'Matter of Faith' was the working title for the exhibition 'Treasures of Heaven: Saints, Relics and Devotion in Medieval Europe'. The exhibition was held at three venues: Cleveland Museum of Art, the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, and the British Museum between October 2010 and October 2011. The final exhibition title was devised as a means of expressing more clearly the precious nature of the exhibits and for its allusion to the intercessionary power attributed to saints who are believed to serve as mediators between earth and heaven. However, 'Matter of Faith' was considered too good a second choice to relinquish entirely and the decision was made to retain it for the title of the exhibition’s academic conference and for this publication. Its value lies in its succinctness and ambiguity. The ‘matter’ it describes is at once the question of faith that underlies the belief system and the physical substances that empower it. The substances are not, however, solely the fragments of bone, stone, wood and textiles that for the most part comprise the sacred matter used in relic veneration, but also the precious commodities of gold, silver, crystal and gemstones that were used to make the reliquaries that enshrined the relics.
Author(s): James Robinson, Lloyd de Beer, Anna Harnden (eds.)
Series: British Museum Research Publications, 195
Publisher: The British Museum
Year: 2014
Language: English
Pages: 216
City: London
Preface / James Robinson v
Part 1: Pilgrimage and Cult Centres
1. To Be a Pilgrim: Tactile Piety, Virtual Pilgrimage and the Experience of Place in Christian Pilgrimage / Dee Dyas 1
2. Vestiary Signs of Pilgrimage in Twelfth-century Europe / Janet E. Snyder 8
3. St. George and Venice: The Rise of Imperial Culture / David M. Perry 15
4. Stones of St Michael: Venerating Fragments of Holy Ground in Medieval France and Italy / Lucy Donkin 23
5. The Saint and the King Relics, Reliquaries and Late Medieval Coronation in Aachen and Székesfehérvár / Scott B. Montgomery 32
6. St. Ursula’s Cult and its Manifestation in Liturgy / Kristin Hoefener 40
7. Picturing Narrative and Promoting Cult: Hagiographic Illumination at Three English Cult Centres / Kathryn Gerry 47
8. Presentation of Relics in Late Medieval Siena: The Cappella delle Reliquie in Siena Cathedral / Wolfgang Loseries 56
Part 2: Relics, Reliquaries and their Materials
9. A Recently Discovered Anglo-Carolingian Chrismatory / Leslie Webster 66
10. Grist for the Mill: A Newly Discovered Bust Reliquary from Saint-Flour / Barbara Drake Boehm 75
11. New Dating of the Limoges Reliquaries of the Stigmatization of St Francis / Elisabeth Antoine-König 84
12. 'Christus crystallus': Rock Crystal, Theology and Materiality in the Medieval West / Stefania Gerevini 92
13. Dressing the Relics: Some Thoughts on the Custom of Relic Wrapping in Medieval Christianity / Martina Bagnoli 100
14. Common Ground: Reliquaries and the Lower Classes in Late Medieval Europe / Sarah Blick 110
15. A Shrine Reunited?: The Collaborative, Scientific Study of Two Reliquary Panels from the Walters Art Museum and the British Museum / Glenn Gates, Susan La Niece and Terry Drayman-Weisser 116
16. The Construction and Conservation History of the Hildesheim Portable Altar / Maickel van Bellegem and Lloyd de Beer 126
17. New Discoveries Related to the Portable Altar of Countess Gertrude / Shelley Reisman Paine, David B. Saja and Linda B. Spurlock 137
18. Relics of Gender Identity: Interpreting a Reliquary of a Follower of St. Ursula / Samantha Riches 143
19. Embodying the Saint: Mystical Visions, Maria Lactans and the Miracle of Mary’s Milk / Vibeke Olson 151
Part 3: Debate, Doubt and Later Developments
20. Art as Evidence in Medieval Relic Disputes: Three Cases from Fifteenth-century France / Erik Inglis 159
21. Contested Relics: Winefride and the Saints of the Atlantic Churches / Madeleine Gray 164
22. The Horn of St. Hubert in the Wallace Collection / Jeremy Warren 170
23. Preserved Miraculously: Relics in the Old Catholic St Gertrude’s Cathedral in Utrecht, Netherlands / Anique de Kruijf 178
24. Change and Continuity in the Display of Relics in England in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries: The English Catholic Community in a Broader Context / Andrea de Meo Arbore 183
25. Bodies, Artefacts and Images: A Cross-cultural Theory of Relics / Steven Hooper 190
Contributors 200
Index
