Paper short abstract:

The signs of wear on an ivory Virgin and Child at the Cloisters help define the scope and purpose of the tactile sense in private devotion in the Middle Ages.

Paper long abstract:

"His left hand is under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me" (Song of Songs 2:6).

It is generally assumed, based in part on the well-known illumination of St. Hedwig clutching her ivory Virgin and Child, that gothic ivory statuettes were routinely handled and touched. When extant objects are examined closely, however, few actually show any signs of wear at all, a situation that demands a revision of the received paradigm. Rather than a generalized theory, I offer a particular reading of one of the few objects that does show consistent signs of wear: a seated ivory Virgin and Child from Paris in the 1260s, today at the Cloisters Museum, New York. I propose that the specific iconography of this statuette encoded a tactile use; the embrace depicted between mother and child prefigures the viewer/user's caresses of the statuette.

How did touching enhance the experience of meditation and prayer undertaken with the statuette? As one of many spiritual exercises available to the devotee, what benefit did touching and caressing bring to the cognitive processes that constitute prayer? How did this technique interact with the visual and verbal aspects of private devotion? Investigations into what modern neuroscience and medieval theology both say about touch will reveal how multi-sensory engagement led to an enriched experience of prayer in the Middle Ages.