otsisto wrote:
Thank you Robin. I did find out that Margrete (Margarete II) of Flanders was a Countess who died in 1280, so the statue is perhaps post mortem but there is Margarete III http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_III_of_Flanders who is shown wearing a sideless. Born 1350 and died 1405 so the statue could be her.
Margaret III was a duchess, and in fact I assumed that was her in the donor image because of the life dates, but I didn't delve deeply into the background on the artwork so perhaps it specified which Margaret.
However, if it's not necessarily a live donor representation, then the statue could be either of them. The 1380s sculptor would have used the surcote for anyone of that rank regardless of her life dates.
(At St.-Denis in France, there are literally rows of funeral effigies of past queens, going back centuries, all in the same surcote style. The whole group of effigies was made at the same time.)
Could Flanders have been a step or two behind English fashions?
If anything, Flanders (Burgundy) was a step or three ahead. --Robin _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
