Call for Applications: Curator of Ancient and Medieval Manuscripts, British Library, London, Due By 7 April 2024

Call for Applications

Curator of Ancient and Medieval Manuscripts

British Library, London

Due By 7 April 2024

The British Library holds an internationally renowned collection of manuscripts relating to the ancient and medieval world. As Curator of Ancient and Medieval Manuscripts, with a special responsibility for Classical, Biblical and Byzantine manuscripts, you will use innovative and traditional ways of interpreting and presenting these collections through online resources and engagement with academic and general users. You will also use your specialist knowledge to support the development, management and promotion of the ancient and medieval collections.

With a post-graduate degree, or equivalent, in a relevant subject, you will have extensive experience of research in Classical, Biblical and/or Byzantine Studies. Strong knowledge of Classical Latin and Ancient Greek, excellent written and oral communication skills in English, and the ability to promote the collections to a wide range of audiences are essential.

As one of the world's great libraries, our duty is to preserve the nation's intellectual memory for the future and make it available to all for research, inspiration and enjoyment. At present, we have well over 170 million items, in most known languages, with three million new items added every year. We have manuscripts, maps, newspapers, magazines, prints and drawings, music scores, and patents. We make our collections and programmes available to all. We operate the world's largest document delivery service providing millions of items a year to customers all over the world. What matters to us is that we preserve the national memory and enable knowledge to be created both now and in the future by anyone, anywhere.

In return, we offer a competitive salary and a number of excellent benefits. Our pension scheme is one of the most valuable benefits we offer, as our staff can become members of the Alpha Pension Scheme where the Library contributes a minimum of 26.6% (this may be higher dependant on grade. Another significant benefit the Library provides is the provision of a flexible working hours scheme which could allow you to work your hours flexibly over the week and to take up to 5 days flexi leave in a 3 month period. This is on top of 25 days holiday from entry and public and privilege holidays.

Location: St Pancras
Hours: Permanent - Full time
Grade: B
Salary: £33,600
Closing date: 7 April 2024
Interview date: 29 April 2024

We are unable to provide sponsorship under the UK Skilled Worker visa for this role, as it does not meet the eligibility criteria required for this immigration route.

To apply and for more information, https://www.vercida.com/uk/jobs/curator-of-ancient-and-medieval-manuscripts-british-library-st-pancras

Call for Papers: TRAVELLING TO THE EAST: Marco Polo and the Mendicant Friars, Venice (25-26 October 2024), Due by 7 April 2024

Call for Papers for International Conference

TRAVELLING TO THE EAST: Marco Polo and the Mendicant Friars

Dominican Study Institute

Istituto di Studi Ecumenici "San Bernardino", Biblioteca monumentale, Sestiere Castello 2786 - 30122 Venezia, Italy

Friday 25 - Saturday 26 October 2024

Due By 7 April 2024

Marco Polo, whose seven centuries since his death (1254 - 1324) will be celebrated in 2024, can be considered, in his own right, a privileged witness of fruitful intercultural relations between the Western and Eastern worlds. According to St. Augustine, the world is a book and those who do not travel read only a page of it. The Venetian traveller was undoubtedly an extraordinary reader of the book of the world: a man of wonder and curiosity....

His voyage, very long in time and space (three and a half years, between 1271 and 1275, and a distance of some 12,000 kilometres), crosses mythical lands, of different cultures and religions, from Venice to Xanadu (China): through Armenia, the Iranian plateau and the mountains of the

steppes and the inhospitable deserts of the Taklamakan and the Gobi. If the outward journey was almost entirely by land, the retum to Venice (24 years after departure) will be mainly by sea: through the South China Sea, the Strait of Malacca, the Bay of Bengal, Ceylon, the Arabian Sea, the Persian

Marco Polo with his accounts arouses curiosity, great wonder. Although he is a typical western man and Christian educated, he observes facts and situations without too many prejudices and cultural blocks, even if there is a certain hostility towards Muslims, probably to be found in a historical-political context characterised by the Crusades.

Marco's voyage, with his father Niccolò and his uncle Matteo Polo, becomes much more than a simple and never-ending commercial voyage: it is an epic in which various actors join in, often by small strokes, including rehgious and ccelesiastical tigures, an expression of the Pope of Rome's desire to understand the real extent of those 'borders of the world', towards which the missionary mandate of evangelical memory was oriented.

Undoubtedly, members of the Order of the Black Friars (Dominican Preachers), already well present in Marco Polo's Venice, were among these ecclesiastical avant-garde wished by the pontiff.

However, Fra Francesco Pipino, a Dominican friar who translated Marco Polo's Il Milione into Latin between 1302 and 1315, partly condensing it and providing it with a new prologue, was not Venetian.

Pippin, for this translation, perhaps the best known of all, did not however use the original text, but had recourse to a Venetian vulgarization. There was probably another Dominican Latin version of 1l Milione, as can be deduced from archive documents showing links between the Venetian traveller and the Dominicans of the Serenissima. Members of the Order of Preachers, they advocated the spreading of the text in their preaching and teaching, not only in Italy, but also in France and England, combining approaches based on codicology, diplomatics, history, philology, religion and art history.

During the two days that will take place in Venice on 25 and 26 October 2024, the aim is to celebrate the story of Marco Polo through a multidisciplinary approach that sees Polo as the most famous figure but also covers themes and characters equally worthy of in-depth study. The papers will be divided into three sections: the first will be of a historical-philological nature and the history of thought (The Dominicans and Marco Polo); the second dedicated to the discovery of the literary genre linked to the journey, with particular reference to the missionary one (The Periegetic and the Missions to the East); and finally a third section focusing on artistic aspects and cultural exchanges (The East of Silk and the Arts, Maps and Polo's Iconographies).

Subjects of specific interest for the thematic sections:

• Dominican manuscripts and scriptoria between Venice, Padua and Constantinople, locations of Dominican Studiorum

• Mendicant Friars Narrators, between chronicle and apologetics

• Travel narratives and geographical knowledge at the end of the Middle Ages

• The reception and diffusion of travel texts from antiquity, in the medieval period, between fiction and reality

• Travel and otherness: encounter-clash between cultures and religious traditions

• Between West and East: exchanges and identity claims among Christian communities in constant interaction

• Marco Polo's Iconographies

• The depiction of the Mendicant Friars and the mediated image of the Bast

• Oriental souvenirs: trade between Europe and the Far Bast (the role of the missions)

Scholars and young academies are invited to send, by 7 April 2024, the title of their contribution and an abstract of at least 1500 characters, with a short CV to the following email address: dosti.marcopolo@gmail.com

Proposals in Italian, English and French are accepted.

The Scientific Committee reserves the right to allocate some of the contribution proposals directly to the collection of proceedings to be published by the Institutum Historicum Ordinis Praedicatorum.

The Conference Scientific Committee

Colloque international: L’art roman au XXIe siècle. L’avenir d’un passé à réinventer, Poitiers, 28-31 Mai 2024

Colloque international

L’art roman au XXIe siècle. L’avenir d’un passé à réinventer

UFR SHA, bâtiment III, Amphithéâtre Descartes, POITIERS, France

28 au 31 mai 2024

Colloque international organisé par Cécile Voyer, Professeure d’histoire de l’art médiéval, Éric Palazzo, Professeur d’histoire de l’art médiéval et Marcello Angheben, Maître de conférences HDR en histoire de l’art médiéval / Sous la Présidence d’honneur de Marie-Thérèse Camus, Professeure honoraire d’histoire de l’art médiéval, CESCM, Université de Poitiers

Ce colloque vise à développer un bilan de l’historiographie de ces vingt dernières années et une réflexion épistémologique sur l’étude de ce qu’il est convenu d’appeler « art roman ». Il s’agira dans un premier temps de poursuivre les réflexions déjà amorcées par de nombreux chercheurs sur la définition de l’art roman et d’aborder ensuite les différents questionnements qui lui sont généralement appliqués, tout en envisageant de nouvelles pistes ou en reconsidérant des approches anciennes qui mériteraient d’être réhabilitées et renouvelées.

Entrée libre sur inscription et dans la limite des places disponibles.

Inscription avant le 24 mai 2024 : secretariat.cescm@univ-poitiers.fr ou au 05.49.45.45.67

Pour plus d'informations. https://cescm.labo.univ-poitiers.fr/13722-2/

Mardi 28 mai

9h – Accueil

9h15 – Introduction

Qu’est-ce que l’art roman ? Définitions et limites

Présidence de séance : Christian Sapin, Directeur de recherche émérite, CNRS

9h30 – Xavier Barral i Altet, Professeur émérite d’histoire de l’art du Moyen Âge, Institut national d’histoire de l’art (Paris) : Chronologie et idéologie. Les positions des historiens de l’art français du XXe siècle face à l’art roman

10h – Éliane Vergnolle, Professeure honoraire d’histoire de l’art médiéval, Université de Besançon : Les débuts de l’architecture romane en Francie occidentale : regards d’hier et d’aujourd’hui

10h30 – Quitterie Cazes, Professeure d’histoire de l’art médiéval, Université de Toulouse Jean-Jaurès : Retour sur la pratique de la monographie d’édifice

11h – Pause

Aires culturelles et études de cas

Présidence de séance : Christian Sapin, Directeur de recherche émérite, CNRS

11h15 – Justin Kroesen, Professeur d’histoire de l’art médiéval, Bergen University Museum : Nordic Romanesque: some recent developments in research

11h45 – John McNeill, Secrétaire de la British Archaeological Association : Norman, Anglo-Norman, Anglo-Saxon: Recent debates on the Forms of Architecture in 11th-Century England

12h15 – Discussion

Aires culturelles et études de cas

Présidence de séance : Éliane Vergnolle, Professeure honoraire d’histoire de l’art médiéval, Université de Besançon

13h45 – Andreas Hartmann-Virnich, Professeur d’histoire de l’art du Moyen Âge, Université d’Aix-en-Provence : La vision de l’art roman dans l’historiographie allemande (XIXe-XXe siècle)

14h15 – Saverio Lomartire, Professeur d’histoire de l’art du Moyen Âge, Università degli Studi dell’Insubria : L’art « roman » dans le Nord de l’Italie : synthèse historiographique et réflexions sur la validité et l’actualité d’une définition

14h45 – Linda Seidel, Professeure émérite d’histoire de l’art du Moyen Âge, University of Chicago : Seeing the Present through the Past: Arles in the 12th and 20th Centuries

15h15 – Valentino Pace, Professeur émérite d’histoire de l’art médiéval, Università di Udine : Sant’Angelo in Formis: « romanica o bizantina »? Un caso esemplare di ambiguità storiografica fra cronologia e geografia

15h45 – Discussion et pause

Questions d’épistémologie 

Présidence de séance : Éliane Vergnolle, Professeure honoraire d’histoire de l’art médiéval, Université de Besançon

16h30 – Nicolas Reveyron, Professeur d’histoire de l’art du Moyen Âge, Université de Lyon II : De quoi « Art roman » est-il le nom ? Approche épistémologique d’une problématique d’axiologie esthétique

16h50 – Christian Gensbeitel, Maître de conférences en histoire de l’art médiéval, Université Bordeaux-Montaigne : L’architecture religieuse du XIe siècle à travers le prisme des édifices « mineurs ». Un autre point de vue sur l’élaboration des formes romanes

17h20 – Claude Andrault-Schmitt, Professeure émérite d’histoire de l’art médiéval, Université de Poitiers : Ranger donc dater les productions architecturales françaises : tendances historiographiques et rigueur méthodologique

17h50 – Gerardo Boto Varela, Professeur d’histoire de l’art médiéval, Universitat di Girona : Épistémologie et historiographie des chantiers de cathédrales espagnoles (ca. 1015-1203) : construire, aménager, décorer. Dialogue entre l’histoire de l’art et les autres disciplines

18h20 – Discussion

Mercredi 29 mai

Questions d’épistémologie 

Présidence de séance : Vinni Lucherini, Professeure d’histoire de l’art médiéval, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Napoli

9h – Laurence Terrier, Professeure assistante en histoire de l’art médiéval, Université de Neuchâtel : Art roman vs art gothique : historiographie, épistémologie et perspectives

9h30 – Philippe Plagnieux, Professeur d’histoire de l’art médiéval, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne : Revenir sur les derniers feux de la sculpture romane et ses tentatives de renouvellement. Une étude de cas : les sources antiques et byzantines du foyer bourbonno-nivernais dans le second quart du XIIe siècle

10h – Manuel Castiñeiras, Professeur d’histoire de l’art du Moyen Âge, Universitat Autònoma di Barcelona : L’art roman et les enjeux de l’art 1200 : dynamique, dialogues et transformations

10h30 – Lucien-Jean Bord, Bibliothécaire, Abbaye de Ligugé : Le voyage des images

11h – Pause

11h20 – Peter K. Klein, Professeur émérite d’histoire de l’art du Moyen Âge, Universität Tübingen : La reconstruction des traditions iconographiques est-elle obsolète ? L’exemple du Beatus de Saint-Sever

Manifestations du sacré

Présidence de séance : Daniel Russo, professeur honoraire d’histoire de l’art médiéval, Université de Bourgogne

13h30 – Marc Sureda, Conservateur, Museu Episcopal de Vic : L’architecture romane hispanique à l’épreuve de la liturgie : quelques problèmes et cas d’étude

14h – Kirk Ambrose, Professeur d’histoire de l’art médiéval, University of Colorado, Boulder : Navigation of Doubt in Romanesque Sculpture

14h30 – Estelle Ingrand-Varenne, Chargée de recherche, CNRS, CESCM-Université de Poitiers : À la recherche d’une épigraphie romane

15h – Gerhard Lutz, Conservateur, Cleveland Museum of Art : BERNVVARDVS PRESVL FECIT HOC – Bishop Bernward of Hildesheim and the Arts around 1000 Revisited.

15h30 – Cynthia Hahn, Professeure d’histoire de l’art du Moyen Âge, CUNY, Hunter College : Is there such a thing as a « Romanesque » Reliquary?

16h – Pause

16h20 – Catherine Fernandez, Chercheuse en histoire de l’art du Moyen Âge, Index of Medieval Art, Princeton : Ordering the Cosmos: The Saint-Aubin Maiestas Domini and Romanesque Temporalities

16h50 – Charlotte Denoël, Conservatrice en chef, cheffe du service médiéval du département des Manuscrits, Bibliothèque nationale de France : Manuscrits sans frontières : le cas du Sacramentaire de Manassès (Paris, BnF latin 819)

17h20 – Discussion

18h30 – Espace Mendès France (Planétarium)

Michel Pastoureau, Directeur d’Études honoraire à l’École Pratique des Hautes Études (IVe Section)

L’art roman : une porte grande ouverte sur les divagations ésotériques

Jeudi 30 mai

Expressions du pouvoir et des idées

Présidence de séance : Xavier Barral i Altet, Professeur émérite d’histoire de l’art du Moyen Âge, Institut national d’histoire de l’art (Paris)

9h – Herbert L. Kessler, Professeur émérite d’histoire de l’art du Moyen Âge, Johns Hopkins University : « Velut sinuosum acanthi volumen »: Romanesque Ornament’s Meaningful Demeanor 

9h30 – Yves Christe, Professeur honoraire d’histoire de l’art médiéval, Université de Genève : Orient Oder Rom ? Colonnes et colonnettes jumelées dans l’architecture romane et islamique

10h – Jeffrey F. Hamburger, Professeur d’histoire de l’art du Moyen Âge, Harvard University : Avatars of Authorship

10h30 – Beate Fricke, Professeure d’histoire de l’art du Moyen Âge, Universität Bern : 4 Elements, 12 Stones

11h – Pause

11h20 – Marcia Kupfer, Chercheuse indépendante en histoire de l’art médiéval : The contributions of Romanesque art to Western Anti-Judaism

11h50 – Discussions

Expressions du pouvoir et des idées

Présidence de séance : Pierre-Alain Mariaux, Professeur d’histoire de l’art médiéval, Institut d’histoire de l’art et de muséologie, Université de Neuchâtel

13h45 – Nicolas Prouteau, Maître de conférences en archéologie médiévale, Université de Poitiers : Le palais et la tour-palais à l’époque romane : héritages, emprunts et construction du pouvoir royal

14h15 – Vinni Lucherini, Professeure d’histoire de l’art médiéval, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Napoli : Les sceaux des XIIe et XIIIe siècles : une nouvelle manière d’appréhender l’art roman des rois et des orfèvres

14h45 – Serena Romano, Professeure émérite d’histoire de l’art du Moyen Âge, Université de Lausanne : Rome et ses environs à l’« âge de la Réforme ». Les approches de l’historiographie et les perspectives d’aujourd’hui

15h15 – Discussion et pause

Savoirs-faire médiévaux et techniques actuelles

Présidence de séance : Pierre-Alain Mariaux, Professeur d’histoire de l’art médiéval, Institut d’histoire de l’art et de muséologie, Université de Neuchâtel

15h50 – Christian Sapin, Directeur de recherche émérite, CNRS : L’art roman sous le scanner archéologique. Un nouveau regard ?

16h20 – Géraldine Mallet, Professeure d’histoire de l’art médiéval, Université Paul-Valéry, Montpellier : De la sculpture romane en Catalogne du Nord : marbres locaux ou marbres antiques de remploi ?

16h50 – Thierry Gregor, Docteur en histoire, CESCM-Université de Poitiers : L’adaptation des graveurs de l’époque romane à la réalisation des inscriptions sur la pierre

17h 20 – Discussion

18h30 – Cérémonie de remise du titre de Docteur Honoris Causa

Palais de Poitiers – 10 place Alphonse Lepetit

L’Université de Poitiers décernera le Doctorat Honoris Causa à Herbert L. Kessler, Professeur émérite de l’Université Johns Hopkins

Vendredi 31 mai

Savoirs-faire médiévaux et techniques actuelles

Présidence de séance : Serena Romano, Professeure émérite d’histoire de l’art du Moyen Âge, Université de Lausanne

9h – Amaëlle Marzais, Maîtresse de conférences en histoire de l’art  médiéval, Université de Lyon II et Carolina Sarrade, Ingénieure d’études, CNRS, CESCM-Université de Poitiers : Les apports des nouvelles approches techniques pour l’étude des peintures murales romanes

9h30 – Florian Meunier, Conservateur, Musée du Louvre : Les objets d’art romans dans une perspective européenne : l’étude des ivoires, de l’orfèvrerie et des émaux des collections du Louvre

10h – Pierre-Alain Mariaux, Professeur d’histoire de l’art médiéval, Institut d’histoire de l’art et de muséologie, Université de Neuchâtel : L’orfèvrerie de la période romane : leçons matérielles de chantiers récents

10h30 – Discussion et pause

L’art « roman » à l’épreuve des sciences actuelles

Présidence de séance : Serena Romano, Professeure émérite d’histoire de l’art du Moyen Âge, Université de Lausanne

11h20 – Eduardo Carrero Santamaría, Professeur d’histoire de l’art du Moyen Âge, Universitat Autònoma di Barcelona : Romanesque architecture from virtual reality: what architecture and what reality?

11h50 – Francisco Prado Vilar, Professeur d’histoire de l’art du Moyen Âge, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela : Romanesque Transformations: Experience, Cognition, Technologies of the Image

12h20 – Discussion

L’art « roman » à l’épreuve des sciences actuelles

Présidence de séance : Valentino Pace, Professeur émérite d’histoire de l’art médiéval, Università di Udine

14h – Pierre-Olivier Dittmar, Maître de conférences en histoire médiévale, CRH-AHLoMA, EHESS : L’art roman au risque de l’animal

14h30 – Robert A. Maxwell, Professeur d’histoire de l’art médiéval, Sherman Fairchild Associate Professor of Fine Arts, The Institute of Fine Arts, New York : L’étrangeté de l’art roman

15h – Thomas E. A. Dale, Professeur d’histoire de l’art du Moyen Âge, University of Wisconsin-Madison : Genre, race et l’invalidité : perspectives alternatives sur la sculpture de Vézelay

15h30 – Peter Scott Brown, Professeur d’histoire de l’art médiéval, University of North Florida : A Work by the Doña Sancha Master in Northern Italy: On the Monumental Turn in Eleventh Century Sculpture, the Medieval Viewer, and the Modern Eye

16h – Discussion

16h30 – Remerciements

AFTERLIVES: REUSING THE PAST: A Day of Short Papers to Celebrate the Life of Jill Franklin, Hosted by the Society of Antiquaries of London, BAA, and CRSBI, 30 April 2024

hosted by the Society of Antiquaries, BAA, and CRSBI

AFTERLIVES: REUSING THE PAST

A Day of Short Papers to Celebrate the Life of Jill Franklin

Society Of Antiquaries of London, Burlington House Piccadilly London W1J 0BE United Kingdom

30 April 2024

Places are free to students, but students must first register by sending an email to: conferences@thebaa.org

To purchase tickets (£15), go to https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-day-of-short-papers-to-celebrate-the-life-of-jill-franklin-tickets-859591169327

10.00-10.30 – Registration and Coffee

SESSION 1: 10.30-12.30

Bob Allies, Something in the air: the poetics and pragmatics of the pre-existing

A reflection on how, over the course of the last forty years, an appreciation of the potential of the pre-existing has consistently informed and shaped the work of our practice, together with some observations on the extent to which the climate emergency is now provoking a fundamental shift in the architectural profession’s attitude towards the recycling of materials and the reuse of buildings.

Eric Fernie, Enlarging English Medieval Great Churches

A common feature of English medieval great churches, especially cathedrals built in the Norman period, is the later rebuilding and enlarging of their eastern parts, with examples ranging from Canterbury to Ely and York. The purpose of the paper is to ask what this tells us about the financial resources needed to pay for the work, whether there was an increase in the power of the patrons or because of a wider increase in the size of the economy.

Nicola Coldstream, A village that moved: the early adventures of Ascott-under-Wychwood, Oxfordshire

A late Romanesque capital built into an eighteenth-century gateway is among the few surviving remains of the early village site of Ascott-under-Wychwood in Oxfordshire. This paper discusses the original location of the capital and considers reasons why the village was moved.

John McNeill, A Norman Doric Cloister in the Aeolian Islands

The abbey of San Bartolommeo on Lipari was founded before 1088 by Roger I, count of Sicily, occupying an ancient Greek walled enclosure above the most important harbour in the Aeolian islands. Despite its replacement in the 16th century, the monastic church can be shown to have been aisleless and cruciform. To its south is the residue of a cloister made up, for the most part, of cut-down Doric columns and capitals. Usually dated to the 1130s, when its abbot was granted the title of bishop and San Bartolommeo became a monastic cathedral, the cloister seems more likely to date from the late 11th century, and to have formed a part of the original monastic complex. As a spolia curiosity off the north coast of Sicily, it is without rival.

David Robinson, The Augustinian Canons in the Twelfth Century: Reflections on an Architectural Identity

Our friend and much-missed colleague, Jill Franklin, devoted considerable energy to the occurrence and meaning of the aisleless cruciform church in Romanesque Europe. Jill’s interest in this particular form of building began in earnest with her contextual study of the Augustinian cathedral priory at Carlisle, delivered at the BAA annual conference held in that city in 2001. From there, Jill went on to write a number of extremely thought-provoking papers considering the twelfth-century churches of the Augustinian canons in general. Indeed, for many years, and almost single-handedly, Jill sought to give the early canons something of an architectural voice. This paper will offer a review of Jill’s important findings, assessing her contribution in a marginally wider overview of Augustinian architecture in England and Wales.

Questions/Discussion

12.30 – 1.30 – Lunch

SESSION 2: 1.30 – 3.15

Richard Halsey and Sandy Heslop, The Church of All Saints, West Acre (Norfolk)

The parish church of All Saints West Acre stands immediately east of the ruins of the gatehouse of the adjacent Augustinian priory of St Mary, suppressed at the Dissolution. Existing discussions of its architecture imply that All Saints is a medieval building restored or upgraded in the post-Reformation period. We propose instead that it is a new building of c.1637 constructed at the behest of Sir Edward Barkham in large part out of fragments of moulded stones, freestone rubble and flint taken from the demolished priory, the site of which he owned. Indeed, it is likely to have been designed deliberately to reuse available features. Its Laudian date (Laud was archbishop 1633-45) suggests the possibility that it deliberately harks back to pre-Reformation parish worship located within an aisle of the destroyed monastic church.

Christopher Wilson, Salvage from a Mighty Wreck: A Clearstorey Window from Vale Royal Abbey, Cheshire

Not hitherto recognised as an instance of the post-Suppression salvage of monastic fabric is some incongruously ambitious stonework incorporated into the exterior of the parish church of c. 1500 at Northwich, 4 km from the site of Vale Royal Abbey. Begun in 1277 by Edward I, Vale Royal’s church was by far the largest built for the Cistercian Order in England, and work surged ahead until 1290, when Edward suddenly withdrew his support. In 1353 a new chapter opened under the patronage of Edward Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester (the Black Prince). In June 1359 he and the abbey contracted with a master mason for a French-style circuit of chapels whose plan was partly uncovered by excavation in 1958. Two years later a hurricane blew down the entire central vessel of the nave. What happened after the completion of the radiating chapels has always been unclear, but the evidence of the Northwich stonework indicates that the choir was completed in fine style. The only documented fact about the choir, generated by the famous heraldic dispute between Sir Robert Grosvenor and the Scropes of Masham, is that the Grosvenor arms decorated its interior. Joining up the available dots outlines a collaborative project due to the Prince of Wales (and, from 1363, of Aquitaine) and the Cheshire gentry comrades who played a major role in the dramatic expansion of English territory in south-west France during the 1350s.

Ron Baxter, The Early Days of the Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture

Officially the Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture began in 1988 when George Zarnecki and Neil Stratford approached the British Academy and asked for a grant to start up a project to record all the stone sculpture produced between 1066 and 1200. In fact, George had clearly been thinking about it for several years, and contacted Jill Franklin much earlier than this, as a kind of pilot study. This talk will give a brief history of the early days of the Corpus with special reference to Jill’s work in Norfolk.

Richard Plant, Anglo-Saxon Roods in Romanesque Contexts

The survival of pre-Conquest sculpture as part of the fabric of later churches in England is peculiar. Apart from attesting the long-standing tradition of stone sculpture in the Atlantic Islands the re-setting of images of the Crucifixion in later walling raises a number of questions about how they would have been understood and used by later viewers. This paper will look at the instance in Langford in Oxfordshire, and especially at Romsey in Hampshire, where the reused crucifix is placed next to the entrance from the cloister into the church, suggesting a particular devotional focus on this earlier image.

Stephen Heywood, 'Let's Pretend!' The decoration of the north transept and the reused throne at Norwich Cathedral

Jill worked on the architectural sculpture of Norwich Cathedral and successfully analysed the meaning and place of the extraordinarily accomplished sculpture. This short paper touches on the earlier or at least less skilled sculpture and the deliberate archaising in reusing forms believed to be indicative of pre conquest date and the believed actual re use of St Felix’s throne recovered from Elmham which achieved relic status.

Questions/Discussion

3.15 – 3.45 – Tea

SESSION 3: 3.45 – 5.00

Lindy Grant, ‘Lapides pretiosi omnes muri tui’: Abbot Suger, buried capitals, and the laying of foundation stones

Recent excavations under the north-west tower at the Abbey of Saint-Denis have brought to light a set of capitals used as rubble in the foundations, adding to the capitals already extracted and now in the town museum. They are figural and narrative, if rustic in handling. Where were these capitals from, and by how long do they predate Suger’s new west front? I will suggest that they have parallels with work in Norman contexts in the late 11th century, including the figured archivolt panels from Montivilliers, so brilliantly discussed by Jill in her paper for the British Archaeological Association Rouen Conference. But how should we read the burial of these capitals in Suger’s west front: as rejection of old-fashioned sculpture, or as precious stones providing a solid foundation – that the house of the lord should be ‘bene fundata…supra firmam petram’, as the liturgy for the consecration of an altar has it? And how widespread were liturgical ceremonies for the laying of foundation stones? Suger appears to have invented his own to lay the foundation stones of his new choir in 1140.

Agata Gomølka, Idolising stone: the case of the Konin pillar

The Roadside Pillar of Konin (Greater Poland) is one of the most original monuments of the Romanesque period. An inscription on the pillar proclaims its date, states it function, and names its patron. The pillar was one of the final commissions of the formidable royal fixer and castellan Piotr Włostowic (d. 1153). Piotr’s life and deeds, along with his extensive patronage of buildings and furnishings, were widely celebrated by contemporaries. The Konin pillar is the only surviving secular monument associated with Włostowic. Yet what is it? Is it a reused pagan monolith? This has been the consensus among most scholars. Or is it something else? Is it a tribute to a very tradition of spolia? This paper will seek to offer some answers.

Tessa Garton and Rose Walker, Andalusi ivories and metalwork re-imagined in the North for female saints

The re-use of Islamic ivory caskets decorated with courtly imagery as containers for the relics of Christian saints in northern Spain has been interpreted both as triumphalist and as a recognition of the aesthetic qualities of Islamic culture. The re-use of similar imagery on capitals in the sanctuaries of Romanesque churches suggests the assimilation and re-interpretation of this imagery for a Christian context. Likewise, metal objects were sometimes repurposed as reliquaries. Within church treasuries, as at Oviedo, they could even inspire the revival of a cult.

Paul Williamson, Late Antique ivory carvings, their reuse and afterlife

The ivory carvings of Late Antiquity and the Early Byzantine period owe their survival to reuse and transformation. Some secular carvings - including several consular diptychs - were incorporated into Christian settings such as reliquaries and pulpits, while others provided the raw materials for recarving in the Carolingian and later periods. This paper will explore the phenomenon of ivory reuse with a selection of case studies, some well-known, others less so.

Questions/Discussion

5.00 – Drinks

Earth Day Lecture at The Met Cloisters—Taming Medieval Nature, The MET Cloisters, Fuentidueña Chapel, 20 April 2024, 2:00-3:00PM

Earth Day Lecture at The Met Cloisters—Taming Medieval Nature

The MET Cloisters, Fuentidueña Chapel

20 April 2024, 2:00-3:00PM

Gregory Bryda, Assistant Professor, Art History, Barnard College
Shirin Fozi, Paul and Jill Ruddock Associate Curator, Department of Medieval Art, The Met Cloisters

Trees are not only a material resource for the making of art, but a potent symbol in Christian iconographies of the Late Middle Ages. Join medieval scholar Gregory Bryda and Met curator Shirin Fozi for a conversation on the significance of trees and their role in the economy, religious devotional practice, and environmental politics of late medieval Germany.

Presented in observance of Earth Day.

Free with Museum admission, though advance registration is required. Please note: Space is limited; first come, first served.

For more information and to reserve tickets, https://engage.metmuseum.org/events/education/talks/cloisters/free-talks/fy24/earth-day-lecture-cloisters/

The Murray Seminars at Birbeck: Not Quite 3D: Representing Architecture in the Early Middle Ages, Karl Kinsella, 20 March 2023 6:30-8:00PM GMT/2:30-4:00PM ET (In-Person & Online)

The Murray Seminars at Birbeck

Not Quite 3D: Representing Architecture in the Early Middle Ages

Karl Kinsella

Birkbeck, School of Historical Studies

43, Gordon Sq. Room 114, The Keynes Library, London WC1H 0PD, UK

20 March 2023, 6:30-8:00PM GMT/2:30-4:00PM ET

(In-Person and Online)

A research seminar considering a 5th-Century mosaic of the Holy Sepulchre and f early strategies of architectural representation.

Karl Kinsella relates that in 1971 in Bordeaux, a mosaic showing a plan and elevation was uncovered during a flurry of archaeological excavation. The mosaic was likely made in the fifth century and shows the Holy Sepulchre's rotunda and basilica in stark black tiles set against plain white plaster. We are left with the impression of a diagram writ large (2m in height). The early date of the mosaic is surprising, and suggests that diagrams of the Holy Sepulchre were transmitted around Europe not long after the buildings were completed in the fourth century. This talk considers what the mosaic can tell us about the early development of architectural representation and the strategies needed to understand the complex figures they present to the modern reader. These strategies can offer insights into the evolution of architectural representation over the course of the early Middle Ages.

In-person and live-streamed versions are posted separately on Eventbrite. Please book for one only.

To register to attend in-person, click here.

To register to attend online, click here.

Call for Papers: Embodied Preaching: Multisensorial Preaching Performances in Medieval Europe, Padua (24-25 October 2024), Due 5 April 2024

Call for Papers

Embodied Preaching: Multisensorial Preaching Performances in Medieval Europe

Padua, 24-25 October 2024

Organized by Zuleika Murat, Pieter Boonstra and Micol Long

deadline 5 April 2024

The crucial importance of preaching in medieval Europe has long been acknowledged, not only for religious culture, but also for cultural, political and social history, art history and history of material culture. An interconnected pan-European phenomenon, to be effective preaching needed to be at the same time tailored to local tastes and conventions, shaping the message to the circumstances at hand. With the term “preaching” we understand the public performance of a speech believed to be divinely inspired and meant for religious and moral education. Most importantly, medieval preaching was not the static transfer of a text from preacher to audience: rather, it was an inherently dynamic and interactive activity, involving multiple actors through time and space, communicating religious knowledge within embodied and spatialized networks. The conference will focus on the multisensorial dimension of preaching, which goes beyond the content and style of the textual sermon, to include the personal appearance of the preacher, their voice and gestures (the “embodied” dimension), the material environment in which the preaching took place (the “embedded” dimension) and the use of “special effects” (such as sounds or fire) and objects as an integral part of the performance.

The role played by the material environment in which the preaching took place has received little attention, and mostly with reference to memory (Carruthers 1998, Bolzoni 2002). It has been pointed out that some late medieval religious leaders (such as Bernardino of Siena) referred in their speeches to specific elements of the material environment in which they were preaching (for example, artworks), presumably to help keep awake the attention of the audience and to “anchor” the teaching to material elements which could be seen by individuals on a daily basis. However, much remains to be done to understand whether and to what extent the specific material environment affected the overall experience of preaching (open vs closed space, specific environments such as churches, saint’s tombs, graveyards, squares and so on). Preachers operated amidst a visual network of objects and spaces, against a background of paintings, sculptures, and other images present within the same space where they performed, giving opportunity for the sermon to connect, contrast, or compete for attention. This also raises the question to what extent preachers adapted their preaching to the particular environment and planned the setting in which the preaching had to take place.

A further element that deserves to be considered is that, as an act of communication, preaching was not a one-way interaction: the audience, through their attitude, verbal and non-verbal reactions to the preaching played an active role which affected the experience both of the individuals gathered to listen and of the preacher. Based on this, we propose to approach preaching an interactive performance where multiple actors and multiple elements played a role. For this purpose, we will approach audiences using the notion of “socio-sensory environment”, and assuming the existence of specific sensoria depending on social, cultural and geographical factors. Preaching relied on the various senses to be properly understood and make a lasting impact: the oral and aural performance of the sermon took place within a visually accessible space, with the preacher using both voice and body (gestures, facial expressions) to convey a message. From the sermon text, listeners are often invited to fully employ their senses as well and to imagine themselves present at religiously significant moments: to see the scene before their eyes, to hear what was occurring, to smell, taste, and feel, their internal or imaginary senses giving rise for meditation and devotion. Meanwhile, the experiences of pleasant or unpleasant smells or feelings of cold, heat, or discomfort can also be investigated from a sensory perspective.

With a primary focus on Western Europe from the 12th to the 15th century, this conference aims to explore preaching in an innovative and holistic way, by considering the multisensorial dimension of the transmission and reception of the word of God in whichever form, verbal or non-verbal. By emphasising the range of activities aimed at communicating religious knowledge and devotional practice, and the multisensorial nature of such activities, this conference will explore new aspects of the multifaceted experience of medieval preaching.

We welcome abstracts for 20-minute papers in English. Scholars may address the topic with a broad approach but always considering the role of all the senses in the performance and reception of preaching. Paper topics may include, but are by no means limited to:

• The role played by objects in the experience of preaching: for example objects and artworks used by preachers, devotional or practical items or other objects, such as hand warmers, used by the audience

• Unconventional ways of preaching reliant on the senses, for example through music or theatrical performances

• The role played by the senses in the experience of preaching, including smell, taste, and the interior senses (such as thermoception or proprioception)

• The link between preaching and art or architecture, including when preaching outside of the church

• How preaching was experienced differently by different audiences, including audience responses and interactions during preaching

• Sermons or preaching that encompass discussions of physicality, embodiment, or materiality

Please send a title and abstract of no longer than 300 words, together with a short CV and personal data (max. 300 words), to the following emails: zuleika.murat@unipd.it; pieterhendrik.boonstra@unipd.it; micol.long@unipd.it

The language of the conference is English.

Deadline: 5 April 2024. Notifications of acceptance will be given by 26 April 2024.

Selected papers will be invited for publication in a collective volume.

This conference is organised by the ERC research project SenSArt – The Sensuous Appeal of the Holy. Sensory Agency of Sacred Art and Somatised Spiritual Experiences in Medieval Europe (12th-15th century), Grant Agreement nr. 950248, PI Zuleika Murat, Università degli Studi di Padova (https://sensartproject.eu/).

For a PDF of the Call for Papers, click here.

For more information, click here.

STUDENT RESEARCH GRANT - DUE SUNDAY 7 APRIL 2024

STUDENT RESEARCH GRANT
DUE SUNDAY 7 APRIL 2024, 11:59PM ET

This grant of $500 is intended to encourage an early-stage graduate student (someone enrolled in a post-baccalaureate graduate program, who may have received a MA or MPhil, or who is otherwise pre-ABD) to pursue research on cross-cultural visual connections involving art produced in parts of the medieval world that until recently have been studied separately. To be eligible, applicants must be involved in research on the connections between art of at least two of the following broadly-defined regions:  

• Africa

• Asia

• Europe and Byzantium

• North Africa, the Middle East, and the Near East

Funds awarded could be used to defray expenses of attending or presenting at a conference or visiting a museum, archive, or site. Applicants must be members of the ICMA (information on memberships can be found here).
 
We are grateful to Robert E. Jamison, Professor Emeritus of Mathematics, Clemson University, for underwriting this grant. The grant recipient is to send their winning application directly to Robert E. Jamison as soon as the award is announced.

The deadline for submission is MONDAY 7 APRIL 2024, 10am ET.  The winners will be announced at the Spring Board Meeting in May. Recipients will be asked to forward their winning application to Robert E. Jamison.

 
Applicants must submit: 

1. Description of the project to be undertaken, in 400 words or less.

2. Proposed budget.  Please be precise and realistic: if the budget exceeds $500, state how you will cover the remaining portion of the cost.

3. A curriculum vitae.            

NOTE ON FILE SUBMISSION: Please submit PDF files when appropriate with the file named as LAST NAME first, then the item. Example: SMITHdescription.pdf, SMITHbudget.pdf, SMITHcv.pdf

All applicants must be ICMA members.
All submissions are to be uploaded HERE.


A parallel grant is available via The Association Villard de Honnecourt for the Interdisciplinary Study of Technology, Science, and Art (AVISTA).  Students may apply for both the ICMA and the AVISTA grants but would be eligible to receive only one of the awards. 

Email questions to Ryan Frisinger at awards@medievalart.org. The winning application will be chosen by members of the ICMA Grants and Awards Committee, which is chaired by our Vice-President.

ICMA GRADUATE STUDENT ESSAY AWARD - DUE SUNDAY 7 APRIL 2024

GRADUATE STUDENT ESSAY AWARDS
DUE SUNDAY 7 APRIL 2024, 11:59 PM ET

The International Center of Medieval Art (ICMA) wishes to announce its annual Graduate Student Essay Award for the best essay by a student member of the ICMA.  The theme or subject of the essay may be any aspect of medieval art, and can be drawn from current research.  Eligible essays must be produced while a student is in coursework.  The work must be original and should not have been published elsewhere.  We are pleased to offer First Prize ($400), Second Prize ($200), and Third Prize ($100).

We are grateful to an anonymous donor for underwriting the Student Essay Award competition. This member particularly encourages submissions that consider themes of intercultural contact — for instance, between Latin Christendom and the Byzantine realm; among Jews, Muslims, and Christians; or the dynamics of encounters connecting Europe, Africa, and Asia. These are not requirements, however, and the awards will be granted based on quality of the papers, regardless of topic.

The deadline for submission is SUNDAY 7 APRIL 2024, 11:59pm ET. The winners will be announced at the Spring Board Meeting in May. Recipients will be asked to forward their winning essay to the donor that underwrites the Student Essay Award competition.

Applicants must submit:

1. An article-length paper (maximum 30 pages, double-spaced, not including footnotes) following the editorial guidelines of our journal Gesta. A title page with essay title, author name, contact information, and affiliation must be included.

2. Each submission must also include a 250-word abstract written in English regardless of the language of the rest of the paper.

3. A curriculum vitae.

NOTE ON FILE SUBMISSION: Please submit PDF files when appropriate with the file named as LAST NAME first, then the item. Example: SMITHabstract.pdf, SMITHessay.pdf, SMITHcv.pdf

All applicants must be ICMA members.
All submissions are to be uploaded HERE.

Email questions to Ryan Frisinger at awards@medievalart.org. The winning essay will be chosen by members of the ICMA Grants and Awards Committee, which is chaired by our Vice-President.

ICMA STUDENT TRAVEL GRANTS - DUE SUNDAY 7 APRIL 2024

STUDENT TRAVEL GRANTS
DUE SUNDAY 7 APRIL 2024, 11:59PM ET

Applicants submit materials HERE.
Thesis advisor submit letter of recommendation HERE.

The ICMA offers grants for graduate students in the early stages of their dissertation research, enabling beginning scholars to carry out foundational investigations at archives and sites. Winners will be granted $3,000, and if needed, officers of the ICMA will contact institutions and individuals who can help the awardees gain access to relevant material. Three grants are awarded per year, and they are designed to cover one month of travel. 

The grants are primarily for students who have finished preliminary exams, and are in the process of refining dissertation topics. Students who have already submitted a proposal, but are still very early on in the process of their research, may also apply.  

All applicants must be ICMA members.

Applicants must submit:

1. Outline of the thesis proposal in 800 words or less.

2. Detailed outline of exactly which sites and/or archives are to be visited, which works will be consulted, and how this research relates to the proposed thesis topic. If you hope to see extremely rare materials or sites with restricted access, please be as clear as possible about contacts with custodians already made.

3. Proposed budget (airfare, lodging, other travel, per diem). Please be precise and realistic. The total need not add up to $3,000 precisely. The goal is for reviewers to see how you will handle the expenses.

4. Letter from the thesis advisor, clarifying the student’s preparedness for the research, the significance of the topic, and the relevance of the trip to the thesis.

5. A curriculum vitae.                  

Upon return, the student will be required to submit a letter and financial report to the ICMA and a narrative to the student section of the Newsletter.

Applications are due by SUNDAY 7 APRIL 2024, 11:59pm ET. The ICMA will announce the winners of the three grants at the Spring Board Meeting in May.

NOTES ON FILE SUBMISSION: Please upload PDFs when possible (.jpg, .png also accepted) with the file named as LAST NAME first, then the item. Example: SMITHcv.pdf, SMITHbudget.pdf, SMITHthesis.pdf, etc.

Similarly, please notify the thesis advisor to name the file as STUDENT LAST NAME first, then the item. Example: SMITHletter.pdf

Applicants submit materials HERE.
Thesis advisor submit letter of recommendation HERE.

Email questions to Ryan Frisinger at awards@medievalart.org. The winning applications will be chosen by members of the ICMA Grants and Awards Committee, which is chaired by our Vice-President.

ICMA-KRESS EXHIBITION DEVELOPMENT GRANT, DUE SUNDAY 7 APRIL 2024

ICMA-KRESS EXHIBITION DEVELOPMENT GRANT
Deadline for applications: Sunday 7 APRIL 2024, 11:59pm ET

Upload materials HERE

Thanks to the generosity of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, ICMA members are eligible to apply for an ICMA-Kress Exhibition Development Grant of $5,000 to support research and/or interpretive programming for a major exhibition at an institution that otherwise could not provide such financial support. Members from all geographic areas are welcome to apply.

As an organization, the ICMA encourages scholars to think expansively, exploring art and society in “every corner of the medieval world,” as characterized in our mission statement. With this grant, we hope to encourage colleagues to develop innovative exhibition themes or bring little-known objects before new audiences. We also aim to enhance the impact of exhibitions by supporting related lectures or symposia.

ICMA-Kress Exhibition Development Grant can be used to fund travel in the research and preparation stages of an exhibition and/or to underwrite public programming once a show is installed. This grant is designed to assist with an exhibition already in the pipeline and scheduled by the host museum.

We ask applicants to upload to the ICMA submission site:

• Applicant’s cv

• Description of the exhibition and its goals, including an overview of the structure of the exhibition – themes and estimated number of objects in each section of the show – and dates of the exhibition

• Statement of other sources of funding both secured and provisional, with specifics on the amounts already awarded and expenses to be covered by secured and provisional funding

• Sample wall panel for a subsection of the exhibition and sample labels for 3-4 examples of works in the show

• If the applicant seeks funds to travel to see objects for inclusion in the exhibition, a list of institutions to be visited, names of contacts at each, and key objects (with accession numbers) to be inspected

• If the applicant seeks funds for exhibition programming, specific information on gallery talks, public lectures, or symposium, with anticipated names of speakers and estimated dates

• Letter of support from the Museum Director or Curator with whom the applicant is working, confirming that the exhibition will be mounted

• If funds will be used toward a lecture or symposium connected to an exhibition, letter of support from institutional administrator/s (Dean, Provost, or Museum/Gallery Director) confirming that space at the organizer’s institution will be made available for the event/s

Applications will be reviewed by the ICMA Grants & Awards Committee and approved by the ICMA Executive Committee. The recipient will be announced in May 2024. An update report from the recipient will be due in late Summer 2024.

Questions can be addressed to Ryan Frisinger, Executive Director, at awards@medievalart.org

Upload materials HERE

4th Annual Helen Damico Memorial Lecture Series/38th Spring Lecture Series: The Middle Ages on Screen, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, 15-18 April 2024, 5:30 PM

4th Annual Helen Damico Memorial Lecture Series

38th Spring Lecture Series

The Middle Ages on Screen

15-18 April 2024, 5:30 PM Each Night

Institute for Medieval Studies, College of Arts & Sciences, The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM

"The Middle Ages on Screen" the 4th Annual Helen Damico Memorial Lecture Series and the 38th Spring Lecture Series hosted by UNM’s Institute for Medieval Studies, will offer a compelling four-day event that will span the fields of Art History, Literature, History, and Contemporary Media, Art, and Culture. It will be taking place April 15-18, 2024 in Woodward Hall 101 each evening beginning at 5:30 pm.  For the most convenient parking, we suggest the Cornell Structure or the meter parking in Lot A.

More information about the lecture Series will be available here and here.

In Focus Gallery Talk at the Barnes Foundation: Medieval French Artist’s Circumcision, Elliot Mackin, 8 April 2024, 3:00-3:30PM

In Focus Gallery Talk

Medieval French Artist’s Circumcision

Elliot Mackin

Monday, 8 April 2024, 3:00-3:30pm

Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Unidentified artist, probably French. Circumcision (detail), 15th century. BF869. Public Domain. https://www.barnesfoundation.org/whats-on/talks/gallery-talk-april-2024

Elliot Mackin, a doctoral candidate in the history of art at the University of Pennsylvania, leads an in-depth discussion about the medieval painting Circumcision. The talk takes place in Room 4.

In Focus Gallery Talks are 30-minute discussions held in the Barnes collection galleries presented in partnership with the University of Pennsylvania’s history of art graduate program. In Focus talks provide new interpretative approaches and intensive focus on individual works in the collection.

Mackin is a doctoral candidate in the history of art at the University of Pennsylvania. He is currently writing his dissertation, “Seeing Christ Queerly: Beauty, Power, and the Passion of Christ in Byzantine Art.” Mackin‘s In Focus talks look at medieval art in the Barnes collection and explore issues of gender, sexuality, race, religion, and power.

For more information about the event, click here.

Renaissance and Early Modern Studies Lecture: On Albrecht Dürer: A Public Conversation, Susan Dackerman & Ulinka Rublack, Princeton University, 22 April 2024 4:30-6:00PM

Renaissance and Early Modern Studies lecture

On Albrecht Dürer: A Public Conversation

Susan Dackerman & Ulinka Rublack

Mon, 22 April 2024 · 4:30 pm—6:00 pm

010 East Pyne, Princeton University, New Jersey

Join us for a public conversation between these two early modern historians as they discuss their shared subject.

Susan Dackerman is the author of the forthcoming Dürer’s Knots: Early European Print and the Islamic East (Princeton University Press, Sept. 2024).

Ulinka Rublack is the author of Dürer’s Lost Masterpiece: Art and Society at the Dawn of a Global World (Oxford University Press, 2023).

Light Reception to Follow

Co-sponsored by the Department of Art and Archaeology

For more information about the event, https://renaissance.princeton.edu/event/on-albrecht-durer-a-public-conversation/

Call for Papers: Renaissance Resonances: Across Time, Across Disciplines: A Transdisciplinary Conference, London & Online (20-21 April 2024), Due by 22 March 2024

Call for Papers

LABRC (London Arts-Based Research Centre)

Renaissance Resonances: Across Time, Across Disciplines
A Transdisciplinary Conference

April 20-21, 2024
April 20: in person and online at Birkbeck, university of London (hybrid presentations)
April 21: fully online

Due by 22 March 2024

This conference invites academics, creatives, practitioners, and students to look at how the Renaissance influences culture today, from the sciences to the arts, and anything in between. In exploring the different transdisciplinary approaches to the Renaissance and its relevance today, we will look at the interstices between the Renaissance and contemporary artwork, literary pieces, performances, music, film, science, and the ways in which these interact with history, politics and culture.

“Renaissance”, meaning “re-birth”, refers to the breaking free from the Middle Ages and founding the modern world as we know it today, mainly through the transdisciplinarity of its artists and scientists. The world owes many of its inventions to the Renaissance (like the pencil by the Bernacottis, the printing press by Gutenberg, the airplane by Leonardo da Vinci, and the microscope by Galileo), which also influenced art, literature, and drama (as we see in the case of Shakespeare and the Renaissance masters like Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Michaelangelo, and Donatello). So perhaps, the influence of the Renaissance goes beyond the names of the Ninja Turtles!

The conference will have two tracks:

• Renaissance Europe

• Shakespeare

We welcome 15-minute presentations on topics including (but certainly not limited to) the following:

Renaissance Europe track:

• Archetypal themes and patterns in Renaissance art

• Renaissance-inspired historical novels

• Modern adaptations of iconic Renaissance paintings, such Botticelli’s Birth of Venus

• Relevance of medieval alchemy today

• Arab Spain

• Renaissance Florence

• Comparative art history

• Ekphrastic responses to Renaissance art

• Influence of Renaissance architecture

• Renaissance-influenced pop music (such as Lady Gaga, Beyonce, and Ariana Grande)

• Contemporary Renaissance-inspired painting

• The Renaissance-inspired fashion world (Alexander McQueen, Sarah Burton, etc.)

• Renaissance influences on modern sciences and medicine

• Renaissance-inspired photography

• Renaissance depictions of magic and the supernatural

• Renaissance women

Shakespeare track:

William Shakespeare: the bard, the playwright, the poet, the actor. You probably quote him on a regular basis without even knowing it. Celestial bodies are named after some characters in his plays. His name has become a brand for bookstores, coffee shops, toys, and cigars, and has even been dubbed by literary scholar Doug Lanier as “the Coca-Cola of canonical culture.” How relevant is Shakespeare today? And how far has the playwright’s ingenuity resonated across generations and disciplines? The enduring popularity and influence of Shakespeare is a clear testimony to his relevance and contributions to the English language, the arts, and even people’s behaviour. Shakespeare still has a significant presence in contemporary culture, ad is ever-present within fields of art across all genres and disciplines. Looking at the impact of Shakespeare, we see that he has greatly contributed to shaping society in various ways while inspiring a new generation of contemporary artists and filmmakers!

From coining thousands of words in English, to new concepts, grammatical structures, and phrases, Shakespeare had shaped the language we still use everyday (“all’s well that ends well”). He offered timeless themes, and his plays live on again and constantly evolve and remake themselves through modern adaptations in art, theatre, film, and literature, not only because of his fame, but also because of the universality of his themes and characterization.

We welcome 15-minute presentations on topics including (but certainly not limited to):

• Shakespearean archetypes and universal themes

• Ideas of space and place

• “All the world’s a stage”: Shakespearean models in characterization and/or drama

• Shakespeare as a brand

• Concepts of dreams and surrealism

• “We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep”: Shakespeare-influenced perceptions of different layers of reality

• Shakespearean influences in today’s fiction (romance, history, thrillers, mysteries, fantasy, sci-fi, etc.)

• Innovative ways of teaching Shakespeare

• Shakespeare and film

• Shakespearean plays as pedagogic tools

• Presentation of the environment and climate change

• “All’s well that ends well”: Words, phrases, and aphorisms

• “Be not afraid of shadows”: Jungian theory and therapy regarding shadow work

• The magical and supernatural

• “Cruel to be kind”: Shakespeare and psychology today

• Shakespeare in visual art

• Shakespeare in tourism

• “the lady doth protest too much”: feminist takes on Shakespeare

Presenters may either share academic papers and/or creative work (poetry, prose, photography, music, painting, performance, etc.), as we highly encourage arts-based research. Please fill out the proposal form by March 22, 2024 (and please indicate whether you need an early response for travel plans).

For inquiries or further information, please contact us on conferences@labrc.co.uk (kindly allow at least 2-3 days response time)

We look forward to receiving your abstracts!

Fees: In person: 165 GBP/Online: 90 GBP

To register for the conference, click here

For more information about the organization and the conference, click here.

Online Lecture: ‘The hooly blisful martir for to seke’: Manuscripts with Chaucer’s pilgrims, Dr. Allison Ray and Dr. Andrew Dunning, 25 March 2024, 4.30–5.30pm GMT/12:30-1:30PM ET

Online Lecture

‘The hooly blisful martir for to seke’: Manuscripts with Chaucer’s pilgrims

Dr. Allison Ray and Dr. Andrew Dunning

Monday 25 March 2024, 4.30–5.30pm GMT/12:30-1:30PM ET

Free, booking required.

Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales tell the story of pilgrims 'from every shires ende / Of Engelond to Caunterbury they wende’. Experience these journeys, both real and imagined, through discussion and sharing of medieval manuscripts from the Bodleian collection live under the visualiser. 

Dr Alison Ray, archivist at St Peter’s College, and Dr Andrew Dunning, RW Hunt Curator of Medieval Manuscripts at the Bodleian Libraries, will explore the new iconography that developed after Thomas Becket’s murder, the impact of his death on Oxford’s religious houses and how Canterbury became a significant pilgrimage destination. 

For more information about the event, click here.

ONLINE TALK: Exploring Chaucer Here and Now, Marion Turner, Weston Library, Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, 14 March 2024 5-6PM GMT/1-2PM ET

ONLINE TALK

Exploring Chaucer Here and Now

Professor Marion Turner

Weston Library, Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford

 Thursday 14 March 2024,  5–6pm GMT/1-2PM ET

Image credit: Ian Wallman, https://visit.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/event/mar24/exploring-chaucer-here-and-now

Free, booking required

In this webinar, Professor Marion Turner introduces some of the themes of Chaucer Here and Now, the exhibition currently on view at the Weston Library.

Focusing on manuscripts and printed books from the fifteenth century to the twenty-first, she will discuss some of the ways in which readers of Chaucer have responded to and reimagined Chaucer's works. From medieval scribes to Zadie Smith, via early printers, Victorian children's authors and William Morris, Professor Turner explores the afterlife of one of our greatest poets.

This webinar will be interactive, with plenty of time for Q&A, and will feature some of the Bodleian's treasures shown under the visualiser. 

For more information about the event, click here.

Exhibition Closing: Chaucer Here and Now, Weston Library, University of Oxford, Ends 28 April 2024

Exhibition Closing

Chaucer Here and Now

ST Lee Gallery, Weston Library

Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, UK

8 December 2023 - 28 April 2024

This is a stunning example of a Chaucer manuscript, 'The Complaint of Mars'. The artist has been identified as the Abingdon Missal Master, who worked near Oxford in the mid-15th century (MS Fairfax 16). Image © Ian Wallman https://visit.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/chaucer

Misogynist. Feminist. Conservative. Radical. Respectful. Irreverent. Monocultural. Multicultural. Imperial. Domestic. English. European. Catholic. Protestant.

Chaucer Here and Now presents Geoffrey Chaucer as you haven’t seen him before. Not as the “Father of English Literature”, but as a dynamic, global author, whose works have been reworked and reinterpreted over time and around the world. Each generation reinvents Chaucer, taking inspiration from his work, and finding new meanings.

Drawing on material ranging from the earliest known manuscript of The Canterbury Tales to contemporary adaptions in theatre and film, this exhibition explores the many creative responses to Chaucer and asks why this medieval author still fascinates so many people today.

Come and reinvent Geoffrey Chaucer for yourself.

This exhibition is curated by Professor Marion Turner, JRR Tolkien Professor of English Literature and Language at the University of Oxford.

Free and no ticket required.

For more information about the exhibition, click here.

Call for Papers for Various Panels: 2025 MLA Annual Convention, New Orleans (9-12 January 2025), Due by 15-17 March 2024

Call for Papers for VArious PanelS

2025 MLA Annual Convention, New Orleans, Louisiana, 9-12 January 2025

Due by 15-17 March 2024

All of the panels below specifically noted either medieval art or visual aspects. Other panels at the conference focus on medieval studies more generally or medieval writings.

Premodern Practices of Space in Iberia and the Americas: Digital Perspectives

We welcome papers which engage with the digital turn to explore how (physical, textual, visual, etc.) spaces in premodern Iberian and American worlds were constructed, distorted, communicated or erased.

250-word abstract and a one-page CV.

Deadline for submissions: Saturday, 16 March 2024

Marija Blašković, Universitat Pompeu Fabra - Campus del Mar (marija.blaskovic@upf.edu )

Visualizing Medieval Iberia

The session explores how Medieval Iberia is represented in visual culture. Papers addressing, comparing, and contrasting how Medieval Iberia is represented globally via different mediums, & periods are welcome. 150 word abstract and short bio.

Deadline for submissions: Friday, 15 March 2024

Dr. Yasmine Beale-Rivaya, PhD, Texas State University (yb10@txstate.edu )

Visible and Invisible Cities in Medieval and Early Modern Italy

This panel explores how literature, drama, painting, and treatises deployed visual strategies, discourses, and tropes to envision, theorize and/or critique urban worlds (local/global, utopic/fantastic/infernal, past/present/future).

[250-word abstract, one-page CV]

Deadline for submissions: Sunday, 17 March 2024

Paola Ugolini, State University of New York at Buffalo (ugolini@buffalo.edu )

“Ut Pictura Poësis”: Visual Poetics and Visual Arts in Medieval and Early Modern Italy

We invite contributions that deal with visual poetics as writing exploring the materiality of the word, in a manuscript or a printed book, and/or visual arts closely connected with literary texts.

[250-word abstract, one-page CV]

Deadline for submissions: Sunday, 17 March 2024

Paola Ugolini, State University of New York at Buffalo (ugolini@buffalo.edu )

Visibility and the Visual in Medieval and Early Modern German Culture (Sponsored by LLC German to 1700)

Visibility and invisibility played a fundamental role in medieval and early modern social, cultural, and religious contexts. We seek papers exploring in/visibility and the visual in pre-modern German literature and culture.

Deadline for submissions: Friday, 15 March 2024

Jonathan Seelye Martin, Princeton U (jsmart5@ilstu.edu ) Aleksandra Prica, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (aprica@email.unc.edu )

Visualizing Bodies in Medieval and Early Modern Italy

This panel intends to explore how different bodies were categorized, described, and represented in Medieval and Early Modern Italy considering questions of gender, race, disability, and class differences.

[250-word abstract, one-page CV]

Deadline for submissions: Sunday, 17 March 2024

Paola Ugolini, State University of New York at Buffalo (ugolini@buffalo.edu )

For more information about the call for papers more generally, click here.

Call for Applications: Assistant Professor in Global History of Art, Trinity College Dublin, Due By 4 April 2024 12:00PM IST/7:00AM ET

Call for Applications

Assistant Professor in Global History of Art

Trinity College Dublin, Ireland

Due by 4 April 2024 12:00PM IST/7:00AM ET

The School of Histories and Humanities at Trinity College Dublin seeks to appoint an Assistant Professor in Global History of Art, based in the Department of History of Art and Architecture. Candidates can have expertise in any period from early modern to contemporary but, preferably, their research will encompass global histories of art. Candidates must demonstrate an ability to incorporate collections in Ireland in their teaching and research. It is also desirable that candidates should have experience of working with museum collections. The primary purpose of this post is to contribute to teaching and research in history of art and to undertake administrative activities in the Department and School. The successful applicant will have a proven ability or evidence of potential to establish a strong record of research and publication in the history of art and will be expected to contribute to both undergraduate and postgraduate teaching in this field and to interdisciplinary curricular teaching, supervision, and mentoring.

The successful candidate will be expected to take up post on 1 August 2024 or as soon thereafter as possible.

For more information about the position, https://my.corehr.com/pls/trrecruit/erq_jobspec_version_4.display_form