Chapter 21 - Catriona Murray

Raising Royal Bodies:
Stuart Authority and the Monumental Image


This chapter considers Stuart monuments as agents of royal power, tracing the origins and development of sculpture as a potent political language in early modern Britain. Under the Stuarts the focus of royal monuments shifted from religious to secular commemoration. As sculpted images emerged from spiritual spaces into public arenas, meanings were re-configured and re-interpreted. Monuments came to play a pivotal role in the negotiation of royal authority. The seventeenth century witnessed transformative processes of dynastic change, political transition and representational development and these were articulated in stone, bronze and lead.

Early modern portrayals of royal power were formed through an involved dialogue between patrons, artists, and audiences. Monuments were particularly potent sites for these exchanges. Set up across Britain, Stuart sculptural schemes endowed public spaces with a symbolic royal presence which was immediate and tangible. This emotive political performance could prompt both popular devotion and destruction. The conception, erection, and afterlives of Stuart monuments powerfully evince evolving representations and perceptions of monarchy. Through analysis of royal tomb sculpture and public statuary, this chapter will explore how monuments served to mediate royal authority, public loyalty, and political opposition.

By Catriona Murray


Catriona Murray

Catriona Murray is lecturer in History of Art at the University of Edinburgh. A historian of early modern British visual and material culture, her research focuses on the intersections of art and propaganda during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.

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Keywords

Philip II of Spain; Elizabeth I ; Louis XIV of France; James VI and I; Henry VIII; Charles I; Charles II; James V of Scots; Henry VII; Mary, Queen of Scots; Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury; Pietro Torrigiano; Mary I of England; Nicholas Hilliard; Maximilian Colt; Cornelius Cure; Andrea del Verrocchio; Donatello; Gian Lorenzo Bernini; Henry IV of France; Louis XIII of France; Francesco Fanelli; François Dieussart; Hubert Le Sueur; William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury; Richard Weston, Earl of Portland; Henrietta Maria, Queen of England; Marie de Medici, Queen of France; Peter Paul Rubens; Thomas Carew; Anthony Van Dyck; Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor; Giambologna; Cosimo I, Grand Duke of Tuscany; Pietro Tacca; Philip III of Spain; Louis XVIII, King of France; John Revett; Edward I of England; Eleanor of Castile; Joshua Marshall; Christopher Wren; Queen Anne; George II; Robert Walpole; James VII and II; William Larson; Leopold V, Archduke of Austria; Philip IV of Spain; William III

University College, Oxford; Newcastle; Charing Cross, London; Westminster Abbey, London; St. Johns’ College, Oxford; Pont Neuf, Paris

Monuments; Representation; Iconoclasm

Images

Pietro Torrigiano, Tomb of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York (1512-19): See image

Wenceslaus Hollar, The Statue of King Charles I at Charing Cross (1630s): See image

Related Chapters

Mikolaj Getka-Kenig: In Pursuit of Social Allies: Royal Residences and Political Legitimacy in Post-Revolutionary Europe, 1804-1830 (See Chapter 22)

Cathleen Sarti: Deposition of Monarchs in Northern Kingdoms (See Chapter 34)