2001/09/01 by Thomas E. A. Dale · 24 citations
Arts and Humanities · #Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies #Historical and Architectural Studies #Medieval Literature and History #Cloister #Art #Art history
paper · doi:10.2307/3177236
published in The Art Bulletin 83(3), 402 (College Art Association)
openalex publication_date 2001/09/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/30
In his celebrated Apologia of 1125, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux questions the purpose of the monstrous and deformed creatures depicted so frequently in Romanesque cloister capitals. Focusing on the cloister of St-Michel-de-Cuxa, this paper explains such images as corporeal manifestations of spiritual deformity. It is argued that these capitals represent the diabolical phantasms described in monastic accounts of dreams. By visualizing the monstrous in the cloister, where the monks devoted so much time to meditation, the Benedictines apparently sought to recall, and purge from the imagination, the diabolical illusions and temptations that impeded their struggle for spiritual perfection.