:Outcasts: Signs of Otherness in Northern European Art of the Late Middle Ages

Abstract

This illustrated two-volume study assembles and analyzes an extraordinary compilation of pictorial signs (motifs, attributes and other artistic devices) used by medieval artists to identify and denigrate those figures deemed outcasts, such as Jews, heretics, Muslims, blacks, executioners, prostitutes, lepers, gamblers, footsoldiers, entertainers and peasants. Among the signs treated are costume elements such as patterns and colours, and physical attributes such as skin and hair colour, blemishes and gestures. The study focuses on art from northern Europe, with examples culled principally from the 13th to the mid-16th centuries. The author poses important questions about the attitudes of Christian society, and nearly 700 images are gathered in Volume 2 to illustrate her observations.