Art and the Construction of Early Medieval Queenship: Dynastic Legitimacy and Family Piety

by Erin Barrett

Using historical evidence provided by contemporary representations of Western queens and empresses, this text explores the theme of women, power and politics in the earlier Middle Ages. During the period between circa 972 and 1060, visual representations were employed on a scale unprecedented in the medieval West. Despite the individual audiences, meanings and functions of these images, nearly all of the extant representations share a common iconographic feature: they depict the queen or empress in the company of other members of the royal/imperial family, usually husbands or sons.

192 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1998

About the author

Erin Barrett grew up in South East Asia and traveled extensively through her childhood years, instilling a lasting and deep curiosity about almost everything. This is reflected in the diversity of topics she has written about in her numerous book titles, dozens of articles, and her long-running nationally syndicated column, Random Kinds of Factness, which appeared in newspapers around the country for over seven years.

Her innate curiosity has produced a rather eclectic CV. Barrett is an editor, a certified Life Coach, an urban sustainability expert, a beekeeper and beer maker, a writing coach, a painter, photographer, singer, and fine wine specialist, with over a decade of work within the wine industry. She currently resides in Northern California with her partner and their 5 year old feline, Eleanor Rigby Soupstock.