The Guest of the Body: Visualising Souls in Medieval Europe 1100-1200

Fascinating online lecture from the Courtauld Research Forum looking at how and why souls were represented on 12th century effigies.

Shirin Fozi from the University of Pittsburgh talked about how this research had come out of the work she did on her book on Romanesque effigies as she realised there were a number of pieces which depicted souls going to heaven often shown as being taken by angels. The phrase “guest of the body” to describe the soul comes from a poem by Hadrian written shortly before he died which appears on a number of tombs.

She discussed a number of lovely images including the attached of the tomb of Presbyter Bruno in Hildesheim Cathedral from 1195. She also talked about how these images were also popular on reliquaries and she speculated that it may be iconography which is being used for people who their community hoped might become a saint.     

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