In Material Culture and Queenship in 14th-century France : The Testament of Blanche of Navarre (1331-1398) Marguerite Keane considers the object collection of the long-lived fourteenth-century French queen Blanche of Navarre, the wife of Philip VI (d. 1350). This queen’s ownership of works of art (books, jewelry, reliquaries, and textiles, among others) and her perceptions of these objects is well -documented because she wrote detailed testaments in 1396 and 1398 in which she described her possessions and who she wished to receive them. Keane connects the patronage of Blanche of Navarre to her interest in her status and reputation as a dowager queen, as well as bringing to life the material, adornment, and devotional interests of a medieval queen and her household.

Marguerite Keane, Ph.D. (2002), University of California, Santa Barbara, is an Associate Professor of Art History at Drew University, in Madison, New Jersey. A specialist in medieval art, she has published on fourteenth-century French art with a particular interest in art commissioned by and for women.