ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the role of movement on the Christian altar while offering a method for extending the lives of medieval altar furnishings within museum settings. While digital screens are commonly used to re-contextualize medieval objects in museum settings, other modern technologies could also be used to recover some of the original aesthetics of the medieval altar. The display of medieval statues and altar furnishings in museums often makes it difficult to appreciate their original dynamism. For instance, the grouping of sculptures according to type—such as those of the Virgin in the collection of the Frederic Mares Museum, Barcelona—presents them as barely differentiated specimens of medieval art. The ontological impact of adjustments is difficult to appreciate in a world filled with digital imagery and in museum displays that isolate objects from their original aesthetic environments. And yet, the animation of objects was as fascinating an art for medieval craftsmen as it is to artists.
