328 THE ART BULLETIN JUNE 1982 VOLUME LXIV NUMBER 2
own entry, however, Nodelman rejects his earlier theory, and
argues instead that the head represents a private individual. Dis-
putes like these enable Roman Portraits: Aspects of Self and
Society to escape a classic pitfall of catalogues that deal with or
include ancient portraiture: that of making identifications based
on insufficient evidence and wishful thinking, which then come
to be taken for granted by other scholars. Wherever there is un-
certainty on the identification of a portrait in this exhibit, the dis-
agreements of Erhart, Fret and Nodelman make that fact abun-
dantly clear. Where all three agree, on the other hand, the
evidence in favor of the identification is generally secure. I would
concur that the identifications of No. 4 as Livia, No. 5 as
Tiberius, No.9 as Plotina, No. 10 as Marcus Aurelius, and No.
13 as Septimius Severus are beyond dispute, while the identifica-
tions of Julius Caesar (No.2) and Plautilla (No. 15) are strongly
justified.
Some of the more problematic and controversial objects in the
exhibit raise questions which the authors were unable to explore
fully within the limited scope of catalogue entries. It is to be
hoped in these cases that more thorough studies will be
forthcoming; and indeed, some of the entries give reason to ex-
pect that such work is in progress. No.6, for example, the head
of some member of the [ulio-Claudian family, prompts a debate
between Erhart and Fret on the one side, who believe that Ger-
manicus is represented, and Nodelman on the other, who argues
that the subject must be Nero Caesar, the son of Germanicus.
The evidence in favor of both possibilities, however, is discussed
only in tantalizingly brief paragraphs.
Nodelman's suggestion that the subject of this head can be
identified with a figure on the Grand Camee de France raises far
more problems than it solves, since the cameo, like all Julio-
Claudian monuments which carry a heavy load of political sym-
bolism, is subject to as many interpretations as there are scholars
who have studied it. A far more wide-ranging study of Julio-
Claudian portraiture and monuments is needed if Nodelman is to
justify his interpretations both of the Getty head and of the
figures on the great cameo. Space also did not allow the authors
to discuss other possible identifications which they presumably
reject, including Cermanicus's other sons, Caesar Drusus and
Caligula- (identifications that Frel mentions in passing but does
not discuss), or another Nero in youth - not the son of Ger-
manicus, but the emperor. Helga von Heintze has proposed that
a replica of the same type in Schloss Fasanerie represents the
2The identification as Caligula is proposed by Cornelius Vermeule and
N. Neuerburg, Catalogue of the Ancient Art in the ]. Paul Getty
Museum, Malibu, 1973, 27, No. 57. A noncommital suggestion that the
portrait represents "one of the sons of Germanicus" was made by ]iH
Frel, Greek and Roman Portraits in the]. Paul Getty Museum, exh. cat.,
California State University at Northridge, 1975, 21, No. 20.
JHelga von Heintze, Die antiken Portriits in Schloss Fasanerie bei Fulda,
Mainz am Rhein, 1968.37-39,101, No. 26; pis. 44,45,118 a and b. For a
discussion of the type and a list of extant replicas, see Klaus Fittschen,
Katalog der antiken Skulpturen in Schloss Erbach, Berlin, 1977, 53, un-
der No. 16.
• Cleveland Museum of Art, 52.260, marble portrait head, h. 1414"
(38.1cm). Published by Sherman E. Lee, "A Roman Imperial Portrait of
Lucius Verus," Cleveland Museum of Art Bulletin XL, 1953, 47-50; Cor-
nelius C. Vermeule, "Greek and Roman Portraits in North American
Collections Open to the Public," Proceedings of the American
Philosophical Society, CVIll, 2, 1964, 104; Michael Milkovich, Roman
Portraits: A Loan Exhibition of Roman Sculpture and Coins from the
First Century B.C. Through the Fourth Century A.D., exh. cat.,
Worcester Art Museum, 1961, 54, No. 23.; Handbook of the Cleveland
Museum of Art, Cleveland, 1978, 29.
young Nero.> a suggestion sufficiently plausible to merit further
discussion.
In another case, an exquisite portrait of a Negroid boy (No.
12), Nodelman rightly points out the close technical parallels be-
tween this work and the so-called "Lucius Verus" portrait- in the
Cleveland Museum of Art, for which he clearly has some theory
as to identification and date. In the catalogue entry, however, he
states only that he believes the Cleveland head to be datable to
A.D. 193. The sketchy nature of some of these discussions, im-
posed by the catalogue format, would be less troublesome if the
documentation were more complete. But there are no footnotes,
and one finds only a few abbreviated references to other sources
in the text. The bibliography at the end of the catalogue lists only
those works cited in the text, though it is clear from some of the
issues discussed in the entries that many more works must have
been consulted. Readers interested in pursuing the issues further
or in locating reproductions of portraits which the authors cite as
parallels for those in the exhibit must track down the relevant
literature on their own.
To be sure, all exhibition catalogues are produced under the
pressure of a deadline, and could generally benefit from better
editing. Still, the inclusion at least of a list of references at the
end of each entry would have facilitated the use of this book by
the scholarly readers at whom most of the discussions in the en-
tries are clearly aimed. This minor problem, however, is out-
weighed by the advantage of having so many of the portraits in
the Getty collection simultaneously made available and discussed
from such a variety of perspectives. One hopes that the format of
Roman Portraits: Aspects of Self and Society will inspire similar
experiments in the future. Exhibits of this type can be far more
productive as a springboard for debate than those which serve as
a vehicle for only one set of opinions.
SUSAN WOOD
Fogg Museum, Harvard University
Cambridge, MA 02138
RAINER KAHSNITZ, Der Werdener Psalter in Berlin Ms. theol.
lat. fol. 358. Eine llniersuchung zu Problemen mittel-
alterlieher Psalterillustration (Beitrage zu den Bau- und
Kunstdenkmalern im Rheinland, XXIV), Dusseldorf,
Schwarm, 1979. Pp. 287; 1 color, 411 black-and-white ills.
DM 72
The manuscript in the Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kultur-
besitz, Berlin (MS theol. lat. fol. 358) that is the subject of this
book is an 11th-century Psalter from the Abbey of Werden in the
Ruhr. It is a book of comparatively small format with a copious
decoration of initials painted in body color, silver, and gold, and
several larger compositions occupying an entire page at the
beginning of the major subdivisions of the text. The work is one
of a number of finely illuminated Psalters produced in the areas
of the Channel Coast, the Mosan region, and northwest Ger-
many in this period. Some of these figure prominently in Dr.
Kahsnitz's analysis: the Stavelot Psalter of the end of the 10th
century in London (British Library, Add. 18043), the Psalter of
Abbot Odbert of St.-Bertin (Boulogne-sur-Mer, Bibl, Mun., MS
20), the later Psalters of Waulsort or Hastiere in Munich
(Bayerische Staatsbibl., Clm. 13067), Soignies in Hainaut (Leip-
zig, Universitatsbibl., MS 744), and a manuscript from St. Simeon
in Trier which Albert Boeckler considered to be another product
of the Werden scriptorium (Trier, Stadtbibliothek, MS 14).
Before summarizing the substance of Kahsnitz's findings, one
peculiarity surrounding the appearance of his book should be

mentioned. As he explains in a concluding afterword, Kahsnitz's
research on the Werden Psalter was initially undertaken as a doc-
toral dissertation accepted by the University of Bonn in 1971. In
1978, a full-color facsimile edition of the manuscript was
published in the Codices Selecti series of the Akademische
Druck und Verlagsanstalt in Graz.! It was supplemented in the
following year by a slim commentary volume from the pen of
another author, Hermann Knaus, a former head of the Staats-
bibliothek in Berlin who had already written a review of the Graz
facsirnile.? The preface of the volume by Knaus speaks of the
need "to undertake this effort at the last minute after a long-
planned art-historical commentary by another writer could not,
for many and various reasons, be carried out" (pp. 9-10).
Otherwise, Knaus makes no specific reference to Kahsnitz's
study, and Kahsnitz does not appear to have been informed of
Knaus's thoughts.
Such a state of affairs may be odd, but it is not without some
advantages since it enables the interested reader to compare the
two different arguments, and where there is disagreement, it
forces him to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each
position. On several critical points, the two authors are in sub-
stantial accord. For the dating of the manuscript, they accept as
the upper limit the prominent obituary in the partially preserved
calendar at the end of the work of the Werden abbot Henry
(Hethanricus), who died in 1029. The calendar also contains a
number of later additions consisting of the names of members of
the family of Saint Liudgerus, the Frisian missionary venerated
as the founder of the monastic community of Werden. Under
Abbot Gero (1050-1063), the old crypt of the conventual church
was replaced by a new construction, dedicated in 1059, which
was designed to memorialize these same Liudgeriden by means of
new tombs with elaborate inscriptions. It has occurred to
Kahsnitz and to Knaus that the calendrical additions were made
in connection with the institution of this commemoration. The
body of the manuscript, already complete at this time, must
therefore have been executed approximately within the decades
from 1030 to 1050. Both scholars consider to be a later addition
the partly eroded entry of Abbot Adalwig (d. 1081) and they re-
ject the argument in favor of a late 11th-century date which
Boeckler and some students after him had based upon it.
The Werden Psalter follows the Roman version of the Psalms
(Psalterium Romanum) and not the Gallican type nearly uni-
versally adopted on the Continent from the Carolingian period
onward. Since it was the Gallican version that was used in the
monastic liturgy, it would seem that our manuscript was ex-
cluded from such employ. One must assume that there was a
special reason for the surely deliberate choice made by the scribe
or the guiding spirit behind the work. Kahsnitz speculates that
the Psalter was initially commissioned as a gift, intended for an
unnamed pope. Knaus's equally hypothetical intended recipient
is the Abbess Sophie of the nearby nunnery at Essen, a daughter
of the Emperor Otto II, who died in 1039. That is the date which
Knaus assigns to the manuscript.
The evidence set forth in great detail by Kahsnitz leaves little
doubt that the basic source of inspiration for the Werden Psalter
came from Anglo-Saxon England. In contrast to the Continent,
the Roman version had remained well implanted there until at
least the early years of the 11th century. In England, moreover,
the particular subdivision of the text found in the Werden
manuscript was also predominant. This is the four-part scheme
with emphasis on Psalms 1, 51, 101, and 109. In the Werden
Psalter, the pictorial program consists of an illustration followed
by a decorative treatment of the initial and of the opening words
for each of the four Psalms in question. Psalm 1 is preceded by a
BOOK REVIEWS 329
painting in two tiers showing David enthroned, accompanied by
scribes, musicians, and acrobats. As both Knaus and Kahsnitz
have observed, it seems to draw for the design of the upper part
of the composition on a celebrated relic of late antique ivory carv-
ing preserved at Werden, the consular diptych of Probianus,
whose leaves still decorate the book shrine of another precious
Werden manuscript, the Life of Saint Liudgerus in Berlin
(Staatsbibl. theol. lat. fol. 323). The painting before Psalm 51,
now missing, perhaps depicted the Crucifixion, while Psalm 101
is introduced by an image of Christ treading submissive beasts
underfoot. Psalm 109 is exceptional in presenting two distinct
compositions, the seated Lord flanked by seraphs and scenes of
the life of David (recto), and a smaller miniature set into the up-
per right corner of a larger framed panel, which shows the Lord
with a pair of angels, and below, a seated king and a kneeling
haloed figure with an unfurled scroll (verso). Kahsnitz identifies
these figures as David and the prophet Daniel, while Knaus sees
here the representation of a historical event, Saint Liudgerus in-
vested by the Emperor Charlemagne with the imperial diploma
by which he was named bishop of Munster. In the absence of
more specific evidence for identification, the context makes
Kahsnitz's purely biblical interpretation the more probable.
Taken as a whole, the cycle most nearly duplicates the scheme of
illustration of a Psalter in Cambridge, datable in the years 1030-
1050, which is believed to come from Winchcombe in
Gloucestershire (Cambridge, University Library, MS Ff. I. 23).
Judging from the material evidence that has survived, an un-
avoidable if always risky thing to do, there does not seem to have
been sustained scriptorial activity at Werden before the second
quarter of the 11th century. The manuscripts that may be used to
document the qualities of local painting all date from the ensuing
time, or so it would appear: the Psalter in Trier and the Vita S.
Liudgeri already mentioned, the Gospels of the Werden abbot
Rudolf (1104-1112) in Chantilly (Musee Conde, MS 16), and the
qualitatively more modest little Gospel Book in Baltimore
(Walters Art Gallery, MS 5). Of these works, only the Trier
manuscript shows a marked resemblance to the Psalter in Berlin,
particularly in the initials. A search for the roots and parallels of
the style of the illumination of the Werden Psalter thus
necessarily leads beyond the confines of the abbey. Kahsnitz
believes that the major impulse in the formation of this style
came from Fulda or Fulda-inspired book illumination. This is an
argument supported by the Fulda origin of several 11th-century
abbots of Werden. Besides this Fulda component, the Werden
painters were affected in a significant way by works from Mosan
and Channel Coast centers, themselves often indirect vehicles of
English influence. The paintings in the Psalter also exhibit some
connections with the contemporaneous illumination of Essen, as
it is exemplified in the Gospels of the Abbess Theophanu (Essen,
Munsterschatz). On the other hand, the Werden painters were
unaffected by the major developments of Ottonian painting in
Cologne, not far to the south.
Kahsnitz's study of the Werden Psalter is an important piece
of work. The author has diligently pursued every avenue of
research open to him, and his information is remarkably full and
I Werdener Psalter aus dem Besitz der Staatsbibliothek Preussischer
Kulturbesitz (Codices Selecti, LXIII). Graz, 1978.
1Borsenblatt fur den deutschen Buchhandel, xxxv, 46, 1979, Beilage.
Buchhandelsgeschichte, Ser. 2, No.2, 95.
330 THE ART BULLETIN JUNE 1982 VOLUME LXIV NUMBER 2
secure.> His book, which includes a very large complement of
black-and-white illustrations, has been handsomely produced.
The work does retain certain features of an academic dissertation
that are surely familiar to readers of these pages and that are not
lightly blasphemed. For the study of an ensemble of paintings
whose quality the author himself is rightly at pains not to over-
praise (p. 263), it is a long book, which at times strains the defini-
tion of a monograph and threatens to become a general history of
early medieval Psalter illustration. When, for example, Kahsnitz
explains that the Werden Psalter has no tituli, but nonetheless
goes on to discuss this common feature of medieval psalters, has
not Grundlichkeit gone too far (pp. 116-17)7 But this is a minor
complaint, which does not materially diminish the merit and
value of the author's accomplishment.
WALTER CAHN
Yale University
New Haven, CT 06520
3 I have detected only a few small factual errors or slips of the pen: the
abbot of Citeaux, Stephen Harding, had been a monk of Sherborne, not
of Shaftesbury (p. 188); the Psalter in Cambridge, SI. John's College, MS
B. 18, is thought to have been written for a church in Reims or possibly
for one of its dependencies in England, but not likely "in einem
englischen Kloster der Gegend von Reims" (pp. 157, 188); the Arenberg
Gospels in the Pierpont Morgan Library (M. 869) is called a Gospel Book
(p. 166) and a Missal (p. 277 and fig. 267). On the manuscripts of Odbert
(147, n. 177), there is an unpublished thesis from the University of Lon-
don by Claire Kelleher.
JEAN BONY, The English Decorated Style: Gothic Architec-
ture Transformed, 1250-1350 (The Wrightsman Lectures,
x), Ithaca, N. Y., Cornell University Press, 1979. Pp. 315;
398 ills., 11 text figs., 2 maps. $32.50
Any impression gained from the title that this book is a detailed
study of a period in the history of provincial Gothic must be dis-
pelled immediately. The subtitle, "Gothic Architecture Trans-
formed 1250-1350," gives a more accurate indication of the
author's main thesis, that in the last quarter of the 13th century
the course of Gothic architecture was altered within a few
decades by a shift in artistic inventiveness that transferred the
position of leadership from northern France, which had held it
for generations, to England, so that "Europe was beginning to
turn towards London, Bristol or York for novel and rewarding
suggestions". Representing "a swing in artistic sensibility
towards new rhythms and textures, towards new types of
networks," English Decorated is seen as the more influential of
the two main sources of late Gothic, the other being the "wide
open, austere spaciousness which was developing in mediterra-
nean countries ... supported by the Mendicant Orders and dif-
fused by them." The inventiveness and originality of the
Decorated Style have long been championed by Pevsner and
others, but these far-reaching claims by such a highly respected
scholar make a provocative and stimulating contribution to the
literature of medieval architecture.
The book is the text of the Wrightsman Lectures, delivered in
1969 and published, according to the preface, with only oc-
casional changes. The writing is masterly: succinct and eminent-
ly readable. A wealth of material and persuasive argument is en-
compassed within just 69 pages, to which have been added 20
pages of notes, consisting mainly of bibliographical references.
Although modestly priced, the book has annoying shortcomings
in its production. The layout of the text is ungainly and the
arrangement of the notes and the plates makes reading difficult.
The large number of plates was clearly chosen to provide the
visual evidence essential to the author's argument, with an il-
lustration of almost every work mentioned, but the generosity is
marred by the poor quality of the printing, which renders many
of the photographs useless. Although the collection of plates is
extremely useful, it does not adequately convey the ravishing
visual effects of the Decorated Style, and it is to the author's
credit that these are captured more effectively by his imaginative
writing.
With so much recent literature on Gothic architecture concen-
trating on the minutiae of individual buildings, it is refreshing to
read a wide-ranging thesis that arranges the monuments within
broad conceptual patterns, which the author discerns and com-
municates with enviable clarity. This breadth of vision derives
from Bony's extensive, perhaps unrivaled, knowledge of
medieval architecture throughout Europe and from his sen-
sitivity to the subtle but significant changes of vocabulary and
syntax in the language of Gothic. Indeed, the author's primary
concern is with formal evolution, as may be seen from the titles
of the chapters: "The Impact of the Rayonnant Style in Gothic
England," "Court Style and Regional Centres," "The Ogee Arch
and the Decorated Vocabulary," "The New Feeling for Space,
Linear Patterns and Networks," and "The Decorated Style in the
History of Gothic Architecture." The conceptual patterns un-
derlying this arrangement are persuasively and, on occasions,
brilliantly argued, although the neatness and clarity of these pat-
terns can be at once illuminating and misleading, as Bony himself
admits. The insights gained by perceptive analysis and by the
imaginative juxtaposition of monuments must be weighed
against the danger of distorting the diversity and complexity of