News from
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
Communications and Publications
Stanhope Hall
Princeton, New Jersey 08544-5264
TEL 609/258-3600 FAX 609/258-1301
Release: April 17, 1995
Contact: Caroline Moseley (609/258-5725)
Princeton Index Documents
Christian Art From Apostolic
Times to 1400
Editors: The Index of Christian Art at Princeton University
includes roughly a quarter million photographs, one million
descriptive reference cards, and 26,000 subjects, making it one of
the largest repositories of its kind anywhere. The following is an
article about the index that appears in the university's newspaper,
the Princeton Weekly Bulletin_.
PRINCETON, N.J. -- Would you like to know when St. George was
first represented in medieval painting? When he first appeared on
horseback? When he first showed up in English art (since he's the
patron saint of England)? Would you, in fact, like to examine all
known medieval images of St. George?
Or perhaps you're interested in virtues and vices: how the notion
of prudence was represented -- or sloth? Or what the first
eyeglasses looked like?
The Index of Christian Art, located in McCormick Hall, is the
place to go. This unique archive documents Christian art from
apostolic times to 1400. It includes a quarter million photographs
of 26,000 subjects and about a million descriptive reference cards
cross-referenced to the photos.
Because it is an iconographic archive, says director Brendan
Cassidy, it is organized by subject -- beginning with ``Alpha and
Omega'' and ending with ``the ninth-century saint Zwentibold of
Lorraine.'' Subjects include figures, scenes, objects, natural
phenomena and ``miscellaneous'' -- a category that includes motifs
such as the Hand of God. ``Figures'' include ``a large proportion
of the cast of the Bible and the largest catalog anywhere of
medieval saints,'' Cassidy says. The index also documents
``thousands of historical personages, such as kings and queens.''
If you want information on a particular subject -- say, the
Crucifixion -- you look under ``Christ: Crucifixion.'' There are
18,000 cards containing information on works of art depicting the
Crucifixion. The cards describe the various works in detail. For
example: ``Christ cross-nimbed [with a cross-patterned nimbus],
long loin cloth, nails 4, on cross with titulus with inscription
from John xix, 19, flanked by heads of personifications of Sun and
Moon and by Virgin Mary, hands clasped, and Evangelist John, right
hand to face.'' The card tells where the original image is located
(a manuscript in the Cologne Cathedral library) and refers the
reader to the index photo.
The index covers Christian art to 1400, says Cassidy, ``because
you have to have a cut-off point.'' This date, he says, is
arbitrary; ``It makes some kind of sense when dealing with Italian
art but no sense at all if dealing with the art of England or the
Byzantine world.''
Geographically, the index includes Christian art ``wherever it
appeared in the world in the Middle Ages.'' In practice, since
photos in the index are culled from art history books and
periodicals published around the world, ``what we cover is
determined by our own linguistic abilities and how widely the art
of a particular place is published. We're very good on French,
Italian, English and German art and not so thorough on the art of
central and eastern Europe.''
The index documents works of art in every medium available in the
period: sculpture, painting, fresco, manuscript, enamel, metal.
There are altar stones and wax seals. ``We even have leather,''
says Cassidy. ``There's a reliquary in the Cloisters in New York
City in the shape of a shoe, with little scenes from the life of
St. Margaret embossed on it.''
Some 350 researchers from all over the world visit the index in a
year. The log shows they come to study such subjects as the Trojan
War, the symbolism of pelicans, wounded male bodies and the
development of the plow, as well as the more predictable
iconography of Purgatory, Assumption of the Virgin, saints,
angels, and Heaven and Hell.
Because the index catalogs such a wide variety of subjects, giving
insights into many aspects of medieval life, it is of interest to
scholars in a number of disciplines, not only art historians.
Cassidy is pleased that the index has become a regular stop for
students in the Program in Medieval Studies.
Outside Princeton there are four authorized copies of the index:
these are at the Vatican Library; the University of Utrecht;
Harvard University's Dumbarton Oaks Research Library in
Washington, D.C.; and the University of California, Los Angeles.
The current endeavor of the index is ``getting the material
computerized.'' For the past four years, says Cassidy, new
material has been logged on the computer rather than on index
cards (adding another five or six thousand records to the index).
But a ``mass conversion'' will be necessary to make the entire
index available on computer. Cassidy is currently seeking funds to
cover microfilming all cards and then converting them to machine-
readable form.
As part of its educational mission, the index sponsors
publications and conferences. Set for April 22 is a conference on
``Art and Ritual at the Threshold: The Imagery of Portals in
Medieval Europe.''