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From its academic foundations in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the art historical discipline has always relied on various forms of connoisseurship to determine “masterpieces” as the exemplars of stylistic movements, iconographical foundations, or even entire historical periods, and the history of medieval art and architecture is certainly no exception. Privileging this model of elite patronage and viewing (royal, ecclesiastical, aristocratic) has often marginalized the aesthetic concerns—and by extension, historical realities—of large numbers of consumers of the visual or material arts in the premodern world. This session is designed to highlight nonelite patronage and viewing practices in the Middle Ages, how workshops catered to the aesthetic sensibilities of the masses, and how art and artifacts designed for lower-class consumption can inform the history, politics, theology, economics, anthropology, or culture of specific people groups or geographical regions in ways that traditional art historical methodologies have ignored. How did workshops or individual artists adapt stylistic or iconographical trends from more elite spaces, or commissioned by elite patrons, for a general public of eager consumers? How did the acquisition of art or artifacts by lower-class patrons affect social stratification and mobility? How did popular aesthetics affect shifts in medieval viewing, craftsmanship, or materiality in the Middle Ages? Papers addressing any of these social concerns in production and reception of nonelite medieval art, from late antiquity to the long Middle Ages in Europe, North Africa, or Western Asia are welcomed.