Lo splendore nascosto del Medioevo

The eminent role of the minor arts as a key to knowledge and access to the Middle Ages aesthetic and artistic principles. An exceptional and precious work, with a complex and refined iconography, that reveals to the reader the boundless beauty of the minor objects of medieval aesthetics

The minor arts occupy a dominant place in the centuries of the early Middle Ages; they provide us with a wealth of objects even higher than the other major works of art. The cultured and refined quality of this heritage leads us to wonder whether it really represents in a more complete and profound way the artistic culture, the expressive language, the \’Kunstwolle\’ of those centuries: a huge production of gold works, miniatures, ivories, fabrics, ceramics, wooden works and miniatures.

In the Middle Ages, the minor arts tended to produce objects intended for real and specific use and yet with a large margin of superfluous and luxurious uselessness: created for use and for aesthetic enjoyment. A further aspect of the eminent historical role of the minor arts lies in its nature as an easily transportable object, thus assuming a decisive role in cultural transmission and stylistic exchanges. Thr work retrace the Middle Ages trying to identify which technical expression, which minor art was particularly important for each artistic season, thus expressing the spirit of the time and its aesthetic choices.