DTIIMA · Drawing and the Transmission of Images and Ideas in the Middle Ages

My research concerns the role of drawings as a means of copying and communicating images and ideas in medieval Europe. Drawings in the Renaissance have long attracted scholarly attention, but the role which they might have played in the Middle Ages remains something of a mystery, partly because such a small number of drawings have survived, and partly because of difficulties in reading the medieval sources that attest to the uses and functions of drawings. Yet the 12th and 13th centuries seem to be when the practice of drawing underwent the changes that caused drawings to play such a vital role in the Renaissance. My project seeks to substantially advance the new wave of studies on medieval drawing by expanding the range of evidence considered, and by challenging the set of questions and assumptions that have been used so far in addressing the study of the role of drawing in the transmission of images and ideas.Images on unmovable mediums – monumental sculptures and mural paintings for example – needed to be copied onto a mobile support in order to travel. These intermediary supports – whether drawings and/or visual memory – were essential to the outcome of the image’s transmission and the ability to formulate new and complex visual messages. Through a systematic analysis of both direct and indirect sources, my research aims to establish what the uses of drawings were in the Middle Ages and what role they played in the transformations that affected the visual arts at the end of the thirteenth century.In the first phase of the research, I will conduct a systematic analysis of drawings, both “model drawings” and “project drawings”, and a selection of the written evidence concerning drawing. The second phase will see the publication of preliminary results in the form of articles on specific cases. In the final phase, the overall results will be published as a monograph on the transmission of images and its impact on the circulation of ideas in the middle ages.