The Castle like image.

Form of representation and symbolism in a Carolingian illumination

Published 2023-06-21
Section Papers

Authors

Keywords:

Castle, Image, Architecture, Iconography, Symbolism

Abstract

Faced with little treatment of the symbolic nature of castle architecture, this paper attempts to review its presence in an image of the 9th century, which represents the eschatological city of Revelation, a book that provided the medieval imagination with the stimulus for the creation of a copious iconography. One of the first testimonies of this iconography in the field of medieval manuscript illumination is the Apocalypse of Trier; in it, the representation of the heavenly Jerusalem, studied by researchers such as Peter Klein, Bianca Kühnel, Michael Embach, Annelen Ottermann, and Richard Emmerson, shows us, through the imagery of the Carolingian illuminist, the symbolic presence of the image of the castle through a schematized representation that constitutes an iconic sign with various connotations.

Author Biography

Fernando Jara Garay, Universidad de Ciencias Aplicadas

Architect, Master of Science with a Mention in Architecture. He has been Director of the Postgraduate Section-UNI, Director of the Research Institute-UNI. He is currently a professor at the UPC in Lima-Peru. Publications: “The architecture of English castles and the historiographical debate. Some theoretical details”. RCEM, n.18 (2020); Interpretation and explanation in the work of Aby Warburg. INIFAUA-UNI Lima, 2006; "Libraries: a reading of the architecture of the 20th century", Waka XXI. no. 5 (2006).

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How to Cite

Jara Garay, F. (2023). The Castle like image. : Form of representation and symbolism in a Carolingian illumination. Revista Chilena De Estudios Medievales, (23), 61–89. Retrieved from http://revistas.ugm.cl/index.php/rcem/article/view/524