16 - Secular art, decoration, and furnishing, 1300–1500

Summary

THE majority of medieval houses in England and Wales are still in private hands but their interiors essentially reflect the living circumstances of the last 200 years. One or two museums or publicly owned properties have tried to reinstate a medieval character through their furnishings (Leeds Castle, Gainsborough Old Hall), but I know of only one private residence in Shropshire that has made such an attempt. Medieval secular culture has to be drawn from a broad range of sources, though in the past this was essentially limited to documentary and manuscript illustrations. More recently, it has been appreciated that some houses are able to make a major contribution to the subject, together with a range of fittings and furnishings that have survived little-known in museums and institutions.

CULTURAL CHANGES DURING THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

Culture aspires to standards of taste in the arts, humanities, and behaviour. It is a reflection of a particular time and place, but whereas it changes with considerable rapiditytoday, the time span of change during the middle ages took rather longer. At the extreme, it took over a hundred years before the first manifestations of the Italian-based Renaissance reached England. Until the time of Edward I, the centralisation of the church and the powerful cultural forces coming from Europe throughout the twelfth and thirteenth centuries meant that English culture tended to be French-based, though there was also an Italian element in the first flowering of arts in England under Henry III.