| Scenes of building construction appear in a great variety of texts. The Bible provides the two most common, the construction of the Tower of Babel and Noah's ark, while secular chronicles include the building projects of kings. Traditionally, these scenes have been treated in iconographic studies, and more recently have been used to some degree as sources for the study of medieval building technology. In this study scenes of building construction will be analyzed not as illustrations of a text, but as a focus for studying a variety of artistic traditions, perceptions about technological change and social hierarchy, and finally the implications of style for the description of a process such as building construction.;The first part of this study assesses the inadequacies of traditional models used by illuminators to describe building sites where increasingly complex machinery and techniques were being developed to erect the great abbey churches and cathedrals of the high middle ages. Part of the discrepancy between the activities of the workyard and the products of the painters' ateliers stems from the inadequacies of their traditional models to describe building sites where new tools and machines were being used.;Secondly, artists' perception of the workyard is analyzed. Manuscript illuminators demonstrate considerable understanding of the social status of the architect/master masons in society during the dramatic changes of the twelfth through the sixteenth centuries. During this time certain master masons became famous for their skills in geometry, building crafts and organization that made possible the construction of great ecclesiastical structures as well as defensive works, such as castles and city walls. Beginning in the fifteenth century and developing further in the sixteenth, the architect's role changed. The functions of the designer and builder were divided, especially in Italy. Painters noted this change.;Finally, this study deals with the impact of changing pictorial styles from the twelfth to the beginning of the sixteenth century on the description of the process of building construction. The constraints of the traditional imagery of the Romanesque era on describing a process such as building construction is compared with the constraints placed on Renaissance artists following Alberti's "rationalization" of space. |
