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Architectural Iconology
and Visual Culture:
Medieval Monasteries in the
Duchy of Brabant
Thomas Coomans
Architecture, more than any other material source, can contribute to answering
one of the major questions raised by the research centre "Klöster im Hochmit-
telalter": "What visibility and spatial impact did the innovations of religious
communities show?" As historical monumental source, however, architecture
requires a specific approach that combines several different methodologies going
from building archaeology and scientific dating methods to comparative formal
analysis and architectural iconology, complemented with analysis of „external
sources" (visual and written sources) if there are.1 This combined approach aims
to contextualize the architecture and its time-space evolution as a historical
source, and eventually to understand its complex evolving historical meaning.
The shift from Romanesque to Gothic architecture at the turn of the thir-
teenth century generated new iconic buildings that marked the early urban
skylines as well as monastic sites. Old abbeys started to transform their churches
by adopting the 'modernity' of Gothic, whereas others intentionally repro-
duced ancient forms to express their tradition and antiqueness.2 Mendicant
friaries created new architectural concepts that expressed their specific urban
identity and liturgical use and were distinctive from parish churches and other
monastic orders.
The present essay aims at bridging medieval architectural history and monas-
tic visual culture by means of architectural iconology.3 Questions will be raised
1 Luc Francis Genicot, L'architecture, considerations generales (Typologie des sources du
Moyen Age occidental 29), Turnhout 1978.
2 Marvin Trachtenberg, Qu'est-ce que 'le gothique'?, in: Les cahiers de la recherche archi-
tecturale et urbaine 9-10 (2002), pp. 41-52.
3 With all my gratitude to Aart Mekking, professor emeritus from Leiden University, the pio-
neer of architectural iconology in the Low Countries, who introduced me to Günter Band-
and Visual Culture:
Medieval Monasteries in the
Duchy of Brabant
Thomas Coomans
Architecture, more than any other material source, can contribute to answering
one of the major questions raised by the research centre "Klöster im Hochmit-
telalter": "What visibility and spatial impact did the innovations of religious
communities show?" As historical monumental source, however, architecture
requires a specific approach that combines several different methodologies going
from building archaeology and scientific dating methods to comparative formal
analysis and architectural iconology, complemented with analysis of „external
sources" (visual and written sources) if there are.1 This combined approach aims
to contextualize the architecture and its time-space evolution as a historical
source, and eventually to understand its complex evolving historical meaning.
The shift from Romanesque to Gothic architecture at the turn of the thir-
teenth century generated new iconic buildings that marked the early urban
skylines as well as monastic sites. Old abbeys started to transform their churches
by adopting the 'modernity' of Gothic, whereas others intentionally repro-
duced ancient forms to express their tradition and antiqueness.2 Mendicant
friaries created new architectural concepts that expressed their specific urban
identity and liturgical use and were distinctive from parish churches and other
monastic orders.
The present essay aims at bridging medieval architectural history and monas-
tic visual culture by means of architectural iconology.3 Questions will be raised
1 Luc Francis Genicot, L'architecture, considerations generales (Typologie des sources du
Moyen Age occidental 29), Turnhout 1978.
2 Marvin Trachtenberg, Qu'est-ce que 'le gothique'?, in: Les cahiers de la recherche archi-
tecturale et urbaine 9-10 (2002), pp. 41-52.
3 With all my gratitude to Aart Mekking, professor emeritus from Leiden University, the pio-
neer of architectural iconology in the Low Countries, who introduced me to Günter Band-