Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


  • Record Number: 10677
  • Author(s)/Creator(s): Valdez Del Alamo , Elizabeth
  • Contributor(s):
  • Title: Lament for a Lost Queen: The Sarcophagus of Doña Blanca in Nájera
  • Source URL: Art Bulletin (Full Text via JSTOR) 78, 2 (June 1996): 311-333. Link Info Later published in Memory and the Medieval Tomb. Edited by Elizabeth Valdez del Alamo with Carol Stamatis Pendergast. Ashgate, 2000. Pages 43-79. target = '_blank'>Art Bulletin (Full Text via JSTOR) 78, 2 (June 1996): 311-333. Link Info Later published in Memory and the Medieval Tomb. Edited by Elizabeth Valdez del Alamo with Carol Stamatis Pendergast. Ashgate, 2000. Pages 43-79.
  • Description:
  • Article Type: Journal Article
  • Subject (See Also): Art History- Sculpture Blanca of Navarre, Queen- Consort of Sancho III, King of Castile Burials Iconography Mothers in Art Mourning Queens Sarcophagi Women in Art
  • Award Note:
  • Geographic Area: Iberia
  • Century: 12
  • Primary Evidence: Sculpture; Nájera, Santa Mariá la Real. Sculpted lid of the sarcophagus of Doña Blanca of Navarre, queen- consort of Sancho III, king of Castile.
  • Illustrations: Twenty-eight figures. Fourteen figures illustrate the sarcophagus of Doña Blanca. Seven figures depict the sarcophagi of other Spanish queens and the nobility. Comparative illustrations from ancient Greek, Roman, and early Christian funerary art. Iconographic themes illustrated from ivory carvings and sculptures from Spanish churches.
  • Table:
  • Abstract: The death of a queen in childbirth in 1156 and the grief of her bereaved husband are represented on her sarcophagus. His lamentation, reenacted in the reliefs, constitutes a prayer for her soul and a device to assure the salvation of both queen and king. As part of Blanca's memorialization, the sculpture describes her salvation in feminized terms; the value of a good mother and her sacrifice are expressed by interweaving images of maternity, martyrdom, and judgement. Court culture, and liturgical, literary, and artistic sources for the images are explored, as is the political significance of the queen's burial site. [Reproduced by permission of the College Art Association.]
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  • Author's Affiliation:
  • Conference Info: - , -
  • Year of Publication: 1996.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN/ISBN: 00043079
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