Medieval History
William Butterfield (1814-1900) was one of England's most accomplished and prolific Gothic Revivalists. Between 1881 and 1883 he built St Mary Magdalene's, Enfield in Middlesex. Every aspect of the building and its decoration is by Butterfield, including all the textiles. For the high altar he designed a number of glorious altar frontals (including the red and festal frontals illustrated) with embroidery which is reliant on medieval work. The demi-angels, lilies, fleur-de-lys and 'water flowers' as they were known, all have precedent in medieval English embroidery.
Butterfield was himself very interested in medieval embroidery. In 1880, around the time that he designed the Enfield frontals, Butterfield was involved in the publication of a seminal work on late medieval English embroideries. At his suggestion Mary Barber had started to produce a series of glorious illustrations of late Opus Anglicanum. These illustrations were to form a volume entitled Some Drawings of Ancient Embroidery, which was published after Barber's death under Butterfield's direction. It is the seminal work on the subject.
One of the plates from Mary Barber's volume.
Do follow the link to the Enfield website, where you will see some more photos of the Butterfield frontals.
- Canada Chaucer Seminar
Saturday, April 27, 2013 Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto Call for Papers The fifth annual Canada Chaucer Seminar will be held at the University of Toronto on Saturday, April 27th, 2013. The aim of the seminar is to provide a one-day...
- Kempe (?) (no In Fact A Waltertapper) Altar Frontal At Grantham
Click through for high resolution photos I took these photos in the summer on a trip to St Wulfram's Grantham, Lincolnshire with Gordon Plumb, but have only just got round to uploading them to Flickr. They show details of a really splendid altar...
- Advent Blue
This is a glorious little piece of late medieval English embroidery in the V and A. It formed part of an altar frontal, of unknown provenance, given by Henry Smyth and his wife and their son Thomas Smythe and his wife. It dates from the final quarter...
- Art For The Christian Liturgy In The Middle Ages
Many thanks to BLS of the Topmost Apple Blog for drawing the following link to my attention. The Metropolitan Museum for Art in New York has a page entitled Art for the Christian Liturgy in the Middle Ages, with some rather lovely images and commentary...
- A Long-lost Comper Commission?
Great Haseley, Oxfordshire, originally uploaded by Vitrearum.The chancel of the glorious church at Great Haseley in Oxfordshire has an 'English altar'. You know the sort of arrangement I mean, one that is enclosed on three sides with curtains,...
Medieval History
Butterfield's interpretation of medieval textiles
William Butterfield (1814-1900) was one of England's most accomplished and prolific Gothic Revivalists. Between 1881 and 1883 he built St Mary Magdalene's, Enfield in Middlesex. Every aspect of the building and its decoration is by Butterfield, including all the textiles. For the high altar he designed a number of glorious altar frontals (including the red and festal frontals illustrated) with embroidery which is reliant on medieval work. The demi-angels, lilies, fleur-de-lys and 'water flowers' as they were known, all have precedent in medieval English embroidery.
Butterfield was himself very interested in medieval embroidery. In 1880, around the time that he designed the Enfield frontals, Butterfield was involved in the publication of a seminal work on late medieval English embroideries. At his suggestion Mary Barber had started to produce a series of glorious illustrations of late Opus Anglicanum. These illustrations were to form a volume entitled Some Drawings of Ancient Embroidery, which was published after Barber's death under Butterfield's direction. It is the seminal work on the subject.
One of the plates from Mary Barber's volume.
Do follow the link to the Enfield website, where you will see some more photos of the Butterfield frontals.
- Canada Chaucer Seminar
Saturday, April 27, 2013 Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto Call for Papers The fifth annual Canada Chaucer Seminar will be held at the University of Toronto on Saturday, April 27th, 2013. The aim of the seminar is to provide a one-day...
- Kempe (?) (no In Fact A Waltertapper) Altar Frontal At Grantham
Click through for high resolution photos I took these photos in the summer on a trip to St Wulfram's Grantham, Lincolnshire with Gordon Plumb, but have only just got round to uploading them to Flickr. They show details of a really splendid altar...
- Advent Blue
This is a glorious little piece of late medieval English embroidery in the V and A. It formed part of an altar frontal, of unknown provenance, given by Henry Smyth and his wife and their son Thomas Smythe and his wife. It dates from the final quarter...
- Art For The Christian Liturgy In The Middle Ages
Many thanks to BLS of the Topmost Apple Blog for drawing the following link to my attention. The Metropolitan Museum for Art in New York has a page entitled Art for the Christian Liturgy in the Middle Ages, with some rather lovely images and commentary...
- A Long-lost Comper Commission?
Great Haseley, Oxfordshire, originally uploaded by Vitrearum.The chancel of the glorious church at Great Haseley in Oxfordshire has an 'English altar'. You know the sort of arrangement I mean, one that is enclosed on three sides with curtains,...