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RESEARCH PRODUCT

La crucifixion dans les peintures murales carolingiennes dans l'Europe latine chrétienne et sur ses marges (IXè - début du XIème siècle)

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This Dissertation focuses on the iconography of the Crucifixion in the Carolingian mural painting between the 9th and the beginning of the 11th century. Pivot in the Christian thought with its dogmatic scope, the Crucifixion remains however poorly represented in the Latin West until the middle of the 8th century. Actually, the Carolingian period is a decisive turning point when the Crucifixion displays gradually on all the supports and through different technics, at the same time as the iconography tends to be crystallized. Based on a documentation composed of thirteen decorations painted between the 9th and the beginning of the 11th century and distributed in the former limits of the Carolingian Empire and its margins, our study aims at analyzing this subject in the monumental art, poorly studied yet. Besides the obstinacy of forms beyond the fall of the Roman Empire and the political limits, the paintings listed highlight the appeal to a visual construction due to diverse traditions - first of all textual - allowing to exalt the Christ's divinity on the cross, but also to insist more on his suffering humanity. These iconographic choices comes from the theological shifting under the reign of Charlemagne and his successors. At this time, the Cross and the Crucified occupy a major place. However, this analysis exceeds the figurative meaning, in the way to consider the spatial and religious environment of the Crucifixion and clarify the readings of the decoration within its own space. Painted on the religious buildings’ walls, images are a part of the decorum. Moreover, based on exegetical and liturgical sources, we can argue that the paintings are sometimes used to the scenography of rites. Often associated with an altar (major or secondary), even in baptismal fonts, the Crucifixion seats in specific ritual times or devotional practices testifying of a transformation of the religious feeling towards the Passion and its representations.