OM Friends - In Focus

Medieval Beasts An Association of Friends of the Otago Museum Talk

Animal life abounds in medieval manuscripts: fantastic beasts – part human, part animal – peer around the corners of painted letters in every type of book imaginable, boars gallop across the pages of hunting treatises, newly-created animals emerge from the leaves of Bibles, and creatures representing the signs of the zodiac stretch across the night sky in astrological texts. The depiction of animals in the medieval era is perhaps unequalled in the history of Western art.

In this talk, Associate Professor Simone Marshall, University of Otago Department of English will discuss how medieval tapestries, sculpture, and even metalwork display numerous animals in abundance, but it is in the colourful pages of illuminated manuscripts that beasts hold the greatest sway, brought to life by some of the most skilled artists of the time.