This study brings images of holy motherhood and childbearing into the centre of an art-historical enquiry, showing how images worked not only to script and maintain gender and social roles within patriarchal society but also to offer viewers ways of managing those roles. Some of the manuscripts discussed are relatively unknown and their images and texts are made available to readers for the first time. Through an adaptation of Baxandall’s ‘period eye’, the study considers the many ‘cognitive habits’ acquired by aristocratic lay women – and men – through familiarity with prayers for childbirth, the lying-in ceremony, and the rite of churching. It then uses this methodology to interpret the images and prayers in six bespoke manuscripts, including the Fitzwilliam Hours and the Hours of Marguerite of Foix. The book will appeal to advanced students, academics and researchers of art history, illuminated manuscripts, medieval history and gender studies.
Les mer
Brings images of holy motherhood and childbearing into the centre of an art-historical enquiry. Focuses on miniatures of the birth of the Virgin and the mothers of the Holy Kinship in Books of Hours made for aristocratic women in relation to the dynastic importance of heirs and the material culture of childbearing.
Les mer
List of illustrations List of figures Preface and acknowledgements Family trees of the houses of France, Anjou, Brittany and Burgundy Introduction Part I Gender, agency and the interpretation of material culture 1. The situational eye: viewing, gender and response in the later middle ages 2. De conceptione ad partum: saints, treatises and prayers for successful childbirth 3. The lying-in month and the rite of churching: post-partum rituals and the material culture of childbearing Part II Manuscript case studies from the houses of Anjou, Brittany and France 4. Holy mothers, sainted monarchs and beata stirps: the Fitzwilliam Hours and Books of Hours for the house of Anjou 5. Steriles fecundas fecisti: viewing and reading holy motherhood in the manuscripts of four duchesses of Brittany Conclusion Appendix I: prayer and translation from the Hours of Marguerite of Foix Appendix II: prayer and translation from the Prayer Book of Anne of Brittany Bibliography Index
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This book brings images of holy motherhood and childbearing into the centre of an art-historical enquiry. By focusing on images of St Anne and the Holy Kinship in Books of Hours made for aristocratic women in relation to the dynastic importance of heirs, it reassesses the role of the female viewer as an active agent in the interpretation of pictures and popular devotional rites. Holy motherhood combines an innovative methodology that draws on art-historical and contemporary gender studies with empirical evidence from fifteenth-century manuscripts, to show how images worked not only to script and maintain gender and social roles within patriarchal society but also to offer viewers ways of managing those roles. Some of the manuscripts discussed are relatively unknown and their images and texts are made available to readers for the first time. The study begins by problematising the notion that intimate, post-partum images of holy childbirth found in Books of Hours provide a window onto the medieval past and women's viewing habits. Through an adaptation of Baxadall's 'period eye', the first part of the book explores how aristocratic lay women - and men - viewed and interpreted images of childbirth by considering their familiarity with prayers for childbirth, the lying-in ceremony and the rite of churching. The second part uses this methodology to interpret the images and prayers in six bespoke manuscripts, including the Fitzwilliam Hours, owned by several Angevin and Breton duchesses, and the Hours of Marguerite of Foix. The book will appeal to advanced students, academics and researchers of Art History, Illuminated Manuscripts, Medieval History and Gender Studies.
Les mer
The intersection of gender, social practice, and feminine agency underpins much of this literature. Elizabeth L’Estrange makes an important contribution not only to these debates, but to the fields of medieval art history and manuscript studies.
Les mer

Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9780719087264
Publisert
2012-05-30
Utgiver
Vendor
Manchester University Press
Høyde
216 mm
Bredde
138 mm
Dybde
17 mm
Aldersnivå
UU, 05
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet
Antall sider
304

Biographical note

Elizabeth L'Estrange is a Lecturer in the History of Art at the University of Birmingham