The Art of Healing

"Many historians of medieval art now look beyond Gothic cathedrals to study the relationship of architecture and image-making to the hard realities of life in early medieval society. In The Art of Healing, Marcia Kupfer breaks new ground by uncovering the lost relationship between church decoration and ritual practice in caring for the sick. Her inquiry bridges cultural anthropology and the social history of medicine even as it also expands our understanding of the ways in which the clergy employed mural painting to cure body and soul." "Looking closely at the parish church of Saint-Aignan-sur-Cher in central France, Kupfer traces the roles played by its elaborate painted decoration to burial practices, to the veneration of saints, and to the care of the sick in nearby hospitals. Through analysis of the surrounding agrarian landscape, dotted with cults for specific afflictions, especially ergotism, then known as St. Silvan's fire, Kupfer sheds new 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 Christian community in the Middle Ages." "The Art of Healing will be important reading for cultural anthropologists and historians of both medicine and religion as well as to medievalists and art historians"--Jacket.