"In the heart of the church sanctuary there is an amazing art known to few art lovers. Hidden for five centuries beneath the choir seats once occupied by church dignitaries, the wood-carved misericords occasion surprise, even shock, when first seen by the amateur. It is their secular subject matter perhaps that is most startling. Spreading over all of medieval existence, almost all of it is non-religious: work scenes, daily life, games, dancing, music, carnival buffoonery, animals, diableries, and most incredible of all, considering their location, scenes of love. ... When Dorothy and Henry Kraus began to study misericords ... they found that even the famous art registry of France's Ministry of Culture had forgotten them. ... The Krauses discovered eight thousand misericords all over France through their researches at the Bibliotheque Nationale, through visits to hundreds of churches, and chiefly through a broadly mailed survey to village curates and cathedral archpriests." - cover copy

191 p., 169 black & white illustrations, index of misericord collections, map.

Language: English