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Donor representation: people of status and/or wealth
The nobility and clergy were early portrayed as having given buildings
and works of art. This image shows a cleric donor, recognized by
his tonsure (shaved area of the head). In the 15th century, parish
churches saw merchants begin to claim positions of prominence by having
themselves represented as donors or even having their mottoes written as
decorative banding, as in the interior of St. Mary’s
in Bury St. Edmunds or on the exterior of Long
Melford. Frequently the donors were seen as diminutive figures
at the foot of a saintly patron. There were alternatively shown,
as in English illuminated manuscripts, keeling before altars or desks with
open prayer books. Donors were very often accompanied by their names,
initials, mottoes, or other personalized inscription. Very few contracts
between donor and glass painter survive. From those remaining one
can surmise that the subject matter was usually defined by the patron (such
as the depiction of a patron saint, here St. Dominic) a choice presumably
made after consultation with the parish priest. For discussion of
donors and patrons, see Richard Marks, Stained Glass in England during
the Middle Ages (Toronto, 1993), 3-27.
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