Table Of ContentFRENCH VISUAL CULTURE AND THE MAKING
OF MEDIEVAL THEATER
Thisbookreviveswhatwasunique,strange,andexcitingaboutthevariety
of performances that took place in the realms of the French kings and
Burgundiandukes.LauraWeigertbringstogetherawealthofvisualartifacts
andpracticestoexplorethistraditionoflatemedievalperformancelocated
not in “theaters” but in churches, courts, and city streets and squares. By
stressing the theatricality ratherthan the realism of fifteenth-century visual
culture and the spectacular rather than the devotional nature of its effects,
she offers a new way of thinking about late medieval representation and
spectatorship. She shows how images that ostensibly document medieval
performance instead revise its characteristic features to conform to a play-
going experience that was associated with classical antiquity. This retro-
spectivevisionofthelatemedievalperformancetraditioncontributedtoits
demiseinsixteenth-centuryFranceandpromotedassumptionsaboutmedi-
evaltheaterthatcontinuetoinformthecontemporarydisciplinesofartand
theater history.
Laura Weigert is Associate Professor of Art History at Rutgers University.
SheistherecipientofgrantsfromtheAmericanPhilosophicalSociety,the
NationalEndowmentfortheHumanities,andtheHumboldtFoundation,
and she was a Samuel H. Kress Senior Fellow at the Center for Advanced
Study in the Visual Arts and a Felix Gilbert Member at the Institute for
Advanced Study. Her publications include Weaving Sacred Stories: French
Choir Tapestries and the Performance of Clerical Identity (2004) and articles in
Art History, the Oxford Art Journal, Gesta, Studies in Iconography, The Art
Bulletin, Art Journal, and EMF: Studies in Early Modern France, as well as in
numerous collections of essays.
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FRENCH VISUAL
CULTURE AND THE
MAKING OF MEDIEVAL
THEATER
LAURA WEIGERT
Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University of South Australia, on 20 Apr 2019 at 14:36:07, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at
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32AvenueoftheAmericas,NewYork,ny10013-2473,usa
CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge.
ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof
education,learning,andresearchatthehighestinternationallevelsofexcellence.
www.cambridge.org
Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781107040472
©LauraWeigert2015
Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception
andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements,
noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten
permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress.
Firstpublished2015
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
AcatalogrecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Weigert,Laura.
Frenchvisualcultureandthemakingofmedievaltheater/LauraWeigert.
pages cm
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
isbn978-1-107-04047-2(Hardback)
1. Theaterinart. 2. Artandsociety–France–History–To1500. 3. Artandsociety–
France–History–16thcentury. 4. Theaterandsociety–France–History–To1500.
5. Theaterandsociety–France–History–16thcentury. 6. Performingarts–Socialaspects–
France–History–To1500. 7. Performingarts–Socialaspects–France–History–16thcentury.
I. Title.
N8252.W452015
700.944009031–dc23 2015018958
isbn978-1-107-04047-2Hardback
CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracy
ofURLsforexternalorthird-partyInternetWebsitesreferredtointhispublication
anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchWebsitesis,orwillremain,
accurateorappropriate.
TheResearchCouncilofRutgersUniversityandaMillardMeissgrantfromtheCollegeArt
Associationcontributedtotheillustrationofthisbook.
MM
PublicationofthisbookhasbeenaidedbyagrantfromtheMillardMeissPublicationFundof
theCollegeArtAssociation.
Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University of South Australia, on 20 Apr 2019 at 14:36:07, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at
https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139629027
FRENCH VISUAL CULTURE AND THE MAKING
OF MEDIEVAL THEATER
Thisbookreviveswhatwasunique,strange,andexcitingaboutthevariety
of performances that took place in the realms of the French kings and
Burgundiandukes.LauraWeigertbringstogetherawealthofvisualartifacts
andpracticestoexplorethistraditionoflatemedievalperformancelocated
not in “theaters” but in churches, courts, and city streets and squares. By
stressing the theatricality ratherthan the realism of fifteenth-century visual
culture and the spectacular rather than the devotional nature of its effects,
she offers a new way of thinking about late medieval representation and
spectatorship. She shows how images that ostensibly document medieval
performance instead revise its characteristic features to conform to a play-
going experience that was associated with classical antiquity. This retro-
spectivevisionofthelatemedievalperformancetraditioncontributedtoits
demiseinsixteenth-centuryFranceandpromotedassumptionsaboutmedi-
evaltheaterthatcontinuetoinformthecontemporarydisciplinesofartand
theater history.
Laura Weigert is Associate Professor of Art History at Rutgers University.
SheistherecipientofgrantsfromtheAmericanPhilosophicalSociety,the
NationalEndowmentfortheHumanities,andtheHumboldtFoundation,
and she was a Samuel H. Kress Senior Fellow at the Center for Advanced
Study in the Visual Arts and a Felix Gilbert Member at the Institute for
Advanced Study. Her publications include Weaving Sacred Stories: French
Choir Tapestries and the Performance of Clerical Identity (2004) and articles in
Art History, the Oxford Art Journal, Gesta, Studies in Iconography, The Art
Bulletin, Art Journal, and EMF: Studies in Early Modern France, as well as in
numerous collections of essays.
Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University of South Australia, on 20 Apr 2019 at 14:37:09, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at
https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139629027
Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University of South Australia, on 20 Apr 2019 at 14:37:09, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at
https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139629027
FRENCH VISUAL
CULTURE AND THE
MAKING OF MEDIEVAL
THEATER
LAURA WEIGERT
Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University of South Australia, on 20 Apr 2019 at 14:37:09, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at
https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139629027
32AvenueoftheAmericas,NewYork,ny10013-2473,usa
CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge.
ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof
education,learning,andresearchatthehighestinternationallevelsofexcellence.
www.cambridge.org
Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781107040472
©LauraWeigert2015
Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception
andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements,
noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten
permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress.
Firstpublished2015
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
AcatalogrecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Weigert,Laura.
Frenchvisualcultureandthemakingofmedievaltheater/LauraWeigert.
pages cm
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
isbn978-1-107-04047-2(Hardback)
1. Theaterinart. 2. Artandsociety–France–History–To1500. 3. Artandsociety–
France–History–16thcentury. 4. Theaterandsociety–France–History–To1500.
5. Theaterandsociety–France–History–16thcentury. 6. Performingarts–Socialaspects–
France–History–To1500. 7. Performingarts–Socialaspects–France–History–16thcentury.
I. Title.
N8252.W452015
700.944009031–dc23 2015018958
isbn978-1-107-04047-2Hardback
CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracy
ofURLsforexternalorthird-partyInternetWebsitesreferredtointhispublication
anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchWebsitesis,orwillremain,
accurateorappropriate.
TheResearchCouncilofRutgersUniversityandaMillardMeissgrantfromtheCollegeArt
Associationcontributedtotheillustrationofthisbook.
MM
PublicationofthisbookhasbeenaidedbyagrantfromtheMillardMeissPublicationFundof
theCollegeArtAssociation.
Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University of South Australia, on 20 Apr 2019 at 14:37:09, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at
https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139629027
FRENCH VISUAL CULTURE AND THE MAKING
OF MEDIEVAL THEATER
Thisbookreviveswhatwasunique,strange,andexcitingaboutthevariety
of performances that took place in the realms of the French kings and
Burgundiandukes.LauraWeigertbringstogetherawealthofvisualartifacts
andpracticestoexplorethistraditionoflatemedievalperformancelocated
not in “theaters” but in churches, courts, and city streets and squares. By
stressing the theatricality ratherthan the realism of fifteenth-century visual
culture and the spectacular rather than the devotional nature of its effects,
she offers a new way of thinking about late medieval representation and
spectatorship. She shows how images that ostensibly document medieval
performance instead revise its characteristic features to conform to a play-
going experience that was associated with classical antiquity. This retro-
spectivevisionofthelatemedievalperformancetraditioncontributedtoits
demiseinsixteenth-centuryFranceandpromotedassumptionsaboutmedi-
evaltheaterthatcontinuetoinformthecontemporarydisciplinesofartand
theater history.
Laura Weigert is Associate Professor of Art History at Rutgers University.
SheistherecipientofgrantsfromtheAmericanPhilosophicalSociety,the
NationalEndowmentfortheHumanities,andtheHumboldtFoundation,
and she was a Samuel H. Kress Senior Fellow at the Center for Advanced
Study in the Visual Arts and a Felix Gilbert Member at the Institute for
Advanced Study. Her publications include Weaving Sacred Stories: French
Choir Tapestries and the Performance of Clerical Identity (2004) and articles in
Art History, the Oxford Art Journal, Gesta, Studies in Iconography, The Art
Bulletin, Art Journal, and EMF: Studies in Early Modern France, as well as in
numerous collections of essays.
Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University of South Australia, on 20 Apr 2019 at 14:37:36, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at
https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139629027
Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University of South Australia, on 20 Apr 2019 at 14:37:36, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at
https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139629027
