Visions Across the Gates: Materiality, Symbolism, and Communication in the Historiated Wooden Doors of Medieval European Churches
Date of Award
Spring 2024
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
History of Art
First Advisor
Jung, Jacqueline
Abstract
Wooden doors carved with programs of Christ’s Infancy and Passion survive from the powerful convent at St. Maria im Kapitol in Cologne, Germany; the pilgrimage cathedral at Le Puy-en-Velay in southern France; the cathedral built in Diocletian’s repurposed mausoleum, in Split, Croatia; and the Benedictine monastery of St. Maria im Cellis in Carsoli, Italy. This diverse group of doors owes its cohesion to a shared model: the historiated wooden doors that adorned the earliest public churches, now exemplified by the sole surviving example at the Basilica of Santa Sabina in Rome. A study of these four sites reveals how patrons adapted the shared, highly-recognizable program and leveraged the communicative power of the door to address the very different needs and circumstances of their specific communities. Examining the doors as a group and through the lens of their shared wooden medium reveals how the doors recalled not only the first church doors of early Christian Rome but tapped into a lineage of biblical doors tracing back to the Temple of Solomon.
Recommended Citation
Werwie, Katherine, "Visions Across the Gates: Materiality, Symbolism, and Communication in the Historiated Wooden Doors of Medieval European Churches" (2024). Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations. 1449.
https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/gsas_dissertations/1449
