Queens in Stone and Silver - The Creation of a Visual Imagery of Queenship in Capetian France

Queens in Stone and Silver makes the intriguing argument that royal women from the early twelfth through the mid-thirteenth centuries exercised cultural patronage to craft a visual imagery for queenship. Kathleen Nolan''s study is the first to juxtapose medieval effigy tombs and personal seals, the two main forms of self-representation. This study considers the meaning of art both through the dialogue between semiotic and iconographic methodologies and the study of lost medieval monuments through the eyes of witnesses from the past. By extricating the artistic meaning of the seals and tombs, Nolan''s uncovers the true agency of royal women and adds a new angle to the way we look at the past.