The Medieval Body

This fascinating and richly illustrated book accompanies The Medieval Body, the third in a series of vanguard exhibitions that places medieval masterpieces within a contemporary context. The title of the exhibition refers to both a literal thread of figuration that runs throughout the works in the presentation, as well as the complex and often shifting symbolism of the human body in the medieval period. For thinkers and artists of that time, the human body served as a rich source of religious and philosophical significance, one that was in a constant state of flux between idealism and disfigurement. While the early Middle Ages kept representations of suffering bodies to the margins, the later Middle Ages displayed wounded bodies in the most central spaces of public life. The Medieval Body tells a unique story about the human form as both a physical entity and a recognisable metaphor.