Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-495rp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-11T21:50:02.316Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Divine Kingship and Dynastic Display: The Altar Wall Murals Of St Stephen's Chapel, Westminster

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 April 2011

Emily Howe
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Destroyed by fire in 1834, St Stephen's Chapel at the Palace of Westminster was undoubtedly one of the most opulent and enduringly influential English building programmes of the late thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Focusing on the programme of wall-painting which flanked its high altar, this paper seeks to clarify the royal chapel's importance not only in terms of its stylistic innovation, but as an arena for Edward Ill's kingly image-making. The study explores the ways in which the chapel space was used and the audiences for which its dynastically forward-looking images were intended. Scrutinising the representations of Edward III and his family, and the biblical scenes beneath which they kneel, it tests the hypothesis that the Westminster murals reflected more than just conventional mid-fourteenth-century devotional preoccupations and were, in fact, indicative of the Plantagenet's own Christian ideology of his kingship.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 81 , September 2001 , pp. 259 - 303
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 2001

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alexander, J 1983. ‘Painting and manuscript illumination for royal patrons in the later Middle Ages’, in English Court Culture in the Later Middle Ages (eds Scattergood, V and Sherborne, J), 141–62, LondonGoogle Scholar
Alexander, J and Binski, P 1987. Age of Chivalry, Art in Plantagenet England, 1200–1400, exhibition catalogue, Royal Academy of Arts, LondonGoogle Scholar
Aungier, G (ed) 1844. Chroniques de London, Camden Society (old ser), 28, LondonGoogle Scholar
Beaune, C 1981. ‘Costume et pouvoir en France á la fin du moyen-âge’, Revue des sciences humaines, 183, 125–46Google Scholar
Billot, C 1998. Les Saintes Chapelles royales et princieres, ParisGoogle Scholar
Binski, P 1985. ‘The coronation of the Virgin on the Hastings brass at Elsing, Norfolk’ J Church Monuments Soc, I, 1–9Google Scholar
Binski, P 1986. The Painted Chamber at Westminster, Soc Antiq Lond Occ Pap (new ser), 9, LondonGoogle Scholar
Binski, P 1995a. Westminster Abbey and the Plantagenets: Kingship and the Representation of Power, 1200–1400, New Haven/LondonGoogle Scholar
Binski, P 1995b. ‘The thirteenth-century English altarpiece’, Institutum Romanum Norwegiae: Acta ad Archaeologiam et Artium Historium Pertinentia, 11,47–57Google Scholar
Binski, P 1996. Medieval Death: Ritual and Representation, LondonGoogle Scholar
Binski, P and Park, D 1986. ‘A Ducciesque episode at Ely: the mural decorations of Prior Crauden's chapel’, in England in the Fourteenth Century: Proceedings of the 1985 Harlaxton Symposium (ed Ormrod, W M), 28–41, WoodbridgeGoogle Scholar
Blair, C 1958. European Armour, c 1066 – c 1700, LondonGoogle Scholar
Borenius, T 1943. ‘The cycle of images in the palaces and castles of Henry III’, J Warburg Courtauld Inst, 6, 40–50CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boulton, D 1987. The Knights of the Crown: The Monarchical Orders of Knighthood in Later Medieval Europe, 1325–1520, WoodbridgeGoogle Scholar
Brenk, B 1995. ‘The Sainte-Chapelle as a Capetian political program’, in Artistic Integration in Gothic Buildings (eds Raguin, V C, Brush, K and Draper, P), 195–211, Toronto/LondonGoogle Scholar
Cal Ch Rolls 1916. Calendar of the Charter Rolls, 1341–1417, HMSO, LondonGoogle Scholar
Cal Cl Rolls 1906. Calendar of the Close Rolls, 1349–54, HMSO, LondonGoogle Scholar
Cal Cl Rolls 1922. Calendar of the Close Rolls, 1247–51, HMSO, LondonGoogle Scholar
Cal Pat Rolls 1905. Calendar of the Patent Rolls, 1348–50, HMSO, LondonGoogle Scholar
Cal Pat Rolls 1913. Calendar of the Patent Rolls, 1367–70, HMSO, LondonGoogle Scholar
Cherry, J and Stratford, N 1995. Westminster Kings and the Medieval Palace of Westminster, Brit Mus Occas Pap, 115, LondonGoogle Scholar
Clayton, M 1929. Catalogue of Rubbings of Brasses and Incised Slabs, Victoria and Albert Museum,LondonGoogle Scholar
Coales, J 1987. The Earliest English Brasses: Patronage, Style and Workshops, 1270–1350, LondonGoogle Scholar
Coldstream, N 1991. ‘The commissioning and design of the Eleanor Crosses’, in Eleanor of Castile, 1290–1990. Essays to Commemorate the 700th Anniversary of her death: 28 November 1290 (ed Parsons, D), 55–67, StamfordGoogle Scholar
Colvin, H M (ed) 1963. The History of the King's Works: The Middle Ages, 2 vols, LondonGoogle Scholar
Cook, G 1959. English Collegiate Churches of the Middle Ages, LondonGoogle Scholar
Crossley, P 1988. ‘Medieval architecture and meaning: the limits of iconography’, Burlington Mag, 130, 116–21Google Scholar
Cunnington, C and Cunnington, P 1952. Handbook of Mediaeval English Costume, LondonGoogle Scholar
Donzet, B, Siret, C and Baron, F 1981–2. Les Fastes du Gothique: le siècle de Charles V, exhibition catalogue, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, ParisGoogle Scholar
Dugdale, W 1817–1830. Monasticon Anglicanum, VI (ed Caley, J), LondonGoogle Scholar
Ellis, R (ed) 1978/1981. Catalogue of Seals in the Public Record Office: Personal Seals, 2 vols, LondonGoogle Scholar
Farmer, D 1978. The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Ferguson, G 1955. Signs and Symbols in Christian Art, 2nd edn, LondonGoogle Scholar
French, T W 1971. ‘Observations on some medieval glass in York Minster’, Antiq J, 51, 86–93CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galinou, M 1983. ‘Adam Lee's drawings of St Stephen's Chapel, Westminster: antiquarianism and showmanship in early nineteenth-century London', Trans London Middlesex Archaeol Soc, 34, 231–44Google Scholar
Gauchery, P 1919–1920. ‘Le Palais de due Jean de Berry et la Sainte-Chapelle de Bourges’, Memoires de la Socié des antiquaires du Centre, 39, 37–77Google Scholar
Given-Wilson, C 1986. The Royal Household and the King's Affinity: Service, Politics and Finance in England, 1360–1413, LondonGoogle Scholar
Gordon, D, Monnas, L and Elam, C (eds) 1997. The Regal Image of Richard II and the Wilton Diptych, LondonGoogle Scholar
Grimké-Drayton, T 1915. ‘The east window of Gloucester Cathedral’, Trans Bristol Gloucestershire Archaeol Soc, 38, 69–98Google Scholar
Hacker-Sück, I 1969. ‘La Sainte-Chapelle de Paris et les chapelles palatines du moyen-âge en France’, Cahiers archeologiques, 13, 217–57Google Scholar
Harvey, J 1946. ‘St Stephen's Chapel and the origin of the Perpendicular style’, Burlington Mag, 88., 192–9Google Scholar
Harvey, J 1976. The Black Prince and His Age, Totowa, New JerseyGoogle Scholar
Hastings, M 1955. St Stephen's Chapel and its Place in the Development of Perpendicular Style in England, CambridgeGoogle Scholar
Helbig, J 1961. Les Vitreaux médiévaux conservés en Belgique, 1200–1500: Belgique I, CVMA, BrusselsGoogle Scholar
Heslop, T A 1981. ‘The Virgin Mary's regalia and twelfth-century English seals’, in The Vanishing Past: Studies of Medieval Art, Liturgy and Metrology presented to Christopher Hohler (eds Borg, A and Martindale, A), 53–62, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Hunt, J 1951. The Glass in St Mary's Church, Shrewsbury, ShrewsburyGoogle Scholar
Kerr, J 1985. ‘The east window of Gloucester Cathedral’, in Brit Archaeol Ass Conf Trans 1981, VII: Medieval Art and Architecture at Gloucester and Tewkesbury (eds Heslop, T and Sekules, V), 116–29, LondonGoogle Scholar
Kimple, D and Suckale, R 1990. Architecture gothique en France, 1130–1270, ParisGoogle Scholar
Kingsford, C 1916–1917. ‘Our Lady of the pew: the King's oratory or closet in the Palace of Westminster’, Archaeologia, 68, 1–20CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirsch, E 1991. Five Illuminated Manuscripts of Giangaleazzo Visconti, University Park/LondonGoogle Scholar
Kirschbaum, E and Braunfels, W (eds) 1995 Lexikon der christlichen Ikonographie, I, HerderGoogle Scholar
Köln, Kunsthalle 1972. Rhein und Maas: Kunst und Kultur 800–1400, exhibition catalogue, Kunsthalle, KölnGoogle Scholar
Lindley, P 1986. ‘The imagery of the octagon at Ely’, J Brit Archaeol Ass, 3rd ser, 139, 75–99CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lindley, P 1997. ‘Absolutism and regal image in Ricardian sculpture’, in Gordon et al. (eds), 61–83Google Scholar
Lumby, J (ed) 1882. Ranulph Higden, Polychronicon, VIII, LondonGoogle Scholar
Mackenzie, F 1844. The Architectural Antiquities of the Collegiate Chapel of St Stephen, LondonGoogle Scholar
Mathew, G 1968. The Court of Richard II, LondonGoogle Scholar
Marks, R 1993. Stained Glass in England during the Middle Ages, LondonGoogle Scholar
Marks, R 1998. The Medieval Glass of Northamptonshire, LondonGoogle Scholar
Martindale, A 1994. ‘St Stephen's Chapel, Westminster, and the Italian experience’, in Studies in Medieval Art and Architecture presented to Peter Lasko (eds Buckton, D and Heslop, T A), 102–12, Stroud/New HavenGoogle Scholar
Martindale, A 1995. ‘Altarpieces in Italy in the thirteenth century’, Institutum Romanum Norwegiae: Acta et Archaeologiam et Artium Historium Pertinentia, 11, 37–45Google Scholar
Meiss, M 1978. Painting in Florence and Siena after the Black Death: The Arts, Religion, and Society in the Mid-Fourteenth Century, Princeton, N JGoogle Scholar
Mitchell, S 1997. ‘Richard II: kingship and the cult of saints’, in Gordon, et al. (eds), 115–24Google Scholar
Morgan, N 1995. ‘Western Norwegian panel painting, 1250–1350: problems of dating, styles and workshops’, in Institutum Romanum Norwegiae: Acta et Archaeologiam et Artium Historium Pertinentia, 11, 9–23Google Scholar
Morris, R K 1985. ‘The Architecture of the Earls of Warwick in the fourteenth century’, in England in the Fourteenth Century: Proceedings of the 1985 Harlaxton Symposium, (ed Ormrod, W M), 161–74, WoodbridgeGoogle Scholar
Newton, S M 1980. Costume in the Age of the Black Prince, WoodbridgeGoogle Scholar
Norris, M 1977. Monumental Brasses: The Memorials, 2 vols, LondonGoogle Scholar
Norton, C, Park, D and Binski, P 1987. Dominican Painting in East Anglia: The Thornham Parva Retable and the Musée de Cluny Frontal, WoodbridgeGoogle Scholar
Ormrod, W M 1987a. ‘Edward III and his family’, J Brit Studies, 26, 398–442CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ormrod, W M 1987b. ‘Edward III and the recovery of royal authority in England, 1340–60’, History, 72, 4–19CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ormrod, W M 1989. ‘The personal religion of Edward III’, Speculum, 64, 847–77CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ormrod, W M 1990. The Reign of Edward III: Crown and Political Society in England, 1327–1377, New Haven/LondonGoogle Scholar
Pächt, O and Alexander, J 1973. Illuminated Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, III, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Park, D 1987a. ‘Wall painting’, in Alexander and Binski, 125–30Google Scholar
Park, D 1987b. ‘Form and content', in Norton et al., 33–56Google Scholar
Prestwich, M 1980. The Three Edwards: War and State in England, 1272–1377, LondonGoogle Scholar
Pujmanová, O 1997. ‘Portraits of kings depicted as magi in Bohemian painting’, in Gordon et al. (eds), 247–66Google Scholar
Réau, L 1958. Iconographie de I'art chrétien: I'iconographie des saints, III.i-III.ii, ParisGoogle Scholar
Rees-Jones, S 1990. ‘Early experiments in pigment analysis’, Stud Conserv, 35, 93–101CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, M E 1986. ‘John Carter at St Stephen's Chapel: a romantic turns archaeologist’, in England in the Fourteenth Century: Proceedings of the 1985 Harlaxton Symposium (ed Ormrod, W M), 202–12, WoodbridgeGoogle Scholar
Rosenthal, J T 1972. The Purchase of Paradise: Gift Giving and the Aristocracy, 1307–148$, LondonCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rubin, M 1991. Corpus Christi: The Eucharist in Late Medieval Culture, CambridgeGoogle Scholar
Salzman, L F 1926–7. ‘The glazing of St Stephen's Chapel, Westminster, 1351–2’, J Brit Soc Master Glass-Painters, 1, 14–16, 31–5, 38–41Google Scholar
Sandier, L Freeman 1986. Gothic Manuscripts, 1285–1385: A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, V, 2 vols, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Sandier, L Freeman 1997. ‘The Wilton Diptych and images of devotion in illuminated manuscripts', in Gordon et al. (eds), 137–54Google Scholar
Saul, N 1997. ‘Richard II's ideas of kingship’, in Gordon et al. (eds), 27–32Google Scholar
Schiller, G 1971. The Iconography of Christian Art, I, trans J Seligman, LondonGoogle Scholar
Sherborne, J 1983. ‘Aspects of English court culture in the later fourteenth century’, in English Court Culture in the Later Middle Ages (eds Scattergood, V and Sherborne, J), 1–27, LondonGoogle Scholar
Shorr, D 1946. ‘The iconographie development of the Presentation in the Temple’, Art Bull, 28, 17–32CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simpson, A 1978. ‘The connections between English and Bohemian painting during the second half of the fourteenth century’. Unpublished PhD thesis, Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London (published in 1984 under same title, New York/London)Google Scholar
Smith, J T 1807. Antiquities of Westminster; the Old Palace, St Stephen' Chapel, LondonGoogle Scholar
Stone, L 1972. Sculpture in Britain: The Middle Ages, 2nd edn, HarmondsworthGoogle Scholar
Stubbs, W (ed) 1883. Chronicles of the Reigns of Edward I and Edward II, II, Rolls Series, LondonGoogle Scholar
Topham, J 1795. Some Account of the Collegiate Chapel of St Stephen, Westminster, LondonGoogle Scholar
Tracy, C 1987. English Gothic Choir Stalls, 1200–1400, WoodbridgeGoogle Scholar
Tristram, E W 1955. English Wall Painting of the Fourteenth Century, LondonGoogle Scholar
Twining, E F 1960. A History of the Crown Jewels of Europe, LondonGoogle Scholar
Vale, J 1982. Edward III and Chivalry: Chivalric Society and its Context, 270–1350, WoodbridgeGoogle Scholar
Vallance, A 1947. Greater English Church Screens, LondonGoogle Scholar
Van Geersdaele, P and Goldsworthy, L 1978. ‘The restoration of wall-painting fragments from St Stephen's Chapel, Westminster’, Conservator, 2,9–12Google Scholar
Van Os, H 1984. Sienese Altarpieces, 1215–1460: Form, Content and Function, I, trans M Hoyle, GroningenGoogle Scholar
VCH 1905. The Victoria County History of Buckinghamshire, I, LondonGoogle Scholar
VCH 1907. The Victoria County History of Berkshire, II, LondonGoogle Scholar
VCH 1909. The Victoria History of London, including London within the Bars, Westminster and Southwark, I, LondonGoogle Scholar
VCH 1956. The Victoria County History of Wiltshire, III, LondonGoogle Scholar
Waugh, S L 1991. England in the Reign of Edward III, CambridgeCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, C 1979. ‘The origins of the Perpendicular style and its development to c 1360’. Unpublished PhD thesis, Courtauld Institute of Art, University of LondonGoogle Scholar
Wilson, C 1990. The Gothic Cathedral: The Architecture of the Great Church, 1130–1530, LondonGoogle Scholar