The Museum of the Senses
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The Museum of the Senses

Experiencing Art and Collections

Constance Classen

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eBook - PDF

The Museum of the Senses

Experiencing Art and Collections

Constance Classen

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About This Book

Traditionally sight has been the only sense with a ticket to enter the museum. The same is true of histories of art, in which artworks are often presented as purely visual objects. In The Museum of the Senses Constance Classen offers a new way of approaching the history of art through the senses, revealing how people used to handle, smell and even taste collection pieces. Topics range from the tactile power of relics to the sensuous allure of cabinets of curiosities, and from the feel of a Rembrandt to the scent of Monet's garden. The book concludes with a discussion of how contemporary museums are stimulating the senses through interactive and multimedia displays. Classen, a leading authority on the cultural history of the senses, has produced a fascinating study of sensual and emotional responses to artefacts from the middle ages to the present. The Museum of the Senses is an important read for anyone interested in the history of art as well as for students and researchers in cultural studies and museum studies.

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Information

Publisher
Bloomsbury Academic
Year
2017
ISBN
9781474252447
Edition
1
Topic
Art
Subtopic
Museum Studies
THE 
MUSEUM 
OF 
THE 
SENSES
10
Sealed 
with 
a 
Kiss
The 
cult 
of 
saintly 
relics 
reached 
its 
fullest 
expression 
in 
the 
Middle 
Ages 
when 
churches 
competed 
over 
the 
importance 
of 
their 
collections 
and 
pilgrims 
made 
long, 
hard 
journeys 
to 
visit 
sacred 
shrines. 
The 
most 
popular 
relics, 
durable 
and 
pulsating 
with 
holy 
vitality, 
were 
the 
bones 
of 
saints. 
These 
were 
often 
enclosed 
in 
splendid 
reliquaries 
(Bagnoli 
2011; 
Figure 
1.1). 
Another 
popular 
kind 
of 
relic, 
known 
as 
a 
second-class 
relic, 
was 
an 
object 
that 
had 
reputedly 
come 
into 
close 
contact 
with 
a 
saint. 
In 
the 
case 
of 
St. 
Francis 
of 
Assisi, 
for 
example, 
sandals 
and 
fragments 
of 
tunics 
belonging 
to 
the 
saint 
served 
as 
relics.
The 
most 
valued 
of 
such 
relics 
were 
treasures 
indeed, 
both 
in 
a 
spiritual 
and 
monetary 
sense. 
When, 
in 
the 
thirteenth 
century, 
the 
Emperor 
of 
Constantinople 
received 
a 
substantial 
loan 
of 
gold 
from 
Venice, 
he 
provided 
as 
security 
nothing 
more 
than 
a 
thorny 
wreath 
– 
but 
that 
wreath 
was 
the 
crown 
said 
to 
have 
been 
worn 
by 
Jesus 
when 
he 
was 
crucified 
(Figure 
1.2). 
Figure 
1.1
Painted 
medieval 
reliquary 
(courtesy 
of 
The 
Walters 
Art 
Museum).

Table of contents