New Medieval Exhibition Opens at The Met Cloisters - Medievalists.net

""Firmly grounded in decades of scholarship, Spectrum of Desire illuminates the complex ways that people in medieval Europe imagined how to live and love," said Max Hollein, The Met's Marina Kellen French Director and Chief Executive Officer. "The exceptionally spectacular works of art featured in the exhibition tell us how desire and the visual arts were deeply entwined in ways that are incredibly powerful-and sometimes quite surprising.""

"From the 13th through the 15th century, Western Europe underwent profound changes in how sex, family, and relationships were understood and regulated. Yet, as the exhibition reveals, it was also a time of openness and experimentation. Ideas about erotic unions, gender expression, and personal identity were in flux, and artists often explored these themes with humour, subtlety, and beauty. Among the works on view are ivory writing tablets-some depicting risqué scenes-that may have served as vehicles for lovers' messages."

Spectrum of Desire at The Met Cloisters presents over 50 artworks from 13th–15th century Western Europe depicting passion, devotion, and identity. The presentation includes gold jewelry, ivory sculptures, stained glass, illuminated manuscripts, and woven textiles drawn from The Met's collection and notable loans such as the Rothschild Canticles from Yale's Beinecke Library, a devotional manuscript with early images of Christian mystical union. The works show shifting attitudes toward sex, family, and relationships alongside moments of openness and experimentation. Artists explored erotic unions, gender expression, and personal identity with humor, subtlety, sensuality, and spiritual depth, offering unexpected interpretations and intimacies.

Read at Medievalists.net