Carving out time

Although he was not the first to formulate it, in the late sixth century Gregory the Great offered a succinct theory of the function of religious art: “Images are to be employed in churches, so that those who are illiterate might at least read by seeing on the walls what they cannot read in books.” ¹ In theory, religious art, and particularly narrative art, although it was certainly seen by literate religieux, was primarily directed toward a popular audience of the illiterate. Narrative art transformed the architectural space of the medieval church into a Biblia Pauperum – a pictorial substitute for the written word. By “reading” this architectural “book,” the illiterate were expected to obtain a less sophisticated version of the religious education available to the literate. To the extent that the medieval church served as the venue for narrative art, then, the purpose of the edifice was edification.