Remembering Eleanor. Surviving Objects Associated With Eleanor of Aquitaine

One of the readers asked me about Eleanor of Aquitaine and if there were any other Eleanor objects surviving till today except famous Eleanor's vase. Since then I have been toying with the idea to write a post in answer to that question. 

First and foremost there is of course Eleanor's tomb effigy at Fontevraud. It is the earliest funerary monument that we know of to depict a woman with a book. Also, as it seems, it is the only one to depict a man or a woman in the act of reading. The book Eleanor is holding is a restoration. The original had been destroyed during the Revolution. It is probably the devotional work.... book of prayers, psalter or gospel book. 

The effigy is one of the few instances when Eleanor can be safely identified as an artistic patron. She most probably commisioned it herself. Also the effigies of Henry II and Richard (the one of Isabele of Angouleme was commisioned more then forty years later) which were created at the same time (as stylistic similarities indicate). What makes us believe so? First and foremost, Eleanor's presence at Fontevraud Abbey at the time. After Richard's death in 1199 she left the walls of the abbey, but stayed in Anjou, defending it for John. Later she retreated to the abbey again and spent her last years there. The effigies must have been created between the death of Richard and her own death in 1204 (also the year Anjou fell to the Capetians). 

Another object connected with Eleanor is the afore-mentioned Eleanor's vase, which was a wedding gift she presented to her first husband Louis VII of France. It had stayed in her family since the reign of her famous/infamous grnadfather, William IX the Troubadour, who had brought it with him from Spain. Luois gave it to Abbot Suger as a gift for St Denis. Suger added all the ornamentation. It was a classic crystal rock vessel when Eleanor presented it to Louis. 

Another work of art associated with Eleanor is the so-called Fecamp Psalter (or Psalter of Eleanor of Aquitaine), one of the oldest manuscripts preserevd at the Dutch Royal Library at the Hague. With 27 full-page miniatures, 36 calendar miniatures depicting the Labours of the Months, and 11 historiated initials illustrating the major divisions of the psalter it is exquisitely beautiful. By the end of the 11th century Fécamp was a leading centre for manuscript copying in Normandy and in the late 12th century (c. 1180) this beautifully illuminated psalter was probably commissioned by Eleanor herself. in 2016 student Jesus Rodriguez Veijo identified the figure on the Beatus page of the psalter with Eleanor, relying in part on the scholarship relating to the Radegonde mural. You can view the manuscript on the official site of Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Hague.

The so called Poitiers Window is one of the few contemporary depictions of Eleanor. She, Henry and their four sons are shown in a small scene, being a part of a larger depiction of Crucifixction, in the area reserved for patrons. Eleanor and Henry hold an image that represents the window itself. This image is not a part of the original, but a result of 19th-century restoration by Adolphe Steiheil. The window must have been commissioned between 1166 and 1173, the birth of John and the outbreak of the Great Revolt, when the royal family was still undivided.

The famous Radegonde Mural preserved in the chapel of Sainte Radegonde, Chinon has been a subject of heated debates since its discovery in 1964 by Albert Heron. This representation has been widely accepted as a depiction of the Plantagenet family, identifying the central ''crowned'' figure as Eleanor. Later research, however, helped to determine that all the figures were actually male. In her article etitled Two reputed representations of Eleanor of Aquitaine from

her lifetime – a re-evaluation Sarah Cockerill, the author of the latest Eleanor biography, revisits the evidence for both these representations and formulates a theory that while the same person may well have commissioned both depictions, only one, the Psalter, should be regarded as attempting to portray Eleanor herself. You can read the article here:

6d94ce_ef4a9b08c82c460eaf63953f585df92f.pdf (filesusr.com)

Katarzyna Ogrodnik-Fujcik

Further reading: Michael R. Evans, Inventing Eleanor, Marcus Bull and Catherine Leglu, The World of Eleanor of Aquitaine: Literature and Society in Southern France between the Eleventh and Thirteenth Centuries

Photos courtesy of Wikimedia Commons