Monsters, Corporeal Deformities, and Phantasms in the Cloister of St-Michel-de-Cuxa

Abstract

In his celebrated Apologia of 1125, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux questions the purpose of the monstrous and deformed creatures depicted so frequently in Romanesque cloister capitals. Focusing on the cloister of St-Michel-de-Cuxa, this paper explains such images as corporeal manifestations of spiritual deformity. It is argued that these capitals represent the diabolical phantasms described in monastic accounts of dreams. By visualizing the monstrous in the cloister, where the monks devoted so much time to meditation, the Benedictines apparently sought to recall, and purge from the imagination, the diabolical illusions and temptations that impeded their struggle for spiritual perfection.

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