Symbolism in Travel

This statue of a monkey (or man) may have been a symbol of subhuman characteristics of the Germanic tribes and a form of propaganda.

This well-preserved bronze candleholder is in the shape of a wild man, which was a mythical character in medieval Europe. Also, the wildman symbolized the inferiority of other cultures.

This is an allegorical poem of the medieval period that was read throughout Europe.

This roundel bear the image of two basilisks, dragon-like creatures, which were a popular symbol in medieval Europe for fear and sin, and sometimes power.

This chess piece was made in Scandinavia from a Walrus tusk. It bears many markings of power.

This is a Romanesque architectural frieze that was likely once part of a church or cathedral in Burgundy, France. This piece is particularly interesting, as it has elements of both Romanesque and Gothic styles, and was carved during the transitional period between the two distinct architectural movements.

With travel across Europe came the travel of ideas. Pilgrims and merchants were not satisfied with simply translating objects from one place in the Mediterranean rim to another; they also saw fit to bring ideas with them. They told tales of the wondrous peoples of Africa, of the brutish fighters to be found in the dark forests of the North. Out of these images and stories came an entire artistic culture dependent on things the artist had never seen, with objects such as the monkey statue and the wildman as examples. For these statues to have successfully conveyed their meaning, however, every viewer must have had some familiarity with what they represent; this widespread knowledge of symbols cannot have existed without the insemination of symbology through travel.

Sometimes ideas traveled in the form of first-hand accounts; other times, they traveled in books. Either way, the Middle Ages were a time when an element of daily life in one part of the continent would be welcome and understood in another: for example, the widespread playing of chess. Without travel, the Middle Ages would have truly been a static and stagnant time, and not the period of incredibly diverse and hybridized cultures we now know it to have been.