Professor Nancy Thebaut Co-Curates Landmark Exhibition at The Met Cloisters

Professor Nancy Thebaut, Fellow and Tutor in History of Art at St Catherine’s College, Oxford, is co-curator of Spectrum of Desire: Love, Sex, and Gender in the Middle Ages, a major new exhibition opening at The Met Cloisters in New York on 17 October 2025.

A specialist in medieval art and visual culture, Professor Thebaut is one of our Fellows and an Associate Professor in the Department of History of Art. Her research explores themes of gender, embodiment, and devotional imagery in the Middle Ages, and this scholarship has played a central role in shaping the exhibition.

Spectrum of Desire challenges traditional perceptions of the medieval period as strictly pious or restrained. It brings together more than 50 works, including illuminated manuscripts, sculpture, metalwork, and textiles, to explore how love, sexuality, and gender identity were visualised in medieval art. The exhibition reveals a surprisingly rich and nuanced visual language of desire and the body.

Co-curated with Melanie Holcomb, Curator of Medieval Art at The Met, the exhibition runs through 29 March 2026 and is accompanied by a full programme of talks, performances, and academic events.

For more information, visit: metmuseum.org