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The article examines the difference between Bauhaus conceptions of modernism and industrial design and Benedictine concepts of symbolism within the context of the architecture of St. John's Abbey Church in Collegeville, Minnesota. Topics discussed are influence of the Benedictine liturgy on the idea of history that is compatible with functionalism, form and symbolism as the language of religious experience central to Benedictine spirituality, and semantics of the sacred in modern architecture.

The survey campaign regarding the fresco in the apse of the Basilica of Santa Maria in Foro Claudio in Ventaroli is situated within the broader surveying programme aimed at building knowledge about and documenting the entire building, which is located in the municipality of Carinola in the Province of Caserta. The building houses some parts of a series of frescoes classified by scholars as "Benedictine-Cassinese art" (twelfth century). In the present contribution, we present the results of a combination of operations to acquire chromatic and geometric/dimensional data regarding the cylindrical portion with the use of a contact spectrophotometer and range-based techniques (laser scanner). The goals include creating a still image of the conservation conditions of this element of the cultural heritage, which will serve as a useful starting point for future investigations aimed at its monitoring and control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This article identifies the corpus of surviving Anglo-Saxon works of art with newly composed Latin verse inscriptions: nineteen paintings and drawings in seven manuscripts, one carved stone, and one engraved portable altar. A significant flourishing of the practice of including verse in works of art is associated with the Benedictine monastic reform movement of the mid-tenth century. The nature of the relationship, both denotative and spatial, between the inscriptions and the images they accompany is explored through the examination of selected representative examples. It is proposed that the Anglo-Saxons understood this poetry to be an essentially written and visual art form, not an oral one, and that, even as the quality of the poetry declined during the course of the late Anglo-Saxon period, the presentation remained sophisticated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reorganization of the Musée des Augustins in Toulouse provides the opportunity for a re-examination of the Passion capitals that were carved for the Benedictine cloister of La Daurade in the first third of the 12th century. Experience of the carvings as they look in their new installation generates reflection on how they might originally have appeared in the cloister; the essential role that miniature architecture plays in providing a realistic "enclosure" for the events of Christ's Passion stimulates speculation about a situation for these disjecta membra that respects this often neglected or underestimated feature of the capitals. The role of the monks as the intended audience for the carvings invites consideration of Benedictine mentalité at the time; attitudes within the monastic community are explored as probable analogues, rather than as sources, for the imagery. From these perspectives, unusual aspects of the iconography, such as the absence of a Crucifixion and the presence of an unprecedented Resurrection, can be understood without reference to the issues of artistic precedent and prototype. Furthermore, the suggestion that the original installation of the La Daurade pieces followed the alternating arrangement of foliate and narrative carvings that exists in the Moissac cloister comes into question. It is argued that the Passion cycle from La Daurade, with its selective emphasis and dramatic coherence originally formed a continuous sequence; seemingly inconsistent features of organization that distinguish this representation enhanced its utility as a model for monastic imitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]