Sons et Gestes : Ekphrasis des espaces liturgiques

Résumé Fr

The medieval liturgical experience is the result of a dialogue between obvious facts (places, gestures and actors) and a mystery (a quest of the Invisible, the encounter of earth and heaven). All the artistic productions in connection with liturgy intend to translate the contents of this dialogue, to make it obvious and to exalt it. A transfer from imperceptible towards sublime takes place in liturgical art thanks to poetic recourses which put in sign the mystery in order to celebrate the moral and effective impact of rituals. This article deals with some of these poetic modalities in Carolingian liturgical art. Poems, images, and objets are analyzed for their capacities to fix in the material the experience and performance of rituals, and for the means they use to make visible the mystery operating in the church, in the priests’ speech and gestures, in the faithful’s silence, in the movements of the community.