Color of the Middle Ages: A Survey of Medieval Manuscript “Aura”
Kenneth Wahrenberger: 2019 Archival Scholar, University of Pittsburgh
Uta Codex Frick Fine Arts Library facsimile of the Uta Codex, Clm 13601, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek. Author: Karl-Georg Pfändtner, Published: Luzern : Quaternio Verlag, 2012.
What is lost in a reproduction of a medieval manuscript? Renowned twentieth century cultural critic Walter Benjamin argued that a reproduced work of art loses the “aura” of the original, stating: “that which withers in the age of mechanical reproduction is the ‘aura’ of a work of art.” According to Benjamin, ‘aura’ is an inherent quality of a work of art that means it is uniquely present in time and space, and therefore, authentic and authoritative.
If this reasoning were applied to medieval manuscript facsimiles, then they have lost the ‘aura’ of the original artworks through the process of reproduction — that is to say, they have lost the original presence and authority of an authentic work of art. Regardless of the facsimile quality, it cannot deliver the same level of authority as the work of art it attempts to replicate.
Facsimile of Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, courtesy of Facsimile Finder
Yet, to break from Benjamin’s reasoning, I believe ‘aura’ is not a black and white idea; a facsimile is not entirely void of ‘aura.’ Instead, there exists a hierarchical ‘aura’ spectrum. All facsimiles reproduce some ‘aura’ or the original artwork, but some contain more than others. The quality of the photographic reproduction in the facsimile distinguishes the ‘aura’ hierarchy. In other words, the finest color facsimile of the Très Riches Heures contains more ‘aura’ (i.e. authority) than a black and white copy of the same book.
Dr. Carl Nordenfalk
Dr. Carl Nordenfalk acknowledged the spectrum of ‘aura’ in his 1976 exhibition, Color of the Middle Ages, curated at Pitt’s University Art Gallery. Using the facsimile collection of the Frick Fine Arts Library as well as loose single pages loaned from book publishers, Dr. Nordenfalk brought together over four hundred color and black & white facsimile plates of medieval manuscripts. Marching through the centuries of European manuscript production, Nordenfalk arranged an encyclopedic exhibition showing medieval illumination from the seventh century to the beginning of the sixteenth century.
Exhibition Catalog for Color of the Middle Ages (1976)
While every object in the exhibition was fake, the presentation still contained a strong ‘aura’ of the 700 years of artistry it surveyed. Without a single loan from a museum, Dr. Nordenfalk managed to educate the Pitt public on the brilliance of medieval illumination via the spectrum of reproductions that were available to him at the time. Color of the Middle Ages showed that physical facsimiles are not dead (even now in the age of high quality digital reproduction), but rather, they still relay a part of the original ‘aura’ of artworks to audiences that may not have access to authentic art otherwise.