Mâle, Émile (1862-1954). French art historian. Rejecting the prevailing emphasis on formal analysis and purely descriptive iconography, Mâle explored the sources, subject-matter, and symbolism of art from the Middle Ages to the 17th c., and brought out the moral and spiritual motives underlying its modes of representation and changes in style. In his pioneering work L'Art religieux du XIIIe siècle (1898) he traced the connections between art, literature, religious practices, and secular history, stressing the encyclopedic nature of medieval art and, notably, of the great cathedrals, which ordered and made visible the knowledge and beliefs of the time.
— Rhiannon Goldthorpe
