Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, to unveil medieval recycling exhibit

“I hope visitors will have a new appreciation for the rich histories behind medieval objects and the cleverness of the craftsmen who made and transformed them,” says Lynley Anne Herbert, the Robert and Nancy Hall assistant curator of rare books and manuscripts. “I think everyone can relate to the concepts of reuse and recycling, so key in our modern world, and, through this exhibition, visitors will discover how equally prevalent and important this was in the medieval era.”
 

The exhibit, which will be displayed in the museum’s Manuscript Gallery, will display several works owned by the museum that were the subject of medieval recycling practices. Featured pieces include a stone head of Hercules that was recarved to resemble a Roman Catholic saint and a 12th century fragment of the Talmund that was used to bind a 15th century copy of Aesop’s Fables.  
 

“Stunning and important in their own right, these works of art have unseen layers of history than can now be newly understood through modern research,” says Herbert.