Secular Art from the Middle Ages

Exhibition image

Broadly speaking, 'secular art' (what might also be called 'profane') defines a realm of objects whose imagery or function are neither dictated nor restricted by religious dogma. Of course, we cannot extricate religion from our understanding of what existence must have meant for people living during the later Middle Ages. There were no clear-cut boundaries between ‘religious’ and ‘secular’ realms. Instead, religion was a constant backdrop to daily life, and every member of society, from rich to poor, lived to a greater or lesser extent by the rules, structures, aspirations and fears offered by their faith. But within this overarching view, life outside of the church walls was not so dissimilar to our own. Objects kept within medieval homes, including those intended for a private audience, those used for feasts and gatherings, or those that reveal social interactions at a level unbound by purely religious ends, offer a tantalizing view of the ‘other side’ of medieval existence.

The thirty-six works of art in this exhibition (our first dedicated purely to 'secular' art) encompass ironwork, books, textiles, furniture, ceramics, mortars, stained glass roundels, jewellery, domestic stone carvings and cutlery. They are divided into four categories: things which composed and decorated the home; things which include images of the people and the fashioning or self-fashioning of the face and body; things which adorned the theatre of the dining table; and things which speak of love, war, and chivalric idealism. They invite us to enter the homes of the medieval populace, to look on what they saw and used, and to glimpse a little of how they viewed themselves as mortal humans in a world of story-telling.

 

15D Clifford Street, London W1S 4JZ
23 February - 22 March 2024

View more

Frieze Masters 2024

Frieze Masters, London
9 - 13 October 2024

MARY & THE WOMEN SHE INSPIRED

15D Clifford Street, London W1S 4JZ
27 June - 26 July 2024

The World in your Hands Five Lustre-Painted Bowls from Kashan

A spotlight exhibition focusing on ceramics produced in the workshops of Kashan between c. 1150-1280, this group of five lustre-painted bowls illustrates the technic…
15D Clifford Street, London W1S 4JZ
5 - 25 April 2024

TEFAF 2024

MECC Maastricht, NL
7 - 14 March 2024

Islam in Europe

Sam Fogg
3 November - 22 December 2023

Frieze Masters

Regents Park
11 - 15 October 2023

New Acquisitions London Art Week

Sam Fogg
30 June - 7 July 2023

TEFAF 2023

MECC Maastricht
9 - 19 March 2023

Master Drawings from the Middle Ages

Master Drawings from the Middle Ages brings together a group of vanishingly rare early European drawings all executed in a period spanning the years 1160 to 1520. Th…
Les Enluminures
20 January - 4 February 2023

Get updates about exhibitions, art fairs and events

Shopping Bag

Close
No items found
Close
Close
Close
Search
Sam Fogg
Art of the Middle Ages