Book Series Architectural Crossroads, vol. 13

Paths to the Past

On the Conception of Medieval Architecture and Other Essays

Wolfgang Schenkluhn

  • Pages: approx. 160 p.
  • Size:216 x 280 mm
  • Illustrations:34 b/w, 32 col.
  • Language(s):English
  • Publication Year:2026


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This selected essays volume includes all of Wolfgang Schenkluhn's important works on the history of medieval church architecture.

BIO

Wolfgang Schenkluhn, Professor Emeritus of Art History at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, researches and publishes mainly on the architecture and art of the Middle Ages. He initiated the inventory projects for the cathedrals in Magdeburg and Naumburg and headed the research group for the Magdeburg cathedral square and cathedral excavations. Schenkluhn was chairman of the Monument Council in Saxony-Anhalt for twenty years and Director of the European Romanesque Center Research Institute in Merseburg. Today, Schenkluhn lives and works in Halle and Berlin.

Summary

This selected essays volume includes all of Wolfgang Schenkluhn's important works on the history of medieval church architecture. They reflect and evaluate the fundamentals of building analysis and focus on the relationship between innovation and reception in the choice of architectural forms. Some also discuss the time-related handling of historical objects, which raises the question of how to arrive at an adequate understanding of historical art and architecture. Great attention is paid to the theory of quotation, which has been in use since the 1970s. In the works, it is repeatedly placed in relation to the older theories of meaning and examined more closely. The author is one of the few architectural historians to have demonstrated and further developed the scientific value and the various possible applications of the quotation theory using concrete examples from medieval architecture. Thus the essays form a whole, in that the subjects dealt with combine factual, methodological and scientific-historical aspects.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword by Lex Bosman

Introduction
Thoughts on the Concept of Medieval Architecture

I. Copy, Quote, Meaning
Iconography and Iconology of Medieval Architecture  
On the Architectural Copy in the Middle Ages 
On the Concept of Architectural Quotation 
Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism
Monumental Representation of Royalty
Canonization and Church Building 

II. Order Architecture
In Search of Adequacy
Unity and Diversity in Religious Architecture
The Three-Chapel Hall of the Mendicants

III. History of Science
The Invention of the Hall Church in the History of Art
Epochal Thresholds: The Western Portals of Chartres and Saint-Denis
The Naumburg Donor Figure in Photography

IV. Appendix
Publication History 
Bibliography