Taking a new approach to medieval art, Meaning in Motion reveals the
profound importance of movement in the physical, emotional, and
intellectual experience of art and architecture in the Middle Ages.
Focusing on the physical movement of objects and viewers, as well as
movements of the mind, this richly illustrated collection of
interdisciplinary essays explores a wide range of rituals, performances,
works of art, and texts in which movement is crucial to meaning. These
include liturgical and devotional practices, but also pilgrimage,
reading techniques, and the use of art and allegory in late medieval
courtly society. The contributors consider movement not only as a
physical action but also as an active intellectual process involving the
reception of images, one that creates layers of meaning through the
multidimensional experience of objects and spaces, both real and
imaginary. This novel approach to medieval art, building on the concept
of agency and the understanding of ritual as a performative act, is
influenced by two anthropological perspectives: Victor Turner's
"processual" analysis of rites of passage and Alfred Gell's conception
of the interactive relationship between art and the viewer as a process.
The essays in this volume engage in an interdisciplinary discussion of
the significance of movement for the making and perception of medieval
art.
