The Crucifixion (detail), Hildesheim, probably 1170s, from the Stammheim Missal. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, Ms. 64 (97.MG.21), fol. 86
Update—Read three labels from the exhibition on this follow-up post here.
We invite your thoughts on an exhibition-in-progress at the Getty that addresses the persistence of prejudice as seen through lingering stereotypes from the Middle Ages.
As curators in the Getty Museum’s department of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, we are interested in how books, and museum collections more broadly, can spark dialogues about inclusivity and diversity. Our manuscripts collection at the Getty consists primarily of objects from Western Europe, which can present challenges when trying to connect with a multicultural and increasingly international audience. We are striving to make connections between the Middle Ages and the contemporary world—connections that may not be immediately evident, but are powerful nonetheless. Museums are inherently political organizations, in terms of the ways that collections are assembled, displayed, and interpreted. This year’s meeting of the Association of Art Museum Curators addressed how institutional narratives and implicit bias can skew ideas of history and culture in ways that exclude minorities and gloss over the shameful aspects of our past. Groups such as the Medievalists of Color, the Society for the Study of Disability in the Middle Ages, the Society for Medieval Feminist Scholarship, and the Society for the Study of Homosexuality in the Middle Ages, among others, are applying similar lines of inquiry, seeking to decolonize and diversify the field of medieval studies. We stand with these groups.
We were also inspired by Holland Cotter‘s call to arms, as he exhorted museums to tell the truth about art, “about who made objects, and how they work in the world, and how they got to the museum, and what they mean, what values they advertise, good and bad. Go for truth (which, like the telling of history, is always changing), and connect art to life.”
Here is our description of the exhibition, still in draft form:
Medieval manuscripts preserve stories of romance, faith, and knowledge, but their luxurious illuminations can reveal more sinister narratives as well. Typically created for the privileged classes, such books nevertheless provide glimpses of the marginalized and powerless and reflect their tenuous places in society. Attitudes toward Jews and Muslims, the poor, those perceived as sexual or gender deviants, and the foreign peoples beyond European borders can be discerned through caricature and polemical imagery, as well as through marks of erasure and censorship.
As repositories of history and memory, museums reveal much about our shared past, but all too often the stories told from luxury art objects focus on the elite. Through case studies of objects in the Getty’s collection, this exhibition examines the “out groups” living within western Europe. Medieval society was far more diverse than is commonly understood, but diversity did not necessarily engender tolerance. Life contained significant obstacles for those who were not fully abled, white, wealthy, Christian, heterosexual, cisgender males. For today’s viewer, the vivid images and pervasive narratives in illuminated manuscripts can serve as a stark reminder of the power of rhetoric and the danger of prejudice.
The Crucifixion, Hildesheim, probably 1170s, from the Stammheim Missal. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, Ms. 64 (97.MG.21), fol. 86
We begin the exhibition with a masterpiece of Romanesque painting, shown above. This manuscript, with its gilded pages and geometric symmetry, reveals the institutionalized antisemitism that formed the basis of Christian rhetoric about the triumph of the Church.
Ecclesia, the personification of the Christian Church, is seen above and to Christ’s right, while the Jewish Synagoga appears on Christ’s left. Often represented as a blindfolded figure, here Synagoga (in red robes) points at Christ, glaring. She holds a banderole representing Old Testament law that proclaims “cursed be he who hangs on the tree.” Below, two additional personifications echo and intensify the antithetical positions of these two figures. In a roundel below Ecclesia, the fair-skinned figure of Life (at far left) gazes calmly across the composition at Death, whose dark complexion and hook nose are seen in caricatures of Jews in other twelfth-century images.
The Crucifixion (detail), Hildesheim, probably 1170s, Stammheim Missal. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, Ms. 64 (97.MG.21), fol. 86
We’d Like Your Comments
We are in the early stages of writing this exhibition, which is scheduled to be presented in the Getty’s manuscripts gallery in January 2018. As we create both the thematic content and the individual object texts—which we will be posting periodically on the Getty Tumblr—we are curious to receive community input. Specifically, we are curious to know any or all of the following:
- Your level of interest in an exhibition of medieval and Renaissance art exploring these themes
- Comments on the wording of the exhibition description we’ve shared above (as a whole or in any part)
- Suggestions for perspectives and points of view we should consider in developing the exhibition
- Any and all other suggestions or criticisms
Please leave a (public) comment below, or contact us by email at manuscripts@getty.edu.
“Medieval society was far more diverse than is commonly understood, but diversity did not necessarily engender tolerance.”
I am a public school seventh grade history teacher, and the statement here is something that I’m pleased that the 2016 California history-social science framework and UC Davis History Blueprint seek to make clear to students, many of whom don’t see themselves in the European history we study for a semester. I brought my students to the Getty two years ago, where they enjoyed seeing objects in real life that were just photos in our textbook. But I think the emphasis on the interconnectedness of the medieval world and the diversity that may, in some cases, have been deliberately left out of our books (which we evaluate using units from Stanford History Education Group-Reading Like a Historian), would make the experience for young museum visitors even more enlightening. They can then further connections to our present time where they can see how things have changed, how they have stayed the same, and how they can engage in change to broaden our ideas and practices of inclusion.
Thank you, Carolina. Your message resonates with a quote that Kristen and I were struck by when visiting the National Museum of Stockholm: “If you don’t know you have a history, it can be hard to believe you have a future.” Please let us know the next time you bring your students to the Getty!
“…not fully abled, wealthy, Caucasian, Christian, heterosexual, cisgendered males.”
Straight outta tumblr.
It also sounds like the sort of PC-speak that usually accompanies the closing of the mind, which forecloses due consideration of contrary evidence. It results in a caricature of societies that have been gone for centuries, and can’t defend themselves against modern “reinterpretation” according to modern political mores.
Have fun with the oppression porn.
I’d like to reiterate what my colleagues Matthew Gabriele and James Harland said. I also teach at a university, but a small one that cannot cover all fields in depth. I hope that the Getty will make some or all of the exhibit available online, with the sort of commentary exemplified in this post. It would be an excellent tool for those of us who want to include more visual sources in our teaching, but don’t necessarily have the expertise to find images that demonstrate, for example, the deeply embedded anti-Jewish stereotyping that permeated medieval culture. I hope there are also examples that help to show that medieval ideas of race and ethnicity cannot be mapped in the same ways that they are today. It’s important that we show that many things our students — and our contemporaries in general– understand about race and ethnicity were different in the Middle Ages, and in fact are largely inventions rooted in the late 18th C & 19th centuries.
This project is doomed from the start. I don’t see how you can pull it off without succumbing to postmodernism, critical theory, and social justice.
Such ideologies serve only to short-circuit reason, and will place the resulting work in a decidedly anti-intellectual tradition.
It’s pretty easy, actually. The Getty is staffed with experts, and the images speak for themselves. One doesn’t need to “succumb” to theory (and, by the way, social justice isn’t a theory, it’s a goal as old as history, even if different societies understood it in different ways) to explain what is in a text or image. In fact, the example from the MS above does exactly that. One can easily take the image of death and compare it to more recent images — for example, representations of Fagin in Dicken’s Oliver Twist — to show how such stereotypes have survived.
Thanks for your response Julie. I think this forum is a great tool for curators and museum educators, thank you to the Getty for this great idea. I would enjoy seeing modern examples in the exhibition of art or references that retain these stereotypes created in the Middle Ages or even before that. I think it would be enlightening for the public to see modern examples of racism/antisemitism/exclusivity etc. juxtaposed with Medieval ones, especially the younger audiences who may not be immediately drawn to an exhibition of medieval manuscripts. I think this exhibition is ambitious yet needed. Thank you!
JULIE, PLEASE STOP TRYING TO INSERT YOURSELF INTO CONVERSATIONS WHERE YOU ARE NOT WANTED. AS A WHITE WOMAN, YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO BE HERE OR TO INSERT YOURSELF INTO CONVERSATIONS THAT DO NOT INVOLVE YOU! STOP GASLIGHTING AND STOP HARASSING POCS HERE AND THROUGHOUT THE INTERNET!
The comment “as a white woman you have no right to be here” is everything this exhibition is about: racism against whites and European history. I for one will NOT be viewing this piece of propaganda (er exhibition), and am saddened the Getty is going in this direction.
As an active medievalist teaching at a 4-year university, I applaud the Getty for this work and would be tremendously interested to see the end result. I also suggest the Getty reach out directly to this new professional organization for input – http://medievalistsofcolor.com/medievalists-of-color-/index
As a scholar working in the field, you have my full support for this initiative. Disregard the trolls trying to force you to disregard the messy complexity of the past because it doesn’t align with their politics (how ironic it is that they accuse us of attempting to force things to fit our political agenda). Keep it up, and let’s create a better understanding of the past to build a better present.
I think that it is critically important to convey that “the Middle Ages” is not a monolithic time/place and that, in fact, many of the things that signify “medieval” or “the Middle Ages” in mass culture are a result of the partial, biased, and often explicitly racist and imperialist work of the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Difference and exclusion will be defined and enacted in different ways depending on century, place, region, and community.
Dear ERT, this is an excellent point. Early on in our discussions about the exhibition, we decided to do away with thematic section panels that could lead to the kind of overgeneralization you caution against. Our current plan is to allow each object to stand as an individual case study.
This is a fantastic idea for an exhibit. Though I studied Medieval Literature, I took my fair share of Art History courses while at university and often found text books had actively cropped out the oft racist caricatures from their prints. Though I believe this was done in good faith, to avoid some uncomfortable imagery and the inevitable tangent on racism the class would turn to, I think this tendency to avoid or remove people of colour from the historical narrative has done more harm than good, and I’m happy to see The Getty taking an initiative to showcase manuscripts that are ignored or miscategorized in academia.
Similarly, I appreciate any attempt to remind the world that the people who could afford to commission art and buy the paints and dyes to make it were not the majority of the people in the Middle Ages. So much of the general public’s knowledge of the era is based on the life and times of a few opulent kings. I am excited to see how this exhibit develops.
I am excited to see this exhibition! Erasure of these groups in medieval times is so common, and distances many young people who do not see themselves reflected in typical medieval exhibitions. Nuance is not always pretty, but adds color and understanding to the subject at hand. Bravo to the curators!
This is a fascinating propisal and I would have loved to be involved. This is a very timely decision to addtess serious issues. Good luck.
Thank you for this thoughtful approach to interpreting the Getty’s collections. Although this exhibition would be a welcome contribution to the field of Medieval Studies at any time, it seems particularly timely and important at a moment when the alt-right is laying claim to Medieval history and culture as expressions of their white supremacist ideology (see The Economist, January 2, 2017, for instance). Self-critical scholarship and close study of the *actual* products of medieval culture reveal the greater complexity, and contested nature, of this era, beyond the cliches and stereotypes that drive a shallow and outdated understanding of the Middle Ages.
History is organic – its content grew naturally from what existed in fact. Condemning history’s content through current elitist multiculturalism rhetoric is nakedly false. The white conquistadors conquered the New World because they were better at everything than the natives. They deserve credit and honor for that, not condemnation. Celebrate Columbus day – he and those like him (yes him, not her) began the creation of the world that we benefit from today. Go ahead and point out the biases that existed in the medieval world, but don’t condemn them with thinly veiled rhetoric. Maybe there was something to those biases.
This is a fabulous idea for an exhibit. Part of the work of a museum is not just to present art in a sterile context, but to place it in the world, and most people know little of the real world of the Middle Ages. Often, items categorized as “craft” tell us more about the people than the high art. Maybe comparing/contrasting these two kinds of objects would help to spark discussion and thought? Best of luck with the exhibit!
I think this is a great idea for an exhibit! The draft seems to be on the right track, to me. I would love to see this exhibit!
Once again the anti-Semitic elements of the Left will have a field day and be able to enjoy some of the most despicable anti-Semitic imagery while claiming it promotes true diversity. I hope the adl hears about this festival of hate speech
Dear Hersh, one of the things that drives both of us as curators and medievalists is the belief that by recognizing patterns of thought, we can change them. These prejudicial and inflammatory stories have continued to be told from the Middle Ages into present day. At the risk of giving away our show’s conclusion, we had planned to end with a quote from George Santayana: “those who refuse to learn from the past are doomed to repeat it.” We in no way condone prejudice and hope to use art to foster empathy.
As James Baldwin once said, “Not everything that is faced can be changed; but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” thank you, Kristen! I am greatly looking forward to this exhibition.
We are advocates for the role that art can play is calling out bigotry and demanding greater inclusivity.
This work is so important – thank you!
I’m an Italian archivist, and – it’s sad – I will unfortunately not go to The Getty Museum to visit your exhibition. But I think that your idea is a great one. I agree with ERT when he/she says that it’s important to convey that Middle Age is not a monolithic time. It was a complex society and the only way to understand it is through its documents, its manuscripts, its heritage. Studying the complexity of Middle Age can develop tools for better understanding the complexity of our society. When someone opens its mind to complexity, I think he cannot be racist or intolerant anymore. Thank you for your work. I hope it’ll be a digital version of the exhibition.
If you haven’t found this work yet: I recommend you look at the scholarship of Gay Byron (Howard University) and Rebecca Futo Kennedy (Denison) who have researched extensively in issues of race, racism, and identity in antiquity. Todd Berzon (Bowdoin) just published a book on the intersection of race and heresy and David Brakke published an essay several years ago on the intersections of dark skin pigmentation, sexuality, and demons/devils. On migrants, strangers, and non-citizens, there has been much scholarship on the xenodocheion (for references, see Peregrine Horden’s chapter in the Oxford Handbook of Late Antiquity). On anti-Jewishness, see the work of Tina Shepardson (Univ of Tennessee) and Susana Drake (Macalester) and on Christian engagement with Muslims, see the work of Michael Penn (Mt. Holyoke). Julia Watts Belser (Georgetown), Mira Balberg (Northwestern), and Nicole Kelly (Florida State) all have done extraordinary work on impaired and deformed bodies. You may also inquire with the Medieval Medicine listserv, led by Monica Green (Arizona State) whose members will surely have input re: impairments and deformities in the period. (Some of this scholarship may be a bit earlier than your time frame, but perhaps of use as you contextualize the exhibit.)
As a professor in soCal, this exhibit would be an excellent companion to courses I teach on the late antique Roman world.
I fully support this initiative and hope that online resources can be made available to support the physical exhibition and help those of us teaching the middle ages. Thank you.
Dear Leonie,
Thank you for your support! The blog will continue to grow with comments, and we will be sharing label copy (in draft and final form) on Tumblr, linked from the blog. The exhibition website will eventually also have links to these resources, and we hope to feature blog posts by outside specialists to create a more robust and indeed diverse dialogue. Thank you again for joining us on this journey!
I’m sure you’d guess that I think this is a *wonderful* idea for a show! This is just the sort of work that we should be doing in this moment. I’d second the suggestion to reach out to the Medievalists Of Color group, and look forward to coming to the Getty for the show!
Thank you for referring readers to the MOC group, Asa! In the interests of working in solidarity, I also refer the curators to the Material Collective (forward-thinking medieval art historians, can you imagine that?!) and MEARCSTAPA (medievalists who have been exploring mostrosity and difference for many years).
*monstrosity, that is #MySpellingIsMonstrous #TooMuchMiddleEnglish
Dear Jonathan, thank you! We’ve long been a part of the Material Collective, and have benefited greatly from dialogue there. We also follow MEARCSTAPA’s efforts and hope now to be in greater dialogue with you and with MOC. Thank you all for sharing your thoughts!
Thank you Asa! We will definitely be reaching out to the MOC, and will continue our discussions with you and Sherry re: monsters.
This is such an excellent idea, Kristen and Bryan, and I’m really struck by the first steps you’ve taken in promoting inclusivity simply by soliciting public feedback prior to the exhibition as a critical component of shaping its content and scope. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that done before, and the seldom inclusion of the public voice in exhibitions has always perplexed me a bit. A museum exhibition can – and should! – be a place of conversation rather than just presentation of objects, and this is an excellent first step. Kudos.
I’m also quite attuned to the number of comments that call for digital content, particularly of the sort that can be used in teaching at various levels. I think this exhibition is a prime opportunity to scale up what curatorial practice can mean. Through new modes of accessibility and outreach beyond the confines of the museum walls, you’ll be able to create a sustainable model for the afterlife of the exhibition that can be used in classrooms and broaden the reach of what curators do.
I am very much looking forward to seeing this exhibition in person and online!
I’d love to see this exhibit!! I think many visitors to the Getty Center looking for diversity in the collection would appreciated this exploration of all peoples and sections represented in manuscripts collection, as well as the details regarding their status in society in the times. It would be great to have the explanation for the representation, or lack their of, of “minorities.”
Having just returned from a National Endowment for the Humanities institute in Massachusetts where we studied the effects of colonization on First Nations peoples, in particular the Wampanoag, I was wondering if there will be any works that will have depictions of Native Americans included in this forthcoming exhibit? Native peoples from the Americans were frequently captured and taken back to Spain and England, maybe Holland as well and used as slaves and exhibited as curiosities.
Dear Cindy,
Thanks for this question. Even though the exhibition focuses on the prejudice leveled toward the various “out-groups” living within Western Europe, we decided to create an epilogue that could include the one manuscript in our collection that was made in the Americas. The Historia General dei Piru was written by a Spanish friar in Peru and present-day Bolivia in 1616. Murua worked closely with the Inca people to compile key events from their past. While much of the show addressees various ways in which rhetoric was employed to exclude members of European society, our epilogue deals with forced inclusion—i.e., colonialism. There are many examples throughout the manuscript where Murua’s text was redacted by members of the Inquisition who did not want a lasting record of their past failures to convert the Inca people to Christianity.
Very interesting indeed. I would be interested to know WHEN this antisemitism started. It seems there was little racism in the roman empire where people of different backgrounds, culture or colourr of skin could become citizen, high ranking military leaders or even possibly emperor.
So when and where did this get started ? Is it mostly the fact of the Roman Catholic Church ? Or is it more complicated ?
Excellent idea for exhibition.
One point (with complex effects):
I think at some point, you’ll need to account for scholasticism and the emergence of science (science) rooted in the debates of the high middle ages. Like the realist/nominalist debate. This is especially true if you are drawing heavily from manuscripts for this exhibition. The desire to understand reality in both net-platonic and early Aristotelian thought placed a heavy emphasis on categories and categorical thinking. This means that attempts to account for difference had a “scientific” dimension – not just a moral or social explanation of difference. Medieval thinkers (Scotus, Aquinas, Peter Lombard, etc.) were striving to understand and process nature and society through a systematic analysis using what they had at hand – namely, scripture, magisterium and an incomplete and erratic set of classical texts.
Basically, I am arguing for a little sympathy here. Medieval thought was like the thought of every age: complex, intolerant in some places, earnest in others, and based in the available modes.
Love the exhibition. Do it.
S
I welcome and commend you on this exhibition concept. Thought provoking themes are lacking in museum spaces. History is notoriously told from only one perspective yet we are a diverse culture. Thank you!
I’m here for it!!!
http://www.chronicle.com/article/Medievalists-Recoiling-From/240666
I think this is a great idea for an exhibit, and very timely, considering how the alt-right has co-opted medieval Europe as their ‘ideal past’. While this topic obviously has important implications for us today, I would suggest that you make sure to place the art in its historical context, rather than explaining it in terms of modern constructs of race, gender, and sexuality. Medieval Europe was full of prejudice and discrimination, but that didn’t look the same as it does today. For instance, Jews and Muslims are often portrayed as dark-skinned in medieval artwork because medieval European Christians associated darkness with the devil and believed that the moral corruption of non-Christians manifested in their physical appearance. This is clearly religious and ethnic discrimination, but it’s based on a different ideology than modern racism. Discussing this context would be a great way to broaden the conversation about marginalization while giving visitors a better sense of the medieval mindset.
I also think it would be really cool to do side-by-side comparisons of similar motifs from different Western European societies. Images of Jews and Muslims in medieval Spanish manuscripts are a lot different than images in French or English manuscripts – they portray the appearance and dress of religious minorities more realistically and humanly. For example, this image of Christian and Muslim troubadours from the Cantigas de Santa Maria:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ee/Christian_and_Muslim_playing_ouds_Catinas_de_Santa_Maria_by_king_Alfonso_X.jpg
That’s not to say there’s no stereotyping or discrimination, but it’s interesting to compare the portrayal of Muslims from Christians who actually lived and interacted with them, versus Christians for whom Muslims were an abstract symbol.
It’s about time museums adopted a self-reflexive dialogue between the objects in their possession and institutional norms. Objects, like museums are never passive observers of history but are rather active participants. Objects and the museums they belong to are loaded with layers of embedded meaning. Museums have a responsibility to articulate an accurate and inclusive depiction of history, how histories are understood or misunderstood while acknowledging their own role in the production of this knowledge. Issues of identity are obviously important in this exhibition (to the dismay of some) I think it’s important to note how identity is constructed through a lens of otherness both in the objects themselves and in museum practices. Though curators should be wary of presentism in their analyses. Opening up the discussion to the public is a commendable decision.
Huge interest in medieval and Renaissance art like these. Would like to see if it is possible to dig up more on how an average person lived. Everyone had to work, had to wear something on the head, had to wear clothes that designated class, church attendance on Sunday was obligatory, preaching from the pulpit was law for people, etc etc.
In addition I am interested in the relationship between humans and animals at any time.
As a grade 7 history teacher of minority students, many of whom have experienced discrimination, my interest in this exhibition is very high. The Middle Ages and Renaissance make up a good deal of my second-semester curriculum.
In my view, the wording so far is very bland. In too many instances (Such as my grade 7 History book.), history is presented in a way so as not to offend anyone. In my view, history properly taught should offend virtually everyone.
“… history properly taught should offend virtually everyone.” What a great statement!
I am thrilled by the themes to be discussed in this exhibit. I have a strong interest in disability history/disability studies, and often include these themes in my teaching in teacher education. I would love to explore themes of inclusion and exclusion in the manuscripts through this exhibition, and would love to see museum visitors think about the content of these manuscripts through a new lens along with me.
Very interesting take. I took many courses in medieval studies in college (long ago). There was a perhaps implicit take that, while we loved the esthetics, the politics and social structure were from the “bad old days”, long gone, and very different from our more enlightened state today. Of course, it is much easier to find anti-semitic tropes throughout the artifacts of the time, because there were Jews throughout Europe. I’d be interested in seeing representations and commentary on other “others” as well. I am not familiar with condemnations of alternative sexuality or of much in the way of depictions of other races (other than the magus Balthazar and the occasional black saint). An interesting exhibit might include depictions of Europeans in Persian miniatures and in Japanese art (recently saw a woven bamboo rendition of a bowler hat at the Metropolitan – kind of wonderful).
Another thing to include, for variety, would be an exhibit including art of peaceful relations with Jewish communities in Europe. There were such things, at least according to my old professor of “the history of the Medieval and Early Modern Town and Village”.
I find the subject is very interesting, and the description provided interesting as well.
I hope the final version will include a brief explanation of who/what the other figures represent, even if they are not relevant to the exhibition theme. It’s hard to stop wondering why that angel at the top is cross-eyed.
I agree about the cross-eyed angel
Very interested. I don’t know much but sounds like a great and inventive theme for an exhibition.
Although the exhibition sounds interesting, I am wondering why everything these days seems to come back to the themes of inclusivity or the lack thereof, diversity, oppression, etc. While these themes are important, we are so saturated with them on a daily basis that they make less and less of an impact, in my opinion. I think most of us understand that those in the “out groups” during medieval times were not treated well, to put it mildly. Do we really need an exhibition to point this out? Maybe so; however, I suggest that the constant emphasis on exclusion and oppression might actually result in more feelings of divisiveness among us and we all might want to consider the commonalities we share as human beings, rather than the differences.
This exhibition does take a different approach from our usual shows, which tend to celebrate the Middle Ages. We wanted to recognize the diversity of race, religion, and experience that characterized the period but were challenged by the fact that this was a show from our permanent collection—so we were working from a group of objects created for the 1% of Western Europe. By telling a negative story (prejudice) we made it clear that the stories of the sick, poor, LGBTQ, Muslims, and Jews that could be discerned through our manuscripts were very much being shaped (or distorted) through the lens of the privileged classes.
This exhibit sounds fascinating and very thought provoking. I think there is a tendency to either romanticize this period of history or think it somehow represents a simpler time because we are entranced by the beautiful illuminations, not realizing that they reflect particular cultural perspectives and biases. Did these illuminations merely reflect the thinking of the privileged classes or do they reflect a broader view of the larger society, even if many of those individuals never saw them? Did the illuminations serve to foster and promote existing prejudices? Do they reflect any evolution of prejudicial perspectives over time?
I am very much looking forward to viewing this exhibit, what a great undertaking!
” Life contained significant obstacles for those who were not fully abled, white, wealthy, Christian, heterosexual, cisgender males.” Just a mild caution not to think of Christianity as monolithic. At various times during the Middle Ages more than one version of the Christian faith was current in Western Europe. The Roman Church’s view of those it condemned as heretics and schismatics might fit within the parameters of your exhibition too.
Interesting project! Looking forward to seeing how it develops. I will admit that I did not read all of the comments so forgive me if someone already stated this. Something that might be useful for viewers would be a link to how these stereotypes from the Middle Ages persist today in contemporary art or media. As a community college professor, I’m always striving to remind students of the power of the histories that have been written and how those legacies persist today.
Among worthy purposes of the exhibition are: making its material memorable, arousing desire for more, and demonstrating practical relevance to our own lives; and these can synergize. The “quaintness” of medieval styles, the clumsy graphic depictions, dwelling on hagiography and even describing beauty (beauty is easy to come by) can all distract more than reinforce. The Renaissance and Modern eras have extended, not replaced much of Medieval mentality. Therefore, better than draw parallels, highlight the continuation and raise the question “why?” E.g., Gottfried von Buillon is celebrated today in a heroic bronze figure at the Inssbrucker Hofkirche memorial for HRE Maximillian I, although he swore to pursue Pope Urban II’s crusade “only after avenging the blood of the crucified one by shedding Jewish blood and completely eradicating any trace of those bearing the name ‘Jew’ .” While many bishops along Gottfried’s path inveighed against such misbehavior, they did nothing real to stop it. Prominent clerics wrote against slavery… also to no avail. The martyrdom of little Simon of Trent by Jews is still depicted on the wall of St. Paul’s Church and Cathedral in Sandomierz without contradiction or explanation as if it fit Catholic teachings just like the other decorations, despite some 2,500 of that charming little city’s Jews having been exterminated at Belzec and Treblinka. Hopefully the “Rhetoric of Exclusion” project will provide a searchable database supporting scientific study and teaching modules that might support a cultural change strategy that will be more effective than what we have so far: exhibits in brick and mortar museums not visited by most people, ponderous “crimes against humanity” hearings conducted decades after enormous damage is done, clever literary quotes about not learning from and repeating history, and the repeatedly violated “Never Again!” slogan.
I find this particular exploration of perspective in medieval and renaissance manuscripts very interesting. Specifically how mystical personifications were used to undermine certain groups. Women who were poor, older and/ or disabled for instance were represented as promiscuous, jealous and evil witches etc
I WOULD BE FASCINATED BY THIS EXHIBIT AND HOPE THAT IT COMES TO FRUITION… PLEASE MOVE FORWARD…
IT IS IMPORTANT FOR THE PUBLIC, INCLUDING MYSELF, TO UNDERSTAND THAT DISCRIMINATION HAS BEEN PART OF HUMAN HISTORY FOR CENTURIES… THERE NEED NOT BE A PARTICULAR PERSPECTIVE, THE DOCUMENTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES… THEY ARE IRREFUTABLE.
I’ve just come across this discussion and wanted to address a concern. It seems to me that your major point seems to be that in the middle ages that elites controlled the narrative of who “them” and “us” are — who were acceptable people and who were not. No surprise there. It’s the story of every civilization in human history. What I guess is the point of the planned exhibit is that society in the European middle ages was no different. My concern is the lack of a comparative perspective in this regard. To focus only on the European experience in the middle ages without pointing out in at least a cursory way the universality of these views of those out of favor may advance the notion that this is only a European phenomena which of course it isn’t.
Hi Stephen, thank you for this input. As art museum curators, we are often restricted to telling stories from the objects at hand. (While we are able to borrow objects for bigger budget loan shows, this is not one of those.) The Getty’s permanent collection of illuminated manuscripts is for the most part Western European, although we do have several examples of Armenian, Ethiopian, Byzantine, and in one case a Peruvian manuscript. We included two of these as a coda to our show, using them to make precisely the point you raise, that though the manuscripts in this case/section fall outside the geographic and chronological parameters of the exhibition, the histories they reveal demonstrate that prejudice and persecution were not simply medieval, Western European problems, but were and continue to be human problems.
Kristen that you for your response. Glad to know of the inclusion of these non-European works.
I although raised Christian, told that my grandfather was a Baptist Minister and a professed member of Freemason’s. I have Heard/Hearsay. I always felt different than I was raised ,so while searching my genealogy I glanced over some interesting facts. Payne is a less ambiguous Norse Nobel surname Paine ( name believe to be pagan’s) I gives way to reference on reheridital, pregiditial (Heathens, Heritic, outcasts, Barbaric Northmen (Vikings). I would like to know the truth whatever it is. I honestly don’t know why my Genealogy matter, but I would like to see the truth from all prospective’s. Who am I ?
How incredibly dishonest to use the Stammheim missal to illustrate anti-Semitism by arbitrarily designating the demonic figure of Death as a Jewish caricature, when, if any character were to be caricatured as a Jew, it ought logically to be the figure of Synagoga. One could far more logically say the picture was misandrist, inasmuch as Mors is shown (quite against the logic of Latin gender) as a male rather than a female figure, while Vita is clearly feminine!
But then, the whole tenor of the exhibition is obviously slanted: if our European ancestors depict putatively foreign characters as dark or foreign in appearance, it’s “tokenism”; if they depict them as “white” people (who were in many cases the only kind of people they had ever seen), it’s decried as “whitewashing.” Heads, modernity wins; tails, mediaevalism loses!
This type of disingenuous manipulation of sources is utterly unscholarly and unsound. The Getty should be ashamed of playing such monkey tricks on the artists who have provided some of its richest and most beautiful treasures.
“The black African Magus was the token person of color in medieval art during a period when Europeans engaged in the brutal African slave trade.”
I don’t think you have your dates right. You show an example of art from 1480, the end of the Middle Ages, a time when Europeans had just discovered Sub Saharan Africa and were still to discover America. So I don’t think the Middle Ages are seen as a period in which Europeans engaged in the brutal African slave trade. And when Europeans started to engage in African slave trade it were mostly Western European countries with colonies, which excludes 3/4 of Europe. So that part is a broad generalization of a complex topic. Which leaves the tokenism part, I’m also not sure to whom this should show tokenism since black Africans were not part of European society at the time. But maybe I misunderstand your point.
The timeline of the influx of (sub-Saharan) Africans into Europe can be confusing because, until very recently, histories of the Middle Ages have tended to present a white, European-centric view of the period. The BBC provides an accessible timeline of slavery, beginning in 1444, when the first slaves were brought from northern Africa to Portugal. http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/9generic3.shtml The illuminator of this book of hours was court painter to René of Anjou, who kept “Moorish” (medieval code for black African and sometimes Muslim) slaves. Our label also references the church councils that took place in Basel, Ferrara, Florence, and Mantua from 1431-1449, that included Ethiopian delegates. For more on the topic of the African presence in medieval Europe, check out the Public Medievalist blog (https://www.publicmedievalist.com/uncovering-african/).
I am so excited to see more information from reliable sources being spread about these issues! Unfortunately, I’m based in the Midwest, so I cannot visit this exhibit in person, but I am so grateful that these conversations are beginning. I would also be interested in an online version of the exhibit for those of us who can’t come out due to school or work related circumstances. I’m very interested in seeing more about diverse experiences in the medieval and Renaissance periods. Thank you!
Dear Krysteen,
Thank you for your comment. The exhibition webpage has an “Exhibition Resources” module with a full checklist that has links to collection pages (and images that are downloadable under our Open Content Program) and a PDF of all the gallery labels. We also hope to keep adding to our blog series, even beyond the run of the exhibition, so stay tuned. The Public Medievalist blog (mentioned in the comment above) is also a terrific resource.