'Monumentum aere perennius' - sequel (MBS 2017)

New discoveries and information are helping us to expand our survey, but also raise further questions about materiality, memoria, status and identity. Particularly intriguing are the ongoing case studies of precious-metal effigial tombs in Hildesheim and Amiens, where more examples are now known than we previously suspected, but we are reliant on antiquarian sources for evidence about them. Two episcopal monuments survive in Amiens Cathedral, which may well have been part of a larger series within the city, but questions surround their style, date, manufacture and placement. This short paper for the online MMR Newsletter (https://mmr.sites.uu.nl/) provides a further update to our project. Our (re)search continues.

Church Monuments, 2016

Probably the most prestigious monuments produced in the Middle Ages were those constructed from (semi-)precious metals, sometimes enamelled or inlaid with real or fictive jewels. Some survive, especially in England and Germany. However, many more have been destroyed, especially in France, and are known of only through antiquarian sources. This preliminary materiality-based survey comprises 119 extant and lost examples throughout Europe in the 350-year period to 1430, starting with the monument to Rudolph of Swabia (d. 1080). It shows how magnificent such monuments could be, how widespread this type of monument once was and how it was favoured within certain families and locations, but also how much we have lost. To demonstrate the splendour of such memorials and the techniques involved, a case study is provided of the virtually unknown, but internationally important monument of Prince Afonso (d. 1400) in Braga Cathedral in northern Portugal, which has recently been the subject of detailed technical analysis.

Georgitsoyanni, E. (ed.), Ancient Greek Art and European Funerary Art (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing), 2019

To quote Shakespeare: ‘All that glisters is not gold [...] Gilded tombs do worms infold’ (Merchant of Venice, II, vii). In the late eleventh century a spectacular new type of tomb monument emerged that was inspired directly or indirectly by Antiquity. The earliest known example is the extant gilt cast bronze (more correctly: copper-alloy) effigial tomb of Rudolf of Rheinfelden, duke of Swabia and anti-king to Emperor Henry IV (d. 1080), in Merseburg Cathedral. The material for his monument was clearly chosen for its prestige and its propaganda value: bronze has both biblical connotations and classical – especially imperial – antecedents as evident in the ninth-century bronze equestrian statuette (Louvre, Paris) representing either Charlemagne or his grandson Charles the Bald. However, bronze could also be gilded or polished to resemble gold, and this is how we should consider the present 'dull' appearance of many medieval tombs such as the two 'bronze' episcopal memorials in Amiens Cathedral. The impact of Rudolf's monument was immediate: others were soon created across Europe, albeit not yet in Italy where marble was favoured instead. This paper discusses the materiality, meaning, manufacture and dissemination of bronze tomb effigies while drawing comparisons with the use of bronze in Antiquity.

The aim of this joint project is to offer a survey of extant and lost medieval effigial tomb monuments made of different types of metal, ranging from copper alloy (often termed ‘bronze’) to silver and silver gilt. The findings already change the way we will henceforth view these tombs: for example, the survival of predominantly royal cast copper-alloy tombs in England has previously been misinterpreted as their being a ‘royal predilection’, whereas nearly twice that number were commissioned by patrons among the nobility and higher clergy. The project is a continuation of the authors' earlier work, including the joint article ‘The tomb monument of Katherine, daughter of Henry III and Eleanor of Provence (1253-7)’ published in The Antiquaries Journal, 92 (2012), pp. 169-196. Our initial survey has now been published in the peer-reviewed journal Church Monuments 30 (2015), pp. 7-105. A second article entitled ‘Copper-alloy tombs in medieval Europe: image, identity and reception’, has been accepted for publication in Jean Plumier and Nicolas Thomas (eds), Medieval copper, bronze and brass, Proceedings of the 2014 Dinant/Namur conference (Turnhout: Brepols, forthcoming). However, an inventory such as this is never finished so we welcome all new information about examples discussed in our 2015 paper or about new discoveries not yet included there. The work simply continues and may in due course result in a second article, while there is also the possibility of continuing the research into the later fifteenth century to include such examples as the extant monument to Richard Beauchamp, earl of Warwick (d. 1439), or the output of the famous Vischer workshop in Nuremberg.

The Monuments Man Essays in Honour of Jerome Bertram (ed. Christian Steer), 2020

This paper discusses the impact, appearance and finish of medieval gilt bronze (i.e. copper alloy) effigial monuments. Comparisons are made between the two extant cast bronze episcopal monuments in Amiens Cathedral to Evrard de Fouilloy (d. 1222) and his successor Geoffroi d'Eu (d. 1236) and the cenotaph of the Habsburg emperor Maximilian I (d. 1519) in the Hofkirche in Innsbruck with its over-life-sized ancestral and kinship statues surrounding the tomb. All were presumably intended to receive gilding, but that certainly never happened in the case of Maximilian's monument. The impact of such sumptuous 'gold' tombs resonates in the work of William Shakespeare and his contemporaries, as we see in the line 'Gilded tombs do worms enfold' (The Merchant of Venice, II, vii, 69). Conversely there are curious parallels between Maximilian's tomb and the monument that King Arthur is said to have erected to King Lot of Orkney and his allies, according to Arthurian romance.

Nicolas Thomas and Pete Dandridge (eds), Medieval copper, bronze and brass: History, archaeology and archaeometry of the production of brass, bronze and other copper alloy objects in medieval Europe (12th-16th centuries), 2018

A miniature in a Flemish manuscript of c. 1464 may show the impact of gilt copper alloy relief tomb monuments on contemporary imagination. A decade earlier Philip the Good had commissioned two such monuments: a triple tomb for his great-grandparents Louis of Mâle and Margaret of Brabant and his grandmother Margaret of Flanders in Lille, and a tomb for his great-aunt Joanna of Brabant in Brussels—the latter of stone and wood, however, but made to resemble gilt copper alloy. Other copper alloy monuments were later erected for Philip's daughter-in-law Isabella of Bourbon in Antwerp, his son Charles the Bold and his granddaughter Mary of Burgundy in Bruges, and Mary's husband Maximilian I in Innsbruck. These Burgundian memorials are part of a long tradition of copper alloy monuments that were once found across medieval Europe, starting with the tomb of Rudolph of Rheinfelden († 1080) in Merseburg. Unfortunately our perception of these sumptuous tombs is affected by numerous losses over the centuries, including the triple tomb in Lille and the presumed copper alloy one in Brussels. Thus, the survival of three clusters of medieval royal monuments in England has led to the mistaken belief that the use of "gilt bronze" was a specifically royal preference in England, whereas they were actually exceeded in number by such memorials to the nobility and the clergy. Yet the monument to Prince Afonso in Braga (Portugal) was probably inspired by these English royal tombs. A recently compiled corpus of extant and lost European examples up to 1430 demonstrates their former spread and patrons' choices of material.

MMR (Medieval Memoria Research) Newsletter, 2020

This discussion paper raises important questions about 'bronze' (or, more correctly, copper-alloy) monuments from Antiquity to the Renaissance and Baroque, but most of all the medieval period. As such it is an extension of my earlier work on medieval 'precious-metal' effigial monuments in Europe and the survey article published in 2015 in the journal Church Monuments 30. These questions relate in particular to their original appearance (esp. patina), their reception by contemporaries and later generations, and their wider cultural impact, esp. on literature of the period from Catullus to Shakespeare, but also on antiquarian writers. This is a discussion paper: comments (and answers) from all disciplines are very welcome.

Our survey of precious-metal effigial tombs (esp. copper alloy or 'bronze' and silver) from medieval Europe between 1080 and 1430 revealed nearly 120 extant and lost examples. There is no doubt that there were once many more, but it the evidence for these may well lie hidden or unrecognised in antiquarian records. Several examples have already come to light since the publication of our article in the journal Church Monuments 30 (2015), pp. 7-105, but the search continues. This is a brief preview of what may in due course become the sequel to our earlier inventory - with a little help from other scholars?

2018

This volume contains the proceedings of the International Conference on Medieval Copper Alloys Production, held at Dinant and Namur on 15, 16 and 17 May 2014. The conference was organised by the Service public de Wallonie (Belgium) and the Institut national de recherches archéologiques préventives (France). The proceedings include 34 original contributions presented by archaeologists, historians, conservators, art historians, and other specialists, including metallurgists and chemists. Collectively, they show the great diversity of approaches being taken to elaborate the multiple themes associated with copper and its alloys in the material culture of medieval and post-medieval Europe. In the late Middle Ages, there was a gradual increase in the use of copper and its alloys for making everyday objects, whether for dress accessories, such as belt buckles or small decorative studs, or in kitchens and houses where the metal became a cauldron, ewer, basin, or lavabo. In contrast to these common objects fabricated in serial or mass production, were the exceptional, discrete objects satisfying the needs of the aristocracy and liturgy. Such made-to-order masterpieces might include aquamanilia, candelabra, or lecterns. Additionally, copper alloys were used for more colossal works of art such as columns, doors, baptisteries, fountains, funeral monuments and, of course, bells. Copper was equally sought in artisanal contexts, for artillery, for musical instruments, and for coinage. In exploring such a vast subject from multiple points of view, this volume will be of interest not only to archaeologist, but also to those involved in the history of techniques, art history, economic history, and social history. It is aimed both at an informed public and to those simply curious about the history of the Middle Ages in Europe.

The most sumptuous of the royal tombs in the Plantagenet mausoleum at Westminster Abbey are those with cast gilt copper-alloy figures. An examination of the lettering on the tombs of Edward III and Richard II, together with the Black Prince in Canterbury Cathedral shows strong affinities with the lettering of monumental brasses from the 'London Series B' workshop. Henry Yevele and Stephen Lote can be linked with the production both of these brasses and the royal copper-alloy tombs.