What exactly the reception of works of art looked like in the aristocratic culture of the Middle Ages is a mystery - but this interdisciplinary study takes the bold step of examining ivory carvings and narrative texts written in Middle High German to find out how the nobility might have perceived them. Through the lens of art studies reception aesthetics, it comes up with a framework of work-immanent techniques that shape perception, examining romances such as Rudolfs Willehalm von Orlens, Gottfrieds Tristan, Wolframs Titurel, and Konrads Partonopier und Meliur to argue that the manipulation of the receivers viewpoint is a specific aesthetic concept. For in both visual artifacts and courtly romances, gazes are frequently portrayed as limited, concealed, or completely impossible, indicating that there is more to see than what meets the eye. This study analyzes images and texts together, suggesting that courtly culture had its own codes for the invisible - codes that only become identifiable as concealed instructions for reception when the subtle control of the gaze is revealed in such works as a cross-media aesthetic strategy.

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Walter de Gruyter GmbH
De Gruyter GmbH
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Julika Moos, Philipps-University Marburg, Germany.