Engin and artifice : describing creative agency at the court of France, ca. 1400

Author

Perkinson, Stephen

Document type

Article (journal)

Language

English

Source

Gesta. 2002, Num. 1, Vol. 41, 51-67, 14 ill.

ISSN

0016-920X

Abstract (en)

Article examines descriptions of artistic activities found in late medieval French literary works, comparing these textual descriptions with visual evidence to recover a vocabulary of creative agency. Authors, reacting to the creative activities they witnessed around them, refashioned terminology found in earlier literary accounts of image-making and developed a set of terms to describe and define the creative process. They focused on one quality in particular as crucial to the artist: engin. To say that an image-maker had a remarkable engin implied that he or she possessed tremendous powers of memory and imagination - abilities more highly valued than even the most developed manual skill, or artifice. Owing to their ability to produce sacred images from memory, exceptional image-makers were believed to possess a virtuous, almost saintly, character. By establishing these concepts in the minds of their courtly readers, late medieval French authors created conditions in which ambitious image-makers could showcase their particular skills and abilities. [Illustrated primarily with manuscript illuminations].

Subject (en)

• General history of art -- 300-1400 -- Pictorial arts -- Manuscript illumination -- France
• Creativity
• France
• 1300-1400
• Writings
• Terminology
• Art
• Painting
• Manuscript illumination
• Literature
• Memory
• Imagination
• Late Middle Ages
• Artists
• Illuminators

Subject (fr)

• Histoire générale de l'art -- 300-1400 -- Peinture et arts graphiques -- Enluminure -- France
• Création artistique
• France
• 1300-1400
• Ecrits
• Terminologie
• Art
• Peinture
• Enluminure
• Littérature
• Mémoire
• Imagination
• Moyen Age tardif
• Artistes
• Enlumineurs

Origin

DatabaseBHA (Inist-CNRS/GRI)

Identifier20021001-00134074

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