August 23–December 22, 2024

The Middle Ages (ca. 500–1500 CE) is often thought of as a period of heightened religious devotion, especially in the Catholic regions of Western Europe. Looking to the Joan of Arc Chapel, at the heart of the Marquette University campus, and pulling from the collections of the Haggerty Museum of Art and the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, Material Muses: Medieval Devotional Culture and its Afterlives considers how artists since the end of the Middle Ages have looked back to the art from this period as inspiration for creating “authentic” devotional objects of their own time. The exhibition also explores the allure of medieval material as it converses with and energizes post-medieval religious narratives. Read the accompanying booklet here.

Material Muses was curated by Abby R. Armstrong Check, Claire Kilgore and Tania Kolarik, PhD candidates in the Department of Art History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Support for this exhibition is generously provided by the Martha and Ray Smith, Jr. Endowment Fund and in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts.