St. Margaret Emerging From The Dragon That Swallowed Her

Hand gestures and their meaning in iconography and religious paintings.

doing some studies of medieval helmets <3

back in the day medieval times was so big it covered all of europe. now its so small it fits in some restaurants

In what follows, however, I want to draw attention to a context where women had a role that was culturally and socially significant and where consequently some effort was made to police the relations that they formed with one another in terms that implicated the erotic. Anchorites were men or women who attempted to mimic the eremitic lifestyle of the desert fathers by dedicating themselves to a life of solitary confinement in a cell or “anchorhold,” usually under the spiritual direction of a bishop. While the reclusive life was adopted by individuals from the early Middle Ages until well into the sixteenth century, statistical surveys have shown that in England anchoritism reached its apogee in the thirteenth century and that, in this period, women adopting the lifestyle outnumbered men by a ratio of roughly four to one. Although, on the surface, the solitary nature of Journal of Medieval Religious Cultures the anchorite’s vocation seems to preclude the kinds of socially valued and politically potent relationships that characterize premodern discourses of male friendship, in England at least the centrality of anchorites to medieval communities is apparent. English anchoritism was a fundamentally social phenomenon, sustained by networks of patronage, material support, and verbal and textual interaction; the relationships forged among recluses, and with others beyond the confines of the cell, potentially possessed an importance beyond mere practical necessity. If, as Robert Hasenfratz has recently put it, “many anchorites withdrew from the world only to find themselves in the center of village life,” the anchorhold is best understood not simply as a space of physical isolation but also as a transactive site, a location within which bonds could be formed and networks sustained. Contemporary discourses of friendship may thus have exerted an influence on the lives of individuals who, on another level, remained dead to the world.

Robert Mills. “GENDER, SODOMY, FRIENDSHIP, AND THE MEDIEVAL ANCHORHOLD.” Journal of Medieval Religious Cultures 36, no. 1 (2010): 1–27. https://doi.org/10.5325/jmedirelicult.36.1.0001.

Juan de Balmaseda

Carved Predella: Adoration of the Magi

Spain (c. 1516-1525)

Polychrome Wood, 68 x 83 cm.

Palencia, Seo. Capilla de San Ildefonso.

The Image of the Black in Western Art Research Project and Photo Archive, W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, Harvard University

master of the chronique scandaleuse from the poncher hours, depicts a woman kneeling with her prayer book before death. illuminated manuscript, artist jean pinchore, french, c. 1500

any good medieval butterflies?

I like these guys from Morgan Library MS M.358! this is also just a fun manuscript to look at because it is unfinished and you can see the artist's process making the borders by looking at the incomplete folios

loose sketches of some Pelagien outfits... travelling and sleeping

notes under readmore:

the travelling outfit is based on some c13th and 14th sources which describe large hoods and cloaks

i opted to not do a particularly priest-y look - he's not trying to draw attention while moving

i am so aware of the debate on whether medieval people slept naked. 95% of the sources of people doing this are either from warm climates (like portugal) or depict nobles with access to good bedding and servants to heat their chambers - other people would probably sleep in underwear or specific sleep clothes. i've opted for a c14th set of a mens short undertunic and braies

i am making wild extrapolations as to what a guy with a very specific set of experiences (ftm . clericus vagans . autistic . lower middle class in the 1300s) would wear . allow a guy some creative liberty

Kerkhof, Debbie. “Transvestite Knights: Men and Women Cross-Dressing in Medieval Literature,” 2013.