{[Gothic Art (3) [continued]] Saintly Kings [continued]}[15th March 1991]

[Redbook8:338-339][19910315:1000z]{[Gothic Art (3) [continued]] Saintly Kings [continued]}[15th March 1991]

19910315.1000

[continued]

‘In Westminster Abbey, the most important monument for its style is that of Edmund Crouchback* (ob. 1296) which with its great canopy, multiple gables and pinnacles, numerous figures, and lavish colouring set a standard of decorative ostentation which influenced English sculptors for the next half-century. However, this particular decorative ideal had probably in its turn been influenced by the work of some itinerant Roman marble-workers, brought to the Abbey during the 1260’s and 1270’s to execute the presbytery pavement, the tomb of Henry III, the shrine of Edward the Confessor,** and a number of lesser items. These survive, an oddly foreign contribution to the ensemble. Henry III’s tomb (which is a Roman altar made to contain relics, and may have been originally intended for the body of St. Edward) was eventually completed by Edward I** with the addition of a bronze effigy of Henry by William Torrel (active 1290’s).

***

*Earl of Lancaster

and brother of Edward I

son of Henry III

**[See [Redbook6:4-5][19881008:1400c]{Raymond [continued]}[8th October 1988], footnotes, ante-penultimate paragraph, commencing: ‘The {eldest} son and heir of Henry III [King] of England & Eleanor of Provence was named Edward, ‘Treasure-guard’, a name not used for a King of England since Edward the Confessor/Saint, the original Patron Saint of England.’]

***[– ibid [Encylopaedia of Visual Art 4: 605-607)]

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