Biblical Imagery in Medieval England 700-1550 (Hmsah)

Within a broadly chronological framework, the treatment is thematic from the earliest carved stone crosses, through Anglo-Saxon Old Testament cycles and high medieval Psalters to the painted and carved imagery in the fifteenth-century parish church. Each section is firmly grounded in its historical context and the images are examined for their relationship with the biblical text and for the ways in which they served their patrons and viewers. For each period and each type of artefact, the viewer or patron is identified, often with surprising results, and his - or more often her - needs discussed. Illuminated manuscripts are the main survivors and their readership was, until the late Middle Ages, essentially clerical or aristocratic. But the same images on a monumental scale on wall paintings or in sculpture or stained glass were seen by all classes of worshippers even if some of the layers of meaning comprehensible to monks and higher clergy remained hidden to the wider lay audience.