Mythical Legends, Moralising Commentaries: The Intertwining of the Sacred and Secular in Fourteenth-Century French Arthurian Manuscripts and Ivories

Abstract

Although today King Arthur is widely perceived as a figure of British origin, likely due in part to Arthur?s inclusion in Geoffrey of Monmouth?s twelfth-century text, Historia Regnum Britanniae, the Arthurian legends were extremely popular in late medieval France, evidenced by the poems of French troubadour Chr?tien de Troyes, the anonymous Vulgate Cycle, lavishly illuminated manuscripts, and finely carved ivories. The Arthurian legends have long been the topic of literary studies, however medieval images of the legends have received scant attention. An art historical exploration of the French fascination with these legends is thus long overdue. My thesis will aim to fill this gap in Arthurian studies, focussing on a selection of understudied manuscripts and ivories. I will consider why the French nobility were so enamoured with King Arthur and his court, and what inspired them to commission such lavishly decorated manuscripts and ivories. I will argue that the images? multivalent significance is rooted in their dual role as secular, yet moralising, images for French audiences. A central theme of my thesis is the blurred boundaries between the sacred and secular in French Arthurian imagery. By concentrating on the Grail-centred, and most inherently religious, French Arthurian legends, Chr?tien de Troyes? Le Conte du Graal (circa 1190), and the Vulgate Cycle?s La Queste del saint Graal (circa 1215-30), I will elucidate the visual intertwining of the sacred and secular as seen through the depiction of the Holy Grail and its related characters. I will argue that these two legends personify the ?cross-fertilisation? of the sacred and secular in late medieval French visual culture in particular, and in French courtly culture and society in general. Although the legends were ostensibly romances, there are throughout undercurrents of religiosity and morality, which, when translated into visual form, speak to the images? duality as both secular and sacred illustrations.