He is bearded, wears a golden crown, and carries a long, slender scepter topped by a fleur-de-lis (the stylized lily symbolizing the French monarchy). The ruler’s rich garments conceal his body and cascade in generous swaths over his shoulders and forearms. We see a man seated on a throne with no back, framed tightly by two thin columns. This window speaks especially eloquently to the modern idea of what a medieval king should look like because it is in fact a composite of two windows from the same source that were grafted together by a modern restorer, though this does not detract from our reading of the image. An example of such a representation is found in a panel of stained glass (Figure 1) now in Glencairn’s collection, originally displayed in the clerestory of the Gothic church of Saint-Yved in Braine, France (c. Western medieval visual artists created conventional images of rulers-not lifelike portraits revealing the unique likenesses of individual rulers. While we are fed such a stereotyped image on TV and in the movies, that image does have a precedent in medieval art. Most medieval people never saw a king or queen in the flesh, but through pictures they could apprehend the core values of kingship and, in turn, understand their own role within both the earthly kingdom and the kingdom of God.Īsk anyone to imagine a medieval king, and an image of a crowned, enthroned figure in robes likely will come to mind. Among many other things, these decorations communicated an ideal social order, with a ruler at the very top of the earthly hierarchy. Medieval church decorations depicted biblical subjects, saints, the end of time, and sometimes aspects of popular culture. This was important because as part of its primary function as the center of Christian spiritual life, church was an important place for medieval people to learn about the world around them. Such images emphasized the bond between the Church as an institution and the Christian ruler as God’s anointed representative on earth. Building upon this concept, portrayals of both sacred and secular kings and queens frequently were found among the wall paintings, stained-glass windows, and sculptures of medieval churches. Though earthly leadership lies in the hands of humans, medieval kingship was rooted in divine sanction. The key concept at the heart of medieval kingship was the profound connection between ruler and God. Yet regardless of who specifically they represented, images of rulers helped medieval people to understand what it meant to be a king or queen. Examination of these works reveals that during the Middle Ages many different kinds of rulers were revered, whether current or past monarchs, canonized kings such as Louis IX of France, biblical rulers like David, Solomon, and Sheba, or mythical leaders such as Arthur. Monarchs are depicted everywhere among the Museum’s stone sculptures and stained-glass panels. The people of the Middle Ages were as enthralled by their kings and queens as we are today-that much becomes clear upon exploring Glencairn’s collection of medieval art.
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