Images of Letters.: Writing and Image Making in Western Europe Romanesque Sculpture

International audienceThis article aims to put the notion of “bimediality” in perspective with the visual documentation of the Western Middle Ages, especially with Romanesque sculpture, to show the intellectual and aesthetics implications of the gathering of different types of signs within a single work of art. It starts with two observations: 1) the practice of art has always used visual devices mixing or merging iconic signs with other media (music, singing, letters, dance...) in order to create complex discourses; 2) medieval art is not different in this aspect: writing is everywhere in painting, sculpture, mosaics, stain glasses, etc. This article intends to emphasize the functions and status of epigraphic inscriptions on these materials and their impact on the meaning and effect of images in liturgical or religious contexts. It speculates that the bimedia devices were used during the Middle Ages to make images and what they figure present and active into the visual world