A Monastic Antichrist Satire from Medieval Bury St Edmunds: Interpreting the Iconotypicon Buriense

Abstract

The so-called Iconotypicon Buriense (‘copy of the Bury picture’) is a painted panel of around 1560 that purports to reproduce a late medieval stained-glass window that was once in the Cellarer’s Chamber at St Edmunds Abbey. While the Iconotypicon has historically been interpreted as an anti-papal portrayal of Antichrist that anticipated the polemic of the Reformation era, this article argues that the original window was in all likelihood a monastic satire that took aim at the enemies of St Edmunds Abbey: bishops, secular clergy and friars. The Iconotypicon is rooted in traditional antisemitic portrayals of Antichrist and antifraternal traditions of monastic critique of the mendicant friars, and, while it is unusual, it is an essentially conservative work of religious art.