Dr Jane Spooner is a specialist in the art history and conservation of mural paintings, and in curating historic buildings. She is a former wall paintings conservation and art history MA and PhD student of The Courtauld. Her art historical PhD research focused on the context, making and meaning of a small group of highly significant royal medieval murals at Westminster Palace and Abbey, the Tower of London, and Windsor Castle:
see Spooner, J. R., (2017). Royal wall paintings in England in the second half of the fourteenth century. Thesis (PhD)-University of London (Courtauld Institute of Art)
Jane has worked as a freelance wall paintings conservator in the UK and abroad, and in the technical analysis of a variety of artworks. She is a former specialist conservation advisor for works of art at the Church of England. From 2003 – 2017, Jane was employed by Historic Royal Palaces as a Historic Buildings Curator, researching and advising on building and art conservation projects, writing Statements of Significance and Conservation Management Plans, and curating exhibitions at the Tower of London and the Banqueting House, Whitehall. From 2017 – April 2022 Jane was Head of Historic Buildings at Historic Royal Palaces, managing a team of Historic Buildings Curators at Hampton Court Palace, Kensington Palace, Kew Palace, the Tower of London, Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland and the Banqueting House, Whitehall. She joined The Courtauld Institute in 2022, as Senior Lecturer on the MA in the Conservation of Wall Paintings, and also teaches History of Art Graduate Diploma, BA and MA modules on the Physical Histories of Art, and Curating Historic Buildings and Heritage Sites.
Research Interests
- Iconography, context and design of medieval wall paintings
- Artists’ original paint materials, techniques, and workshop practice
- Architectural polychromy in historic buildings
- The history and ethics of conservation and heritage preservation
- Physical histories of historic buildings and their interiors
- Curating built heritage for a wide audience
Publications:
Spooner, J. (2002). A Fragment of Medieval Painting Discovered Next to St Bartholomew the Great, Smithfield. The Antiquaries Journal, 82, 339–343. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003581500073868
Spooner, J. (2008) ‘The Fourteenth-Century Wall Paintings at Castle Acre Priory and Greyfriars, Great Yarmouth’, in McNeill, J. (2008). King’s Lynn and the Fens: Medieval Art, Architecture and Archaeology: Volume 30 (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315092188
Liang, H., Lange, R., Howard, H., & Spooner, J. (2011). Non-invasive investigations of a wall painting using optical coherence tomography and hyperspectral imaging. O3A: Optics for Arts, Architecture, and Archaeology III, 8084, 80840F. https://doi.org/10.1117/12.890088
Lange, R., Liang, H., Howard, H., & Spooner, J. (2011). Optical coherence tomography and spectral imaging of a wall painting. SPIE Newsroom. https://doi.org/10.1117/2.1201107.003778
Spooner, J. (2016). ‘An admonitory wall painting at the Tower of London’. The Burlington Magazine, 158 (1365), 940–949. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24915300
Spooner, J. (2017). ‘The Virgin Mary and White Harts Great and Small: The Fourteenth-Century Wall-Paintings in the Chapel of Our Lady of the Pew and the Muniment Room’, in Rodwell, W., & Tatton-Brown, T. (Eds.). Westminster Part I: The Art, Architecture and Archaeology of the Royal Abbey (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315630779
Spooner J. (2020). [Review of St Albans Cathedral Wall Paintings, by M. A. Michael]. The Burlington Magazine, 162 (1411), 912–913. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26997687
Spooner, J. and Howard, H. (2020) ‘Glimpses of Intention: Investigations into the Making of the Byward Tower Wall Painting’, Traditional Paint News – The Journal of the Traditional Paint Forum, 4, No. 2, March, 4-13.
Spooner, J. (2024). ‘The Iconography of the St Stephen’s Chapel Painting Fragments’. In T. Ayers, J. P. D. Cooper, E. H. Smith, & C. Shenton (Eds.), St Stephen’s Chapel and the Palace of Westminster, Boydell & Brewer, 137–170. https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.13760034.14
Pique, M. D. L. D D’Alessio, M. R., Lanfranchi, A., Rava, & J. Spooner, (2024) ‘Conservazione dei dipinti murali di Villa Imperiale, Pesaro’. In XXII Congresso Nazionale IGIIC – Lo Stato dell’Arte 22 – 17 – 19 ottobre 2024, Palazzo dei Capitani del Popolo, Ascoli Piceno, Vol. 22, 359-367
