The medieval English alabasters preserved in the south-west of France have already been the subject of several research works. However, these studies are often outdated and some are unpublished.

Is the polychromy of the Libourne panel representative of other English panels, or is this one a case apart? Are the choices of colour and aesthetic choices common or unusual? An examination of the other English alabasters in the Aquitaine corpus will provide answers to these questions.

Is the polychromy of the Libourne panel representative of other English panels, or is this one a case apart? Are the choices of colour and aesthetic choices common or unusual? An examination of the other English alabasters in the Aquitaine corpus will provide answers to these questions.

The panel depicting the Assumption of the Virgin, kept in the Musée d’Aquitaine in Bordeaux, stands out from the English panels examined so far. It displays many atypical features, starting with the way in which the iconographic theme has been treated

While in the previous chapters we have studied the pigments and colours used on English alabasters, their standardised use, the aesthetic principles governing their combination and their moral codification, we have not yet considered the properties and visual effects produced by medieval polychromies.

Les albâtres anglais de la fin du Moyen Âge, qui connurent un vif succès à l’échelle européenne, ont trouvé de nombreux acquéreurs dans le Sud-Ouest de la France.

Intimately combining plastic forms and colours, English alabasters can be termed ‘three-dimensional paintings’. Both components of the works of art contribute equally to the encoding of the religious message they convey and disseminate.

The colours of English alabaster panels – Bibliography

The colours of English alabaster panels – Image credits

Between c. 1350 and 1550, English sculptors carved thousands of panels depicting religious scenes from alabaster quarries around Nottingham. Exported throughout Europe, these polychrome reliefs were originally usually assembled to form altarpieces. Their coloured epidermis, an integral part of these works that can be termed three-dimensional paintings, has now often disappeared.  

Avec la prise en compte des restes animaux et végétaux dans l’étude globale des gisements archéologiques, et le développement des disciplines qui s’y intéressent, les corpus de données archéozoologiques et carpologiques se sont considérablement étoffés ces dernières années.

Ce recueil réunit quarante-deux articles de Michel Reddé, publiés à différentes dates depuis 1992 et souvent dispersés dans de nombreux supports éditoriaux, parfois difficiles d’accès. Ils illustrent différents thèmes liés à l’armée romaine et aux provinces de l’Empire romain et ont été remis en perspective par des introductions thématiques et ils sont accompagnés de compléments bibliographiques pour tenir compte de l’avancée des recherches postérieures à leur publication initiale.