The “Annunciation Triptych” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art shows a lavabo in the background just above the angel’s head.
At a time when hand-washing has become a crucial health concern, the Cleveland Museum of Art puts a new perspective on the issue—a medieval one.
A post on the CMA Thinker blog, “The Art of Handwashing,” takes a look through the museum’s holdings and those of other institutions to explore the role of elegant hand-washing accessories in the Middle Ages.
Like today, it was the custom then to wash one’s hands before eating. But the accoutrements for doing so could be ornate and valuable.
A detail from the “Romance of Tristan,” a manuscript in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, shows people using basins and ewers to wash their hands before a meal.
“Handwashing was not only a sign of good manners but an opportunity to display desirable possessions including basins, ewers, aquamanilia, and jugs. Medieval wills and treasury accounts often list them when they were made of fine materials,” writes Amanda Mikolic, curatorial assistant for the medieval art department.
An aquamanile was a type of ewer originally used to pour water over priests’ hands during Mass, but they were eventually adopted in households for washing hands before meals. Mikolic describes them as “small-scale functional sculptures,” with ones shaped like animals, real or imagined, quite popular for centuries. The ones featured in the blog post stand about 8 to 9 inches tall.
A 13th century German aquamanile, part of the Cleveland Museum of Art’s collection, depicts a lion, with its mouth as the spout.
Lavabos, a bit larger, were basins also used in both churches and homes for hand-washing. The blog post features one in the museum’s collection, as well as depictions in artwork.
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