Sites of Origin, Sites of Use: A Global Model for Curating Medieval Objects in "Bringing the Holy Land Home"

This essay examines medieval collecting practices as a framework for reimagining contemporary museum curation of global medieval objects. Through analysis of historical inventories and the author's 2023 exhibition "Bringing the Holy Land Home," the study challenges conventional museological categorization by place of production. Medieval collections were primarily organized by function rather than geographic origin, with objects from diverse cultures stored and displayed together based on their use. By privileging medieval organizational principles that emphasized utility over provenance, the author proposes a curatorial methodology that reveals the deeply entangled nature of global medieval artistic networks. This approach illuminates how European artists and patrons actively engaged with imported objects, countering outdated narratives of cultural isolation and offering a more accurate portrayal of medieval global interconnectivity.