What do you leave out when you only have 30 seconds to explain your research? That was the challenge facing Laura and our other researchers recently in the context of our upcoming project videos. In this post, Laura explains some of her more painful editorial decisions.
In the second of her posts on modern views of the Middle Ages, Laura considers how the work of the engaging historian is a careful balancing act between over-simplification and mind-boggling detail. Does a simplistic view of the Middle Ages hide interesting facts, and darker truths, from a non-specialist audience?
In the first of a new series of posts on the perception and reality of the Middle Ages, Laura announces a public engagement activity and considers why the imagery of the medieval era has been so often used to glorify war.
In the last of her posts on the Priory Church of St Mary, Abergavenny, Laura considers he Tree of Jesse, a unique surviving monumental sculpture.
On 5-7th April 2018, project member Laura Slater attended the ‘Association for Art History’ annual conference in London, held at the Strand campus of King’s College London and The Courtauld Institute of Art. She gave a research presentation on ‘Devotional Soundscapes in the Psalter of Queen Philippa’ as part a thematic strand organised by Margit Thøfner and Tim Shephard. More excitingly, she contributed to a live musical event held at The Courtauld Gallery, organised by Dr Charlotte de Mille, founder and curator of the music programme at The Courtauld Gallery.
In her last post, Laura introduced us to the elaborate tombs of the Hastings family at St Mary’s priory Abergavenny, and showed what they can reveal about attitudes towards memorial and self-image amongst late-medieval nobles. This time, Laura turns her attention to other tombs at St Mary’s, and the difficulties of studying medieval art in Britain.
In the second of her posts on commemoration, Laura shows the role that effigies could play in creating dynastic identity.
In the first of a series of posts on commemoration, MALMECC’s art historian Laura Slater looks at the phenomenon of the ‘Eleanor Crosses’ – a very visible memorial to Eleanor of Castile…
In the second part of her ‘Sex at Court’ series, Laura Slater looks at the phenomenon of prostitutes at court, and the various measures – including licensing, imprisonment and taxes – that were taken in order to try and regulate them.
As we saw in the ‘Marriage at Court’ posts, matters of romance were not always plain sailing… In the first of a series of posts on ‘Sex at Court’, Laura Slater looks at some notable examples of marital breakdown and adultery in medieval England.
