9781780232508
What do they all mean – the lascivious ape, autophagic dragons, pot-bellied heads, harp-playing asses, arse-kissing priests and somersaulting jongleurs to be found protruding from the edges of medieval buildings and in the margins of illuminated manuscripts? Michael Camille explores that riotous realm of marginal art, so often explained away as mere decoration or zany doodles, where resistance to social constraints flourished.
Medieval image-makers focused attention on the underside of society, the excluded and the ejected. Peasants, servants, prostitutes and beggars all found their place, along with knights and clerics, engaged in impudent antics in the margins of prayer-books or, as gargoyles, on the outsides of churches. Camille brings us to an understanding of how marginality functioned in medieval culture and shows us just how scandalous, subversive, and amazing the art of the time could be.
Medieval image-makers focused attention on the underside of society, the excluded and the ejected. Peasants, servants, prostitutes and beggars all found their place, along with knights and clerics, engaged in impudent antics in the margins of prayer-books or, as gargoyles, on the outsides of churches. Camille brings us to an understanding of how marginality functioned in medieval culture and shows us just how scandalous, subversive, and amazing the art of the time could be.
Distribution by the University of Chicago Press only to customers in the USA and Canada. Customers elsewhere should visit the UK website of Reaktion Books.
176 pages | 13 color plates, 73 halftones | © 2004
Art: Art--General Studies
Reviews
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Preface
1. Making Margins
2. In the Margins of the Monastery
3. In the Margins of the Cathedral
4. In the Margins of the Court
5. In the Margins of the City
6. The End of the Edge
References
Bibliography
List of Illustrations
Preface
1. Making Margins
2. In the Margins of the Monastery
3. In the Margins of the Cathedral
4. In the Margins of the Court
5. In the Margins of the City
6. The End of the Edge
References
Bibliography
List of Illustrations
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