Crown and Veil
The Art of Female Monasticism in the Middle Ages
19 March - 3 July 2005
The exhibition is dedicated to all forms of female religiosity from the early Middle Ages until the Reformation. The focus is on works that were made by and for nuns and canonesses. Special attention will be paid to the role of women in medieval art, be it as artists, patrons or, collectively, as an audience.
Crown and Veil will present the artistic production by and for medieval nuns and canonesses both in relation to its diverse functions (piety, liturgy, instruction, ceremony) as well as in terms of its content (iconographic traditions, knowledge, theology, norms, genres) and formal dimensions.
Approximately 600 prestigious loans from an international array of lenders, including churches and surviving monastic communities, will be on exhibit for a period of three months, among them numerous textiles and a great many ensembles that were scattered with the dissolution of monasteries and that will be reunited for the first time in the exhibition. The chronological span of the exhibition extends from the sixth to the sixteenth century. The section in Essen will exhibit objects from all over Europe from the early and High Middle Ages (6th through 12th centuries);
the section in Bonn concentrates on the later Middle Ages (13th through early 16th century) within the borders of the Holy Roman Empire.