Emerson Students Make Medieval Art Accessible to Those Without Sight
People with visual impairments can now experience the rich detail and craftsmanship of medieval illuminated manuscripts at a small museum in the Netherlands, thanks in large part to the creativity and work of Emerson students studying art history at Kasteel Well.
The exhibition, Feel Van Lymborch, is on display in the Gebroeders Van Lymborch Huis (the Van Lymborch Brothers House) in the city of Nijmegen, approximately 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of Well, until mid-October. Located at the spot where the three medieval illuminators were born and raised, the museum invites audiences to experience these precious works not with their eyes, but through sound, smell, taste, and touch.
The concept for this exhibition stems from the minds of Emerson students, who have devised different thoughtful and creative ways for audiences to experience medieval illuminated books without having to rely on vision. Each semester, as part of their art history course at Kasteel Well, students are invited to participate in a project that culminates in an actual exhibition.
For the past five semesters, the focus has been on the work of the Van Lymborch brothers. Born in Nijmegen, the brothers moved to France as young adults, where, in the early 15th century, they became international trendsetters and artists working for aristocratic patrons.
“I, myself, have always been captivated by the beautiful illuminations of these stellar artists, whose work has shaped and defined our image of what the Dutch historian Huizinga called ‘the waning of the Middle Ages,’” said Kasteel Well Executive Director and art history professor Rob Dückers, a specialist on the Van Lymborchs who has curated exhibitions on these important artists and wrote exhibition catalogues and other scholarly articles on the subject. “It is impossible to find publications dealing with 15th-century Europe that do not show their work as illustration material.”
The Van Lymborchs’ work — paintings in medieval handwritten books called miniatures — are among the most precious and important artwork to survive from the late medieval period. Hidden for centuries in libraries and nowadays kept in vaults (and only occasionally visible behind the glass of display cases), such fragile medieval illuminated manuscripts have long remained out of reach for the masses. This is especially true for those with visual impairments.
The exhibition reimagines centuries-old masterpieces by transforming select manuscript illuminations into immersive sensory experiences. Known for exquisite works such as Les Très Riches Heures (Musée Condé, Chantilly, France) and the Belles Heures (Metropolitan Museum, Cloisters Collection, New York), the Van Lymborchs crafted richly detailed scenes of medieval life.
One of their miniatures, painted as a scene on the flat surface of a parchment leaf, has now been reimagined as a 3D model, skillfully developed by Rémy Gousset, a former architect who himself is visually impaired. From that model, a 3D print was made, so that people for the first time can feel the richly detailed image. Decorations in the manuscripts’ margins, such as birds or flowers, will be invoked by recordings of birdsong, or the scent of the blossoms. Medieval manuscripts containing musical notation will sing for museumgoers, as the songs have been performed by a choir specializing in medieval chant, recorded, and offered as audio files.
While the first three months of the exhibition will focus on hearing and smell, mid-way through, the exhibits will be changed to focus on touch and taste. People will be able to feel objects depicted, and taste fruits visible in these medieval manuscripts. The exhibits will explain why such plants, fruits, and objects were included in manuscripts in the first place, and what they symbolized. And instead of traditional written labels affixed near display cases, the entire exhibition is narrated as an audio tour.
“That we are now able to share their work with an entirely new audience, who until now have been deprived of this important aspect of European medieval culture, fills me with a sense of pride and joy,” Dückers said. “Leave it to Emersonians to come up with this.”
Submitted by Rob Dückers, with input by Carlen Arevalo Alvarez ‘27
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