Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Author(s): O. K. Werckmeister
Reviewed work(s):
Source: Gesta, Vol. 36, No. 2, Visual Culture of Medieval Iberia (1997), pp. 101-106
Published by: International Center of Medieval Art
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/767231 .
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The Islamic Rider in the Beatus of Girona*
O. K. WERCKMEISTER
Northwestern University
For John Williams on the Occasion of His Retirement
102
carvings of Muslim Spain. In any event, in their combination
with the fantastic animals from the bestiary tradition,the ori-
ental animals are made to appearas partof a series of live be-
ings, illustrative,or at least representational,ratherthanmerely
decorative. One of the miniatures is even inscribed with a ?-iiii
iii -: --
Islamic Features
FIGURE 1. Girona, Museum of the Cathedral, Beatus Commentary,fol.
But what actually is Islamic about the Gironarider?Cer- 18v: Bird and Serpent, detail (photo: author).
tainly his headdressand his gear, but not his form, at least as
far as we can discern, given the extreme scarcity of compar-
ative material from Islamic figurative art of the early middle It is this iconographicalanalogy more than any other that
ages. This is an importantdistinction which I failed to make promptedWilliams to ascribe the same negative significance
in my article of 1965. Two Coptic textiles14still provide the to the serpent in our rider image, a conclusion which in mir-
closest analogy to the particularsilhouette of the briskly strid- ror reverse entailed a positive, that is, Christian significance
ing horse and the rider'sarm curved backwardsand down, in- for the rider,notwithstandinghis Islamic appearance.In Wil-
cluding the contradictoryview of the clasping fingers before liams's reasoning,the standardiconographicaltraditionwould
the shaft of the spear and of the spear running behind the have overridden the manifest Islamic features of the figure.
body of the rider but in front of the horse's head. As for the However, the equally manifest relationship with the figure
serpent, it occurs in no Islamic rider image before 1150, but of Herod in the infancy cycle, whose negative significance is
is a stock-in-tradeof late Roman triumphalimagery adapted indisputable, would have been severed. For any coherent un-
for early medieval Christianiconography. These similarities derstandingof the image, either the serpent or the rider must
and differences were known before, but the conclusion has allow for an alternative significance. I will argue for the ser-
not been drawn that we are not dealing here with a motif pent ratherthan the rider as a candidate for this alternative.
taken from an Islamic pictorial tradition, but with a late an-
tique figure, literally dressed up to look Islamic. This is what The Serpent
distinguishes the rider from the oriental animals of the mar-
ginal cycle. They are altogether Islamic, both in content and The animatedworld of monstrous beings constituted by
form. The rider, on the other hand, is Islamic only in content, the seven marginalminiaturesof the GironaBeatus suggests
all the more reason to take his Islamic designation seriously. the late antiquelore of animals, fantastic or real, for compar-
The crucial difference between our rider figure and its ison. The Physiologus, the principal early Christian textual
late antique prototypes, however, is that the serpent is not source for this lore, provides no match for the non-oriental
vanquished and prone. There was enough space on the page monsters of the series, but it does contain a chapter on the
to deploy it horizontally in such a way. Instead, the rider's serpent which specifies its positive characteras a model for
spear, which in the iconographical traditionappearspiercing the Christianfaithful in no less than four different"natures."17
downward, is raised, only slightly more inclined than in the The Carolingiancopy at Bern of ca. 84018 illustratesthe fourth
Herod miniature,where it is horizontally aimed at Christ. In of those natures with a man on foot going after the serpent
this confrontation, the erect rebounding serpent is standing with a spear (P1. 2, b). The text says of the serpent:
up to the rider without being hurt by his spear. The implied
struggle matches that in the full-page miniaturedepicting the When a man comes and wants to kill it, it gives its entire
scene of the fabulous oriental bird defeating the dragon, the body away but protects its head. We too must in times
allegory for Christ defeating the devil (P1. 2, a). The text ac- of temptation give our entire body away but protect our
companying that miniature, which dwells on the confronta- head, that is, by not denying Christ,just as the holy mar-
tion,15implicitly defines the serpent'serect posture as that of tyrs did. For the whole head, that is Christ.19
the aggressor. The miniature depicts the serpent as the beak
of the bird hits him in the brain,16and the head goes down in Accordingly, in the Carolingian illustration, the man pierces
an instant collapse (Fig. 1). the coiled serpent twice through the body and neck, still
103
missing the protectedhead with its wide open eye andjutting With such quotations from the spiritual leader of the
tongue. This is just where the Girona rider aims his spear, C6rdoba martyrs'movement, we are coming close to a spir-
without quite reaching the neck. The serpent is raising its itual understandingof the erect serpent facing the onslaught
head alertly,especially in contrastwith the evil serpent,which of the Islamic rider which is in accord with the Physiologus's
has been squarely hit in the brain by the colorful bird. Thus account of the serpent'sfourth nature. On these grounds, the
the two iconographically correlated representations of the rider who confronts the prudent serpent may be identified
serpent in the Girona manuscript show just the visual differ- with his double, the figure of Herod in the infancy cycle. For
ences that account for their apparentdifferences in meaning. Herod the persecutor of the Innocents was traditionally in-
In the early medieval exegetical tradition, the positive terpretedto prefigureany pagan persecutorof Christians.As
allegorical interpretationof the serpent in the Physiologus20 Isidore has it in his Allegories of Sacred Scripture:
was invariably related to Matthew 10:16, where Christ ad-
monishes his followers to be prudent in the face of over- Herod, who brought death to the children [of Bethlehem],
whelming hostility: expresses the shape of the devil, or of the pagans who,
wishing to extinguish Christ'sname from the world, rage
Remember,I am sending you out like sheep among wolves; in the slaughter of martyrs.26
so be cunning as serpents and yet as harmless as doves.
In the concluding step of my argument, I will attempt to fit
Augustine dwells on this connection in his sermon devoted this interpretationinto the overall iconographic structureof
to the Gospel passage, written for a generic martyrs'feast. the Girona manuscript.
Here he makes the categorical distinction we have been look-
ing for: The Sealing of the Elect
Don't abhor the serpent altogether. . . it has features you The full-page miniaturefacing the marginalimage of the
should hate, but also features you should imitate.21 riderdepicts the sealing of the twelve tribes of Judahaccord-
ing to Revelations 7:1-3, the segment of the storia whose
And he goes on to dwell on the allegorical significance of brevity on the facing verso accounts for the space where the
the serpent'shead as Christ in the exegetical interrelationof rider could be painted. The tribes congregate within the rect-
the Gospel and Physiologus texts. angular earth surroundedby the ocean. At the four corners,
In the subsequent literary tradition,the words "cunning four angels muzzle the cardinal winds for their protection.
as serpents" in Matthew 10:16 became a crucial phrase for The subsequent storia, covering Revelations 7:4-12, adds to
the characterizationof Christians'appropriatebehavior under the assembly the "huge number,impossible to count, of peo-
oppression and persecution.22Christ'sentire speech as related ple from every nation, race, tribe and language." It is illus-
in Matthew 10 was often read as a guide in the validation of tratedwith a two-pageminiatureunitingthe two groups.Beatus
martyrdomover submission to the pagans. Eulogius of C6r- in his commentarytakes great pains to emphasize, somewhat
doba, whose public career was devoted to just this issue, improbably, that both are in fact one and the same,27thus
laced all of his writings with commented quotations from investing the smaller group in the first picture with the sig-
Matthew 10.23In his Memorialis Sanctorum,he writes about nificance of the larger group in the second one.
the comparison with the serpent: In the Visigothic liturgy, the feast of the Holy Innocents,
the children of Bethlehem massacred by Herod, was cele-
I take the sense of this teaching to be that the flock of the bratedon 8 January.28 The antiphonalchantof the feast relates
faithful, mingled with pagans, as if endowed with the in- the children to the elect of Revelations 7 and the Christian
nocence of sheep, is forced to bear the brutalityof wolves. martyrsin a triple allegory according to which the children's
And so that they should not abandon themselves to lassi- murderprefiguresthe martyrs'execution, and the apocalyptic
tude and thus fall all the more easily to the enemy's tricks, elect signify the celestial exaltation of both.29This liturgical
they appropriatelyreceive the divine admonition to be al- association offers the most immediate rationale for the paint-
ways attentive to suitable caution with the adversaries of ers of the Girona manuscriptto place a figure of Herod next
their faith, and everywhere keen (erecti) and ready in the to the picture of the apocalyptic elect. Here Isidore'sallegory
face of their enemies' sly designs.24 of the pagans slaughteringmartyrsand the Physiologus alle-
gory of the good serpent as the martyrs'symbol were prop-
And Eulogius goes on to quote Arnobius's interpretationof erly engaged with one another.
the Gospel passage about doves and serpents: However, Beatus, in his explanation of Revelations 7,
expressly contradicts the allegorical association made, as he
Go ahead, fight those who fight... Tongues fight against writes, by "some," of the elect with either the children of
you, sharpened by heretics, like serpents; towards those Bethlehem or the martyrs of Christianity.The first interpre-
you must be like a sharp-witted serpent too ...25 tation he rejects out of hand;30 the second he finds too nar-
104
row, because he reads the 144,000 elect as an allegory of the bells in towerlets of their own. Christiansin al-Andalus were
whole churchwashed in the blood of Christ, not just the mar- expressly forbidden to build stone towers or ring bells, no
tyrs washed in their own blood.31 These arguments, literally matter with how much measured tolerance the Muslim au-
copied from Primasius,32were at variance with a widespread thorities otherwise let them worship. This was an image of
exegetical tradition, according to which the massacred chil- true release.
dren denote Christ'schurch in peril, while Herod denotes the The Girona Beatus has no Arabic glosses. But the col-
devil with his hosts persecuting it.33Beatus may even have ophon dates the completion of the manuscript with refer-
aimed his objections, by way of the quotation from Prima- ence to a military campaign against Toledo and "the cities
sius, expressly at the Biblical references of the Visigothic lit- of Mauritania"undertaken by Fernando Flaginiz, count of
urgy for the Feast of the Innocents. Thus, if two centuries Salamanca and governor of the Duero region. Of the same
later the painters of the Girona Beatus adhered to just these FernandoFlaginiz, the Arab historian Ibn Hayyan wrote that
liturgical associations, they found themselves in contradiction he sent ambassadorson a diplomatic mission to C6rdoba in
with the author of their text. 974,35 one year before the GironaBeatus was completed. The
The exegetical alternative between the martyrs and the colophon suggests that the monks of Tibara were watching
Christian church at large recalls the debate about the rela- with some interest the activities of their regional ruler vis-
tionship between martyrdomand Christianlife raging around ~a-visthe Muslim enemy. It situates the manuscript at the
the middle of the ninth century in the Mozarab community heart of the Muslim-Christianconflict zone, with the atten-
of C6rdoba, whose spiritual champions Eulogius and Alva- dant political give-and-take, the swings of aggression and ac-
rus made the case for martyrdomwith so much provocative commodation,characteristicof early medieval warfareand of
intransigence. As is well known, both authors insisted that reconquest warfare in particular.
a determination not to shy away from martyrdom was re- However, the image of the Islamic rider, in its exeget-
quired of their Christian community, prone to give in on its ical and liturgical definition, is no testimony to such a fluid
religious identity by adapting to Islamic culture. The pic- historical situation, but the deliberate expression of an un-
ture facing the Persecution of Christ by Herod in the Girona equivocal ideological posture. Its significance was strictly cir-
manuscript combines two scenes of immediate relevancy to cumscribedby the social milieu and political setting of one of
the terms of this debate. Above, there appearsa multi-figured the emigrant communities of Mozarab monks resettled by
scene of Christ's mocking before Caiphas, an insult which, Christianwarlords in the militant pursuit of their reconquest
according to Alvarus of C6rdoba, Muslim authorities were projects. For such a community, the ideology of martyrdom,
perpetrating daily.34Below, an equally detailed illustration specifically directedagainstany culturalsymbiosis, againstany
shows Peter's denial of Christ, a precedent for the reluctance easy convivencia, shaped the pictorial scenario of Christian-
of the Christian community to profess its own faith. Islamic confrontation.It was driven by the idea of the Militia
Christi, embracingthe steadfastnessof self-provoked martyr-
Historical Topicality dom by Mozarab monks in C6rdoba as well as the relentless
My argumenthas led me to a point where our rider can drive for reconquest. To express this idea, the painters of
be understood at face value, as Herod, persecutor of martyrs, Thibaracomplemented the standard apocalyptic imagery of
in Muslim attire, that is, as a Biblical allegory of Muslim op- the Beatus Commentaryby two sets of exegetical images that
pression as perceived by the militant ninth-century commu- made the manuscript topical. Their pictorial reasoning was
nity of C6rdoba. The reasons why such a pictorial statement grounded in the liturgical and exegetical outlook of their
was worked into a Beatus Commentaryproducedin an abbey community. How relevant such reasoning was for the artistic
in Christian Spain some hundredand twenty years later must culture of early medieval Spain in general is an altogether
now be followed up in that altogether different historical different question, still unresolved.
situation.
It is all but certain that the Girona manuscriptwas pro-
duced in the monastery of Taibara,in the reconqueredarea to
the south of Le6n. The Beatus of Tibara, which Emeterius, NOTES
one of its two painters, completed five years earlier, in 970, * The following text, based on work in progress, is published here at the
is the most outspoken extant manuscriptof a Mozarab com- urging of the editors, but under my own responsibility for its short-
munity in the north. It is shot throughwith glosses written in comings. It is confined to an analytical presentation of my argument.
Arabic. Emeterius'spredecessor Magius, who startedthe co- Accordingly, footnotes are limited to bibliographic references. My
thanks go to David Simon for encouraging me to go forward with this
dex, took care to terminatehis work on the day of St. Faustus,
project.
a C6rdoba martyr.The most glaring projection of a Mozarab
1. J. Williams, The IllustratedBeatus: A Corpus of the Illustrations of the
concern may well be the poetic invocation in the colophon of
Commentary on the Apocalypse, II, The Ninth and Tenth Centuries
the distinctive tower of the abbey ("O tower of Tibara, tall (London, 1994), 51-64 and passim, with bibliography.All information
and of stone...") and its depiction in a full-page miniature, about the manuscript and its miniatures adduced in this article can be
complete with no less than five stories and two conspicuous found here and will not be specifically referenced.
105
2. W. Neuss, Die Apokalypse des Heiligen Johannes in der altspanischen 20. N. Henkel, Studien zum Physiologus im Mittelalter (Ttibingen, 1976),
und altchristlichen Bibelillustration (Mtinster, 1931), 65-69. 37, 144, 184.
3. Beatus, Sancti Beati a Liebana Commentarius in Apocalypsin, ed. 21. Augustine, Sermo LXIV, Habitus in solemnitate Martyrum, 2, ed.
E. Romero Pose (Rome, 1985), I, 596-601. Migne, PL, XXXVIII, 425-26, cf. 425: "Noli ex omni parte horrere
4. A. Grabar,"El1mentssassanides et islamiques dans les enluminuresdes serpentem ... habet quod oderis, habet quod imiteris."
manuscritsespagnols du haut moyen age," in Arte delprimo millennio, 22. Henkel, Studien, 36-37, 144.
ed. E. Arslan (Turin, 1951), 312-19; cf. 314, P1.CLXIX. The fragment
23. Ed. Migne, PL, CXV: Memorialis Sanctorum,I, 5, 742D (Matt. 10:22);
does not appear to be reproducedin R. W. Hamilton, Khirbat al Maf-
I, 5, 743AB; I, 21, 755BC, 756AB (Matt. 10:16); DocumentumMartyr-
jar: An Arabian Mansion in the Jordan Valley, with a contributionby
iale, 3, 823C (Matt. 10:28); 17, 829C (Matt. 10:39); De Vitaetpassione
O. Grabar(Oxford, 1959).
SS. virginum Florae et Mariae, 5, 837A (Matt. 10:32-33); Epistolae,
5. A pertinent example is the Pamplona Casket of 1004/5: Al-Andalus: III, 8, 848D-849A (Matt. 10:40-41); Liber apologeticus martyrum,2,
TheArt of Islamic Spain, ed. J. D. Dodds (New York, 1992), 198-200, 853C (Matt. 10:40-41); 5, 854D (Matt. 10:22); 5, 855A (Matt. 10:39);
with bibliography. 6, 856B (Matt. 10:7-8); 9, 857A (Matt. 10:39); 10, 857B (Matt. 10:22);
6. Grabar,"El1ments,"319, n. 10, citing the fresco at Qasral-Hairal-Garbi 24, 864C (Matt. 10:28).
(K. A. C. Creswell, Early Muslim Architecture, Umayyads,A.D. 622- 24. Memorialis Sanctorum, I, 21, ed. Migne, PL, CXV, 755BC: "Cuius
750, 2nd ed. [Oxford, 1969], I, part 2, P1. 91). praecepti sensum hunc esse arbitror quod immista gentibus caterva
7. Grabar,"El6ments,"314, 319. fideli, quasi innocentia praedita ovium, truculentiamferre cogetur lu-
porum. Ac ne segnitiei dediti facilius versutiis succumberent inimici,
8. O. K. Werckmeister,"Islamische Formenin spanischenMiniaturendes
congrue divinitus admonentur,ut essent cum adversariis fidei oppor-
10. Jahrhundertsund das Problem der mozarabischen Buchmalerei," tuna semper cautela subnixi, et contra astutias hostium erecti ubique et
Settimane di Studio del Centro Italiano di Studi sull' Alto Medioevo,
providi."
XII (Spoleto, 1965), 933-67, cf. 941-44.
25. Ibid., 756AB: "Sed et Arnobius... aliquid huic simile in eodem
9. J. Williams, Early Spanish Manuscript Illumination (New York,
psalmo disseruit, dicens: 'Age ergo, et cum pugnantibus pugna...
1977), 99.
Linguae contra te pugnant, quas acuunt haeretici, sicut serpentes; his
10. Neuss, Die Apokalypse, 133-34, with transcriptionof text. et tu esto sicut serpens astutus ...'"
11. Williams, The Illustrated Beatus, II, 59-60. 26. Isidore, Allegoriae, 143, ed. Migne, PL, LXXXIII, 118A: "Herodes,
12. For the uncertain, possibly apocryphal traditions to which this scene qui infantibus necem intulit diaboli formam exprimit, vel gentium,
refers, see W. Neuss, Die katalanische Bibelillustration um die Wende qui, cupientes extinguere nomen Christi de mundo, in caede mar-
des ersten Jahrtausends und die altspanische Buchmalerei (Bonn and tyrum saevierunt."
Leipzig, 1922), 114, n. 41; 135, n. 186; Neuss, Die Apokalypse, 127; 27. Beatus, ed. Romero Pose, I, 658-59.
Williams, The Illustrated Beatus, II, 55.
28. Le Liber Ordinum en usage dans l'dglise wisigothique et mozarabe
13. Werckmeister, "Islamische Formen,"946. d'Espagne du cinquibme au onzieme sikcle, ed. M. F6rotin (Monu-
14. Werckmeister,"Islamische Formen,"P1.2a, b. Berlin, State Museums: menta Ecclesiae Liturgica, V) (Paris, 1904; rpt. Westmead, 1969),
W. Holmqvist, "Zur Herkunft einiger germanischer Figurendarstel- 451, n. 8.
lungen der V61kerwanderungszeit," IPEK: Jahrbuchfiir priihistorische 29. Antifonario visigdtico mozdrabe de la Catedral de Ledn, ed. L. Brou,
und ethnographische Kunst, XII (1938), 78-95, cf. 79, Fig. 1; Wash- J. Vives (Monumenta Hispaniae Sacra, series liturgica, V, 1) (Barce-
ington, D.C., Dumbarton Oaks Collection, No. 39.13: E. Kitzinger, lona, 1959), 124-25; Oracional visigdtico, ed. J. Vives (Monumenta
"The Horse and Lion Tapestryat DumbartonOaks,"Dumbarton Oaks Hispaniae Sacra, series liturgica, I) (Barcelona, 1946), 141-48.
Papers, III (1946), 1-72, cf. 35-36.
30. Beatus, ed. Romero Pose, I, 660: "Non, ut quidam putant, isti sunt in-
15. Neuss, Die Apokalypse, 133: "... audaci impetu in caput adversarii fantes quos Herodes occidit: ... illi enim tantumex tribu luda fuerunt,
furentis adsurgit . . ." isti autem ex omni tribu et gente et lingua."
16. Ibid.: ".... improviso oris sui telo stupentis bestiae cerebrum fodit, et 31. Ibid., 666: "Non, ut aliqui putant, martiressoli sunt, sed omnis eccle-
sic mirae calliditatis ingenio immanem prosternit inimicum." sia: non enim in sanguine suo lavasse dixit stolas, sed in sanguine
17. Physiologus Latinus Versio Y, ed. E J. Carmody(University of Califor- agni, id est, in gratia Dei per Christum ...
nia Publications in Classical Philology, XII, no. 7) (Berkeley, 1941), 32. Primasius, Commentariusin Apocalypsin, II, ed. Migne, PL, LXVIII,
95-134, cf. 110-12. 843C; also copied by Paschasius Radpertus,Expositio in Matthaeum,
18. The Utrecht Psalter in Medieval Art, ed. K. van der Horst, W. Noel, II, 2, ed. Migne, PL, CXX, 142AB.
W. C. M. Wtistefeld (Utrecht, 1996), 190-91, No. 9, with literature.
33. E.g., Paschasius Radpertus, in Matthaeum, 145D-146A.
19. Physiologus, XIII, De Serpente, ed. Carmody, 111-12: "... quando 34. Alvarus of C6rdoba, Indiculus luminosus, 6, ed. Migne, PL, CXXI,
venerit homo et voluerit eum occidere, totum corpus tradit ad penam, 520-21.
caput autem suum custodit. Debemus et nos in tempore temptationis
totum corpus tradere, caput autem custodire, id est Christum non ne- 35. Neuss, Die Apokalypse, 22; G. Men6ndez-Pidal, "Mozdirabes y as-
gantes; sicut fecerunt sancti martyres: Omnis enim caput Christus est turianos en la cultura de la alta Edad Media," Boletin de la Real
[I Cor. 11:3]." Academia de la Historia, CXXXIV (1954), 137-291, cf. 206-7.
106
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