Abstract
Many historians of medieval art now look beyond soaring cathedrals to study the relationship of architecture and image-making to life in medieval society. This book explores the interplay between church decoration and ritual practice in caring for the sick - bridging cultural anthropology and the social history of medicine - and aiming to expand our understanding of how clergy employed mural painting to cure body and soul. Looking closely at paintings from ca1200 in the church of Saint Aignan-sur-Cher, a castle town in Central France, Kupfer traces their links to burial practices, the veneration of saints, and the care of the sick in nearby hospitals. Through careful analysis of the surrounding agrarian landscape, dotted with cults targeting specific afflictions - especially ergotism - Kupfer sheds light on the role of wall painting in an ecclesiastical economy of healing and redemption. Sickness and death, she argues, hold the key to understanding the dynamics of the Christian community in the Middle Ages.
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