Contexts and Receptions of English Alabasters: Symbolic Meanings, Material Qualities, Aesthetic Values

The term “English Alabasters” relates to the serialised production of sculptures and reliefs carved from alabaster in various centres of medieval England. In the period prior to the English Reformation – an event which significantly curbed the production of sacred art in England – manufacturing in alabaster had reached an industrial scale. Alabaster products were exported widely across Europe, and their audience was broad-ranging, encompassing members of the political, cultural and religious élite (English and Continental), as well as the more modest echelons of society. As such, the manufacture of alabaster can be aptly described not only as an artistic phenomenon, but also as a larger socio-cultural phenomenon with extraordinarily vast reach. Through an examination of the various qualities attributed to alabaster in the past, with specific regard to Italy (an area which constitutes an ideal case-study), this essay intends to re-establish the meanings associated with alabaster works. It proposes to offer hypotheses for reading alabaster works that are alternative to, yet complementary with, those already put forward by other scholars to explain the unqualified success achieved by these works. Methodologically, I adopt an integrated approach, crafting an analysis based not only on the works themselves, but equally on the testimony of documents that refer to the physical works in a variety of ways. Through this study, I intend to demonstrate how the choice of alabaster as a material on the part of artists and patrons, and the reception of alabaster by its various audiences, was activated and influenced not only by symbolic, material and aesthetic factors, but above all by exceedingly complex cultural dynamics, as well as significant contingent factors.