Medieval
The Chaworth Roll
48 pages, paperback, 300 x 240 mm, 42 colour illustrations
PRICE: £15.00
ISBN: 978 0 953942 20 6
By Alixe Bovey with Olivier de Laborderie and Marigold Norbye
According to the Chaworth Roll, Egbert was ‘the first king of all England’, reigning 829–39. The Chaworth genealogical Roll of the kings of England was made in the 1320s for the Chaworth family, then it was brought up to date as far as Henry IV (1399–1413) and remained with Chaworth descendants until very recently. Such rolls were made for members of an increasingly literate aristocracy whose appetite for popular history flourished in 14th-century England.
This example provides a succinct overview of English history seasoned with tales of traitors, piety, battles, saints, sinners and incidents of divine intervention – a medieval equivalent of a popular modern television series on the monarchy. Written in Anglo-Norman French, which was still the dominant language of the aristocracy in the 1320s, its pithy and memorable texts grab the reader’s attention and summarise the highlights of each monarch’s reign.
The roll is 6.5 meters long, 24.5 cm wide and consists of nine parchment membranes glued end to end. Most of the roll is the work of a single artist, dubbed the Chaworth Master. The roll starts with an allegorical image of Dame Fortune and a map of England. Full-length seated portraits of the kings and their offspring are depicted in medallions, with accompanying text praising or utterly condemning.
Approximately thirty such genealogies produced in England in the decades between 1271 and 1327 survive. Within this group, the Chaworth Roll is especially close in style and content to three others, one in the Bodleian Library and two in Cambridge University Library, but is in far better condition.
This catalogue accompanies an exhibition at the Groeninge Museum, Bruges, which celebrates one of the greatest European artists of the late fourteenth century, André Beauneveu, apparently born in Valenciennes c. 1335. The full scope of his talent was exploited by the celebrated royal patron Jean de Berry, for whom he produced manuscript illuminations, made designs for stained glass and oversaw the construction of his château at Mehun-sur-Yevre. However, it is primarily his very great skill in the handling of stone which gives Beauneveu such particular significance in the history of late medieval art. More
These works of museum quality, from an anonymous collection (one of the most important currently in private hands), were exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2005. Many of the objects in the catalogue will be well known to those familiar with the specialist literature, even if they were unaware of their whereabouts. More
Medieval art has been collected for at least 200 years, yet there is a perception that if it is not locked away in a monastery it has found its home in a museum long ago. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is the richness and variety of what still lies unclaimed by history that makes this material so interesting. More
This is the catalogue to an outstanding collection of Medieval art from a private collection. Ranging from paintings and sculpture to stained glass, manuscripts and caskets, many of the objects presented here are of absolute rarity, some are previously unpublished and - until recently - unknown. More
