Le Moyen Age
De Boeck Université

I.S.B.N.9782804154660
244 pages

p. 69 à 90
doi: en cours

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Tome CXIII 2007/1

La Queste del Saint Graal : vers l’apparition du paysage

Marie-Pascale Halary
Alors que le paysage, étendue de pays donnée à voir pour elle-même, ne « naît » véritablement qu’à la Renaissance, qu’en est-il dans la Queste del Saint Graal, roman du XIIIe siècle qui retrace le parcours de différents personnages à travers de multiples lieux ? De fait, le constant mouvement des chevaliers, le recours fréquent au topos et l’omniprésence des herméneutes (qui réduisent la description de la nature à un langage à déchiffrer) font qu’aucun paysage stricto sensu ne surgit : il s’agit, tout au plus, d’un décor pour l’aventure. Il semble toutefois qu’il existe aux marges de l’univers arthurien un espace dans lequel le paysage commence à émerger : dans les lieux de l’Ailleurs, de la sauvagerie, visités, en particulier, par Lancelot et Perceval, le regard porté par les personnages sur la nature est déjà esthétique. Ceci constitue donc bien une perception paysagère même si, ce qui importe, c’est la dimension spirituelle selon laquelle l’apprentissage de la contemplation de la nature s’inscrit dans un mouvement aboutissant à la contemplation du Graal. Even though the landscape, a stretch of countryside to be viewed for its own sake, was not truly “born” until the Renaissance, what can be said about it in the Quest for the Holy Grail, a 13th century romance describing the journeys different characters make through a variety of places? In fact, the constant movement of the knights, the constant references to topos and the omnipresence of hermeneutics (which reduce the description of nature to a language that has to be deciphered) mean that no landscape stricto sensu emerges: it is at best a question of the scenery for an adventure. Yet it seems that on the fringes of the Arthurian universe the landscape does begin to emerge somewhere: in those places in the Wasteland, savage lands, particularly those visited by Lancelot and Perceval, the characters are already contemplating nature aesthetically. This is therefore a real perception of landscape even if what matters is its spiritual dimension, in which learning to contemplate nature is part of an impulse that leads to the contemplation of the Grail. Key words: landscape, contemplation, description, Bernard de Clairvaux, savagery. P. STABEL, Guild organisation and artistic production in Bruges at the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Early Modern Period. The production of works of art in late medieval cities was characterized by important shifts. Despite the so-called rigidity of guild regulation, Bruges entrepreneurs were often capable of developing new products and organise their markets in fl exible ways. Artisan’s careers can be explained in this logic of fl exibility and adaptation. Geographic and social mobility and the relative open character of guilds do not exclude in any way patterns of social exclusion and polarisation within the structures of the guild of Saint Luke. Painters and other artisans involved in the production and sale of luxury commodities do not differ that much from those employed in the textile or service industries. Regulation was relatively fl exible and open and aimed a defi ning rules of conduct on matters of social hierarchy, product quality and modes of payment, rather than on contracts of apprenticeship, relations between entrepreneurs and their employees, between masters and their families, between artisans and merchant or between retailers and their customers, which all were defi ned by individual negotiation, for which the guild provided a forum.Keywords : Early Netherlandish painting, art production, craft guilds, social mobility, Bruges.


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