A rich tapestry of images brings the Medieval world alive
The Medieval world was rich with images: carvings, manuscripts, wall-paintings, tapestries and stained glass. Stepping inside an East Anglian village church, a 14th century peasant would have stepped into a visual book, with the saints, virtues and sins instantly recognisable around them. ‘Medieval Imaginations’ provides a database of images to enable students to explore the interface between the literature and visual culture of medieval England. It has been compiled to provide images corresponding to the main episodes dramatized in the English Mystery Plays, because these present the medieval view of human history from the Creation to the Last Judgement.
The idea of using the Mystery Plays as a focus for developing a website for teaching medieval literature and visual culture was conceived by Barry Windeatt, Professor of English in the Faculty; the general conception of the site was then developed in collaboration with Claire Daunton and other colleagues.
The images are mostly of English origin and from the later Middle Ages, with an emphasis on material from East Anglia, one of medieval England’s most dynamic regions. Images have been selected to represent the rich diversity of artistic forms and media, including painting, stained glass, alabaster, textiles, and sculpture. Images were the books of all those who could not read in the Middle Ages, and through ‘Medieval Imaginations’ you can reconstruct something of the visual culture that once surrounded medieval people and gave meaning to their world.
