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Monumental Sounds
Art and Listening before Dante
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In Monumental Sounds, Matthew G. Shoaf examines interactions between sight and hearing in spectacular church decoration in Italy between 1260 and 1320. In this "age of vision," authorities' concerns about whether and how worshipers listened to sacred speech spurred Giotto and other artists to reconfigure sacred stories to activate listening and ultimately bypass phenomenal experience for attitudes of inner receptivity. New naturalistic styles served that work, prompting viewers to give voice to depicted speech and guiding them toward spiritually fruitful auditory discipline. This study reimagines narrative pictures as site-specific extensions of a cultural system that made listening a meaningful practice. Close reading of religious texts, poetry, and art historiography augments Shoaf's novel approach to pictorial naturalism and art's multisensorial dimensions.
This book has received the Weiss-Brown Publication Subvention Award from the Newberry Library. The award supports the publication of outstanding works of scholarship that cover European civilization before 1700 in the areas of music, theater, French or Italian literature, or cultural studies.
This book has received the Weiss-Brown Publication Subvention Award from the Newberry Library. The award supports the publication of outstanding works of scholarship that cover European civilization before 1700 in the areas of music, theater, French or Italian literature, or cultural studies.
Matthew G. Shoaf, Ph.D. (2003, University of Chicago) is a former Associate Professor of Art History at Ursinus College. He has published articles on art and sound in Word & Image and has edited several books.
Acknowledgments
List of Illustrations
Introduction: An Unheard Art
â1âKnowing Hearing
â2âHearing Eclipsed
â3âShapers of Ears
â4âMonumental Sounds
1 Listening Up
â1âAural Sensitivities
â2âLost Hearing
â3âGreat Listeners
2 The Ear, Estranged
â1âSeeing Listening
â2âEar Blindness
â3âStasis and Significance
3 A Feast for the Ears
â1âGiottoâs The Wedding Feast at Cana
â2âScale of Listening
â3âRebirth through the Ear
â4âAural Ambitions
4 Sound Restoration
â1âNicola Pisanoâs Pulpit in Pisa
â2âRaising Voices
â3âSilenced Skeptic
â4âAntique Resonance
â5âMuted Clergy
â6âSculptural Ephpheta!
5 Higher Fidelity
â1âThe Isaac Frescoes in Assisi
â2âReturn of the Repressed Sense
â3âAural Ancestry
â4âHidden by Sight
â5âAuditory Interests
Conclusion: Humbling Sight
Bibliography
Index
List of Illustrations
Introduction: An Unheard Art
â1âKnowing Hearing
â2âHearing Eclipsed
â3âShapers of Ears
â4âMonumental Sounds
1 Listening Up
â1âAural Sensitivities
â2âLost Hearing
â3âGreat Listeners
2 The Ear, Estranged
â1âSeeing Listening
â2âEar Blindness
â3âStasis and Significance
3 A Feast for the Ears
â1âGiottoâs The Wedding Feast at Cana
â2âScale of Listening
â3âRebirth through the Ear
â4âAural Ambitions
4 Sound Restoration
â1âNicola Pisanoâs Pulpit in Pisa
â2âRaising Voices
â3âSilenced Skeptic
â4âAntique Resonance
â5âMuted Clergy
â6âSculptural Ephpheta!
5 Higher Fidelity
â1âThe Isaac Frescoes in Assisi
â2âReturn of the Repressed Sense
â3âAural Ancestry
â4âHidden by Sight
â5âAuditory Interests
Conclusion: Humbling Sight
Bibliography
Index
Art historians, specialists of late medieval art, scholars of religious studies and music, those interested in sensory history, pre-modern sound, medieval disability; graduate students, advanced undergraduate students, academic libraries. Keywords: Italy, medieval, narrative art, religion, sermons, speech, voice, senses, auditory perception, ears, Giotto, Nicola Pisano.