Remediation, Medievalism, and Empire in T. W. Camm’s ‘Jubilee of the Nations’ Window at Great Malvern Priory

T. W. Camm’s ‘Jubilee of the Nations’ window created for Great Malvern Priory in 1887 combines a vision of late-Victorian imperial ideology with a narrative of Queen Victoria’s reign. The window is an intense and eclectic combination of visual sources, funded by progressive Birmingham manufacturer J...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:19: interdisciplinary studies in the long nineteenth century 2020-07, Vol.2020 (30)
Main Author: Cheshire, Jim
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Archaeology
Bible
British Empire
Christianity
Ideology
Light
medievalism
photography
Political factors
remediation
Stained glass
Textiles
Victorian period
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Summary:T. W. Camm’s ‘Jubilee of the Nations’ window created for Great Malvern Priory in 1887 combines a vision of late-Victorian imperial ideology with a narrative of Queen Victoria’s reign. The window is an intense and eclectic combination of visual sources, funded by progressive Birmingham manufacturer James Atkins, and heavily associated with the metalwork firm R. W. Winfield and Co. A series of cultural and racial hierarchies are evident within the upper section of the window, some relating to manufacturing technologies and others possibly stimulated by recent political events. The artist created luminous visual effects to give a spectacular and exotic appearance to figures representing British colonies, while the figure of ‘Great Britain’ is notable for its lack of ornament. Two of the lower panels are based on paintings and show evidence of archaeological research, while the third is remediated from multiple photographic portraits, giving it very different visual properties. The variety of visual sources creates incongruities within the window. The combination of archaeological and anthropological research engenders a problematic equivalence between researching medieval art and racial characteristics, while the window as a whole conflates medievalism, providential theology, and the British Empire.
ISSN:1755-1560
1755-1560
DOI:10.16995/ntn.2903