Stepping toward the arched stone entry leading into Spectrum of Desire: Love, Sex, and Gender in the Middle Ages, currently on view through March 29, 2026 at The Met Cloisters, I was struck by the way the physical design subtly hinted at the exhibition’s project of subversion and contradictions. Here, a lavish swath of deep turquoise taffeta drapes softly over the cool stone doorway, swept up and over to one side inviting visitors to enter while simultaneously defining the space within as something separate, different, perhaps even private.

As I followed my group beyond the curtain, the loose weave of the jewel tone silk turned almost translucent, catching the rays of light beaming through the narrow ancient windows at the opposite end of the gallery. An intimate fabric, the lush silk tempts as it conceals, like a canopy bed or the skirt of an elegant ballgown, setting the tone for a show that daringly challenges commonplace perceptions of the Medieval era as one defined solely by austere piety. Instead, Spectrum encourages visitors to consider the inhabitants of the time as real people with nuanced desires, motivations, and complex understandings of love, sex, and gender. In essence, revealing how the concerns around these subjects, which so many of us assume to be exclusively modern, were in fact deeply embedded in medieval thought, practices, and notably, its art…