The Tomb of Adelaide of Maurienne and the Visual Imagery of Capetian Queenship

Abstract

In the rapidly expanding discourse on queens in medieval Europe, scholars have realized that cultural patronage is as valuable an index of social role as more traditional markers such as signatures on charters.1 Much of the discussion has centered on manuscripts, which from the late twelfth century was a medium much involved with the construction of reginal imagery and ideology, as three essays in the current collection cogently argue. Another medium, tomb sculpture, which has long been understood as an aspect of kings’ identity, has in recent years been understood to define reginal status as well.2 The twelfth and thirteenth centuries in France saw the beginnings of effigy tombs for royal men and women; many of these innovations can be linked to the patronage of Capetian queens and other women of royal birth.