Medieval Mausoleums, Monuments, and Manuscripts : Royal Women’s Patronage from the Twelfth to the Fourteenth Centuries explores the manuscripts, monuments, and other memorabilia associated with the artistic patronage of Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122-1204), her daughters, Marie de Champagne (1145-98) and Matilda of Saxony (1156-98), as well as works generated by three queens of France, Marie de Brabant (1254-1322), Jeanne d’Évreux (1310-71), and Blanche de Navarre (1330-98). Through this study the shift in women’s artistic patronage over the centuries may be brought to light, as well as its evolution, evincing how each generation built upon the previous one.

Further, despite the assorted shapes these women’s efforts embodied, ranging from manuscripts to stained glass windows, from funerary plaques, paintings, jewels and linens to monuments, mausoleums and endowments of institutions, including a variety of other forms, these women were notably unified in that their greatest output tellingly occurred during precarious points in their lives that threatened their positions, such as the potential political turmoil associated with the deaths of husbands or children. At these times their participation in acts of patronage solidified their places at court, in society, and within cultural memory while doubling as assertions of their political power and lineage. Thus, testaments, manuscript books, monuments, and memorials were not only a declaration or signs of one’s possessions, but also sites and documents that continued the politicking of the deceased.

Table des matières :
Chapter 1 : Introduction
Chapter 2 : Eleanor and Her Daughters : Patronage and Power
Chapter 3 : Marie de Brabant, Stepping into the Role of Queen : A Life-Long Journey of Patronage Surrounding Death
Chapter 4 : The End of the Capetian Dynasty Commemorated Through Monuments, Memorials and Manuscripts : The Patronage of Jeanne d’Évreux
Chapter 5 : The Currency of Queens : Reading Blanche de Navarre’s Testament as Funerary Art
Chapter 6 : Conclusion
Bibliography
Index

Christene d’Anca is a lecturer at California Lutheran University, as well as at her alma mater, the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she obtained her PhD in Comparative Literature with an emphasis in Medieval Studies.