![]() As one medieval text of around the year 1000 says, “this visible image represents an invisible truth …” It was such an understanding of the nature and value of representation that led to the profusion of images in the Middle Ages. These stone figures served the uneducated, the majority of the population who knew only the vernacular language and nothing of the official Latin of the Church (Head of Christ, 1983.406 Head of an Angel, 1990.132). Their function was to lead the faithful toward contemplation of God. What Scripture is to the educated, images are to the ignorant … they read in them what they cannot read in books.” This key declaration authorized images in the service of the Church. ![]() In the seventh century, Pope Gregory the Great wrote: “To adore images is one thing to teach with their help what should be adored is another. The great Gothic churches and cathedrals of Europe, covered with hundreds of carved figures, present a compendium of biblical characters and stories. Iconoclasm-the breaking of images-goes back in history to the time of ancient Egypt and continues up to the present it is a testament to the power of images over people, in our own time as in the past. People sometimes saw such sculptures as the physical embodiment of religious or political power and sought to efface that power by defacing it. Many were damaged or destroyed by Protestant reformers in the sixteenth century (Head of an Apostle, 2004.453). The French Revolution was not the only moment to witness this “guillotine of history” against works of art. Iconoclasm was often sanctioned by those in charge. The destruction of many monuments and the defacing of sculptures during the French Revolution was not fueled by mob unrest but by governmental decree. Seen as symbols of the French monarchy, the sculptures were removed from their lofty position and heads violently severed (Head of King David, 38.180). In the same month that King Louis XVI was guillotined (January 1793), the Commune of Paris decreed that all statues of kings on the Cathedral of Notre-Dame were to be destroyed. By focusing on this one genre of object, the Middle Ages can be seen in a new light. Sculptured heads in museums have lost their original context, whether by violent breaking from their bodies and from the monuments they once adorned, or simply by being removed and placed in a museum. As such, the depiction of the head becomes a true test of the quality of the artist and a telling indicator of style. The face is not only central to identity, but is also the primary vehicle for human expression, emotion, and character. ![]() Since antiquity it signified not only the intellect, the center of power, but was also regarded as the seat of the soul. The head was the chief symbolic part of the body for Western culture in the Middle Ages, from the waning days of the Roman empire to the Renaissance. ![]()
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