This volume dedicated to the art, architecture and archeology of Anjou is a well coordinated selection of works, as all the volumes of the Conference Transactions published by the British Archaeological Association usually are. It covers a heterogenous sample of diverse aspects of medieval material culture of Anjou during the centuries of romanesque and early gothic, such as urbanism, the history of construction, civil architecture, religious architecture, sculpture, other architectonic materials like stained-glass, pavements and, finally, wall-painting. I must indicate, nevertheless, that there is a notable greater weight of the studies on architecture with respect to other artistic manifestations, like wall-painting or the art of the miniature, of which, in addition, I believe that the most shining moment in Anjou has not been chosen. In fact, the painting studied here by Christian Davy ("Peinture murale angevine au treizième siècle"), though he is a good pictorial scholar, is not the most interesting nor the most outstanding of the area, and in addition, to a large extent, is not even considered to be of the 13th century.
In the same way, I miss generic visions on the treated subjects. I believe that the studies gathered in the book are too concrete, without adequately justifying the focus of this volume of scientific studies on medieval Anjou. This problem does not apply to the more general works on military architecture, in the case of Annie Renoux ("Between Anjou, Ile-of-France et Normandie: les donjons du comté du Maine du dixième au début du treizième siècle"), and of Mary Whiteley ("The Château of the Dukes of Anjou at Saumur, 1360-1480"). Also, the work of François Comte on the birth and development of the urban possessions of the ecclesiastical institutions of medieval Angers is very interesting ("Le territoire d'Angers du dixième au treizième siècle: naissance des bourgs et faubourgs monastiques et canoniaux"). In fact, the author is a good connoisseur of the architecture of the cathedral chapters and the functionality of their architectonic spaces, as shown in other works of special interest.[[1]]
On the other hand, the volume presents an important conceptual problem. In our day, political questions or simply questions of organization tend to force the historian to accept contemporary territorial divisions facing our study of the past. In this way, medieval Anjou must not be studied from the geographical perspective of contemporary Anjou. I believe that it is materially impossible to study the vaults of Anjou without talking about or treating--albeit partially--other buildings of the near surroundings like the cathedral of Saint-Pierre of Poitiers and other buildings of Poitou and Aquitaine. The question is solved in the interesting article by Lawrence Hoey ("An Outsider Looks at Angevin Gothic Architecture"), where the problem of Angevin Gothic Architecture is studied with greater opening of horizons and, mainly, like an architectonic experience that surpasses the present geographic patterns.
In the same manner, the architecture of Anjou--mainly in some of its more outstanding aspects, such as the vaults--cannot be studied without a lengthy analysis of the restorations which have been done since the 19th century. This lack of perspective can be seen in the work by Alexandrina Buchanan about the domical vaults, where the important role that the history of the architectonic restorations had in the historiographic conception of this type of vaults is not considered ("An Entente Cordiale? The Anglo-French Historiography of the Domical Vaults of Anjou").
Other articles included in the volume are, in my view, too formalistic. In the case of the work by Jacques Mallet about the single vessel in Angevin religious architecture, the suggestive title and little explained subject are reduced to the formal analysis of the cathedral of Angers, without adding new features to the previous works on the matter,[[2]] and without considering such important subjects as the functional explanation of this type of building. On the other hand, both studies dedicated to the architecture and the sculpture of the abbey of Ronceray do not go beyond the positivistic frontier. However, in the case of the article by Malcom Thurlby on the architecture of the abbey ("The Romanesque Abbey Church of the Ronceray"), I think that the examples used as comparative elements are superior from a chronological point of view.
In my opinion, we may not use Roman or late antiquity examples--like the ampitheatre of Nîmes, the cryptoportico of Arles or the Aula Palatina of Trier--to draft the architectonic elements of a simple romanesque barrel-vault structure such as the one of the church of Ronceray. In fact, one can find parallel examples in architecture geographically and chronologically nearer to Ronceray and not in cases so far away in time and space. Something similar happens with respect to the transverse arches of its vault. A bad reading of their construction makes the author of the article consider them to be of horseshoe shape, when in fact their strange shape is just a building problem and not an architectonic style caracteristic. Of course, the completely romanesque elements from Ronceray cannot be considered possible direct descendants of Carolingian or early Catalan romanesque architecture, like Saint-Germigny-des-Prés and Saint-Michel-of-Cuxa. Evidently, the architectonic experience until 1119 (date of consecration of the high altar of Ronceray) was much too wide-ranging and diverse to consider it the direct descendant of these masterpieces of the early European Middle Ages.
Continuing with the sculpture of Ronceray, the study by Maylis Bayle also looks for quite surprising parallels to relate to the vegetal capitals of the French abbey ("La sculpture du Ronceray d'Angers: un jalon majeur of l'art du onzième siècle"). In fact, the author mentions the sculpture of the so called Architecture of "Repoblación" in the Kingdom of León (Spain) during the 10th Century, that is to say, the well-known Mozarabe architecture. This bizarre conclusion is based on a series of studies by F. García-Romo, published in several Spanish magazines during the fifties. In these articles, F. García-Romo looked for possible Spanish 10th century influences in French romanesque sculpture. Time and science have demonstrated that these influences never existed and, therefore, to look for them nowadays seems a little anachronistic. On the contrary, the article by Ron Baxter on the West Portal of Angers Cathedral ("The West Portal of Angers Cathedral") considers the logical and also evident stylistic and chronological parallels on the matter. John McNeill's study of the sculpture of the Cloister of Saint-Aubin at Angers is interesting ("The East Cloister Walk of Saint-Aubin at Angers: Sculpture and Archaeology"). This detailed stylistic study of the sculpture has been completed recently with the article by Eric Palazzo on the iconography of the chapter room at Angers.[[3]] Now, the formalistic vision as much as the iconology of the monastic ensemble has been completed. The studies by Alexandra Gajewski on the world of Cistercian architecture at Anjou ("Twelfth-Century Cistercian Architecture in Greater Anjou") and by Lindy Grant on the architectural patronage of the counts of Anjou during the 12th century ("Aspects of the Architectural Patronage of the Family of the Counts of Anjou in the Twelfth Century"), respectively, are also suggestive. Both studies are based on a good knowledge of the medieval founders and patrons and their intentions.
To sum up, the volume of the British Archaeological Association dedicated to Anjou has a lack of generic studies about the area. In the same way, I think that the set of studies is of an excessively positivistic slant, based on the analysis of form and, except for remarkable exceptions, forgetting the historical, liturgical and social context of medieval Anjou.
[[1]] Comte, F. and Galinie, H., "Le lieux d'inhumation dans les quartiers canoniaux, des origines au XVIIIe siècle", in Les chanoines dans la ville. Recherches sur la topographie des quartiers canoniaux en France, ed. J.-Ch. Picard, Paris, 1994, pp. 61-70.
[[2]] Crozet, R., "L'église abbatiale de Fontevraud et ses rapports avec les églises à coupoles d'Aquitaine et avec les églises de la Loire", Annales du Midi, XLXVII (1936), pp. 113-150; Mussat, A., Le style gothique de l'Ouest de la France, Paris, 1963, pp. 177-190; Mallet, J., L'art roman de l'ancien Anjou, Paris, 1984.
[[3]] Palazzo, E., "Exégèse, liturgie et politique dans l'iconographie du cloître de Saint-Aubin d'Angers", in Die mittelalterliche Kreuzgang/ The medieval Cloister/Le cloître au Moyen Âge, ed. P. K. Klein, Regensburg, 2004, pp. 220-240.