REPRESENTATION - THE WORD, THE THOUGHT, THE THING

The paper analyzes the implications of the mannikins ("representations ") which were displayed in the funerals of French and English kings si nce the 14th and 15th centuries. These mannikins can be connected to a much longer historical series, showing how, in different cultural con texts, images could act as mediators with the beyond. In medieval Euro pe the status of images, closely connected on one hand to the condemna tion of idolatry, on the other to the veneration of relics, was deeply affected by the crucial role attributed more and more to the eucharis t. The "disenchantement of the images" triggered by this process was a precondition of the deep changes which emerged in the 13th and 14th c enturies both in painting and sculpture.