The cult of images in light of pictorial graffiti at Doué-la-Fontaine
Marcia Kupfer
In the late 1960s archeologist Michel de Boüard excavated a motte at Doué-la-Fontaine, near Saumur. Buried within earthen mound was stone edifice that, between mid-tenth and early eleventh centuries, had been transformed from single-storey aristocratic residence to multi-storey tower better suited new military needs. De there discovered pictorial graffiti, incised in rough plaster across wall blinded ground storey; among them were several unusually elaborate compositions. Building on his perspicacious analysis of physical evidence, I situate dating c.1000, wider matrix contemporary visual religious culture. The material enriches our understanding major historical phenomenon for which millennial era is watershed, namely emergence proliferation cult images.
Early Medieval Europe