The Hidden Medieval at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Using R (a coding language), this research examines the medieval objects (500-1500 CE) not on view (31,332) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. When visitors go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art they see shiny, religiously-affiliated capitals and paintings from Western Europe. The narrative that forms of the Middle Ages, then, may be considered linear, for example, from static and architectural statutes of the Virgin and Child to more human-like and emotional figures of Mary and Jesus. With its selection of displayed objects, the Met perpetuates historiographic narratives not only about the discovery of the individual in the Renaissance but also popular associations of the medieval period as European. My paper asks what perceptions and visions of “the medieval” we get from the fragments that are not on display. The thousands of fragments, prints, bowls, and ornaments that are not on view are in fact aligned with current trends in academic research on the medieval period. I will suggest an exhibit that includes objects “not on view” that would allow the Met to use its agency to correct misconceptions of the medieval period and amplify academic trends that reveal the global and fragmented scope of the medieval period.