1 2 Published by The Norbert Elias Foundation J.J. Viottastraat 13 1017 JM Amsterdam Board: Johan Goudsblom, Herman Korte Stephen Mennell Secretary to the Foundation: EsterWils Tel: & Fax: +31 20 671 8620 Email:
[email protected] http://norberteliasfoundation.nl/ Free eBook 2015 http://www.norberteliasfoundation.nl/docs/pdf/Medievalhousebook.pdf Printed by the University of Leicester 3 The Medieval Housebook and Elias’s ‘Scenes from the Life of a Knight’: A case study fit for purpose? Patrick Murphy Contents1 Part 1: The Elias thesis in outline 1. Introduction 2. Why was Elias attracted to The Medieval Housebook? 3. Elias’s selection and interpretation of the drawings Part 2: Elias as a point of departure 4. Focus on the artist, with the patron in absentia 5. A presentational farrago 6. A possible case of intellectual amnesia Part 3: Moving beyond Elias 7. An overview of the housebook figuration 8. Naming the manuscript: Its appearance and form 9. What’s in a picture? Attribution and interpretation 10. Reconstituting the housebook: Problems and pitfalls 11. Is it a book? 12. The precious, the mundane and the commonplace Part 4: Moving further beyond Elias 13. Elusive timelines 14. Excurses on Swabia in the later Middle-Ages 15. Backwater or whirlpool: Aggressive resentment or nostalgia? 16. The quest to identify the Master 17. From Master to patron 18. In search of Elias’s benchmarks Part 5: Climbing out on a limb 19. Artistic empathy or, could it be ridicule? Part 6: Conclusion 20. Were the housebook drawings fit for purpose? 21. Involvement