Books by Brigitte Buettner
Medieval Art, Modern Politics, 2024
Open Access
Medieval Art, Modern Politics is an innovative volume of twelve essays by internat... more Open Access
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 Brigitte Buettner
Medievales: Langue, textes, histoire, 1991
Buettner Brigitte. Michael Camille, The Gothic Idol. Ideology and Image-making in Medieval Art. I... more Buettner Brigitte. Michael Camille, The Gothic Idol. Ideology and Image-making in Medieval Art. In: Medievales, n°20, 1991. Sagas et chroniques du Nord, sous la direction de Simonne Abraham-Thisse . pp. 119-121.
Medieval Art, Modern Politics (Open Access), 2024
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.
Gesta, 2024
In September 1794, the French army, after conquering much of Belgium and the Netherlands, marched... more In September 1794, the French army, after conquering much of Belgium and the Netherlands, marched into Aachen. This early campaign of military conquest turned into the first laboratory for the systematic plunder of cultural assets enacted by various post-revolutionary and Napoleonic regimes, from 1794 to 1815. Works of art “liberated” from the tyranny of aristocratic and religious ownership were earmarked for the newly opened Musée Central des Arts (now the Louvre) to showcase the enlightened cultural supremacy of Paris. From Aachen, the conquerors took more than the usual loot of movable assets: they “extracted” some forty columns from Charlemagne’s famed palatine chapel. Thirty-two of these monoliths, set in the eight gallery-level arches, were already Carolingian-era spolia, having been removed from Rome and Ravenna with as much effort and cost as would be the case a thousand years later. Of particular interest to medievalists is the fact that ten of the Aachen columns were integrated into the architectural fabric of the Galerie des Antiques, the Musée Central des Art's spectacular collection of Greco-Roman statuary that opened to the public in November 1800. Contemporary documents do not associate these columns with a medieval building, but they consistently underscore their association with “the tomb of Charlemagne.” After reviewing the resonance that association held for Napoleon, the protracted restitution process ensuing his downfall is examined against an emerging national patrimonial rhetoric, in part galvanized by the failed return of the ten Aachen columns, which continue to live in the Louvre. As a study of the contested afterlife of seemingly mute and immovable architectural elements, this essay also attends to the way these columns legitimized the modern museum as a radically new type of institution.
Illuminating Metalwork: Metal, Object, and Image in Medieval Manuscripts, ed. Joseph Salvatore Ackley and Shannon L. Wearing (Berlin: De Gruyter), 2022
A Companion to Medieval Art: Romanesque and Gothic in Northern Europe, 2019
Seeking Transparency: Rock Crystals Across the Medieval Mediterranean, 2020
The Art Bulletin, 2001
Examines the practice of gift exchange for the étrennes.
The Art Bulletin, 1992
During the loosely delimited period of the late Middle Ages, artistic production underwent severa... more During the loosely delimited period of the late Middle Ages, artistic production underwent several important shifts, the outcome of which would ultimately define the art market of modern times as a primarily lay and urban phenomenon, be it in a courtly or mercantile incarnation. In patronage, the upper ranks of lay society became the most influential art clients, forcefully invading a territory previously guarded by ecclesiastical figures and religious orders. By the end of the fourteenth century in France, kings and their relatives were intensively encouraging the creation and diffusion of new textual and visual artifacts. Perhaps for the first time, the notion of "cultural policy" can pertinently be used to characterize the actions of King Jean le Bon, his sons Charles V, Louis I d'Anjou, Jean, duc de Berry, and Philippe le Hardi, duke of Burgundy, and his grandsons Charles VI, Louis d'Orlkans, and Jean sans Peur.' Unlike earlier noble collectors, such as Charlemagne or Louis IX, the entire Valois family2 fervently devoted large amounts of money and their subjects' time and labor to the arts, including literature, architecture, sculpture, painting, illumination, and the socalled minor arts. Laying the foundations for a veritable state humanism, the king and his brothers appointed clerics steeped in classical studies to key positions in major chancelleries.3 The Valois publicized themselves as "wise rulers,"4 an ideal image that would enhance the claims of the omnipresent courtly patrons of the Renaissance. As manuscript patrons, the Valois family indulged in "vello-mania" unmatched until the nineteenth century.5
Speculum, 1999
... Boccaccio's Des cleres et nobles femmes: Systems of signification in an illuminated manu... more ... Boccaccio's Des cleres et nobles femmes: Systems of signification in an illuminated manuscript. Post a Comment. CONTRIBUTORS: Author: Buettner, Brigitte. PUBLISHER: Published by College Art Association in association with University of Washington Press (Seattle). ...
Artistic Exchange/ Künstlerischer Austausch, 1993
Questions d’Histoire de l’Art, ed. Jean-Pierre Criqui , 2011
Reviews by Brigitte Buettner
Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales
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Books by Brigitte Buettner
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 Brigitte Buettner
Reviews by Brigitte Buettner
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.