The early 16th-century baptismal font canopy of the church of St. Peter Mancroft, Norwich, is one of only three such structures to survive anywhere in the British Isles. Inspired by the recent rediscovery of four attributable panels at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, this study offers a trans-temporal account of the canopy’s initial creation and subsequent use, mutilation, and modification. Written by a team of scholars in art/architectural history, art conservation, heritage documentation, literary studies, and museum curation, it explores the installation’s multiple artistic, ritual, and cultural contexts, from late medieval and early modern Europe to modern-day North America.
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Table of Contents
Introduction: A Meditation on the Art-Historical Fragment, Amy Gillette and Zachary Stewart
Part 1: Settings
Chapter 1: A “Parish Church Par Excellence”: The Architecture and Arts of St. Peter Mancroft, Norwich, from the Conquest to the Reformation, by Zachary Stewart
Chapter 2: The Treasure House of the Church of St. Peter Mancroft, Norwich: What Factors Best Explain Its Position and Design?, by Lesley Milner
Part 2: Analyses
Chapter 3: A Technical Study of the Font and Font Canopy at St. Peter Mancroft, Norwich, in the East Anglian Context, by Lucy Wrapson
Chapter 4: Four English Carved Panels at the Philadelphia Museum of Art Associated with the Church of St. Peter Mancroft, Norwich: A Technical Analysis, by Kate Duffy, Jack Hinton, Peggy Olley, and Behrooz Salimnejad
Chapter 5: The Challenges of Visualizing Fixed Monuments in Medieval Art and Architectural History, by Brent R. Fortenberry and Benjamin Baaske
Chapter 6: Toward a Reconstruction of the Mancroft Font Canopy, by Zachary Stewart
Part 3: Contexts
Chapter 7: English Medieval Timber Church Furniture c.1300–1540, by Charles Tracy
Chapter 8: Thinking with the Font: Ritual and Drama, by Ellen Ketels Rentz
Chapter 9: The Microarchitectural Mise-en-Scène of Baptism, c.1200–c.1700: A Short History, by Achim Timmermann
Chapter 10: Hidden in Plain Sight: How the Complex Iconography of Late-Medieval English Font Covers Saved Some, by Sarah Blick
Chapter 11: “Gloriously Appareled”: The Ornament of the St. Peter Mancroft Canopy, by Amy Gillette
Part 4: Afterlives
Chapter 12: The Afterlife of Late Gothic Furnishings in British Churches and Collections, by Kim Woods
Chapter 13: “A Study Close at Hand of These Fine Examples of Gothic Decoration”: The Collecting of English Medieval Woodcarvings in American Museums, by Jack Hinton
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