Dr Orsolya Mednanszky (J. Paul Getty Museum), ‘Healing the Body, Healing the Soul: An Exhibition at the Walters Art Museum’
For a summary of the exhibition, please see the RESOURCES tab on this page.
Abstract: Premodern people considered maintaining their bodily and mental health a constant but imperative challenge and dedicated great efforts to finding remedies to heal their bodies and souls. This exhibition seeks to present the medical and spiritual endeavors of medieval European people and show how works of art participated in these therapeutic practices. Although this exhibition focuses primarily on European Christian visual culture, it also acknowledges the significant influence of ancient, Muslim, and Jewish medicine and philosophy on these ideas and practices.
Short bio: After studying art history in Budapest and Boston, Orsolya earned her Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Between 2021 and 2023, she was a Zanvyl Krieger curatorial fellow at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore and now works as an assistant curator of manuscripts at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles.