Kathleen Nolan (1) (1952–)

In this slim study, Kathleen Nolan explores how a series of French queens in the High Middle Ages—particularly Bertrade of Montfort, Adelaide of Maurienne, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and Blanche of Castile—crafted a "visual imagery for queenship" through their commissioning of seals and tomb figures. The source base is often fragmentary, and Nolan's connections must often therefore be suggestive rather than definitive. As I'm not an art historian, I have to take her at her word when it comes to her identification of stylistic similarities between various objects. However, overall a careful study which must be of interest to anyone studying power, patronage, and visual identity in the Middle Ages.… (mehr)