Nicolas Thomas and Pete Dandridge (eds), Medieval copper, bronze and brass: History, archaeology and archaeometry of the production of brass, bronze and other copper alloy objects in medieval Europe (12th-16th centuries), 2018
A miniature in a Flemish manuscript of c. 1464 may show the impact of gilt copper alloy relief to... more A miniature in a Flemish manuscript of c. 1464 may show the impact of gilt copper alloy relief tomb monuments on contemporary imagination. A decade earlier Philip the Good had commissioned two such monuments: a triple tomb for his great-grandparents Louis of Mâle and Margaret of Brabant and his grandmother Margaret of Flanders in Lille, and a tomb for his great-aunt Joanna of Brabant in Brussels—the latter of stone and wood, however, but made to resemble gilt copper alloy. Other copper alloy monuments were later erected for Philip's daughter-in-law Isabella of Bourbon in Antwerp, his son Charles the Bold and his granddaughter Mary of Burgundy in Bruges, and Mary's husband Maximilian I in Innsbruck. These Burgundian memorials are part of a long tradition of copper alloy monuments that were once found across medieval Europe, starting with the tomb of Rudolph of Rheinfelden († 1080) in Merseburg. Unfortunately our perception of these sumptuous tombs is affected by numerous losses over the centuries, including the triple tomb in Lille and the presumed copper alloy one in Brussels. Thus, the survival of three clusters of medieval royal monuments in England has led to the mistaken belief that the use of "gilt bronze" was a specifically royal preference in England, whereas they were actually exceeded in number by such memorials to the nobility and the clergy. Yet the monument to Prince Afonso in Braga (Portugal) was probably inspired by these English royal tombs. A recently compiled corpus of extant and lost European examples up to 1430 demonstrates their former spread and patrons' choices of material.
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Papers by Sally F Badham
them extremely splendid. Their loss is due to an eighteenth-century re-flooring. In the course of a major programme of works between 1966 and 1973, areas of paving were lifted and the numbered slabs stacked on their edges. This article records and analyses indents among those slabs that had been lifted by the end of July 1967 and a fragment of an inscription brass, never previously published.
monuments. The surviving, but damaged fourteenth-century sculptured monuments to Oliver,
Lord Ingham, and to Sir Roger and Lady Margaret de Boys throw much light on the complexity
of painting technology used for medieval tomb sculpture and the sophistication of the effects thus
obtained. The former is noted for its puzzling imagery, while the latter has unique Trinitarian
iconography relating to an elite parochial guild, of which Sir Roger was a co-founder.
as to their typology and development, but one aspect that has been neglected is the reasons why so many religious artefacts were provided by pious members of church congregations. They sought commemoration not just by erecting tomb monuments but also through many other forms of memoria. This paper, which covers the period c1300–1558, examines the responses of individuals to the doctrine of Purgatory by carrying out good works to improve their chances
of salvation.
them extremely splendid. Their loss is due to an eighteenth-century re-flooring. In the course of a major programme of works between 1966 and 1973, areas of paving were lifted and the numbered slabs stacked on their edges. This article records and analyses indents among those slabs that had been lifted by the end of July 1967 and a fragment of an inscription brass, never previously published.
monuments. The surviving, but damaged fourteenth-century sculptured monuments to Oliver,
Lord Ingham, and to Sir Roger and Lady Margaret de Boys throw much light on the complexity
of painting technology used for medieval tomb sculpture and the sophistication of the effects thus
obtained. The former is noted for its puzzling imagery, while the latter has unique Trinitarian
iconography relating to an elite parochial guild, of which Sir Roger was a co-founder.
as to their typology and development, but one aspect that has been neglected is the reasons why so many religious artefacts were provided by pious members of church congregations. They sought commemoration not just by erecting tomb monuments but also through many other forms of memoria. This paper, which covers the period c1300–1558, examines the responses of individuals to the doctrine of Purgatory by carrying out good works to improve their chances
of salvation.
Our initial survey has now been published in the peer-reviewed journal Church Monuments 30 (2015), pp. 7-105. A second article entitled ‘Copper-alloy tombs in medieval Europe: image, identity and reception’, has been accepted for publication in Jean Plumier and Nicolas Thomas (eds), Medieval copper, bronze and brass, Proceedings of the 2014 Dinant/Namur conference (Turnhout: Brepols, forthcoming).
However, an inventory such as this is never finished so we welcome all new information about examples discussed in our 2015 paper or about new discoveries not yet included there. The work simply continues and may in due course result in a second article, while there is also the possibility of continuing the research into the later fifteenth century to include such examples as the extant monument to Richard Beauchamp, earl of Warwick (d. 1439), or the output of the famous Vischer workshop in Nuremberg.
The contributors have adopted a variety of perspectives. Whereas some espouse an archaeological approach, other essays are art-historical, with excerpts from literary texts providing further comparisons, e.g. a discussion of the Wife of Bath's attitude towards tomb monuments in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.
Several authors use the results of petrological analysis to underpin their conclusions, while drawing links between monumental sculpture and other surviving sculpture of the period, the potential of both of which have not hitherto received sufficient attention. Surface finishes are also discussed. Moreover, full transcriptions and translations are provided of all the known tomb contracts of the period, together with commentaries on the monuments, those commemorated by them, and the craftsmen who made them.
Medieval commemoration and tomb monuments are attracting increased interest from scholars. This corpus of cutting-edge research will shed new light on an aspect of medieval craftsmanship which, for the most part, can be seen only through a glass darkly.
Contents:
Sally Badham & Sophie Oosterwijk Introduction; Sally Badham What Constituted a ‘Workshop’ and How Did Workshops Operate? Some Problems and Questions; Aleksandra McClain Cross Slab Monuments in the Late Middle Ages: Patronage, Production, and Locality in Northern England; Mark Downing Military Effigies in Eastern England: Evidence of a High-Status Workshop of c.1295-1350; Robin Emmerson The Fourteenth-Century Tomb Effigies at Aldworth, Berkshire, and their Relationship to the Figures on the West Screen of Exeter Cathedral; Rhianydd Biebrach Effigial Monuments in Fourteenth-Century Glamorgan: Patronage, Production and Plague; Jane Crease ‘Not Commonly Re-puted or Taken for a Saincte’: the Output of a Northern Workshop in the Late Fourteenth and Early Fifteenth Centuries; Marie Louise Sauerberg, Ray Marchant & Lucy Wrapson The Tester over the Tomb of Edward, the Black Prince: the Splendour of Late-Medieval Polychromy in England; Sally Badham & Sophie Oosterwijk ‘Cest Endenture Fait Parentre’: English Tomb Contracts of the Long Fourteenth Century; Glossary; Bibliography; Index."""