Fontevrault effigies: portraits?

Moderator: MOD_nyhetsgrupper

Svar
John Parsons

Fontevrault effigies: portraits?

Legg inn av John Parsons » 18 nov 2004 13:01:01

The Fontevrault effigies of Henry II and Richard I were probably
commissioned by Henry's widow and Richard's mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine,
who died in 1204. These two effigies were most likely completed by that
date, within 5 years of Richard's death and 15 years of Henry's death.
Though the effigies convey the impression of majesty and power that was
their intended purpose, they are not reliable portraits. They were almost
certainly created by the same artist or workshop.

Eleanor's effigy at Fontevrault is stylistically different from those of
Henry and Richard; it was created at a slightly later date, after her death
and by a different artist or workshop. She probably left instructions for
its appearance. Her effigy is no more reliable a portrait than are those of
Henry and Richard. Much debate has raged about the book the effigy holds in
its hands, but since the original hands and book were destroyed long ago
there is now no way to tell what the book was intended to represent. (We
know the effigy's original appearance from antiquarian drawings made before
the French Revolution; in the 20th century, the hands and book were restored
in keeping with these drawings. The cast of Eleanor's effigy in the
Victoria and Albert Museum in London was made before the restoration and
shows how badly damaged the hands were.)

The fourth Fontevrault effigy, of John's widow Isabella of Angouleme (d.
1246), was carved in the 1250s. Isabella's son Henry III of England visited
Fontevrault in 1253-54 and ordered his mother's remains moved into the
church from her original resting place in the nuns' cemetery (which was
probably in the chapter house, not outdoors). Her effigy was commissioned
at that time. It is in wood, not the local limestone (*touffeau*) that was
used for the 3 earlier sculptures. As with the 3 earlier effigies,
Isabella's is not a portrait; it was deliberately carved in the then-archaic
style of the earlier effigies so that it would resemble them.

The fifth effigy, badly damaged, is of Henry II and Eleanor's grandson
Raymond VII of Toulouse, who requested burial at his grandparents' feet. It
was uncovered beneath the pavement of the church during the major
restoration of the abbey in the 1960s and 1970s.

See the essays by Elizabeth A.R. Brown and the late Charles T. Wood in
*Eleanor of Aquitaine: Lord and Lady* eds. B. Wheeler and J.C. Parsons (New
York: Palgrave, 2002). Wood brought a very important new perspective to our
understandings of the royal cemetery at Fontevrault with the highly original
and cogent argument that Eleanor intended the necropolis as a monument to
her own family, the counts of Poitou and dukes of Aquitaine, rather than to
the Plantagenet kings of England and dukes of Normandy. Since Fontevrault
stands at the border between Poitou and Anjou, it was a convenient site for
a commemoration of either house. It was the first church in Europe to house
such a collection of royal funeral effigies and most provided Eleanor's
great-grandson, Louis IX of France, with the model for the effigies of his
ancestors that he began to install at St-Denis in the 1260s to trace the
history of the French kingship.

Regards

John P.





From: Jwc1870@aol.com
To: GEN-MEDIEVAL-L@rootsweb.com
Subject: Re: Geoffrey Plantagenet
Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 17:15:41 EST

Dear Leo, Will, et als,
Were the Fontevrault, Normandy effigies
on
the tombs of Kings Henry II and Richard I and Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine
contemporary portraits or done huindreds of years after these monarchs`
decease ?
Sincerely,
James W Cummings
Dixmont, Maine USA

Svar

Gå tilbake til «soc.genealogy.medieval»