New interpretations of an art form ubiquitious in the Middle Ages. English alabasters played a seminal role in the artistic development of late medieval and early modern Europe. Carvings made of this lustrous white stone were sold throughout England and abroad, and as a result many survived the iconoclasm that destroyed so much else from this period. They are a unique and valuable witness to the material culture of the Middle Ages. This volume incorporates a variety of new approaches to these artefacts, employing methodologies drawn from a number of different disciplines. Its chapters explore a range of key points connected to alabasters: their origins, their general history and their social, cultural, intellectual and devotional contexts.
Author(s): Zuleika Murat (ed.)
Series: Boydell Studies in Medieval Art and Architecture, 16
Publisher: The Boydell Press
Year: 2019
Language: English
Pages: 376
City: Woodbridge
List of Illustrations vii
Acknowledgements xv
List of Contributors xvii
Introduction / Zuleika Murat 1
1. ‘Burton-upon-Trent, not Nottingham.’ The evolving study of medieval English alabaster sculpture / Nigel Ramsay 35
2. Stone to ensure victory and to generate friendships. On the meaning of alabaster / Aleksandra Lipińska 51
3. Contextualising English alabasters in the material culture of the medieval Mediterranean / Luca Palozzi 71
4. English alabaster images as recipients of music in the long fifteenth century: English sacred traditions in a European perspective / Philip Weller and Andrew Kirkman 93
5. Contextualising alabasters in their immersive environment. The ‘ancona d’allabastro di diverse figure’ of the Novalesa abbey: meaning and function / Zuleika Murat 127
6. Alabaster carvings in late-medieval Lincolnshire / Jennifer Alexander 150
7. ‘Tabernacles, howsynges and other things’. Three alabasters from the Burrell Collection in context / Claire Blakey, Rachel King and Michaela Zöschg 173
8. Conservation study of three alabaster carvings from the Burrell Collection, Glasgow Museums / Sophie Philipps with Stephanie de Roemer 194
9. ‘Smooth as monumental alabaster’. The alabaster tomb industry in England 1550–1660 / Jon Bayliss 214
10. Merchants’ tombs in alabaster / Kim Woods 236
11. Exploring Alice: the theological, socio-historical, and anatomical context of the de la Pole cadaver sculpture / Christina Welch 276
Bibliography 296
Index 340
