Staging Remembrance: Death, Tombs, and Status in Late Medieval England

FAIN: FT-56577-09

Rachel Ann Dressler
SUNY Research Foundation, Albany (Albany, NY 12222-0001)

Staging Remembrance: Death, Tombs, and Status in Late Medieval England focuses on tomb monuments commissioned by and for the late-medieval English gentry and articulates the relationship between these patrons' commemorative works and the group's social aspirations. My project examines how an emerging elite employed the tomb chapel and its memorials to assert new social power. My particular focus is the Gyvernay family funeral chapel in the parish church of Limington, Somerset, which retains its medieval tombs in their original positions inside the building. These memorials, and the people they commemorate, exemplify the contribution of the tomb monument to a gentry family's strategy for social advancement.

Associated Products

“Sculptural Representation and Spatial Appropriation in a Medieval Chantry Chapel,” in The Thresholds of Late Medieval Visual Culture: Liminal Spaces (peer-reviewed festschrift in honor of Pamela Sheingorn), Elina Gertsman and Jill Stevenson. (Article)
Title: “Sculptural Representation and Spatial Appropriation in a Medieval Chantry Chapel,” in The Thresholds of Late Medieval Visual Culture: Liminal Spaces (peer-reviewed festschrift in honor of Pamela Sheingorn), Elina Gertsman and Jill Stevenson.
Author: Rachel Dressler
Abstract: Examines the ensemble of Gyvernay tomb effigies in St. Mary's Church, Limington, Somerset. Suggests that the original arrangement of tombs was designed to display Henry Power's status as heir to the manor of Limington.
Year: 2012
Format: Other
Publisher: Boydell Press

Identity, Status, and Materials: Medieval Alabaster Effigies in England (Article)
Title: Identity, Status, and Materials: Medieval Alabaster Effigies in England
Author: Rachel Dressler
Abstract: Argues that the emergence of alabaster as a favored material for the production of medieval , aristocratic tomb effigies in England was in part occasioned by a surge in feelings of English distinctiveness in the wake of the Hundred Years War.
Year: 2015
Primary URL: http://peregrinations.kenyon.edu
Primary URL Description: Open-access, exclusively online journal.
Access Model: Open Access
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Peregrinations: Journal of Medieval Art and Architecture

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