How the Victorians Portrayed the Medieval World

 Illustration: Edward Burne-Jones. The Attainment tapestry design.

One of the most popular style projections of the Victorians, particularly in Britain, was that of the medieval. Although the Gothic Revivals main period was between about 1840 and 1870, re-enactments and reinterpretations were still proving popular with both artists and designers, as well as the general public, right up until the end of the century and indeed beyond.

How the Victorians visually interpreted the medieval world is an interesting one as it was often portrayed in textile formats, particularly within the medium of tapestry. Tapestry was seen by many of those fascinated with all things medieval, as being a craft that was steeped in the traditions of this early period and one that had a natural affinity to the era. Although many original medieval tapestries were often actually embroideries rather than woven tapestries, it mattered little to the average Victorian with their propensity to project their needs and wants onto past cultural periods, ignoring the areas that might well have troubled them and their interpretations. We do the same today and often reflect our own imaginings and concerns onto periods that would have had difficulty recognising our versions of their worlds.

Although the Victorian interpretation of the medieval was an obvious nineteenth century construct, it is often the same one that we ourselves popularly project on to that medieval world and sometimes for similar reasons. Many of us like to imagine living in a historical period, whether it be medieval, Elizabethan, Regency and so on. The premise is always that we would live in a large house and have a plentiful wardrobe of fine clothes. Most of us of course come from long generations of subsistence living peasantry and life for our ancestors was far from those imagined lifestyles. However, that is part of the fascination in projected interpretations of the past. They are no more real than our projections of the future, but they do allow us to daydream, fantasise and perhaps place ourselves, if only for a moment, beyond the normal and unimaginative constraints of contemporary everyday life, just as it did for the Victorian with their dreams of chivalry, romance and contented peasantry.

Illustration: Norwegian tapestry design, 12th century.

The Victorian practical reinterpretation of the medieval is even more interesting and can be seen through some of the examples shown in this article. There are two original medieval tapestry designs, which might well be embroidered, but can still be loosely classed as tapestries for this article, as they were classed as such in the nineteenth century. One is Norwegian and from the twelfth century, the other German and from the thirteenth century. Both show not only a lack of perspective, but more interestingly, a lack of interest in perspective. It is often a left over prejudice from the eighteenth century to infer that the medieval period forgot the classical ideals of proportion, perspective and realism, and had to resort to childlike interpretations of the world around them. Their work was often seen as crude and barbaric, and the decorative and artistic work of the period as one which cried out for the classical reawakening of the renaissance. However, for those living in the medieval world, as opposed to the eighteenth century, they would have seen the interpretation of the world on tapestry for example, as merely a stylised reflection of the world around them. It was never meant that it should be perceived as a duplicate, a copy of the real world, which they would have seen as a pointless exercise, which indeed it is.

Looking at the nineteenth century Edward Burne-Jones tapestry interpretation of the medieval world, it is interesting to note that the artist was prepared to use all of the classically derived tricks of proportion, perspective and realism to portray the world of the medieval, and none of the stylised reflections of the world as seen by the medieval creative mind. In many ways the Burne-Jones interpretation shows us how hard it was for generations of the post-renaissance period to throw away the tools of classicism no matter how hard they may have wanted to shift the emphasis away from the classical to the medieval world. Many Victorians were quite strident in their loathing of what they saw as the interruption of the creative pathway of art and decoration from the sixteenth to the end of the eighteenth century. Many critics wished to see the nineteenth century equivalent of art and decoration as being interpreted as a continuation from the fifteenth century, leaving out the intervening classically dominated centuries, which were often seen by the English in particular as a cultural invasion from Europe that bore no affinity with the indigenous craft and decorative styles of England. That large sections of medieval creativity were also part of the on-going succession of cultural and creative invasions from Europe predictably passed them by.

Illustration: German tapestry design, 13th century.

At any rate, it is interesting to see that although the Victorians tried to re-connect with a medieval past, the intervening centuries were too wide a chasm to really bridge effectively and certainly creatively. The Victorian interpretation of the medieval world was exactly that, an interpretation. While the Gothic Revival certainly has merit as a creative movement, its projection of the medieval world was largely a false one whether culturally or creatively. Generations of classical indoctrination had led to an increasingly sterile creative world and the idea of any other viewpoint but the classical was one that was a hurdle too far for most, although to be fair, not all.

As far as the practical interpretation of the medieval world was concerned, it wasn't until the dawn of the twentieth century that the classical ideals of proportion, perspective and realism could start to be truly abandoned on a large scale or at least uncoupled from the creative world. It could be said that with the introduction of various new perspectives in the world of fine art a reconnection with the practical medieval reflection of the world, could at last be attempted.

Further reading links:

Embroidered Robes of Thomas Becket

Illustration: Thomas Becket's embroidered apparel of the amice (detail), 1165.

The ecclesiastical robes of the twelfth century Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket are kept within the precincts of Sens Cathedral in Eastern France. Although the cathedral has long verified that all the vestments attributed to Thomas Becket did indeed belong to him, as with many Saints, there were a number of items that were said to be part of the life and death of Becket, not all could be verified.

As the nineteenth century architectural draughtsman, illuminator, engraver, antiquarian and all-round medievalist Henry Shaw stated in his 1843 book 'Dresses and Decorations of the Middle Ages' from which all four of the illustrations to this article are drawn:

'Long after the death of Becket, he continued to be commemorated in a particular manner in all the places where he was believed to have resided, or which he was known to have visited, and every article which had belonged to him was preserved with extreme veneration. The error, or the zeal, of his admirers, no doubt led them frequently to add to the number of these relics many things which had no claim to the honour, and such may be the case with some of the vestments which are shown at Sens as the robes of St. Thomas of Canterbury.'

Illustration: Thomas Becket's embroidered apparel of the amice, 1165.

It has to be understood that relics were a large part of the medieval world and could therefore easily be both used legitimately as well as being spontaneously manufactured for the commercial benefit of either Church or individual. However, Shaw was also aware that a number of the items belonging to Beckets ecclesiastical vestments held at Sens Cathedral might well be genuine and therefore took the stand that with at least some of the items:

'...it is probable that the tradition is correct.'

The four illustrations shown in this article come from a section of the Apparel of the Amice said to have belonmged to Thomas Becket. At this point it is probably just as well to state what both an 'Apparel' and 'Amice' are and who better to explain than Shaw himself:

'The Amice was a piece of fine linen, in form of an oblong square, suspended over the shoulders. It was introduced in the eighth century, to cover the neck, which was previously bare. The Apparel is the embroidered part of the amice, which is usually fastened to it in such a manner as to serve as a kind of collar. By the strings attached to the Apparel of Thomas Becket, it would appear that it was tied round the neck after all the other vestments had been put on; though it is supposed by a person deeply acquainted with the subject that the strings are comparatively modern.'

The embroidery decorative work, although relatively simple, is both effective and a perfect example of early medieval decoration. That perhaps was the point, considering the early Victorian penchant for anything medieval. Shaw produced a number of books over a fairly extensive career, many of which were firmly part of the genre that helped to both explain and illustrate various aspects of medieval decoration and ornament. 

Illustration: Thomas Becket's embroidered apparel of the amice (detail), 1165.

The medieval world was approached in a number of different ways by those living in the mid-nineteenth century. Some saw it as little more than a fashionable revival style, others as an academic exploration, others still as a crusade against the hegemony of the classical world, as well as a number of other viewpoints in-between. Whichever way the individual considered the correct one, it can be said that the average reader was not short of journals, pamphlets, guides and lengthy tomes dedicated to all aspects of the medieval world. 

Information, as today with the internet, was considered above all to be the greatest guide. While approaches to the subject were sometimes of a deeply personal and individual nature, others were more generally informative and widely distributed. The amount of effort put into the expansion of knowledge concerned with the medieval world was phenomenal. It did not take long for those involved in the contemporary decorative arts to start using wide sections of this information to make both informed decisions as to the Victorian reinvention of the medieval world as well as some wilder reimagining that although not strictly following closely to the medieval ideals concerning decoration and ornament, nevertheless did help produce a truly individual Victorian decorative style era. 

Illuatration: Thomas Becket's embroidered apparel of the amice, 1165.

Without books such as those produced by Henry Shaw and many others, as well as the various historical collections and indeed Church and Cathedral remains, the Victorian medieval revival that we know today as the Gothic Revival, would surely have been the poorer, at least as far as decoration and ornament are concerned. Whether, as Shaw stated, all of the vestments of Thomas Becket were genuine or not, most would still have been produced in the medieval period and therefore were still valid as far as many were concerned as important living specimens of medieval decoration and as such were vital tools in which to promote a genuine interest in this early European decorative style era of which the Victorians were so enamoured.

Further reading links: