES), the CHAPTER HOUSE for meetings of the community, the dormitory, the refectory, and storage facilities. Usually at a slight distance was the infirmary; normally also separate, at least by the later Middle Ages, were the quarters of the community's leader, the abbot or prior. Many monasteries also maintained external schools for oblates, children destined by their parents for holy orders. Usually sited near a stream, the entire complex was oriented so that water could be diverted to the drinking fountains and kitchen before reaching the wash houses and latrines. Within the complex there were usually accommodations for guests. Optional structures might include a chapel for the use of visitors, because they were not permitted in the church used by the monks or nuns; a gatehouse, occasionally enormous ones, such as that at Thornton Abbey (c.1385), Lincolnshire; and extraordinarily elaborate kitchens, such as those at Glastonbury Abbey (14th century), Somerset, England, and Fontevrault Abbey (founded 1100), France. Central to all monastic life were the devotions in the church and the liturgical requirements of the Hours and the Mass. Monastic life circulated around the cloister.

Throughout the Middle Ages certain anchorites and hermits became so popular with pilgrims that communities were formed around these solitary men of God. In Egypt and the Middle East, monasteries evolved from the pilgrim stations that had been established to receive offerings to a holy man who had perched atop a pillar, such as Saint Simeon Stylites (b. 390) at Qal'at Sim'an, Syria, or who secluded himself in a cave, such as Saint Benedict. The dominant feature of Western monasticism was its communal character. The size of individual communities varied enormously according to their financial endowments and prestige: some had only two or three members; others, although exceptionally, had as many as 900. An average number of members for a foundation based on the Rule of Saint Benedict was probably from 10 to 50 because ideally the abbot should know his monks and guide them as their spiritual father.

Results of Monastic Reforms.

With the numerous reforms initiated in the late 11th century and with the establishment of new orders that encouraged missionary and parochial work beyond the cloister, monasticism ceased, at least in the strict sense of men and women separated completely from the world. It does continue in the spirit of the remarkable and productive reforms of the 13th-century preaching orders of friars, who were uncloistered. Among them were the Franciscans, or Grey Friars (founded 1210), the Dominicans, or Black Friars (founded c.1210), and the Carmelites, or White Friars (reorganized c.1250).

Monastic Life Versus Monastic Art.

By the 13th century, orders of monks, of regular canons (canons living under a rule), and of friars were all flourishing. The reforms and reorganizations that occurred subsequently were in effect variations on the possibilities offered by these developments. Institutionally, monasticism was the setting for much of the surviving creative artistic activity of the Middle Ages. The secular clergy, which led neither a cloistered nor a communal life, existed alongside the regular clergy. Throughout the Middle Ages many of the oldest, greatest, and richest churches of Europe preserved their government of secular canons--for instance, Saint John Lateran, Rome; Saint Martin, Tours; Saint Paul's, London; and the cathedrals of Cologne and Mainz. To distinguish a specifically monastic style among other contributions to the achievements of medieval art is thus a problem of considerable complexity.

Discussions of monastic art run almost at once into a number of contradictory positions. Why should either monks or canons, whose principal business is to pray for humanity's salvation, be concerned with art at all? This question was even more pressing for the Franciscan friars, who, as an order, were not allowed to own any property whatsoever. The Franciscans overcame this prohibition by a legal maneuver that had official approval at the very top of the hierarchy: the pope was acknowledged as the legal owner of all the order's material possessions. The general problem remained, however: to what extent should the monastic life use works of art? Throughout the Middle Ages this problem vexed many minds, and almost all reformers made a point of including simplicity and austerity in their programs. Indeed, the ideals of poverty and of work proved to be in basic opposition; success in the observance of the ideal of work created a material abundance that required a need for economic management, which in turn gave a hollow ring to any profession of poverty.

The best-known statements on the proper relationship between art and worship come from members of the Cistercian order in the 12th century, particularly the outburst by SAINT BERNARD in his Apologia (1127) against artistic adornment, principally that of architecture. Those religious orders which sought the adornment of their prayers in the splendor of their buildings and through the assistance of costly books and ornaments had, however, an unanswerable case. If Christ were physically present in the church in the service of the mass--as he was believed to be by the miracle of transubstantiation--no sacrifice toward the enrichment of that moment was too great. Even Saint Bernard admitted the force of the argument in favor of richly decorated churches. In fact, the greatest surviving examples of monastic art and architecture are directly related to the fabric of the church building and to the liturgical rites in it.

Suger and Theophilus.

Two statements by monks opposing Saint Bernard's reservations have survived from the 12th century. One is by Abbot SUGER of Saint-Denis, Paris, one of the most important statesmen of his age (d. 1151). Suger wrote a treatise--Libellus de consecratione ecclesiae sancti Dionysii (1154; A Little Book on the Consecration of the Church of Saint Denis)--concerning the rebuilding and decorating in the new Gothic style of a large part of the abbey church of Saint-Denis under his leadership. A fascinating personal document, it justified the use of fine and rich art as a fitting tribute to the living presence of Christ in the mass. Suger went on to describe the ideal church, which glowed with color and splendor from paintings, precious stones and metals, and stained glass windows. The same attitude is expressed in the treatise De diversis artibus (c.1150; On the Various Arts) by a monk calling himself Theophilus, who is now thought to have been the famous German goldsmith Roger of Helmarshausen. In writing this practical handbook for a variety of different crafts, Theophilus could not refrain at its end from a panegyric on an imaginary church decorated by a supposed pupil. The structure dazzled the eyes as an earthly paradise. Other writers saw the church as a New Jerusalem as described in the Book of Revelations, a point of view held by most churchmen.

Whatever the verbal disagreements among the different orders on the proper function of art and adornment, their individual ways of life were so similar that their dwellings remained fundamentally similar over an exceptionally long period. Two significant variations of the claustral pattern should, however, be noted; the first is typical of Cistercian foundations, the second of Carthusian. A Cistercian monastery incorporated two communities rather than one: that of the monks and their novices in addition to that of the lay brothers, who were essentially second-class monks. The lay brothers, who did the necessary farm and shop chores to make the monastery self-sufficient, were required to have their own accommodations. Medieval Cistercian monasteries thus normally and uniquely possessed two communal dormitories and two communal refectories, but only one kitchen. The second variation is found in Carthusian monasteries, called charterhouses. Because the Carthusians lived a hermitlike existence within a communal organization, they spent most of their time in separate cells, each with its own garden, all ringed around the great cloister. Examples of charterhouses survive in the Chartreuse de Val-de-Benediction (begun 1356) at Villeneuve-les-Avignon in France and the CERTOSA DI PAVIA (1396) in Italy.

Monastic Church Architecture and Embellishment.

The church was always the most imposing feature of a monastic complex. By its size and hierarchical elaboration, it expressed many of the aspirations of the community to which it belonged. It also gave some indication of the wealth and prosperity of the monastery and, inside, would probably commemorate patrons who provided sustained support to the community; many lay patrons were buried inside monastic churches. The most precious human remains in a monastic church were the relics of saints preserved in shrines behind the high altar, as in Sainte-Madeleine (Saint Mary Magdalen; 1120-40) at Vezelay, and Saint-Benoit-sur-Loire (Saint Benedict; begun 1065).

The plan of a monastic church may reveal the nature of the community. The complex east end of the third church (consecrated 1095) at Cluny with its many radiating chapels reflects, for example, the liturgical preferences of the Cluniac order. Most churches belonging to the preaching orders have large naves as in the Dominican Church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo (Saints John and Paul; 1234-1430) in Venice, because public preaching and teaching were important. The early austere ideals of Cistercianism can be seen in the architecture of their surviving 12th-century churches, as at Fontenay (c.1140) in France. The declining simplicity of a once reformed and austere order can be traced at the Cistercian abbey church of Pontigny; it was rebuilt in 1186 with an elaborate Gothic east end, or chevet, with radiating chapels, an architectural magnificence that would have scandalized Saint Bernard.

Patronage and Monastic Art.

The patronage of a monastic house waxed and waned with the popularity of the order itself. The great period of Benedictine patronage ended in the 13th century; the greatest period of popularity for the preaching orders was the 13th and 14th centuries. The Carthusians remained universally respected for their high ideals throughout the Middle Ages.

Despite the chronologically haphazard nature of this process of patronage, extremely fine collections of objects amassed by the wealthier houses have survived. An early treasury (mainly 9th-12th centuries) remains, for example, at the Benedictine house of Sainte-Foy, Conques, France. A splendid group of 11th- and 12th-century manuscripts from the Benedictine Abbey of Saint-Martial, Limoges, survives in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, and a large portion of the 11th- and 12th-century library survives at its original location in the Benedictine priory of DURHAM CATHEDRAL in England.

Monastic Artists.

The monastic orders were much concerned with preservation of texts and of objects. Although the English painter John Siferwas (c.1400) and the Italian artist Fra ANGELICO were both Dominican friars, it is less clear how deeply members of religious orders were involved in artistic creation. It is possible to produce, from an earlier date, a scattering of names of Benedictine monks who were also painters and illuminators, including Eadwine (c.1149), creator of the Eadwine Psalter (Trinity College, Cambridge, England), at Canterbury and Matthew Paris (d. 1259) at Saint Albans. The writing of Theophilus, mentioned above, clearly indicates that in certain circumstances metalwork and stained glass might have been made in monasteries by monastic craftsmen. If they did exist, schools of monastic art flourished only spasmodically and infrequently, and from the 11th century onward a growing body of evidence points to the use of outside lay professionals for the creation of art in monastic houses. Spectacular examples of this process are apparent in the great mendicant churches of Florence, decorated in the 14th century by GIOTTO DI BONDONE and his followers. In addition, the members of an order who were practicing artists can often be shown to have been fully trained professionals prior to joining the order; indeed, both the development of style and of technical expertise--particularly in architecture--would demand experience based on a mobility that was impossible for most professed monks.

Final Developments.

In some areas of Europe, notably in Spain, France, South Germany, and Italy, the great medieval monastic institutions survived until the widespread social changes inspired by the French Revolution in 1789. In an even smaller area, especially in Spain, South Germany, and Austria, they have had a continuous history to the present. During the 17th and 18th centuries a considerable amount of genuine modernization was effected to bring conventual buildings into line with revised conceptions of physical comfort and privacy. Rebuilding often included the church as well as the living quarters and was carried out on a palatial scale. Thus the 11th-century Abbey of Melk in Austria was totally transformed (1702-36) by the baroque architect Jakob PRANDTAUER. Similarly, the great Carolingian foundations of Saint Gall, Switzerland, of Ottobeuren, and of Saint Emmeram, Regensburg, both in West Germany, were all substantially and magnificently altered in the 18th century to become outstanding baroque and rococo monuments. At other monasteries such as Bec-Hellouin or Saint-Etienne, Caen, France, the medieval churches were left as they were, but the conventual buildings were dramatically transformed, mostly during the first half of the 18th century. The only monastic art and architecture of note in the 20th century were produced by the Swiss-French architect LE CORBUSIER. They are the startling free-form Pilgrim Church of Notre Dame du Haut (1950-55) at Ronchamp and the austere cast-concrete Dominican Monastery of La Tourette (1954-59) at Evreux-sur-l'Arbesle, both in France. The history of significant monastic patronage of art and architecture, however, ends in effect with the political and social changes initiated by the French Revolution.

A.

R. H. Martindale

Bibliography: Braufels, Wolfgang, Monasteries of Western Europe: The Architecture of the Orders, trans. by Alastair Laing (1972); Braun, Hugh, An Introduction to English Medieval Architecture, 2d ed. (1968); Conant, Kenneth John, Carolingian and Romanesque Architecture, 800 to 1200, 2d ed. (1966); Cook, G. H., English Monasteries in the Middle Ages (1961); Evans, Joan, ed., The Flowering of the Middle Ages (1960; repr. 1966) and The Romanesque Architecture of the Order of Cluny (1938); Horn, Walter, and Born, Ernest, The Plan of St. Gall: A Study of the Architecture and Economy of, and Life in, a Paradigmatic Carolingian Monastery, vol. 1 (1979); Krautheimer, Richard, Early Christian and Byzantine Architecture (1965); Martindale, A. R. H., The Rise of the Artist (1972); Sitwell, Sacheverell, Monks, Nuns and Monasteries (1965); Timmers, J. J. M., A Handbook of Romanesque Art, trans. by Marian Powell (1969); Zarnecki, George, The Monastic Achievement (1972) and Romanesque Art (1971).

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