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IMC 2011: Sessions

Session 118: Outer Appearance and Luxury

Monday 11 July 2011, 11.15-12.45

Paper 118-aImages and the Problem of Luxury
(Language: English)
Sara Gordon, Corpus Christi College, University of Oxford
Index terms: Art History - Decorative Arts, Daily Life, Gender Studies, Lay Piety
Paper 118-bLuxurious Furs at the End of the Middle Ages
(Language: English)
Hannele Klemettilä, Birkbeck, University of London
Index terms: Anthropology, Art History - Painting, Daily Life, Mentalities
Paper 118-cThe Trashy and the Cheap: Medieval Concepts of Excessive Fashion
(Language: English)
Elizabeth Baumann, Marquette University
Index terms: Daily Life, Economics - General, Gender Studies, Law
Abstract

Paper -a:
The illustrated books of private devotion produced in the later Middle Ages were luxury items, a form of conspicuous consumption prevalent amongst aristocrats. Yet, the images they contained, of noble patrons and their physical and mental world, were not simple displays of magnificence, for within each image depictions of worldly status collided with the comparative austerity of Biblical figures, making such miniatures into juxtapositions of secular display and religious piety. Through the comparison of these images with the textual evidence for medieval behaviour, it becomes clear that the contradiction embodied in these illustrations exemplifies the broader tensions at the heart of medieval conceptions of gender, status, deportment, and prayer.

Paper -b:
The consumption of fine furs was exceptionally high in West Europe in 14th and 15th centuries. My paper examines the main features and background factors of this boom, the ways to view furs, changing attitudes and practices. I shall pay special attention to the evidence offered by iconographical materials. Exotic, pricy furs provided to royalties and aristocrats means to signal their special status as well as various Christian values and ideals. When the fashion spread (in spite of sumptuary laws, prohibitions, preaching, and moralists' warnings) among other sections of society, furs became banal and their symbolic and emblematic power faded. The elites found new ways to mark distance to the non-privileged classes, morally suspicious groups, and natural world.

Paper -c:
This study looks into the perception of wealth and the desire to appear wealthy by medieval women and men. It seeks to explain the disparities between men and women and social class through dress and fashion. Are there differences between the genders and how they are labeled in medieval society economically? How is someone considered 'trashy' in medieval society and what are the boundaries of this concept? This paper seeks to answer the question of how a medieval person is perceived based on their conformity to society and sumptuary laws and how those who defy these laws are dealt with on a social basis.