Performing Desire: Bridal Mysticism and Medieval Imagery in the Low Countries (c. 1100-1500)

Abstract

The twelfth-century Latin West saw the rise of a tradition of bridal mysticism. Based on the Song of Songs, the Old-Testament love dialogue, the relationship with God was envisioned as a love relationship with the heavenly bridegroom involving feelings of desire. The leading question in my research is how, in the medieval Low Countries, the affectionate and multisensorial vocabulary related to the Song of Songs engaged reader-viewers in a personal, transformative dialogue with Christ by evoking performative modes of reading and viewing that encouraged devotees to physically or imaginatively play out the text or image.

Although originated in the male monastic context, bridal mysticism became a potent way for various groups, including women and laypeople, to participate in the culture of saints and mystics. Access to and ownership of devotional objects provided devotees with agency and possibilities for spiritual development. In spiritual practice, individuals had different options at their disposal, allowing them to choose between different ways of imagining their bridal relationship with Christ. Bridal mysticism accommodated these various options and practices and gave and impulse to the conceptualization of the role of the senses in spirituality.