Margaret Goehring

Eleanor of Portugal, the widowed queen of Dom Joao II, received a magnificent breviary illuminated by the some of the finest artists in the Southern Netherlands. It is sumptuously decorated on more than one hundred of its folios. Many of the borders in Dona Leonor's Breviary, as in other Ghent-Bruges manuscripts, are strictly ornamental, with no apparent direct thematic or iconographic link to the text or miniature they surround. Further study reveals that even without direct thematic links to the center, many of the borders in the breviary do have a performative value, capable of engaging the viewer at various levels, including the mnemonic, the emblematic and the didactic. Many of the continuous narrative borders in Dona Leonor's Breviary may be linked to the personal interests of the Queen, and were painted by the Maximilian Master himself or in conjunction with the Master of James IV of Scotland. Keywords:Border; breviary; Dom Joao; Dona Leonor; Eleanor of Portugal; Ghent-Bruges manuscripts; Master of James IV; Maximilian Master; Netherlands

sists of direct speech, and Reynard’s ruses are primarily verbal ones); the literary space (recognizable historical locations are used in this otherwise fictitious beast fable in order to make the story topical; the narrative space, which carries “moral” connotations: straight versus. crooked stands for good versus. evil); and the judicial approach (the basic premise of the text is a legal process against Reynard). The final two paragraphs of the introduction comprise a careful identification of the intended audience (the patricians of Ghent) and a brief discussion of the transmission and reception of the story (the manuscript transmission and later reception of the text, as well as the Nachleben both inside and outside the Dutch-speaking regions). The editorial policy (with a list of emendations) is to be found after the text (247–56). It is clear that this publication was designed to present this story to a non Dutch-speaking audience, but the dual-language nature of the edition suggests that it is also intended to entice that audience to become familiar with the Middle Dutch text. This didactic aim is supported by the inclusion of a short introduction to the Middle Dutch language (257– 71, provided by Matthias Hüning and Ulrike Vogl). This introduction gives a good idea of how Middle Dutch works as a language, although it is too limited on its own to allow the reader to acquire an in-depth command of the language. But together with the complete glossary (279–356), and of course the English translation, it does provide an excellent first encounter with and access to the Middle Dutch of Van den vos Reynaerde and may thus inspire interest in the other pearls of the Middle Dutch literary tradition. Book jacket blurbs are normally not to be trusted, but in this instance I do not hesitate to cite from this one: this volume opens up a splendid, exciting and intriguing text for a new audience and is highly “suitable for use by scholars, general readers and students in a wide variety of undergraduate and graduate courses.” It is a masterwork and highly recommended.

The medieval enclosed garden is something of a commonplace. Outside of scholarship on specific sites, much discussion on the enclosed garden tends to focus on the timeworn literary tropes that such spaces evoke: the hortus conclusus, paradise, locus amoenus, plaisance, garden of love, etc. Often this is framed within a teleological narrative that posits the medieval garden’s enclosure as the antithesis to the expansive scope and humanist references of gardens of the renaissance and beyond. Very little discussion focuses on how medieval gardens were actually used and experienced within the larger spaces they were situated. Focusing on actual sites, contemporary accounts, as well as the evidence provided by art of the period, this paper explores how the late medieval garden was used as both a frame for Valois, Burgundian and Hapsburg rulership and as an ideal ornamentum of nobility.

The Veil Rentier of the lords of Audenarde (Brussels, KBR, 1175) and the Terrier d’Évêque of the bishops of Cambrai (Lille, Archives du Nord, MS 3 G 1208 [Mus. 342]) are among the only extant illustrated medieval rent-books. This study situates the illustrations of these manuscripts within their specific urban contexts and argues that they are the product of a new category of book-makers, the professional secretary or clerk. Although the illustrations
show some awareness of Gothic manuscript painting, the artists were more influenced by contemporary urban vernacular visual culture—that is, the memes of late medieval urban life—including signage, tokens, and seals. Through the use of these urban references, the artists promoted the traditional feudal concerns of the patrons of these manuscripts at a time
when territorial contests were playing out in new ways with respect to the city.

The collection of essays edited for Brepols by Kate Dimitrova and Margaret Goehring, Dressing the Part: Textiles as Propaganda in the Middle Ages, addresses the significance of cloth and clothing in visual culture during the Middle Ages. While the use of textiles in England and France is featured in several chapters, perhaps the book’s greatest contribution is the inclusion of scholarship concerning textiles with origins and contexts elsewhere during the Middle Ages. The excellent Brepols production standards have provided a fine volume with very good (at times stunning!) color illustrations integrated into each chapter.

The medieval enclosed garden is something of a commonplace. Outside of scholarship on specific sites, much discussion on the enclosed garden tends to focus on the timeworn literary tropes that such spaces evoke: the hortus conclusus, paradise, locus amoenus, plaisance, garden of love, etc. Often this is framed within a teleological narrative that posits the medieval garden’s enclosure as the antithesis to the expansive scope and humanist references of gardens of the renaissance and beyond. Very little discussion focuses on how medieval gardens were actually used and experienced within the larger spaces they were situated. Focusing on actual sites, contemporary accounts, as well as the evidence provided by art of the period, this paper explores how the late medieval garden was used as both a frame for Valois, Burgundian and Hapsburg rulership and as an ideal ornamentum of nobility.

This focuses on cloth of gold as a motif in marginal decoration in late medieval manuscript illumination. Cloths of gold and other silks were particularly employed within ecclesiastical settings (in the form of vestments, altar cloths and for the protection and display of relics), but were also associated with personal devotion (as wrappings for books of hours and other devotional books), as well as being essential and efficient communicators of Burgundian courtly propaganda.  The author proposes that it is a conflation of these sacred and secular traditions that informs the use of cloth of gold as a trompe l’oeil border decoration in Ghent-Bruges manuscripts at the end of the fifteenth century.

The medieval enclosed garden is something of a commonplace. Outside of scholarship on specific sites, much discussion on the enclosed garden tends to focus on the timeworn literary tropes that such spaces evoke: the hortus conclusus, paradise, locus amoenus, plaisance, garden of love, etc. Often this is framed within a teleological narrative that posits the medieval garden’s enclosure as the antithesis to the expansive scope and humanist references of gardens of the renaissance and beyond. Very little discussion focuses on how late medieval gardens were actually used and experienced within the larger spaces in which they were situated. With a more expansive understanding of what a garden is, and a consideration of the hermeneutics of how such spaces engendered certain types of performance, a more nuanced view of garden history emerges that shows a complex interweaving of the garden as site, stage and space, with the imago of the garden as metaphor and symbol. Using Valois-Burgundian gardens as case studies, it becomes apparent that the Burgundian dukes were deeply aware of the range of symbolic associations that could be made with the garden, which they exploited as a means to present a more coherent sense of rulership. In short, they transformed the garden from an ornamentum of nobility into an emblem of rulership.

Although regarded as one of the earliest pure landscape paintings in Western art and often reproduced on that account, there has been surprisingly little substantial research on the opening miniature for the “Dit dou Lyon” in Ms. C (Bibliothèque Nationale de France ms. fr. 1586, fol. 103). This paper will demonstrate how the garden that is described in the miniature and the poem is actually a multivalent concept, and will focus on its connection to the late medieval understanding of ornament as a feature of noble performance. The ‘l’Espreuve des fines amours’, reflects one of the most famous and legendary gardens of the late Middle Ages, the garden at Hesdin. Well known to Machaut as well as to his patrons, Hesdin’s layout paralleled the structure of the garden as described in the poem, and its amenities may explain the inclusion of details in the miniature that are not described in the poem. While I do not argue that the miniature is a representation of the garden at Hesdin, I suggest that for Machaut and his readers around 1350, Hesdin had achieved such a vaunted status so as to become an archetypal space of noble performance, reflecting the kinds of performance that are embodied by the manuscript and the poem itself.

This article investigates the masonic murals in the Elisha Gilbert House in New Lebanon, NY, looking into the circumstances of their creation, and their relationship to the role that freemasonry played in the region. The murals are found to be similar to those in the Calvin Hall Tavern in Cheshire, MA, and posits dating and a potential artist for both cycles, and investigates their relationship to the standardization of early American printed masonic iconography.

Concentrating on manuscripts from Paris, Northern France and Flanders from the eighth to the early sixteenth centuries, this book will offer new insights as it contextualizes the emergence of landscape painting in the medieval period. The first chapter looks at the influence of landscape description in ancient and medieval rhetoric, and the role that landscape imagery played in medieval mnemonic systems and devotional practices. The second chapter addresses the emergence of landscape as a form of ornamental elaboration, particularly looking at how late medieval illuminators exploited its decorative potential. The representation of landscape space is analyzed in the third chapter, focusing on how artists illuminated encyclopedic and didactic manuscripts to communicate authority, provide unity or support specific polemical stances, such as the dynastic ambitions of the Valois and Burgundian courts. Finally, the fourth chapter explores the visualization of specific political and economic landscapes of late medieval Europe, particularly focusing on how place was structured to respond to issues of status, power and identity.

This paper looks at the intersection of professional image making and vernacular culture in the "Veil Rentier" (Brussels KBR ms. 1175), expanding on earlier scholarship that connected its iconography to contemporary encyclopedic and calendar illustration to look at possible sources within urban visual culture. These include heraldry and emblazons, signs, roadside crosses and poteaux corniers, seals, jetons or tokens, and finally gesture.

"This paper discusses two remarkable sets of early American Masonic wall paintings that were created within private homes located within a 25-mile radius along the New York and Massachusetts border: the Elisha Gilbert House in New Lebanon, New York and the Calvin Hall Tavern in Cheshire, Massachusetts. 
    The murals in Hall’s Tavern were painted between 1804 and 1812, during a period when post-Revolutionary spread of Masonry was reaching its zenith within Berkshire County. The genesis of these murals and the context in which they were created reflects the unique “Village Enlightenment” society of the period, whereby village residents sought to improve themselves through education and moral instruction, and exploited networks that fostered small entrepreneurial enterprises and political associations within the new Republic. Calvin Hall, the owner of the house in which the lodge met, embodied this new entrepreneurial spirit and his home reflected his ambitions.
    The later murals in the Gilbert House are more challenging to date, but as I will argue that they were likely either painted around the same time as those in Hall's Tavern, or in 1845. If they were done at the later date, they would represent the revival of Lebanon’s lodge after its decline in the decades following the Morgan Affair and anti-Masonic sentiment that spread throughout the country afterward. The presumed patron of the murals, Elisha Gilbert Junior (1768-1857), not only witnessed this profound transformation but he was active at the center of some of New York Freemasonry’s most crucial controversies.  On the other hand, there is equal evidence to suggest the earlier dating.
  This paper shall look at the “restoration” of the Gilbert House murals, which was done between 1898 and 1906, entirely outside of the orbit of Freemasonry or Masonic interests.  Instead, they seem to have appealed primarily to the antiquarian interests of the house’s then owner, Charles S. Haight.
  Finally, I shall posit a possible candidate for the painting of the murals in Hall's Tavern, an itinerant artist from Philadelphia by the name of Daniel Bartling who can be attributed with the painting of the decorative scroll work in both homes as well as with a distinctive rose-and-swag motif in a bedroom in the Gilbert house. A survey of the advertisements he took out in papers throughout New England between 1796 and 1810 indicates that he was active in the region at the time the murals were painted, and there is additional evidence to show he was familiar with Masonic iconography. "

In this excellent book, Sharon Farmer studies the luxury silk cloth industries of thirteenth-century Paris, resulting in highly valuable new insights on the international mobility of skilled artisans and women’s economic activities. In the introduction, Farmer sets out the main goals of her study: showing that a genuine silk industry was present in Paris during the thirteenth century and that the introduction of the required techniques could only have taken place by means of the immigration of merchants and skilled artisans from the lands around the Mediterranean. A second important thesis is that Paris offered female silk entrepreneurs more possibilities than the same industries in Mediterranean towns. The main historical sources used are Parisian guild statutes (c. 1266–1365), tax assessments (1292– 1313), and household documents from several European aristocratic courts. These are extensively reproduced in the second half of the book, based on both edited and unedited sources. One of the most important ideas expressed throughout the work is the connectedness of Paris to the wider Mediterranean world, including Christian, Jewish, and Muslim communities, suggesting the necessity of extending Mediterranean studies to northern France. Next to this, Paris as a multicultural city in the thirteenth century is a recurring theme. This gives rise to some important critical remarks about modern ideas concerning immigration and the supposedly rural and national French ancestry (2). The first chapter deals in more detail with immigrants in Paris during the thirteenth century, such as Lombard bankers; scholars; aristocrats; and, most important, merchants and artisans from nearby regions such as Flanders, Burgundy, and Germany, and also from surprisingly distant areas such as Iberia, Italy, Cyprus, and outremer (from the other side of the Mediterranean). The following chapter provides technical information about extracting silk thread from cocoons, as well as the production of luxury textiles such as silk cloth, veils, gold cloth, and velvet. Next to this, Farmer presents the international trade networks through which the required materials, knowledge, skills, and people might have travelled from China to Paris. Chapter 3 examines the organization of the silk industries in Paris by specialized entrepreneurs, together with information about less wealthy silk workers, many of them immigrants. The geographically widespread origins of the people involved is surprising, although one could have reservations about some attributions; for example, the surname Tabarie does not necessarily refer to the town of Tiberias in the Holy Land (93), but could also be based on tabard, an Old French word for tunic. A very useful aspect of this chapter is the plotting of people active in the silk industries on a map of medieval Paris, which allows for some interesting discoveries about concentrations and proximities. The focus is shifted to gender in the next chapter. A few women entrepreneurs became extraordinarily wealthy because of their activities in the silk economy. Most female silk workers, however, remained of very modest fortune, although the historical documentation shows that many of these women were independent and that the ouvri eres de soie had organized their industry in a female guild. The opposition of male versus female taxpayers might, however, be less rigid than sketched by Farmer, because names of male taxpayers in the tax assessments in reality often represented a married couple running the family business together. The final chapter turns to financial aspects of the silk industry in Paris and examines the relation between female silk workers, Lombard bankers, and Jewish pawnbrokers. Less convincing in this chapter is the depiction of Lombard men as sexual predators, “vibrat[ing] with male sexual energy” (147), as the sole explanation for the female silk workers’ preference for female Jewish moneylenders. This seems to be based on cultural and gender stereotyping, rather than on historical realities. Farmer’s approach is interesting from a methodological perspective, as well. First, the use of spatial approaches for the study of situated activities in the townscape of Paris, both geographical and social, is very effective. Second, her treatment of fragmentary and incomplete data from the thirteenth century is daring and innovative. By combining them with a broad spectrum of contextual data, including international or later parallel phenomena, Farmer is able to paint a much livelier picture of the silk industries in thirteenth-century Paris than would have been possible based on local data alone. The argument could, however, have been more calibrated. For instance, there is a slight tendency to present “plausible hypotheses” from one chapter (75) as established facts in the following one, which risks annoying a few fact-fetishizing historians. Finally, more in-depth methodological reflections on the use of fragmentary…

This reading and discussion intensive class will look at art theory and approaches to the interpretation of art from Antiquity to the present day. Particular attention shall be placed on 20th century methodologies, including semiotics, gender theory, Marxism, psychoanalysis, structuralism, post-structuralism, deconstructionism, post-colonialism, phenomenology, and Affect Theory. Students will be reading primary materials, some of which will speak to the "art" of art history-that is, historiography and methodology-while others have been selected for their influence on contemporary studio art practices.

Description This class will explore how gender was represented in Europe in the late Middle Ages to the Baroque. Focusing especially on Northern European art, we will study male and female iconography, looking at archetypes, portraiture, education, literacy sexuality, eroticism, authority, labor and family. We will look at how gendered readings can change our perception of a work, the impact that the theory of the humors had on portraiture and costume, and the iconography of witchcraft, poverty, rulership, and marriage. This course will be run as a seminar, with a substantial reading load, lots of discussion accompanied by short response papers and mini-presentations. Students will also write and present a longer, substantial research paper.

Description: This reading and discussion intensive class will look at art theory and approaches to the interpretation of art from Antiquity to the present day. Particular attention shall be placed on 19th and 20th century methodologies, including semiotics, gender theory, Marxism, psychoanalysis, structuralism, and deconstructionism, paying special attention to the historical contexts in which these approaches developed, their utility and their limitations. Note that there are serious lacunae in this syllabus, most notably in the areas of Queer Theory, Institutional critique (particularly of the museum), and in Post-Colonial theory among others, and the readings are particularly US-centric. Objectives: Upon completion of the course, students will be able to demonstrate • an understanding of the history of the discipline of art history, its origins, and its institutional developments • the ability to critically assess the strengths and limitations of a range of approaches and methods • the ability to identify the methodology(ies) employed in a given art historical argument • the ability to apply a variety of methodological approaches on a particular work of art, and assess their relative value for that application • understand a variety of strategies of art-making that reflect differing methodological and theoretical approaches

Description This seminar will explore the art and techniques of medieval book-making, paying particular attention to the complex relationship of image and text, strategies of design, analysis of the book as an object (codicology), and identification of common types of books. Students will experiment with the materials of manuscript illumination as a way to understand the technical components of a medieval codex. Issues we will focus on will include issues of reading, literacy, memory, and usage in the Middle Ages.