ScholarWorks > Arts & Sciences > Medieval Institute Publications > STUDIES_IN_ICONOGRAPHY > Vol. 44 (2023)
Abstract
This paper examines the sculptural program in the nave of St. Peter, Cogenhoe (Northamptonshire), a parish church patronized over at least two centuries by the knightly Cogenhoe family. Revising the traditional dating of the sculpture in the church’s nave to the late fourteenth century, the article argues that an unusual program of heraldic and figural sculptures on the pier capitals is a lithic social network for a lower gentry family establishing themselves within the social hierarchy of fourteenth-century England. The capital sculptures, combined with the architecture and a military tomb effigy, are used to form an innovative iconographic intervention within the building type of the parish church, using it as a locus for identity formation for the lower gentry.
Recommended Citation
Bernstein, Meg
(2023)
"A Knightly Family’s Social Network: Sculpting Alliances at the Church of St. Peter, Cogenhoe,"
Studies in Iconography: Vol. 44, Article 4.
Available at:
https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/studies_in_iconography/vol44/iss1/4
