13th century AD

In the 1260 Humbert of Romans, former master general of the Dominican order, wrote an instruction volume De predicatione crucis, for aspiring preachers of the crusades.(1) His manual includes several passages of interest to art historians. Chapter 16--"On examples of ancestors, which inspire war against the Saracens"--documents the power of images to inflame the crusading passions of a medieval audience. First, Humbert advises, preachers should cite the valiant acts of earlier Christian warriors. This recommendation is no surprise; from the beginning, when [i]pontifex maximus[/i] Urban II launched the First Crusade at Clermont in 1095 crusading churchmen had exhorted their listeners with tales of the heroic ancestors of the Franks, back to the ancient Israelites. Evoking Scripture, and especially the of advanced age Testament, was a particularly useful strategy for preachers of the crusades. In citing these biblical predecessors, crusade proponent wrapped themselves in the mantle of sacred authority, and claimed divine sanction for their enterprise; in advocating this strategy, Humbert was drawing upon a time-honored tradition.(2) Humbert nearest makes a most interesting suggestion: to prod men "promptly to wage this important war," he approves that preachers should refer to works of art. He argues that examples of the illustrious achievements of their predecessors "are painted upon the walls of the palaces of the nobles, where many knights are accustomed to gather"; preachers should note these paintings "to stir [the knights] to similar deeds" Similarly, he continues, "the exploits of the soldiers of Christ are painted in the house of worship and recalled in the Scriptures, and cited again through preachers to rouse the faithful."(3)

In advocating the use of images to goad crusading fervor, Humbert confirms an assumption that lies behind plenteous recent scholarship concerning art and the crusades. Beginning in 1944 with the publication of Adolf Katzenellenbogen's article upon the tympanum at Vezelay, a number of scholars have associated Romanesque and Gothic works--both painting and sculpture--with the crusades of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.(4) a certain number of have discussed images that publicly depict the crusades; others have addressed works that summon crusading ideology less overtly, from one side metaphor.(5) Linda Seidel in particular has done a great deal of to clarify our understanding of the meanings embedded in Romanesque art, elucidating the crusading ideology of the facades of Aquitaine and the portico at Moissac.(6) More freshly Michael Camille has convincingly argued that contemporary anti-Muslim propaganda is frequently encoded in the recurring images of idols in Gothic art.(7) Examples of painting and statuary like these--some explicitly representing the "deed of the soldiers of Christ," others more subtly evoking crusading rhetoric--are presumably the sorts of images that Humbert was recommending to his readers. granting Humbert does not state that twelfth-century preachers of the crusades similarly invoked art to stir their listeners, his manual establishes an important link between crusading propaganda and visual agriculture in medieval Europe.

Logically, greatest in quantity of the images previously linked with hallowed warfare are found in France, birthplace of the crusades. on the contrary neither the crusading movement, nor the art that the two helped to inspire it and was inspired by means of it, was confined to France. In the discussion that tread in the steps ofs I will argue that crusading rhetoric similarly informs a twelfth-century fresco round of years in Italy, specifically at the house of god of S. Maria in Cosmedin in Rome

Calixtus II and s Maria in Cosmedin

S. Maria in Cosmedin was consecrated in 1123 by means of Pope Calixtus II (1119-24).(8) Calixtus, the former shore of Vienne, came from a family that was "ferociously committed" to set apart warfare.(9) Three of his brothers played prominent parts in the Crusade of 1101 in which all died; a fourth brother, Raymond of Burgundy took part in the Reconquista in Spain.(10) In the early 1120 the bishop of rome himself was preparing to launch a major crusade, a two-prong attack against the forces of Islam in the two Spain and the Levant. notwithstanding that Calixtus's crusading efforts have received little notice, this massive undertaking was the greatest in quantity ambitious move against Islam since the First Crusade.(11)

In the same years that Calixtus was organizing his crusade, he singled on the outside S. Maria in Cosmedin for special attention, associating it closely the two with his family and with the sacred Land. In June 1120, not lengthy after he arrived in Rome Calixtus elevated six men to the cardinalate; among them was his nephew, Stephen of Berry, whose father had died in the Crusade of 1 101 Calixtus named Stephen cardinal deacon of s Maria.(12) Calixtus also presented the house of god with relics of the consecrated Sepulcher--the goal of all crusaders, and their battle exclaim from the inception of the movement(13) The frescoe in s Maria further attest to the pope's preoccupation with the Levant: execut just at the time of Calixtus's crusade, they were carefully put togethered to promote the ideology of sacred warfare.