NEWS FEATURE: Exhibit opens window on medieval prayer and piety

c. 1997 Religion News Service BALTIMORE _ People have always prayed, but each human era brings its own distinct art and style to the practice. A compelling exhibit at the Walters Art Gallery _”Images of Devotion: Personal Piety in Medieval Manuscripts and Ivories,”which closes Oct. 12 _ offers a particular style of medieval piety, graphically […]

c. 1997 Religion News Service

BALTIMORE _ People have always prayed, but each human era brings its own distinct art and style to the practice.

A compelling exhibit at the Walters Art Gallery _”Images of Devotion: Personal Piety in Medieval Manuscripts and Ivories,”which closes Oct. 12 _ offers a particular style of medieval piety, graphically represented in”books of hours,”elaborate, illuminated prayer books for laity that were used at regular intervals throughout the day and carved ivories that were tools of personal devotion.


The manuscripts are on display less for their written prayers as for their artwork depicting people praying.

The prayer books, commissioned by the wealthy, feature bright, colorful drawings of the books’ owners praying before the Virgin and Child. In some cases, the pictures include additional visions of Mary answering a prayer or the presence of a saint interceding for the person kneeling before Mary and baby Jesus.”Seeing the physical image is supposed to inspire you to reach that heavenly level,”said Kelly Holbert, curator of the exhibit.”It’s to focus your mind on your prayers.” The books, most of which are about 200 pages long, and the small ivory statues of the Virgin and Child are purposely linked in the exhibit.

And the exhibit is accompanied by the sound of a choir of Benedictine nuns singing Gregorian chants, bringing together the visual, tactile and aural elements of personal prayer life.

They reflect, on a personal scale, the same gothic style found in stone and wooden sculptures of the Virgin and Child in public cathedrals and castle chapels of the time.”I wanted people to understand that all these different media go together,”said Holbert, research associate for medieval art at the gallery.”These were all used in private devotion.” The most dramatic example in the exhibit is a manuscript from northeastern France that features Theophilus, a sixth-century cleric in Asia Minor.

As the legend goes, Theophilus made a pact with the devil to achieve advancement in the church. Realizing this was a bad idea, he repented.”He prayed very, very hard to the Virgin,”relates Holbert.”She appeared in a vision returning the contract.” In general, the pictures of people praying before Mary were used to help people focus on their prayers.

But the books tell researchers like Holbert about more than the prayer life of the people who owned them. Features range from fancy borders to coats of arms, demonstrating”strong pride of ownership,”she said.

And the wealth of the people who owned the books reveal the improving economies in western Europe, where towns developed around cathedrals and there was a rising merchant class.”They’re able to start owning their own luxury objects,”she said.


Although people often owned expensive secular objects, such as ivory jewelry boxes, many were interested in owning objects of a religious nature.”Religion was still a very important force in this time period,”Holbert said.

Mary held a specially prominent role in late medieval spirituality and was increasingly viewed as a figure accessible to the faithful’s petitions for help. In the 13th century, books of hours were mostly dedicated to Mary and became the most popular book throughout Europe.

Some castles had private chapels and other homes featured prie-dieus, or kneeling benches.”Before (the 13th century), everything was focused on the church,”she said, referring to the cathedral or the village parish church. But in the 13th to 15th centuries,”people are sort of taking these things into their homes and into their private lives.” Some of the manuscripts’ artwork is very detailed. One, for example, shows St. Clare, the founder of the Franciscan order of nuns known as the Poor Clares, interceding for a woman praying before Mary. An angel with wings of peacock feathers serves as an attendant to Mary.

At the same time, the books often reflect a”mix of vanity and humility,”Holbert said.

In one of the manuscripts on display, for example, the owners of the book are featured within the religious scenes, intentionally becoming part of the biblical drama. In a 15th-century manuscript, the woman owner is painted into a scene of the Annunciation that features the angel Gabriel informing Mary she is to bear Jesus.”They’ve purposely been included in these scenes,”said Holbert.

In another case, a book of hours includes a duke’s monogram, coat of arms and his motto”more than one time,”referring to his willingness to return to fight in the Crusades.

Owners who have purchased or inherited the manuscripts from someone else occasionally had them retouched so they were included in the scene.


The curator said the medieval manuscripts can be compared to the popularity of devotional books today that include prayers, challenges and thoughts for the day.

While modern books focus on”self-improvement,”the older books focused on heaven, she said. They demonstrate the sense that prayers are necessary because”you have no control over your life.”

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