Concept

Symbols of wealth and social status are ubiquitous in our modern world, from the kinds of cars we drive to the college logos on our clothing. This exhibit aims to demonstrate that material objects served a similar function throughout the Middle Ages and were important not only for powerful rulers, but religious figures and common people as well.

Spanning across many miles and more than a thousand years, the objects in this gallery represent a wide array of cultural and religious symbols that would have been important to people in the Middle Ages. While some explicitly depict the individual they commemorate, others indirectly comment on the status of their owners.

Having a commemorative object was not just about displaying a famous figure. Not only do these objects perpetuate the legacy of the person or event they depict, but they also perpetuate the status and legacy of the person who owned them or commissioned them. Owning these commemorative pieces of art shows that the owner had money and good taste, while also commemorating that specific owner. Not everyone could afford to commission art; not everyone had their own seal that they could put on stamps and keys. Only rich rulers could afford to commission the highest quality tapestries with images of previous rulers; just like only rich, fancy cathedrals could commission the highest quality stained glass. Through these commemorative pieces of art, the wealthy could use memory to increase their own status and differentiate themselves from those who could not afford such objects.

Ultimately, these objects play a significant role in allowing modern viewers to piece together the hierarchies of the medieval period. We see the stratification of medieval people through their objects, and how remembrance and commemoration could be controlled by wealth and status.