The concept of form in Louis Réau’s reflections on the iconography of Medieval art

Abstract

The article is devoted to a critical analysis of a little-known article by the French art historian Louis Réau (1881–1961), who was a recognized expert on the art of France and the author of a fundamental handbook on Christian iconography. He was also the first director of the French Institute in Saint Petersburg, Russia (1911–1913). The focus of the article is on the work published by Réau in 1951 in a special issue of the Journal of normal and pathological psychology, in which he discusses the influence of form on the medieval iconography. L. Réau argues with the authority of Émile Mâle and his approach to studying medieval monuments. He insisted that Medieval iconography’s logic and development depended not only on written sources, such as theological and liturgical texts, but was often determined solely by the formal aspects of artworks, its aesthetics and special compositional structure. In Réau’s opinion, form becomes power which subdues iconography. The purpose of this work is to reveal and critically rethink the main aspects of the concept of Réau in the context of modern approaches to the study of Christian monuments. First of all, the article reveals the concept of ‘form’ in the interpretation of the researcher. It also clarifies the meanings of the specific terms such as ‘law of the frame’, ‘requirement of symmetry’, ‘iconographic contamination’, ‘elimination of doubles’, etc. The article analyzes the arguments and examples provided by Réau to support his ideas and examines the validity of his conclusions. Additional visual sources are used to verify the objectivity of Réau’s statements. The article also defines the contextual connections and circumstances that influenced the formation of Réau’s scientific views, as well as identifies the specifics of his methodological approach, which distinguishes him from other iconographers and medievalists. The ideas of Louis Réau is subject to a comprehensive assessment, revealing the most relevant and promising points with scientific potential for modern studies of medieval art.