Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index

Title: Eleanor of Aquitaine
Creator:
Description: Eleanor is portrayed as alive and reading a book (hands and book are modern restorations but a 17th century drawing of the tomb confirms that the figure was holding a book). This effigy is stylistically unusual, as two contemporary effigies also located in the abbey—those of Richard the Lionheart and Henry II—represent the kings as deceased and lying in state.
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Rights: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported
Subject (See Also): Eleanor of Aquitaine, Wife of Louis VII of France and Henry II of England Queens Readers Tomb Effigies
Geographic Area: France
Century: 13
Date: 1204-1210
Related Work:
Current Location: Fontevrault Abbey
Original Location: Fontevrault Abbey, a double house founded by Robert d’Arbrissel for his followers, both female and male.
Artistic Type (Category): Digital images; Sculptures
Artistic Type (Material/Technique): Funerary sculptures- Effigies- Gisants; Polychrome limestone
Donor: Laywoman; Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, Wife of Louis VII of France and Henry II of England,
Height/Width/Length(cm): //
Inscription:
Related Resources: Nolan, Kathleen. Queens in Stone and Silver: The Creation of a Visual Imagery of Queenship in Capetian France. Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. Chapter 3 “Eleanor of Aquitaine and Her Contemporaries,”especially pages 111-113.