Illuminating Faith: The Eucharist In Medieval Life And Art
This summer New Yorkers – and other visitors to the city – are invited to peruse a series of illuminations and artefacts – illustrating the faith in the miracle of the Eucharist.
When Christ changed bread and wine into his body and blood at the Last Supper, he instituted the Eucharist and established the central act of Christian worship. For medieval Christians, the Eucharist (the sacrament of Communion) was not only at the heart of the Mass, its presence and symbolism also wielded enormous influence over cultural and civic life. With an evermore elaborated liturgical framing the Eucharist ended up constituting the central paradigm for a proper procession and ritual, which was mirrored in a series of secular settings as well.
In the center of these liturgies was – as numerous images in the exhibition reveal – the Elevation. This moment, when the priest holds the Eucharist aloft, became the climax of the Mass after 1215, when transubstantiation was theologically codified as the official Catholic dogma.Viewing the host was not only good for the soul, it was also thought to help avert evil and was capable of protecting one from blindness, sudden death or other mishaps or illnesses. Indeed, this fervor for the Host compelled some Christians in the later Middle Ages to run from church to church to see as many Elevations as possible.
The exhibition shows how medieval artists did not shy away from the bloody reality of Christ’s Crucifixion. Several works on view depict angels using chalices to collect the blood dripping from Christ’s wounds. Others highlight its salvific effects, such as a fifteenth-century Italian illumination showing Christ’s blood dripping down the shaft of the Cross onto the skull of Adam, thereby cleansing it and redeeming all of mankind from Original Sin.
Included among the masterpieces is the Hours of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, one of the greatest of all illuminated manuscripts. This is a deluxe papal manuscript that remained at the Vatican until it was looted by Napoleon’s troops in 1798. On show is also a tiny prayer book created for Charles-Orland, the 3-year-old prince of King Charles VIII of France and his queen, Anne de Bretagne plus a number of superb, but rarely exhibited Missals used by priests in the celebration of Mass.
The exhibition concludes with a fascinating exploration of Eucharistic miracles. Bleeding Hosts were the most convincing miracles that revealed the True Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Such wafers were numerous in the late Middle Ages and became the focus of popular cults and pilgrimages. But bleeding hosts also resulted in Jewish persecution since Christians believed that wafers bled following desecration by Jews.
In the 19th century, the mystery of the bloody host was solved. The fungus – micrococcus prodigiosus – a microscopic organism, was identified. Growing on bread, it turns red and liquefies, creating the blood on miraculous wafers.
Illuminating Faith: The Eucharist in Medieval Life and Art
17.05.2013 – 02.09.2013
The Morgan Library & Museum in New York
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