Short Description

This project aims to valorize and better comprehend the various elements surrounding the monumental statues of church portals, namely pedestals, canopies and niches. Its analysis will be integrated into four research axes: cultural transfers, relationships between the central representation and that of the margins, the communication potential of the objects (agency), and their strategic arrangement within the composition (display). Based on a corpus constituting over 100 portals located in the Western part of gothic art dissemination (Germany, Belgium, England, France, the Iberian Peninsula and Switzerland), the project will aim to determine the conditions within which technological and formal innovations emerged, and evaluate their local impact and diffusion.

Moreover, it will attempt to understand their significance and their function within the visual message developed on the doorsteps of sacred buildings. The project will create synergies with research concerning the communicative function of religious building portals and will allow for a better understanding of the semiological stakes of sculpted pedestals and microarchitecture canopies.