Early Drama, Art, and Music Reference – serie

The study of the early art of England can be frustrating for scholars, as the destruction by iconoclasm and neglect was very thorough in certain regions. This volume seeks to aid those studying the early art, including relics and musical iconography, of Coventry, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwick, and other Warwickshire locations. Accompanied by 71 illustrations and 2 maps, the subject lists found within provide information from records and antiquarian accounts that should prove invaluable in visualizing the dimensions of the iconography of both lost and extant early art from the region.

The study of the early art of England can be frustrating for scholars, as the destruction by iconoclasm and neglect was very thorough in certain regions. This volume seeks to aid those studying the early art, including relics and musical iconography, of Coventry, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwick, and other Warwickshire locations. Accompanied by 71 illustrations and 2 maps, the subject lists found within provide information from records and antiquarian accounts that should prove invaluable in visualizing the dimensions of the iconography of both lost and extant early art from the region.

The Easter Sepulchre is the English form of a monument known throughout Western Europe in the Middle Ages as the sepulchrum domini, the tomb of the Lord, the monument associated specifically with the commemorative Easter rites. The Easter Sepulchre stood in the place of Christ's tomb in Jerusalem, recreated in hundreds of churches in England for Holy Week and Easter each year. This volume discusses this important monument that stands at the intersection of several important aspects of medieval culture: its study impinges upon the fields of drama, liturgy, art history, and social history. The study is organized so as to trace individual threads - the representations of the Holy Sepulchre in art, the development of the commemorative Easter rites, and the form and iconography of the Easter Sepulchre - before describing the pattern that results when they are interwoven. This volume is of critical interest to those studying this monument, and sheds light on the intersections of medieval English developments in art, liturgy, drama, and popular religion.

This book will serve as an invaluable research tool for students and scholars with an interest in art relating to early drama, as well as those whose interests lie more in local art history, specifically that of Chester. Though it may not contain the bumper-crop of surviving subject-art as a city such as York possesses, Chester nevertheless holds much of value and interest, as the list in this book aptly demonstrates. Richly illustrated and carefully arranged, this book is a tremendous catalog of surviving subject-art and will reward any scholar who pulls it from the bookshelf.

Professor Palmer has systematically surveyed the art of the former West Riding of Yorkshire and has provided an iconographic index of this large region where medieval drama also flourished.