ICMA at the Association for Art History’s 2021 Annual Conference
Wednesday 14 - Saturday 17 April 2021

Call for Papers
The Virgin as Auctoritas: The Authority of the Virgin Mary and female moral–doctrinal authority in the Middle Ages
ICMA sponsored session

Organized by
Francesca Dell’Acqua, Università degli studi di Salerno, fdellacqua@unisa.it

The International Center of Medieval Art invites paper proposals for our session at the Association for Art History’s 2021 Annual Conference, held in Birmingham, Wednesday 14 - Saturday 17 April 2021.

This session aims at exploring a fundamental issue: female authority through the lens of visual/material culture. It involves prominently the Virgin Mary – as well as figures of female authority in the medieval world – because in the late decades of the 20th century, feminist thinkers pointed at the ‘negative model’ offered by the Virgin Mary since for centuries she had been branded by the Catholic Church as a role model for modesty, submission and virginity. However, between late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, the Virgin Mary emerged as Queen of Heaven through preaching and liturgical texts, visual arts and public assemblies – that is, the ‘mass media’ of that time. Mary was pictured as a very strong, authoritative figure, rather than weak and compliant.

Already during late Antiquity, Mary was commonly perceived as the mighty protector and spiritual stronghold of capital cities in the Mediterranean. Between the 8th and the 11th centuries, the role of royal women came to the fore, especially in Byzantium and in Ottonian Germany. Very striking is also the case of a number of major Italian city-states between the 12th and the 15th centuries where the Virgin Mary came to be identified with political and economic supremacy. But how did the preaching and missions of mendicant orders affect her image? How has a prominent role for female authorities been transmitted through visual arts and material culture? And what about the roles that women held in Africa and Asia and in other religious traditions?

In sum, this session can help understand what bearing the figure of the humble Virgin Mary eventually had on female leadership, and also how female leadership evolved or not. Topics may include but are not limited to:

The Virgin Mary as a figure of authority and wisdom in texts and images
The Virgin Mary in medieval preaching/arts: ‘only’ a model for humility and mercy?
Female political authority and the Virgin Mary as a role model in texts and images
Female moral, doctrinal, political and religious authority within and without the Christian oecumene in texts and images
Women and power: a difficult relationship.

https://eu-admin.eventscloud.com/website/2065/the-virgin-as-auctoritas/

Click here to download a PDF of this abstract

More Info on submitting: https://eu.eventscloud.com/website/2065/sessions-2021/.

Papers are due to Francesca Dell’Acqua, fdellacqua@unisa.it, by 2 October 2020. Further information on how to submit is here.