KBR – Witches avant la lettre
(Past event)
“From 26 October onwards, the KBR museum will present a new selection of manuscripts from the library of the Dukes of Burgundy, as well as a thematic focus entitled “Witches avant la lettre”. Because as it turns out, the cliché of the medieval witch doesn’t exist at all.
From saints and beguines to sibyls, mermaids, Joan of Arc, the Virgin Mary, Christine de Pizan, craftswomen and female miniaturists – discover the many facets of womanhood in the period just before the advent of the witch hunt.Some thirty manuscripts will allow you to discover how these “witches avant la lettre” fared.
Amongst other things, the miniatures show activities that would later be condemned as witchcraft and therefore could no longer be performed by women.The manuscripts paint a portrait of what life was like at the end of the Middle Ages.
The picture? Nuanced, often playful and, surprisingly, very much in tune with today’s issues on the subject of gender.
In the coming months, a series of lectures, activities and workshops will put the stereotypes still associated with the figure of the witch into perspective. So be sure to take a look at the agenda at www.kbr.be.”
Contact:
[email protected]
An engaged initiative of Brussels Museums