Table Of ContentPostcolonising the Medieval Image
Postcolonial theories have transformed literary, historical and cultural studies over
the past three decades. Yet the study of medieval art and visualities has, in general,
remained Eurocentric in its canon and conservative in its approaches. ‘Postcolonis-
ing’, as the eleven essays in this volume show, entails active intervention into the field
of medieval art history and visual studies through a theoretical reframing of research.
This approach poses and elicits new research questions, and tests how concepts cur-
rent in postcolonial studies – such as diaspora and migration, under-represented artis-
tic cultures, accented art making, displacement, intercultural versus transcultural,
hybridity, presence/absence – can help medievalists to reinvigorate the study of art and
visuality. Postcolonial concepts are deployed in order to redraft the canon of medieval
art, thereby seeking to build bridges between medievalist and modernist communities
of scholars. Among the varied topics explored in the volume are the appropriation of
Roman iconography by early medieval Scandinavian metalworkers, multilingualism
and materiality in Anglo-Saxon culture, the circulation and display of Islamic secu-
lar ceramics on Pisan churches, cultural negotiation by Jewish minorities in Central
Europe and the Iberian peninsula, Holy Land maps and medieval imaginative geogra-
phy, and the uses of Thomas Becket in the colonial imaginary of the Plantagenet court.
Eva Frojmovic is Lecturer in the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural
Studies at University of Leeds. She specialises in medieval Jewish art and manuscript
illumination. She is also Director of the Centre for Jewish Studies. She edited the col-
lection Imagining the Self, Imagining the Other: Visual Representation and Jewish
Culture in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period (Leiden: Brill, 2002).
Catherine E. Karkov is Chair of Art History at the University of Leeds and has pub-
lished widely on Insular and Anglo-Saxon art and archaeology. She is the author
of Text and Picture in Anglo-Saxon England: Narrative Strategies in the Junius 11
Manuscript (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), The Ruler Portraits of
Anglo-Saxon England (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2004), and The Art of Anglo-
Saxon England (Boydell Press, 2011).
Postcolonising the
Medieval Image
Edited by
Eva Frojmovic and Catherine E. Karkov
First published 2017
by Routledge
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© 2017 selection and editorial matter, Eva Frojmovic and Catherine E. Karkov;
individual chapters, the contributors
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authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters,
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ISBN: 978-1-4724-8166-5 (hbk)
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Contents
List of figures vii
Acknowledgements xiii
List of contributors xiv
Introduction 1
EVA FROJMOVIC AND CATHERINE E. KARKOV
PART 1
The language of the postcolonial 15
1 Decolonising gold bracteates: From Late Roman medallions to
Scandinavian Migration Period pendants 17
NANCY L. WICKER
2 The Franks Casket speaks back: The bones of the past,
the becoming of England 37
CATHERINE E. KARKOV
3 Camouflaging and echoing the Latin mass in an illuminated
French-language missal 62
MARGARET E. HADLEY
PART 2
The location of the postcolonial 89
4 Mandeville’s Jews, colonialism, certainty, and art history 91
ASA SIMON MITTMAN
5 Conquest and coexistence in sixteenth-century Granada:
Imposing orders in the Alhambra’s Mexuar 120
LARA EGGLETON
vi Contents
6 Beyond Foucault’s laugh: On the ethical practice of medieval art history 144
ROLAND BETANCOURT
PART 3
The ambivalence of the postcolonial 167
7 Postcolonialising Thomas Becket: The saint as resistant site 169
ALYCE A. JORDAN
8 Defining a merchant identity and aesthetic in Pisa: Muslim ceramics
as commodities, mementos, and architectural decoration on
eleventh-century churches 196
KAREN ROSE MATHEWS
9 The Muslim warrior at the Seder meal: Dynamics between minorities
in the Rylands Haggadah 218
JANE BARLOW
10 Neighbouring and mixta in thirteenth-century Ashkenaz 241
EVA FROJMOVIC
Bibliography 261
Index 293
Figures
1 Wicker
1.1 Obverse, Medallion imitation, from Lilla Jored, Kville parish,
Bohuslän, Sweden (IK 107); Statens Historiska Museet, Stockholm,
inv. no. 421; diam. 3.9 cm (photograph no. 14710 by Ulf Bruxe,
SHM 1993–06–18, reproduced under Creative Commons). 19
1.2 Reverse, Medallion imitation, from Tunalund, Hjälsta parish,
Uppland, Sweden (IK 193); Statens Historiska Museet, Stockholm,
inv. no. 420; diam. 3.8 cm (photograph no. 14436 by Ulf Bruxe SHM
1993–07–28, reproduced under Creative Commons). 19
1.3 Type A bracteate (IK 189), from Trollhättan, Västergötland, Sweden;
Statens Historiska Museet, Stockholm, inv. no. 1164; diam. 2.3 cm
(photograph no. 14602 by Ulf Bruxe SHM 1993–07–08, reproduced
under Creative Commons). 21
1.4 Type B bracteate (IK 190), from Trollhättan, Västergötland, Sweden;
Statens Historiska Museet, Stockholm, inv. no. 421; diam. 2.8 cm
(photograph no. 14602 by Ulf Bruxe SHM 1993–07–08, reproduced
under Creative Commons). 21
1.5 Type C bracteate (IK 220), from Böja parish, Västergötland, Sweden;
Statens Historiska Museet, Stockholm, inv. no. 10237; diam. 2.8 cm
(photograph no. 14275 by Ulf Bruxe SHM 1993–07–14, reproduced
under Creative Commons). 22
1.6 Type D bracteate (IK 454), from Källemossan, Böja parish,
Västergötland, Sweden; Statens Historiska Museet, Stockholm, inv.
no. 27302; diam. 2.2 cm (photograph no. 14156 by Ulf Bruxe SHM
1993–07–16, reproduced under Creative Commons). 23
1.7 Type C bracteate (IK 365.5) with hind leg kicked up, from
Slitebacka, Othem parish, Gotland, Sweden; Statens Historiska
Museet, Stockholm, inv. no. 69, diam. 2.6 cm (photograph no.
13850 by Ulf Bruxe SHM 1993–08–19, reproduced under Creative
Commons). 24
1.8 Medallion imitation with bird below bust of man (IK 193), from
Tunalund, Uppland, Sweden; Statens Historiska Museet, Stockholm,
inv. no. 420; diam. 3.8 cm (photograph no. 21999 by Ulf Bruxe SHM
1999–12–02, reproduced under Creative Commons). 31
viii Figures
2 Karkov
2.1 Franks Casket, front panel (British Museum, London, Inv. No.
1867,0120.1) (reproduced by permission of The British Museum). 38
2.2 Franks Casket, lid (reproduced by permission of The British Museum). 38
2.3 Franks Casket, right panel (reproduced by permission of The British
Museum). 39
2.4 Franks Casket, back panel (reproduced by permission of The British
Museum). 39
2.5 Franks Casket, left panel (reproduced by permission of The British
Museum). 40
3 Hadley
3.1 Triumphal Entry, First Sunday of Advent, Yale Missal, 1460s. New
Haven, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library MS 425, fol. 6r
(photograph: courtesy Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library,
Yale University). 63
3.2 Jesus casts out a demon and a mute man speaks, Third Sunday of
Lent, Yale Missal, 1460s. New Haven, Beinecke Library MS 425,
fol. 74r (photograph: courtesy Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript
Library, Yale University). 67
3.3 Luke holds a flask and scroll, Feast of Luke, Yale Missal, 1460s.
New Haven, Beinecke Library MS 425, fol. 310r
(photograph: courtesy Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library,
Yale University). 71
3.4 Circumcision of John the Baptist, Nativity of John the Baptist, Yale
Missal, 1460s. New Haven, Beinecke Library MS 425, fol. 276r
(photograph: courtesy Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library,
Yale University). 72
3.5 Magdalene anoints Jesus’s head, Palm Sunday, Yale Missal, 1460s.
New Haven, Beinecke Library MS 425, fol. 113r (photograph:
courtesy Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University). 74
3.6 Pentecost, Feast of Pentecost, Yale Missal, 1460s. New Haven,
Beinecke Library MS 425, fol. 183r (photograph: courtesy Beinecke
Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University). 76
3.7 Paul writes and Ephesians read, Common of Apostles,
Yale Missal, 1460s. New Haven, Beinecke Library MS 425, fol. 320v
(photograph: courtesy Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library,
Yale University). 77
3.8 Last Supper, Maundy Thursday, Yale Missal, 1460s. New Haven,
Beinecke Library MS 425, fol. 133v (photograph: courtesy Beinecke
Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University). 79
3.9 Wedding at Cana, First Sunday after the octave of Epiphany, Yale
Missal, 1460s. New Haven, Beinecke Library, MS 425, fol. 31r
(photograph: courtesy Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library,
Yale University). 81
Figures ix
4 Mittman
4.1 Mandeville Setting Out, Book of John Mandeville, London, British
Library Harley 3954, fol. 1r, c. 1425–50 (photograph: The British
Library Board, reproduced under Creative Commons). 96
4.2 Land of the Griffins, Book of John Mandeville, c. 1425–50. London,
British Library Harley 3954, fol. 54v (photograph: The British
Library Board, reproduced under Creative Commons). 97
4.3 Dyson Perrins Apocalypse, Malibu, J. Paul Getty Museum
MS Ludwig III.i, fol. 24v, English, c. 1255–60 (photograph courtesy
of the Getty’s Open Content Program). 98
4.4 Matthew Paris, Map of the Holy Land, Chronica Majora,
Cambridge, Corpus Christi College MS 26, fol. iii verso–iv recto,
c. 1250 (photograph: by permission of the Master and Fellows of
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge). 104
4.5 Mappamundi, Psalter, London, British Library, Add. MS 28681, fol.
9r, c. 1265 (photograph: The British Library Board, reproduced under
Creative Commons). 105
4.6 Jews Locked in Caspian Mountains, Book of John Mandeville,
London, British Library Harley 3954, fol. 53r, c. 1425–50
(photograph: The British Library Board, reproduced under Creative
Commons). 108
4.7 Emblem of Hamas (photograph: http://hamas.ps/en/page/2/). 110
5 Eggleton
5.1 One of two twin murals dating from the reign of Charles V relocated
to the eastern wall of the Mexuar Hall, with Doric column and Plus
Ultra banderole (photograph: Lara Eggleton). 121
5.2 View of the north wall of the Mexuar Hall, with balustrade of the
choir balcony still intact (photograph: Lara Eggleton). 124
5.3 José García Ayola, ‘Capilla de Carlos Quinto’ (chimneypiece
incorporated into altar of the Mexuar Chapel, Nasrid palace
complex, Alhambra), Archivo del Patronato de la Alhambra y el
Generalife (APAG), Colección de Fotografias, F-05417. 125
5.4 Contemporary photograph of the Mexuar after the excavation of the
sixteenth-century floor, removal of the altar and relocation of the left
Plus Ultra mural (photograph: Lara Eggleton). 126
5.5 View of the Palace of Charles V from the northwest, with
stone portico, centre (photograph: Lara Eggleton). 132
5.6 Carved gypsum crowns originally above both heraldic
murals (photograph: Lara Eggleton). 134
5.7 Pilar de Carlo V (commissioned by Tendilla and designed by Pedro
Machuca), with Plus Ultra emblem located beneath the upper left
fountain (photograph: Lara Eggleton). 135
5.8 Detail of decorative inner border, Plus Ultra mural, Mexuar
(photograph: Lara Eggleton). 136
