| Summary: | This article looks over Meyer Schapiro's distinction between art as an aesthetic object ("object for the eye") and art as a "vehicle of doctrine". More precisely, it examines a XIIth century ivory triptych (currently at the Museo Nazionale del Bargello in Florence), where on one side Christ bombarded the animals and on the other St Michael killed the Demon. According to his analysis of the paradigm of the evil eye in medieval art, as a protection against the "desire of the eyes", the author proposes that this paradigm is based on a reflexive interaction between the two models presented by Schapiro and concludes by saying that "to look at Romanesque art is a psychomachia, a battle for the soul of the spectator".
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