Like his master, Professor Coulton, who relieves the tedium of
mediaeval research by sharp controversy with those who speak too well of the mediaeval Church, Mr. R. E. Swartwout, in The Monastic Craftsman (Cambridge : Hefter, 10s. 6d.) is informing but a shade too argumentative. He sets out to prove that Montalembert was absurdly wrong in suggesting that the churches and monasteries of the middle ages were mainly built and adorned by the monks themselves. He has examined the evidence adduced by Montalembert and later writers, and shows that it is wholly insufficient to support their theory. Monks who were artists were exceptional ; monks who were architects were, of course, extremely rare. But no one who knew anything about the monastic rule in the great age of the Church could have credited the fantasies of Montalembert. The monk's day—and his night, too—was so fully occupied with devotions and necessary tasks that he could have had no time for serious artistic work. The author does not use this very obvious argument against Montalembert's theory. The monastic orders lose nothing by being- deprived of a distinction which they never claimed. It remains true that they were among the leading patrons of art and architec- ture in the period with which Mr. Swartwout deals.
Previous page
