Legends in Limestone: Lazarus, Gislebertus, and the Cathedral of Autun [Hardcover]

Linda Seidel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 15, 1999 | ISBN-10: 0226745155 | ISBN-13: 978-0226745152 | Edition: 1

Whereas twelfth-century pilgrims flocked to the church of St-Lazare in Autun to visit the relics of its patron saint, present-day pilgrims journey there to admire its superb sculpture, said to have been created by the artist Gislebertus whose name is inscribed above one of the church doors. These two cults, of sculptor and of saint, form points of departure and arrival for Linda Seidel's study.

Legends in Limestone reveals how "Gislebertus, sculptor" was discovered and subsequently sanctified over the course of the last century. Seidel makes a compelling case for the identification of the name with an ancestor of the local ducal family, invoked for his role in the acquisition of the precious relics. With the aid of evidence drawn from the richly carved decoration of the building, she demonstrates how medieval visitors would have read a different holy narrative in the church fabric, one that constructed before their eyes an account of their patron saint's life.

Legends in Limestone, an absorbing study of one of France's most revered medieval monuments, provides fresh insights into modern and medieval interpretive practices.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 200 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; 1 edition (October 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226745155
• ISBN-13: 978-0226745152
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,647,012 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #29 in Books > Arts & Photography > Schools, Periods & Styles > Romanesque

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Rhetoric and Recollection, April 8, 2000

By 

Malcolm M. Fleming - See all my reviews

This review is from: Legends in Limestone: Lazarus, Gislebertus, and the Cathedral of Autun (Hardcover)

Anyone who has any interest whatsoever in Autun should read this book. One of the most cherished ideas of recent art history is that the magnificent sculptural program of the Cathedral is the work of an identifiable individual artist, Gislebertus, who presumably carved his name on the tympanum at the entrance to the church. It's hard to visit Autun without buying the book by Grivot and Zarnecki who champion this theory. Politely Linda Seidel challenges their conclusions as a "romantic conjecture...based on anachronistic assumptions about artistic personalities." She then develops a context for thinking about the building and its sculpture through examination of its place in local historical and rhetorical terms. Her discussion of medieval methods of remembering and recasting the past to provide authority to the present is compelling. Most useful is that her approach provides a sophisticated logic to the Roman references in the architectural detail and an intelligence to the sculptural program that have occasionally been dismissed as naive borrowing and unrelated sequences. Her attention to the aesthetics of the monument is short but informed with her recognition of the atypical orientation of the building and the resulting movement of light in the interior particularly sensitive. Her discussion of the emblematic Flight into Egypt capital is admirably comprehensive but tantalizingly brief. She has read widely and deeply and is able to bring a broad range of ideas and evidence to her argument that in themselves make a fascinating part of her presentation. Her writing is careful, clear and wonderfully accessible to readers of all levels of interest. The footnotes are extensive, appropriate, and, thanks to the layout, easily accessed. The black and white illustrations are valuable and placed in thoughtful conjunction with the text, which lies cleanly on the page bordered by elegant white space. This is a small-format, scholarly text. Yet Autun is finally a visual experience. As good as this book is, one is left longing for the funding of a parallel photographic inquiry of contemporary technical standards as well-informed as Prof. Seidel's text. "Left wanting more," however, is eventually a compliment that means, regardless, go buy this book.

5.0 out of 5 stars great mythbusting, October 13, 2011

By 

Caroline Lamb (Santa Cruz, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Legends in Limestone: Lazarus, Gislebertus, and the Cathedral of Autun (Hardcover)

This book offers, not only a great look at the era of the construction of the pilgrimage church in Autun, but also a fascinating history of the church since then, and some interesting theories on how legends about the church and its alleged sculptor came to be. It's sufficiently scholarly to be plausible, and well researched, but it's still written in prose that a normal educated reader will enjoy. I especially liked the speculation on how the church came to acquire the relics of Saint Lazarus. If you are interested in medieval history and architecture, you will find information to like in this book.