Images and Daily Life
Axel Bolvig (Copenhagen)
We gathered to discuss various methods and approaches in our research
on medieval daily life. My field of research is concentrated on images –
especially medieval wallpaintings.
I think that history is facing a paradigmatic change by the fast
growing access to huge amounts of images. The written source material
will no Ionger hold the Iead. And consequently quite another image of the
Middle Ages will develop in our minds. Because images form a
significant material to our understanding of medieval daily life I would
like to outline my project shortly: Danish medieval wallpaintings on the
Internet and in a database.
We scan and digitize images of our wall-paintings. We put them
into a database and connect them with an indexing system. That is quite a
normal procedure. The database is open to interdisciplinary approaches
which we have not had time or funding enough to elaborate in a
satisfactory way. But we operate with the possibilities of supplementing
the image base with relevant texts of which, in Denmark, very few have
survived. I am speaking of, e.g., hymns to the Virgin Mary, ballads,
documents related to the decoration of the churches, etc. As our
wallpaintings show a great variety of musical instruments, it would be an
interesting task to supply the database with music played on original
instruments. The base could be supplemented with images of medieval
architectural remains. Groundplans of the churches would be a natural
supplement, and, in the long run, 3-D models too. For the time being we
are connecting the image database with a GIS system, so that you can
highlight the geographic districts, where the subjects of research are
located. As the wallpaintings still are to be found in situ, this is of great
importance. Then, we shall have the opportunity of connecting the images
to the Jandscape: watercouses, soil, villages, estates, archeological sites,
etc.
The electronic revolution has offered possibilities of expanding the
approaches to, e.g., the study of medieval daily Iife – to give our research
wider dimensions. Some of the existing dimensions are realised through
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the access to other databases with medieval material. In this connection I
would like to put forward some proposals.
Images communicate in another way than words – in some ways
images are universal. In other ways, they are very exclusive. Images
break the traditional barrier between different groups of society. Images
question our division of medieval society into elite and popular culture. If
we take a starting-point in Fernand Saussure’s semiological division
Langue/Parole, we see the universal importance of visual communication.
In medieval Catholic society almost the total production of images
relied on the same Langue – which is corresponding to the iconographical
contents. In their way of presenting this common
iconographical Langue artists, sponsors and spectators used their local,
social and periodical Parole – which is corresponding to the artistic
expression and the spectators‘ visual consumption. Many different kinds
of images related to the notion of daily life. Almost all images were part
of the daily production and consumption of visual material.
Consequently, the analytical distinction between Langue/Parole is of
great importance to our understanding of medieval daily life.
As medieval images rely on the same Langue it is natural to skip
national deliminations in our work and in our attempts to create image
databases which often are financially bound to specific demarcations. (I
personally know that, and this is why our image-base still is entitled:
Danish Medieval Wall-paintings). The medieval visual Langue is related
to and used in whole Europe. The visual Parole – which is the artistic
way of expression – does not respect national and political bounderies but
develops in regional and social territories. Parallel to the Parole, daily life
is formed by and connected to social groups and certain regions but not to
national and political spheres. This means that the history we produce
when relying on visual source material will take other forms and contents,
and will be bound to other geographic areas than the history based on
written source material.
I would like to advocate for
1. Creating better possibilities for exchanging digitized source material –
first of all images.
2. Establishing a common web-site with references to all the different
relevant databases. In a long perspective, this should Iead to the
establishment of one common huge database relying on a common
indexing system. But I know that this is an enormous project – which at
least will demand fqnding from the European Union. Perhaps such a
project belongs to the world of imagination rather than reality. But the
idea should be kept alive.
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3. On a lesser scale, I would like to promote a common debate forum for
the many historians working with the broad and rather diffuse subject
„Daily Life in the Middle Ages“. It would be a help and a challenge to
have a kind of electronic magazine where we can consult colleagues,
ask and answer questions, advertise for certain infonnation, put forward
written and visual source material, etc.
4. As an ideal, such proposals could Iead to a kind of virtual university of
„The History ofEveryday Life“ in medieval Europe.
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