Review by Choice Review
In this, her fourth book on Italian Romanesque sculpture (see, e.g., Romanesque Sculpture in Campania, CH, Jul'92, 29-6080), independent scholar Glass leaves aside questions of style and attribution and sets out to reexamine the possible links between the monumental sculpture of Modena Cathedral and the Investiture Controversy that raged between the papacy and the rulers of imperial Germany in the years immediately preceding and following 1100. Before considering the sculpture, the author provides a nearly exhaustive review of the quarrel with a focus on the activities of both the clergy and their secular opponents. She contends that the sculpture at Modena, as well as in some of the nearby abbeys, such as Nonantola, and cathedrals, such as Cremona, was specifically conceived to express the alignment of the clergy with the side of Rome. While not necessarily a new idea--a similar interpretation was put forth a number of years ago by Italian scholar Francesco Gandolfo--Glass delves more deeply and thoroughly into the textual bases for this thesis, in scripture and in contemporary writings of the clergy involved in the Investiture Controversy, thus providing a firmer basis for the posited link between contemporary events and the works of art. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students and researchers/faculty. E. B. Smith Pennsylvania State University, University Park Campus
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
