Sign of the Times. Social media of the Middle Ages

This winter the Zeeuws Museum presents the exhibition Sign of the Times. Social media of the Middle Ages. This presentation shows several hundreds of insignia; lead-tin jewelry from which a surprising amount is being found in Zeeland’s clay. The cheap brooches were made in bulk from roughly the 12th to the 15th century, and worn by all classes of the Western European population. They show incredible diversity, from the religious to the extremely obscene. Especially the penises and vaginas with wings, beards and legs are quite imaginative. What did the wearer want to convey with these? During the exhibition we are searching, with the aid of social media, for the worth and meaning of this nearly vanished visual culture.