The Middle Ages in 50 Objects

Part I: The Holy and the Faithful:

1. Jonah Cast Up, c.280–290, marble
2. Altar Front, c.540–600, marble
3. Pilgrim's Flask with Saint Menas, 6th–7th century, terracotta
4. Calyx (Chalice), 900s–1000s, blood jasper (heliotrope) with gilt-copper mounts
5. Christ's Mission to the Apostles, c.970–980, ivory
6. Feline Incense Burner, 1100s, copper alloy, cast and chased
7. Leaf from a Qur'an, 1100s, opaque watercolor, ink, and gold on paper
8. Arm Reliquary of the Apostles, c. 1190, gilt silver, champlevé enamel, oak
9. Virgin and Child, late 13th century
wood (oak) with polychromy and gilding
10. Christ and Saint John the Evangelist, early 14th century, polychromed and gilded oak
11. The Coronation of the Virgin with the Trinity, c.1400, oil on panel
12. Christ Carrying the Cross, 1400s, painted and gilded alabaster
13. Leaf from an Antiphonary: Initial H with the Nativity, c.1480, ink, tempera and gold on vellum
Part II. The Sinful and the Spectral:
14. Adam and Eve, late 400s-early 500s, marble and stone tesserae
15. Curtain Panel with Scenes of Merrymaking, 6th Century, undyed linen and dyed wool
16. Plaque from a Portable Altar Showing the Crucifixion, 1050–1100, walrus ivory
17. Dragon's Head, 1100–1150, walrus ivory
18. Bowl with Engraved Figures of Vices, 1150–1200, bronze
19. Engaged Capital with a Lion and a Basilisk, 1175–1200, marble
20. Leaf from a Cocharelli Treatise on the Vices: Acedia and Her Court, c.1330, ink, tempera, and gold on vellum
21. Miniature from a Mariegola: The Flagellation, 1359–1360, tempera and gold on parchment
22. The Madonna of Humility with the Temptation of Eve, c.1400, tempera and gold on wood panel
23. Grotesques from the Hours of Charles the Noble, c.1404, ink, tempera, and gold on vellum
24. The Virgin Mary Overcoming a Devil, ca.1473, hand-colored woodcut
25. Demon in Chains, c.1453, opaque watercolor and gold on paper
Part III. Daily Life and Its Fictions:
26. S-Shaped Fibula, 500s, silver with garnets
27. Button, 500s, rock crystal, garnet, granulated gold
28. Solidus with Busts of Constans II and Constantine IV (obverse), 659–661, gold
29. Bifolium Excised from a Carolingian Gradual, c.830–860, gold and silver ink on purple parchment
30. Jug, 900s, gold with repoussé and chased and engraved decoration
31. Lion Aquamanile, 1200-1250, copper alloy
32. Luster Wall Tile with a Couple, 1266, fritware with luster-painted design
33. Leaf Excised from Henry of Segusio's 'Summa Aurea': Table of Consanguinity, c. 1280, ink, tempera, and gold on parchment
34. Albarello with Two Hares, 14th century, tin-glazed earthenware (maiolica)
35. Mirror Case with a Couple Playing Chess, 1325–1350, ivory
36. Table Fountain, c.1320–1340, gilt-silver and translucent enamels
37. Barbute, 1350–1420, iron
38. Time, from Chateau de Chaumont Set, 1512–1515, silk and wool
Part IV. Death and Its Aftermath:
39. Columbarium Tomb Plaque with the Monogram of Christ, 500–800, terracotta
40. Single-Edged Knife (Scramasax), 600s, iron, copper, and gold foil
41. Inscribed Tombstone of Shaikh al-Husain ibn Abdallah ibn al-Hasan, 1110, limestone
42. Condemnation and Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence, c.1180, gilded copper, champlevé enamel
43. Leaf from a Psalter: The Crucifixion, c.1300–1330, ink, tempera and gold on vellum
44. Diptych with Scenes from the Life of Christ, c. 1350–1375, ivory
45. Death of the Virgin, c.1400, tempera and oil with gold on panel
46. Mourner from the Tomb of Philip the Bold, 1404–1410, alabaster
47. The Last Judgment: Leaf from a Book of Hours, 1430s, ink, tempera and gold on vellum
48. Initial T from a Choral Book with Isaac and Esau, c.1460–1470, ink, tempera, and gold on parchment
49. A Bridal Couple, c.1470, oil on panel

50. Dance of Death: The Pope, cut c.1526–27, woodcut.

Elina Gertsman is Professor of Medieval Art at Case Western Reserve University. She is the author of The Dance of Death in the Middle Ages: Image, Text, Performance (2010) and Worlds Within: Opening the Medieval Shrine Madonna (2015), and editor of several books, including Visualizing Medieval Performance: Perspectives, Histories, Contexts (2008) and Crying in the Middle Ages: Tears of History (2013). Most recently, with Stephen Fliegel, she published a catalogue that accompanies the focus exhibition they co-curated at the Cleveland Museum of Art, Myth and Mystique: Cleveland's Gothic Table Fountain (2016).

Barbara H. Rosenwein, Professor Emerita Loyola University, Chicago, is a medievalist and a recognized authority on the history of emotions. She is the author of Emotional Communities in the Early Middle Ages (2006), Generations of Feeling: A History of Emotions, 600–1700 (2016), and has just completed (with co-author Riccardo Cristiani) What Is the History of Emotions? (2017). Her textbooks, A Short History of the Middle Ages (2009) and Reading the Middle Ages: Sources from Europe, Byzantium, and the Islamic World (2006) are currently going into new editions.