THE LORDSHIP & COMMUNE PROJECT JUST LAUNCHED !

We are pleased to announce the launch of The Lordship and Commune Project: A Collaboratory (http://www.medievalart.org/lordship-and-commune)

The Lordship and Commune Project is based on Barbara Abou-El- Haj’s unfinished study of the cathedrals of Reims and Amiens, analyzed in relation to their political and social environments.

Using this interactive platform, scholars and students can explore, debate, and raise new questions about Gothic architecture, power, and resistance.

Please check it out, contribute to the conversation, and consider integrating it into your Fall 2016 courses!

The Lordship and Commune Project is a collective work. Nina Rowe led a team of scholars – Michael Davis, Jennifer Feltman, Lindsey Hansen, and Janet Marquardt – editing, revising, and filling out the text. Danielle Oteri was in charge of design, with assistance from Aimee Caya on images. Please see the Acknowledgments link on the site where we have a chance to thank all the people who made this project possible.

CFP: FORUM KUNST DES MITTELALTERS / FORUM MEDIEVAL ART 2017

FORUM KUNST DES MITTELALTERS / FORUM MEDIEVAL ART
Berlin and Brandenburg, Germany; 20-23 September 2017
due 31 October 2016

CALL FOR PAPERS
The Treasury of San Isidoro de León and its Global Connections
Organizer: Jitske Jasperse (Madrid)

Liturgical objects from the San Isidoro treasury – in situ and at the Museo Arqueológico Nacional in Madrid –, present a golden opportunity to be studied as a multi‐layered collection with largely untold stories. Such an unusual gathering of metalworks, silks, and ivories locates the capital city of León as a contact zone for artistic production and the exchange of materials, ideas and craftsmanship between the wider world and Christian Spain. The study of (supposedly) Islamic luxury items – such as ivories and textiles – points out that transcultural contact offers a fresh perspective on centres of production, patronage and fashion for the central Middle Ages. Transcultural objects also challenge us to (re)consider why and how some pieces – initially not meant to function in an ecclesiastical context – ended up in churches and how this affected their meaning. At the same time, San Isidoro’s treasury contains a variety of objects from the eleventh and twelfth centuries that seem to be made for, or intended to be given to, that monastery from the start. A closer study, however, reveals that elements of the treasury’s history were fabricated and manipulated through these very objects, their materials, and inscriptions. 

How then did this treasury work, and who was involved in collecting these pieces from Egypt, al‐Andalus, Sicily and beyond? What were its underlying principles, and were such stories confirmed by the presence of other ‘exotic’ objects? These questions apply both to the medieval moment in a monastic setting and to the nineteenth‐ and twentieth‐century display of San Isidoro’s treasury for secular publics. San Isidoro’s museum and the Museo Arqueológico Nacional have stories to tell about treasuries, the Middle Ages and cross‐cultural exchange. How are narratives concerning religious and geographical boundaries communicated? This session aims to unfold the multiple stories behind San Isidoro’s treasury and the impact of exchange on the formation of collections in the Middle Ages and beyond. 

Please send your paper proposals of max. 1 page to mail@mittelalterkongress.de
Deadline: 31 October 2016

CFP: Light and Darkness in Medieval Art, 1200-1450, I-II Kalamazoo 2017

CALL FOR PAPERS for the ICMA-sponsored session

International Congress of Medieval Studies
11-14 May 2017
University of Western Michigan, Kalamazoo, MI.

Deadline:   10 September 2016

Light and Darkness in Medieval Art, 1200-1450, I-II

Organizers: Stefania Gerevini (L. Bocconi University) and Tom Nickson (The Courtauld Institute)

Specialists of Christian, Islamic and Jewish art and culture are invited to explore how perceptions of light and darkness informed the ways in which art across Europe and the Mediterranean was produced, viewed and understood in the period 1200–1450. We welcome papers that investigate the correlations between theories of optics, theologies of light, practices of illumination, and modes of viewing in the Middle Ages, as well as the ways in which different religious or cultural communities conceptualized light and used it in everyday life or ritual settings. Papers might also address such broad methodological questions as: can the investigation of light prompt reconsideration of well-established periodizations and interpretative paradigms of art history? How was the dramatic interplay between light and obscurity exploited in the secular and religious architecture of Europe and the medieval Mediterranean? How carefully were light effects taken into account in the display of images and portable objects, and how does consideration of luminosity, shadow and darkness hone our understanding of the agency of medieval objects? Finally, to what extent is light’s ephemeral and fleeting nature disguised by changing fashions of display and technologies of reproduction, and how do these affect our ability to apprehend and explain medieval approaches to light?

Please send proposals to Stefania Gerevini  stefania.gerevini@unibocconi.it and Tom Nickson tom.nickson@courtauld.ac.uk  by 10 September 2016.

CFP: Monumental Failures, ICMA Student Committee, Kalamazoo 2017

Call for Papers:
Monumental Failures
International Center for Medieval Art, Student Committee
 

International Congress on Medieval Studies, May 11-14, 2017
Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan

In 1284, part of the choir of Beauvais cathedral dramatically collapsed during construction. This event would go on to alter the plan of one of the most ambitious building projects of the Middle Ages. Like Beauvais, greater and lesser failures throughout the Middle Ages served as the inspiration, motivation, and impetus for artistic change and development. Given the nature of failure, unsuccessful creations do not always leave a lasting mark. Nevertheless, the impact of failure is evident in subsequent artistic creation. Because of this relative obscurity, “failure” has seldom been explored in a field focused on the great artistic achievements of the past.

We hope to address this lacuna by offering an opportunity for young scholars to present research on the less-than-successful endeavors of medieval artisans, both large and small. We invite papers engaging with various incarnations of failure (alteration, incompletion, destruction, rejection, collapse, etc.) as approaches to artistic production or interpretation.

The Student Committee of the International Center for Medieval Art involves and advocates for all members of the ICMA with student status and facilitates communication and mentorship between student and non-student members.

To propose a paper, please send a 300 word abstract, C.V., and completed Congress Participant Information Form (available here: https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/submissions) to Dustin Aaron (dsa268@nyu.edu) and Katherine Werwie (katherine.werwie@yale.edu). 

due 10 September 2016

ICMA Newsletter deadline is 1 August 2016

Please send information to newsletter@medievalart.org. 

Have you recently published a book? Have you received a national or international award? Do you have any other news about our colleagues in the medieval art world? We want to hear about it!

Please send us a notice to the email above. We can only accept notices not previously announced in our newsletter and books or awards published/awarded within the last year. 

Call for Proposals - St. Louis Annual Symposium on Medieval and Renaissance Studies

CALL FOR ICMA SPONSORED SESSION PROPOSALS
ICMA @ St. Louis Annual Symposium on Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 19-21 June 2017

The International Center of Medieval Art (ICMA) seeks proposals for sessions to be held under the organization’s sponsorship in 2017 at the St. Louis Annual Symposium on Medieval and Renaissance Studies to be held 19-21 June 2017 in St. Louis.

Session organizers and speakers must be ICMA members. Proposals must include a session abstract, a CV of the organizer(s), and a list of speakers for a 90-minute session, all in one single Doc or PDF with the organizer’s name in the title.

Please direct all session proposals and inquiries by 10 December 2016 to the Chair of the ICMA Programs & Lectures Committee: Janis Elliott, School of Art, Texas Tech University.  Email: janis.elliott@ttu.edu

The ICMA Programs and Lectures committee will select a session to sponsor and will notify the organizer(s) by 20 December 2015. The successful organizer(s) will then submit the ICMA-sponsored proposal by 31 December 2016 directly to the St Louis Symposium Committee which will make the final decision:   http://smrs.slu.edu/cfp.html

Thanks to a generous grant from the Kress Foundation, funds may be available to defray travel costs of speakers in ICMA-sponsored sessions up to a maximum of $600 for domestic travel and of $1200 for international travel. If available, the Kress funds are allocated for travel and hotel only. Speakers in ICMA sponsored sessions will be refunded only after the conference, against travel receipts.  In addition to speakers, session organizers delivering papers as an integral part of the session (i.e. with a specific title listed in the program) are now also eligible to receive travel funding.  

Go to:  http://www.medievalart.org/kress-travel-grant/

Call for Proposals - International Medieval Congress at Leeds, 3-6 July 2017

CALL FOR ICMA SPONSORED SESSION PROPOSALS
ICMA @ International Medieval Congress at Leeds, 3-6 July 2017

The International Center of Medieval Art (ICMA) seeks proposals for sessions to be held under the organization’s sponsorship in 2017 at the International Medieval Congress (IMC) at Leeds, England.  

Session organizers and speakers must be ICMA members. Proposals must include a session abstract, a CV of the organizer(s), and a list of speakers for a 90-minute session, all in one single Doc or PDF with the organizer’s name in the title. The IMC recommends three speakers and a moderator.

Please direct all session proposals and inquiries by 10 September 2016 to the Chair of the ICMA Programs and Lectures Committee: Janis Elliott, Texas Tech University. Email: janis.elliott@ttu.edu

The ICMA Programs and Lectures committee will select a session to sponsor and will notify the organizer(s) by 21 September 2016. The successful organizer(s) will then submit the ICMA-sponsored proposal by 30 September 2016 directly to the Leeds IMC Committee which will make the final decision:  http://www.leeds.ac.uk/ims/imc/imc2017_call.html

For IMC 2017 submission guidelines go to: http://www.leeds.ac.uk/ims/imc/submission_guidelines.html

Thanks to a generous grant from the Kress Foundation, funds may be available to defray travel costs of speakers in ICMA-sponsored sessions up to a maximum of $600 for domestic travel and of $1200 for international travel. If available, the Kress funds are allocated for travel and hotel only. Speakers in ICMA sponsored sessions will be refunded only after the conference, against travel receipts.  In addition to speakers, session organizers delivering papers as an integral part of the session (i.e. with a specific title listed in the program) are now also eligible to receive travel funding.  

Go to:  http://www.medievalart.org/kress-travel-grant/

ICMA/Kress Research and Publication Grants: due 31 August 2016

The Kress Foundation is again generously supporting five research and publication grants, of $3000 each.  Applicants must be members of the ICMA.  The deadline for the 2016 grants is August 31, 2016.

Members may apply for:

Grants for Research on a first book - restricted to ICMA members who have been awarded a Ph.D. by a U.S. or a non-U.S.  institution within the last ten years. Those with a non-U.S. degree must currently hold a continuing position in a U.S. college, university or museum. The grants must be used for travel, and for research costs such as photographs, image permissions, etc.

Grants for Publication of a first book - restricted to ICMA members with book contracts in hand who obtained their PhD at any time from a U.S. or a non-U.S. institution. Those with a non-U.S. degree must currently hold a continuing position in a U.S. college, university or museum.  The grant must be used for publication costs, including photographs, image permissions, copyediting, architectural drawings/plans, etc.  

Applications for either grant must submit:

1) a statement identifying the Kress grant being applied for, and the applicant’s eligibility for the grant

2) a cover letter (no more than three pages) giving a detailed outline of the proposed project

3) a full cv

4) a full budget.

5) a copy of the publication contract if one is in place

6) If a publication grant is being requested, a chapter of the text must be submitted.  If the book is already completed, the entire text should be submitted.

The application should be submitted electronically to awards@medievalart.org.

For large files, please upload to Google Drive and give permission to awards@medievalart.org. 

Further information: http://www.medievalart.org/kress-research-grant/

ICMA publishes "Gothic Sculpture in America III. The Museums of New York and Pennsylvania"

Gothic Sculpture in America III. The Museums of New York and Pennsylvania
by Joan A. Holladay and Susan L. Ward

NOW AVAILABLE

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE AND FOR MORE INFORMATION! 

668 pages (589 b/w photos)
Publication of The International Center of Medieval Art
Language: English
Hardback (April 2016)

ISBN-13 9780991043002
ISBN-10 0991043006

$100
$75 for ICMA Members (Sign-in at Member Sign-In for discount information)

With 446 entries examining some 550 works of figural, architectural, and decorative sculpture in 27 museums and public institutions, this volume continues Census of Gothic Sculpture in America started by Dorothy Gillerman in 1989. In addition to such large and well-known collections as the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Glencairn Museum, smaller collections and those not known for their medieval works, like the Barnes Foundation and the Explorers Club, are also inventoried. Generously supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Getty Foundation, this book includes entries by 35 authors writing on works in their areas of specialization.

Joan A. Holladay is professor of the history of art at the University of Texas at Austin. She specializes in Gothic sculpture and manuscripts, particularly in France and Germany, and her work has appeared in Art History, Gesta, and Studies in Iconography, as well as in numerous other journals and volumes of essays, and in the monograph series of the College Art Association.

Susan L. Ward is professor of the History of Art and Visual Culture at the Rhode Island School of Design. She specializes in the medieval sculpture of France and England and has also published articles on manuscripts and textiles. Her work has appeared inGesta and Speculum, as well as numerous collections of essays.

Join ICMA in Kalamazoo for our sessions and receptions! 12 & 13 May 2016

Thursday 1:30 pm
Session 66 Schneider 1140
Picturing the Present: Structuring the Medieval Beholder’s Relation toward Time
Organizer: Armin Bergmeier, Univ. Leipzig; Andrew Griebeler, Univ. of California–Berkeley
Presider: Andrew Griebeler
                                                                                                                  
The Present, the Future, and the Modern Preoccupation with the End of Time
Armin Bergmeier
The Fluent Boundaries of Built and Painted Space at the Papal Court of Avignon
Tanja Hinterholz, Univ. Salzburg                                       
Time-Based Media and Medieval Figuration
Beatrice Kitzinger, Princeton Univ.
Oracular Images and the Political Present in Twelfth-Century Constantinople
Benjamin Anderson, Cornell Univ.
 

Thursday 3:30pm
Session 120 Schneider 1225
Crossing the Hanseatic Threshold and Beyond: Making Connections in Medieval Art, ca. 1200–1500
Organizer: Lehti Mairike Keelmann, Univ. of Michigan–Ann Arbor; Laura Tillery, Univ. of Pennsylvania
Presider: Lehti Mairike Keelmann

Artists Abroad: The Dawn of Rhennish Gothic Ivory Carving
Dustin Aaron, Courtauld Institute of Art/Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Value of Reliquaries in the Hanseatic League
Andrew R. Sears, Univ. of California–Berkeley
From Distant Places to Mercantile Spaces: Late Medieval Altarpieces in Hanseatic Lübeck Laura Tillery
 

Thursday 7:30pm
Session 152, Fetzer 1005
Beatus: The Spanish Apocalypse (A Film Screening and Discussion)
Organizer: David Raizman, Drexel Univ.
Presider: David Raizman
A screening of the documentary film Beatus: The Spanish Apocalypse followed by a discussion with Murray Grigor, BBP Films, and Hamid Shams, MUSE Films and Television.

The documentary film "Beatus: The Spanish Apocalypse," directed and produced by Scottish documenatry filmmaker Murray Grigor and cinematographer Hamid Shams (BBP Films and MUSE Films and Television), is based upon the richly painted medieval manuscript tradition of the Apocalypse Commentary, written by the monk Beatus of Liébena in the late 8th century and surviving in more than 25 illuminated copies from the 10th through the early 13th centuries. The film includes extensive travel to numerous medieval sites in Spain, with dialogue, commentary, and reflection on the Beatus tradition and related aspects of the art of medieval Spain by scholar John Williams (University Professor Emeritus, University of Pittsburgh), who passed away in early June 2015. It was John’s hope that this stunning film might be screened at the International Congress of Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo where medievalists from all over the world might be able to see and enjoy it. In addition to the screening, the ICMA is sponsoring a session featuring papers by established and younger scholars devoted to the Beatus tradition and wider questions relating to the role of manuscripts in contexts both monastic and courtly.
 

Friday 10:00am                                                
Session 181 Fetzer 1010
Models and Copies, Masters and Pupils: New Work on Spanish Illuminated Manuscripts in Memory of John Williams
Organizer: David Raizman, Drexel Univ.
Presider: Therese Martin, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas
                                                                       
Copies, Originals, and the Impoverishment of Images
Robert A. Maxwell, Institute of Fine Arts, New York Univ.
Further Perspectives on “A Castilian Tradition of Bible Illustration”: Re-examining the Connection between the Bibles of San Isidoro de Leon (960 and 1162)
Ana Hernandez, Univ. Complutense de Madrid
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Seder: What the “HispanoMoresque” Haggadah Can Tell Us about Medieval Creativity
Julie A. Harris, Spertus Institute
 

RECEPTIONS - FRIDAY 13 MAY

7:30 p.m.
International Center of Medieval Art Student Committee
Bernhard Brown & Gold Room

9:00 p.m.
International Center of Medieval Art
Reception with cash bar
Bernhard Brown & Gold Roo