The Dynamic of Design: ‘Source’ Buildings and Contract Making in England in the Later Middle Ages

Byng, Gabriel

doi:10.1017/arh.2016.4

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 15 publications

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“…104 These were not insignificant associations for the city's government to foster: contemporary iconographies could show even kings visiting building sites, while architectural patronage was a "good work" that would speed the donor's soul through purgatory and the church building was of course a central and remarkable element of religious praxis. 105 In London, where the moral or spiritual authority, and the economic potency, of the city's government was no less important, the closest equivalent was the building of new quays or similar non-ecclesiastical projects, which carried a quite different set of associations. 106 This is not to argue that London's elite were not able to access the political advantages that came through the oversight of church construction, but it was a somewhat different, probably broader elite and a somewhat different and perhaps more powerful set of advantages.…”

Section: The Politics Of Architecturementioning

confidence: 99%

The Architecture of Politics and the Politics of Architecture: A Comparative Approach to Parish Church Building and Civic Government in Late-Medieval Europe

Byng

2024

Comp Stud Soc Hist

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Church construction was one of the most challenging, and most political, tasks undertaken by medieval cities. Comparing examples from across Europe reveals profound differences, however, in both the architecture of politics and the politics of architecture; that is, how building projects were administered and how their administration shaped their socio-political significance. Although ranging across the continent, this article is centered on construction in two representative cities: Vienna and London. While the former had a small number of churches, all under the direct control of the mayor and council, the latter had over a hundred, each overseen by locally appointed officers. In Vienna, church construction was, thus, an important field of activity for the city government, which oversaw the work and celebrated its own leadership of the project; in London, it lay outside civic control and offered local opportunities for domination by wealthy families. This difference can be found across the continent, separating the large, old cities of England, northern France, Spain, and the Low Countries, which could have numerous churches, from smaller towns and cities both in these places and across the rest of central, northern, and southern Europe, which typically had a single, major parish church and only a few subordinate ones. This article considers the implications of these two contrasting models—centralized and decentralized, civic and parochial, high government and local politics—on how architectural production functioned as a field of political activity and how church building shaped local distributions and articulations of power in medieval Europe.

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Section: The Politics Of Architecturementioning

confidence: 99%

The Architecture of Politics and the Politics of Architecture: A Comparative Approach to Parish Church Building and Civic Government in Late-Medieval Europe

Byng

2024

Comp Stud Soc Hist

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A Last Easter Sepulchre: Thomas Wever and St Mary’s Church, Tarrant Hinton, Dorset

Connor¹

2022

Antiq. J.

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The defaced and probably unfinished Easter sepulchre at St Mary’s Church, Tarrant Hinton, in Dorset is exceptional in its scale and sophisticated renaissance decoration, in comparison to other sixteenth-century structures associated with contemporary Easter liturgy. Previous notice of it has been impeded by failure to assess properly the upper part of the monument, which new photography now renders accessible. This demonstrates a remarkable resemblance between its (defaced) angels and the bronze angels by Benedetto da Rovezzano being prepared at Westminster in the late 1520s for the tomb of Cardinal Wolsey; while the lower part of the structure displays influence from contemporary French decoration. This structure is assessed in the contexts of other monuments of the early sixteenth century intended to support a temporary Easter sepulchre and of what can be reconstructed of the career of the minor but wealthy cleric who was responsible for its erection. Thomas Wever MA (d. 1536) made additions to two of his rectories besides building substantial extensions on the north side of Tarrant Hinton church. It is suggested that both his building there and the Easter sepulchre itself are unfinished and were abandoned at his death as a result of his continued indebtedness. The sepulchre itself suggests a direction that English church decoration never took.

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List of publications on the economic and social history of Great Britain and Ireland published in 2016

Hale¹,

Raymond²,

Wright³

2017

The Economic History Review

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The Dynamic of Design: ‘Source’ Buildings and Contract Making in England in the Later Middle Ages

Cited by 3 publications

References 15 publications

The Architecture of Politics and the Politics of Architecture: A Comparative Approach to Parish Church Building and Civic Government in Late-Medieval Europe

The Architecture of Politics and the Politics of Architecture: A Comparative Approach to Parish Church Building and Civic Government in Late-Medieval Europe

A Last Easter Sepulchre: Thomas Wever and St Mary’s Church, Tarrant Hinton, Dorset

List of publications on the economic and social history of Great Britain and Ireland published in 2016

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