Jean-Claude Lebensztejn
Translation by Chiyori Mizuno
Mauvais lieu

This article treats various aspects of the ceaseless struggle between culture and decorum. It introduces Pietro Aretino's criticism which understood Michelangelo's Last Judgment , in which the saints were also painted nude in the pope's chapel, as ‘out of place' and violating ‘decorum', a criterion that demands suitable expression for subject and place. After discussing the etymology and derivation of the term ‘decorum', which has opposite meanings such as ‘decor' and ‘courtesy', the author explores the long history of decorum as an opposition between two values, namely religious decorum and artistic freedom in art and sacred music. He also follows the destruction of decorum and the sacralization of art after Romanticism, leading up to the renewed struggle with a resurrected decorum after Modernism.

Motokazu Kimata
The Initial D of Psalm 109 and the Formation of the Trinity of Psalm in the 13th Century
A Consideration of Conventions and Artistic Freedom in Christian Iconography

This article proposes a method of iconographic investigation that has the potential to supplement the weaknesses of conventional iconographic research, which consists of tracing formal variations in time and space often by separating an image corresponding to a given theme or subject from its context. This method can also be used to reconstruct thematic as well as formal variations corresponding to a specific context. It focuses on images placed in the initial D of Psalm 109 in psalters produced in England and Northern France from the late twelfth century to late thirteenth century. One outcome of this method is its revision of the theory proposed by B?spflug and Zaluska concerning the process by which the iconography of the Trinity of Psalm was formed. This iconographic pattern would have been formed on the basis of the traditional thematic and formal elements that already existed either in relation to or in this specific context, without needing to pass through contexts other than a psalter. These traditional elements function as the norm for new requests to represent the Trinity, but they also are adapted to these requests.

Toshiharu Nakamura
Rubens’ ‘Judgement of Art’ and Sensuality
Criticism of Depictions of Nudity in the Age of Counter-Reformation

After the Council of Trent, the Catholic Church condemned the lascivious image. Monumental paintings with nude figures, however, enjoyed great popularity in the first half of the seventeenth century. This article examines the relationship between censorship and Rubens. It also considers the circumstances attending the execution and reception of Rubens' Judgement of Paris for the court of Philip IV of Spain, and demonstrates the importance of lifelike nudes for Rubens in light of his admiration for Titian and sense of rivalry with the Venetian master.

Atsushi Miura
Politics and Censorship in Manet's The Execution of Emperor Maximilian

Representing a contemporary tragic event, Manet's The Execution of Emperor Maximilian critiques the Establishment of the Second Empire through its adoption of an expression that deviates from the criteria of history painting. As a consequence it was censored by the government. This article traces the production of five versions (four oil paintings and one lithograph) of the work and examines Manet's process against official prohibition against the display of the final painting (Manheim Museum) and lithograph. We can assume that Manet and his friends, republican and anti-imperialist critics, cooperated in the development of criticism of censorship in the press.

Astushi Omori
National Art or Degenerate Art?
The Fate of German Expressionist Art

During the Weimar era the tolerance on the part of German museums for contemporary art was unrivalled anywhere in the world. In the center of contemporary art was expressionist art, which had been anointed to the status of national art embodying the “Deutschtum” by critics. As places of national education, museums made it their agenda to make expressionist art truly national art. But there was a gap between agenda and reality. For their part the national socialists were divided in their attitude toward expressionist art, viewing it as either national art or degenerate art. This article examines the situation until 1934 when the disunity was resolved and the fate of expressionist art was determined.