Body-Part Reliquaries: The State of Research

Abstract

For the first time since the nineteenth century, published articles, monographs, conferences, and lectures dedicated to the medieval cult of relics have proliferated during the past decade. Studies specifically of reliquaries that assume the form of parts of the human body have begun to occupy a small corner of this field of research. The newness of this pursuit in literature published in English is evidenced in the rather awkward and inelegant term "body-part reliquaries" that has been adopted in the context of this publication of papers that were first offered at the College Art Association in San Antonio in February 1995. This essay surveys the state of research on "body-part reliquaries." By way of specific example, particular emphasis in placed on French works, a number of which survive and about which there is considerable documentation. Given the perspective of the author, a museum curator and specialist on the subject of head reliquaries, consideration is also placed on the installation of such reliquaries in American museums and what that suggests, historically, about their perception as works of art.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 50 citations exist upstream.