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This is a talk by Imogen Corrigan about how the social environment of the Middle Ages impacted Medieval Art.
Where are the children in Medieval Art? They are in such short supply that we’ve been forced to resort to Artificial Intelligence to produce two of the illustrations below in the style of Hieronymous Bosch and Giotto di Bondine. Two more-eclectic medieval AI creations are also shown whilst the black figurines, the only genuine picture, is of the Denny family twins taken in a church in Waltham Abbey.
It is sometimes assumed that this gaping hole in the art world is because parents of the time deliberately didn’t bond with their children because of high infant mortality rates. Nothing could be further from the truth; children were cherished, cosseted and spoilt, but they also worked hard alongside adults. We know that they loved toys and word games, bunked off school and teased their teachers. This talk begins before the cradle with superstitions surrounding pregnancy and childbirth, and moves on to the trials and tribulations of teenage years and, all too often, to an early grave.
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ABOUT IMOGEN CORRIGAN
After nearly 20 years in the British Army, Imogen Corrigan went to the University of Kent to study Anglo-Saxon & Medieval History and Art, graduating with 1st class honours, followed by an MPhil from the University of Birmingham. She works as a freelance lecturer across Britain and Europe as well as lecturing on small cruise ships and running study tours and courses on land. She has written Stone on Stone: the Men Who Built the Cathedrals, published in 2019. She is also a Freeman of the City of London, being a Member of the Company of Communicators.