Meyer Schapiro in Silos: Pursuing an iconography of style (Beatus of Liebana, 'In Apocalipsin'

In the article From Mazarabic to Romanesque in Silos, Meyer Schapiro radically reoriented his approach to medieval art. Style remained the focus, but it was converted from the object of formal analysis in which historical forces had little or no role into the visual reflection of the social milieu of its executors. This was a Marxist approach, prepared for by Shapiro's depression-era preoccupation with the issue of socially responsible art. Despite its stylistic matrix, his argument depended on an unprecedented invocation of historical conditions. It is here evaluated, and deflated, through a critique of Shapiro's reading of these conditions.