(33 A & B) The Trojan War "Tapestry" in McGriff

The purpose of our double-poster presentation is to display multidisciplinary research that has taken place in Mediaeval Studies 444 this term, a two-credit course focused on the 19th century printed wall-hanging of the... [ view full abstract ]

The purpose of our double-poster presentation is to display multidisciplinary research that has taken place in Mediaeval Studies 444 this term, a two-credit course focused on the 19th century printed wall-hanging of the Trojan War now in McGriff that was donated to the university in the early 1960s—the origin of this course is described in a Sewanee Features article last December. 

The first poster will feature a reproduction of the four panels of the hanging itself, with a description below of what is happening in each, with quotations from Guido delle Colonna's History of the Trojan War, as well as references to the 16th century original of which it is a copy.

There will be a secondary explanatory poster, to be subdivided into four illlustrated subsections, with the following headings and bulleted text beneath:

A. How, when, and why did Sewanee acquire the hanging? An archival history of the hanging.

B. What is the hanging's production and cultural context? An examination of the hanging as an item of Victoriana, along with a "state of the question" discussion of what is known about its actual making.

C. What does a physical analysis of the hanging reveal? Information gleaned from a textile study of the hanging, as well as chemical analysis of materials and dyes.

D. What should be done with the hanging? Based on a condition report by an outside expert in conservation, we present a number of arguments with associated costs for preserving, digitizing, displaying, and further study of the McGriff wall-hanging.