Villard de Honnecourt and Invention

This paper suggests that some of the drawings in the celebrated portfolio of Villard de Honnecourt shed light on medieval notions of the difficulty, as well as the ease, of invention. Frequently, Villard’s drawings are seen as disconnected ‘studies’, but it is argued here that in some cases their relationships are thoughtful, and may be understood by reference, rhetorical in origin, to wrestling as a metaphor for intellectual or artistic struggle. Though artistic invention was not discussed in the Middle Ages as much as it was in the Renaissance, it is suggested that Villard’s use of the imagery of fierce action belongs to a phase of heroic attainment in Gothic architecture particularly, in northern France around 1200.