Full Description
The Middle Ages were marked by dramatic social, economic, political, and religious changes. Diverse regional and local conditions, and varied social classes - including peasant, artisan, merchant, clergy, nobility, and rulers - resulted in differing needs for furniture. The social settings for furniture included official and private residences both grand and humble, churches and monasteries, and civic institutions, including places of governance and learning, such as municipal halls, guild halls, and colleges. This volume explores how furniture contributed to the social fabric within these varied spaces.
The chronological range of this volume extends from the fall of the Roman Empire through to the early Renaissance, a period which exhibited a wide array of types, styles, and motifs, including Byzantine, Romanesque, Gothic, and Renaissance. Rural and regional styles of furniture are also considered, as well as techniques of furniture manufacture.
Drawing upon a wealth of visual and textual sources, this volume presents essays that examine key characteristics of the furniture of the period on the themes of Design and Motifs; Makers, Making, and Materials; Types and Uses; The Domestic Setting; The Public Setting; Exhibition and Display; Furniture and Architecture; Visual Representations; and Verbal Representations.
Contents
List of Illustrations
Notes on Contributors
Series Preface
Editors' Acknowledgements
Introduction: Furniture and Culture, Erin J. Campbell and Stephanie R. Miller
1. Design and Motifs, Evanthia Baboula
2. Makers, Making, and Materials: Materials, Tools, Techniques, and Organization of the Trade, Claudio Paolini
3. Types and Uses: Medieval Furniture in Social Context, Christopher Pickvance
4. The Domestic Setting, Stephanie R. Miller
5. The Public Setting, Matthew M. Reeve
6. Exhibition and Display, Leah R. Clark and Caroline Campbell
7. Furniture and Architecture, Ethan Matt Kavaler
8. Visual Representations: Setting the Stage - The Structural Roles of Furniture in Medieval Art and Illustration, Diane J. Reilly and Elizabeth Moore Hunt
9. Verbal Representations: Making 'an Honest Bede' - Encountering God in Bed in Late Medieval England, Hollie L. S. Morgan
Notes
Bibliography
Index
