CFP: ‘The Wall Painting Cycle on the Sciences and Arts in the Brandenburg Cathedral Cloister in its Context: Art Production and Organization of Knowledge around 1450’, DUE 15 November 2022

Call for Papers

‘The Wall Painting Cycle on the Sciences and Arts in the Brandenburg Cathedral Cloister in its Context: Art Production and Organization of Knowledge around 1450’

Brandenburg an der Havel (29–30 March 2023)

DUE 15 November 2022

Organizers: Chair of Medieval and Early Modern Art History at the Institute of Art | Music | Textiles – Department of Art, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Paderborn University, Prof. Dr. Ulrike Heinrichs, and Curator of the Brandenburg Cathedral Chapter, Dr. Cord-Georg Hasselmann
Project Lead: Prof. Dr. Ulrike Heinrichs

On the occasion of the completion of the art historical DFG funded project ‘The Wall Painting Cycle on the Sciences and Arts in the Brandenburg Cathedral Cloister. Art Production and Organization of Knowledge around 1450’ (project number 346774044) an interdisciplinary symposium is organized by the Chair of Medieval and Early Modern Art History at the Institute of Art | Music | Textiles – Department of Art, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Paderborn University, Prof. Dr. Ulrike Heinrichs and the Curator of the Brandenburg Cathedral Chapter, Dr. Cord-Georg Hasselmann.

The thematic framework of the symposium is based on the recent open access project publication ‘Der Wandmalereizyklus zu den Wissenschaften und Künsten in der Brandenburger Domklausur. Kunstproduktion und Wissensorganisation um 1450` [The fragmentary wall paintings from the time of Bishop Stephan Bodeker and Provost Peter von Klitzke in the late medieval cathedral library in Brandenburg an der Havel and their inscriptions. A monumental cycle consisting of figural paintings, texts and ornaments in two library rooms] by Ulrike Heinrichs and Martina Voigt, DOI: https://doi.org/10.11588/artdok.00007730. A brief overview of the topics addressed here as well as further information on the project are available on the project homepage of the Chair of Medieval and Modern Art History at the University of Paderborn: https://kw.uni-paderborn.de/fach-kunst/mittlere-und-neuere-kunstgeschichte/projekte/der-wandmalereizyklus

For a long time, art history preserved the memory of “the very beautiful images of the seven liberal arts and the crafts, theology and medicine (…) listed in sequence in the Brandenburg Library, in the March, outside the city, where the White Canons are” (Hartmann Schedel, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München, Clm 418) thanks to a descriptive text from the 15th century. However, the picture cycle was considered lost until the precious wall paintings in the so-called Oberer Kreuzgang (Upper Cloister) at the former Cathedral of Brandenburg an der Havel were discovered and uncovered in 2000/05 during renovation works in the north wing.

After initial publications on the new find had established connections to manuscripts from the library of the Nuremberg humanist Hartmann Schedel (1440–1514) and to the highly learned and literarily productive Bishop of Brandenburg Stephan Bodeker (tenure 1421–1459), the way was paved for the exploration of the probably oldest surviving example of a study library of the “modern” type developed in the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, with a variety of use for collecting books, study and teaching. In the Brandenburg Cathedral Cloister it appears as a hall completely painted with murals – a monumental allegory to the canon of Sciences and Arts under the supremacy of Theology, which at the same time gives wide scope to the social and technical realities of the artes mechanicae, with opulent ornamentation and imagery as well as an extensive corpus of inscriptions resembling a learned treatise. The art historical DFG project at Paderborn University seized this great opportunity and began its work in autumn 2017 in tandem with the conservation science DFG project based at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Hildesheim / Holzminden / Göttingen (HAWK) and in cooperation with the Brandenburg Cathedral Chapter, the Brandenburg State Office for Monument Preservation and Archaeological Museum (BLDAM) as well as the architects in charge of preservation of the building – pmp Projekt GmbH-Architekten Brandenburg an der Havel.

In the light of the latest research findings, the symposium provides a new idea of the thematic core and function of the wall paintings as well as of the original extent and shape of the Brandenburg Cathedral Library of the late Middle Ages. From this perspective, it develops an expanded spectrum of questions reaching into European cultural spaces of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
Conservational research of the DFG tandem project partner, the HAWK under the lead of Prof. Dr. Ursula Schädler-Saub, has proven the in situ visible wall paintings to be an authentic, albeit fragmentary ensemble of a high quality multi-layered secco painting with protean binding. Results of art historical research on the history of style identify it as an artistic ‘flagship project’ of regional origin with references to a variety of genres of painting exemplifying the transition between the International Style of the decades around 1400 and the Late Gothic Style.
The original manuscript of the descriptive text in the Codex Clm 650 at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München, which has previously been attributed to Hermann Schedel (1410–1483), Hartmann’s older cousin, proves to be authentic on the one hand and selective on the other when compared with sources and findings: the preserved murals show far more and, in addition to ornamental paintings of exceptional quality, also include coats of arms, by means of which Provost Peter von Klitzke (tenure 1425/26–ca. 1447) and Bishop Stephan Bodeker could be identified as commissioners and those responsible for the ambitious project. Further, epigraphically and iconographically so far unknown texts and figures could be secured, referring among other things to the treatise Lignum vitae (‘Tree of Life’) by Bonaventura di Bagnoregio (1221–1274) and the salvation-historical basis for the acquisition of knowledge and wisdom under the patronage of the Brandenburg bishopric run by Premonstratensians. As latest findings on building history reveal, the libraria Brandenburgensi[s], as mentioned in the copy of Hermann Schedel’s description by his cousin Hartmann, is to be understood not only as a large study hall, but as a library complex created by striking architectural changes to a large hall in the north wing of the cathedral cloister dating from the 13th to 14th centuries. The pronounced canonistic position and the sophisticated overview of the current educational canon with its roots in antiquity and scholasticism touch on relations with the Margrave and Elector of Brandenburg from the rising House of Hohenzollern as well as the self-conception of ecclesiastical rule in the midst of tense processes of negotiating power after the schism, under ecclesiastical reform efforts and economic consolidation pressure. Not least, they shed light on the role of the Premonstratensian Order within the development of ecclesiastical rule as well as the history of art and culture in the central and northern areas of the Circaria Saxoniae.

The questions raised are manifold and concern the artistic sources and strategies of dealing with traditions and innovations of decorative and figurative painting and calligraphy as well as with the multi-layered fields of allegoresis, performance, diagrammatics and mnemonics in areas of scientific literature and monumental painting. Possible topics range from questions related to the building and its spatiality, including specifics of style, construction technologies and functions, to questions regarding any integrated or adjacent rooms of the episcopal administration and jurisdiction or aspects of everyday life in and with the library, the safekeeping of books, the practice of study and the regulation of light.
Future perspectives to be discussed at the conference also concern methods of sustainable archiving and innovative use of project data as well as opportunities for presentation and mediation of this valuable ensemble of wall paintings within the framework of the Brandenburg Cathedral Museum. Based at the Chair of Medieval and Early Modern Art History at the University of Paderborn and supported locally by the Centre for Information and Media Technology (IMT) together with the University Library, the project database was jointly developed by the DFG project tandem and its cooperation partners using the data archiving system MonArch launched by the IFIS Institute at the University of Passau (since 2021 part of AriInfoWare GmbH). Designed for cooperation in its form and connectable to future projects, this medium aims at a building-based, interactively usable archiving of different types of documentation and visualization, and offers the opportunity to discuss comparable or alternative approaches within research on wall paintings in their architectural setting. The museological part of the conference is dedicated to the question of suitable presentation formats in museums, focusing the communicability of hybrid genres in historical spaces, including inscriptions and medieval sources as well as states of preservation that are difficult to access.

There are no thematic constraints. However, contributions to the following research areas are particularly welcome, and in any case both a regional and a European perspective are encouraged:

• Material culture, pictorial equipment and imagery of late medieval and Renaissance libraries
• Allegories and narratives of Sciences and Arts in images and texts
• The imagery of Theology, Wisdom, Jurisprudence and the wise Rule
• Representation of patrons and donors in medieval and Renaissance libraries in images, inscriptions or coats of arms
• Source tradition on antique library buildings in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance
• The architecture and topography of late medieval and Renaissance libraries, i.a. at episcopal sees and in White Canons chapters
• Book collections, educational programs and forms of use of ecclesiastical libraries, i.a. at episcopal sees and White Canons chapters
• Politics, education and visual arts in the Diocese Brandenburg and the Circaria Saxoniae in the Late Middle Ages
• Comparative studies on production, aesthetics and dissemination of secco painting
• Perspectives of data archiving: Interactive digital access to medieval and Renaissance wall paintings as subject matter of databases
• Perspectives for museum presentation: Medieval buildings featuring wall painting cycles and their image-text corpora

Proposals for a 30 minutes talk (followed by a 15 minutes discussion) should be no longer than 400-500 words (excluding bibliography and footnotes), accompanied with a short CV (max. 150 words). The bibliography should reflect the scope and methodology of the research.

Please send your proposal to irina.hegel@upb.de
Deadline: November 15, 2022
The organizers will notify you by December 15, 2022

Conference languages: English and German
A publication of the contributions is planned.

Please note that hotel and travel expenses of the lecturing participants will be covered within the framework of the applicable reimbursement guidelines (train 2nd class / economy flight).

Representative Bodies: Mass Production and the Parliamentary Manuscript in Late Medieval England, Houghton Library, Harvard; 7 November 2022 (In-Person)

Houghton Library and the Standing Committee on Medieval Studies present Sonja Drimmer on "Representative Bodies: Mass Production and the Parliamentary Manuscript in Late Medieval England"

Monday, November 7, 2022, 5:30pm - 7:00pm

Houghton Library

Open to the public, Reading/Lecture

Sonja Drimmer is Associate Professor in History of Art and Architecture at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her talk situates illuminated manuscripts of the Nova Statuta at the intersection of art history and the history of the book. Intricately wrought volumes containing the records of parliamentary legislation, these manuscripts show both scribal and artistic signs of manual mass production, aspects that have led to their characterization as unexciting objects. Drawing on manuscripts in Houghton Library, the Harvard Law School Library, and other collections, I will show how these books, far from exhibiting a failure of imagination, succeed in conjuring an aesthetics of representative politics, embodied in pictorial and textual standardization. And yet, close examination of anomalies in these manuscripts shows how profound challenges of representation lurk beneath the veneer of homogeneity.

Reception to follow.

Registration is encouraged but not required.

Register at: https://libcal.library.harvard.edu/event/9686378?fbclid=IwAR0Aa55eG0ngGTmWHfTSYKf73ibltOJNq_gYKkTj8vn7-EkTyokSqe6csIY

Persons with disabilities who would like to request accommodations or have questions about physical access may contact Houghton Library's Administrative Coordinator Le Huong Huynh by email or at 617-495-2443 in advance of the lecture.

EVENT ORGANIZER: John Overholt

WERE FRANCISCAN CHURCHES A BETRAYAL OF ST. FRANCIS?, 18 OCTOBER 2022, (ONLINE)

In this research seminar, Erik Gustafson questions common assumptions about Franciscan architecture in the century after the saint's death.

Tue, 18 October 2022, 17:00 – 18:30 BST (12:00-13:30 ET)

Erik Gustafson's talk addresses two fundamental problems with regards to Franciscan churches: the question of poverty and architecture, and the issue of the role of dividing screens for the friars' lay constituency. Both topics hang on the problematic legacy of Francis himself in relation to the development of Franciscanism as a functioning religious order across the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Was the clericalization of the order a betrayal of Francis forced by the papacy or the logical development of Francis's idiosyncratic, charismatic spirituality, and how did these issues play out in the central Italian churches of the order? Such questions have potential ramifications for how painting and sculpture might have been experienced within Franciscan churches, as well as broader socio-religious connotations for the development of medieval religious spaces.

REGISTER: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/were-franciscan-churches-a-betrayal-of-st-francis-online-tickets-428595890847?fbclid=IwAR0JRIzZT9vrsXyou_i0VwAWGR_OsKnmbb0qF3OouwA1Xx0ZkIOMziJyh8c

MEDIEVAL NUBIA IN A TRANSCULTURAL HORIZON: ART, ARCHITECTURE, EPIGRAPHY, 13 OCTOBER 2022 (ONLINE)

MEDIEVAL NUBIA IN A TRANSCULTURAL HORIZON: ART, ARCHITECTURE, EPIGRAPHY,

13 OCTOBER 2022, 10:30-18:00 (4:30-12:00 ET) (ONLINE)

Kingdoms of medieval Nubia were erased from memory until the discovery of the Faras Cathedral in the 1960s by a team of Polish archaeologists. Spanning the sixth through the thirteenth centuries, the remains of these Christian kingdoms in lower Egypt and Sudan demonstrate sophisticated artistic, political and religious structures and practices. Excavations in Nubia since then have revealed a lost tradition of Greek epigraphy, wall painting, and monumental architecture that feature traces of liturgical poetry, royal portraiture, and a wide array of sacred figures. Despite this rich history and its broad transcultural horizon, Nubia’s astonishing artistic, epigraphic and archaeological traditions remain largely unknown to scholars outside of Nubiology.

In this interdisciplinary workshop, experts on medieval Nubian culture will present recent research to a community of scholars working broadly on premodern art history. Topics will range from issues of display and the historiography of Nubian art to costume and depictions of sacred authority. The workshop will also focus on how novel methodological approaches will better position Nubia within histories of medieval art in the global past and present.

PROGRAM



10.30
Welcome - Gerhard Wolf (Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz - Max-Planck-Institut)
Opening Remarks - Ravinder Binning (Ohio State University)

INTRODUCTION

10.45-11.30 Dobrochna Zielińska (Department of Archaeology, University of Warsaw)
“Introduction to Late Antique and Medieval Nubian Art”

SESSION I: POWER AND KINGSHIP

11.30-12.15 Karel C. Innemée (Faculty of Humanities, University of Amsterdam)
“The Visual Manifestation of Power and Authority in Christian Nubia”

12.15-13.00 Magdalena Łaptaś (Faculty of History, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University)
“Apostles, Kings, and Archangels. Building a Royal Tradition through Painted Images in Medieval Nubia”

13.00-14.00 LUNCH FOR WORKSHOP PARTICIPANTS

SESSION II: TRANSCULTURAL CONNECTIONS

14.00-14.45 Andrea M. Achi (Assistant Curator, Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters, The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
“Wood and Ivory Boxes in Late Antique Nubia”

14.45-15.30 Gertrud J.M. van Loon (Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw)
“Inspiration and Influences: Nubian Church Decoration and Its Relationship with Egypt”

15.30-15.45 COFFEE BREAK

SESSION III: ARCHAEOLOGY ANG EPIGRAPHY

15.45-16.30 Jacques van der Vliet (Universiteit Leiden / Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen / NINO Leiden)
“Text, Image and Performance in Medieval Nubia”

16.30-17.15 Adam Łajtar (Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw)
“The Literacy of Christian Nubia”

17.15-18.00 CLOSING REMARKS AND DISCUSSION



AVVISO
Questo evento viene documentato fotograficamente e/o attraverso riprese video. Qualora non dovesse essere d’accordo con l’utilizzo di immagini in cui potrebbe essere riconoscibile, da parte del Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz a scopo di documentazione degli eventi e di pubbliche relazioni (p.e. social media) la preghiamo gentilmente di comunicarcelo.

Scarica
Abstracts
(PDF, 176.56 KB)
Indietro
Luogo
Contatti
13 – 13 ottobre 2022
This event will take place in a hybrid format.

Venue
Palazzo Grifoni Budini Gattai
Via dei Servi 51
50122 Firenze, Italia

To participate in person please email sinem.casale@khi.fi.it to reserve a seat.

To participate online please register in advance via Zoom: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEoceyqpzotH9A0WpUlMyi5GdLcIS5KAqmDAfter registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: https://www.khi.fi.it/it/aktuelles/veranstaltungen/2022/10/medieval_nubia_copy.php

MONUMENTAL MEDIEVALISM: PUBLIC MONUMENTS & THE MIS|USE OF THE MEDIEVAL PAST, 5-6 OCTOBER 2022, ONLINE

WED, 5 OCT 2022, 12:30 – THU, 6 OCT 2022, 19:00 BST, ONLINE

In the summer of 2020, one of several dozen protests organised throughout the world in response to the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis (USA) culminated in the statue of the slave trader Edward Colston being dumped into the water of Bristol Harbour (England). The ripples were felt across the globe. In the ensuing days, weeks and months, scores of other monuments depicting historical figures were variously defaced, toppled, removed from view, or placed under new scrutiny. Many of these had played prominent roles in the slave trade and/or in European colonialism. Some of these monuments were of medieval figures, while others were evocative—to varying degrees of credibility—of the (faux-)chivalric codes and rose-tinted regalia of the medieval past. Of course, to medievalists, the convergence of civic and civil statuary with protest and activism was nothing new. In fact—from the damnatio memoriae of later Roman Emperors to Saints Florus and Laurus smashing statues in Kosovo; Byzantine Eikonomachía; Aniconism in medieval Islam; the Huichang Persecution of Buddhist images; the Ghaznavid plundering of Mathura and Somnath; the Khmer intolerance of Jayavarman monuments in Angkor; the Strigólnik stripping of Pskov and Novgorod; and the First and Second Suppression Acts of the 1530s—many of its roots actually lie in the medieval world. What use then, or advantage, might the study of the Middle Ages hold in evaluating these modern political struggles? This workshop will address precisely this question.

The workshop has three aims. Firstly, it will explore examples of statues, monuments and related forms of public sculpture which speak to the ongoing making and unmaking of medieval figures, images and histories: what we term ‘Monumental Medievalism’. Secondly, in addition to considering the ‘when’, ‘how’ and ‘why’ of monuments’ original production, it will interrogate the varied and often contested meanings that monuments later acquired over time. Of special interest, moreover, will be papers that address not only the use but the misuse of the Middle Ages, in connection to questions of local identity, gender, sexuality, race, religion and/or marginalisation. Thirdly, it will take the measure of nostalgia for the Middle Ages in the twenty-first century, asking questions of appropriation, anachronism, authenticity, nationalism and reflecting upon the possibilities and pitfalls of conscripting medieval images to serve as contemporary cultural conduits.

**PROGRAMME**

ALL TIMES ARE IN BRITISH SUMMER TIME (UTC +1hr)

WEDNESDAY 5 OCTOBER

12:45-13:00 - Welcome

Euan McCartney Robson and Simon John

13:00-14:45 - Session 1: Monumental Medievalism in Modern Japan

Chair: Simon John (Swansea University, UK)

Sven Saaler (Sophia University, Japan): ‘The medieval roots of imperial loyalty: the cult of Kusunoki Masashige in modern Japan’

Judith Vitale (University of Zurich, Switzerland): ‘The “Movement for the Establishment of a Monument for the Mongol invasions”’

Ran Zwigenberg (Pennsylvania State University, USA): ‘Date Masamune: In (and off) the Saddle of History on Japan’s Periphery’

Oleg Benesch (University of York, UK), ‘A Japanese Monument to Global Medievalism: The Origins of the Yasukuni Shrine Yushukan Military Museum’

14:45-15:15 - BREAK

15:15-16:45 - Session 2: Encountering the Middle Ages through Monuments: approaches and debates

Chair: Euan McCartney Robson (Paul Mellon Centre, UK)

Laura S. Harrison (Independent Scholar, UK) & Andrew B.R. Elliott (University of Lincoln, UK): ‘“Set in Stone”: The Participatory Function of Medieval Statues’

Sarah Gordon (Utah State University, USA): ‘“Tear it Down”: Controversial Statues of Medieval Figures in the US (Joan of Arc and St. Louis)’

Simon John (Swansea University, UK): ‘The uses of medieval traditions, invented and otherwise: Brussels’ 1848 statue of Godfrey of Bouillon and perceptions of the (mostly) medieval past’

16:45-17:15 - BREAK

17:15-18:15 - Session 3: Monuments and the Medieval Past in Ukraine and Russia

Chair: Markian Prokopovych (Durham University, UK)

Emma Louise Leahy (Independent Scholar, Germany): ‘The Kyivan Rus’ as Origin Story in Soviet and National Historiographies: The Changing Meanings of Medieval Images in the Monumental Mosaic Art of Ukraine (1960s to 2010s)’

Anastasija Ropa (Latvian Academy of Sport Education, Latvia), Edgar Rops (Independent Scholar, Latvia), and Maria Inês Bolinhas (Catholic University of Portugal): ‘The Contested Statue of Knyaz Vladimir/Volodymyr’

THURSDAY 6 OCTOBER

12:00-13:30 - Session 4: Monuments, Medieval History and Nation-Building

Chair: Christoph Laucht (Conflict, Reconstruction and Memory research group, Swansea University)

Anna Lidor-Osprian and Romedio Schmitz-Esser (both Heidelberg University, Germany): ‘Between Medievalism and Baroque Maternalism: The Multifaceted Historical Monumentalism of nineteenth-century Austria’

Len Scales (Durham University, UK): ‘Unsettled Memories: Henry I (r. 919-936) in Quedlinburg’

Tommaso Zerbi (Bibliotheca Hertziana, Max Planck Institute for Art History, Italy): ‘A Tale of Two Monuments: Making, Remaking, and Unmaking the Myth of Amadeus VI of Savoy from the Nineteenth to the Twenty-First Century’

13:30-14:00 – BREAK

14:00-15:00 - Session 5: National Histories and the (ab)uses of the Middle Ages

Chair: Matthew Gabriele (Virginia Tech, USA)

Omer Merzić (Institute of Historical Research, UK): ‘The use and misuse of medieval monuments in Bosnia and Herzegovina’

Gethin Matthews (Swansea University, UK): ‘The use and abuse of the medieval past in Wales in the age of the Great War’

15:00-15:30 – BREAK

15:30-17:00 - Session 6: Monumental Women

Chair: Euan McCartney Robson

Julia Faiers (University of St Andrews, UK): ‘The invention and reinvention of Clémence Isaure in modern Toulouse’

Christopher Crocker (University of Manitoba, Canada): ‘Ásmundur Sveinsson’s “The First White Mother in America”: Guðríðr Þorbjarnardóttir as a (white-) feminist icon’

Caroline Bourne (University of Reading, UK): ‘The Gwenllian Monument at Kidwelly: Issues of Gender and a Contested Landscape in Commemorating Medieval Welsh History’

17:00-17:30 - BREAK

17:30-19:00 - Session 7: The Monumental Heritage of the Middle Ages

Chair: Anna Lisor-Osprian

Teresa Soley (Columbia University, USA): ‘Sculpting Portugal’s Golden Age: Tombs and the Image of the “Age of Discovery”’

Jessica Barker (The Courtauld Institute, UK): ‘Anachronic Empire: The Afterlives of the Padrões of Diogo Cão’

Ethel Sara Wolper (University of New Hampshire, USA): ‘Lessons from Mosul: ISIS, UNESCO, and the Spectacle of Definition’

19:00 - Concluding remarks

REGISTER: HTTPS://WWW.EVENTBRITE.CO.UK/E/MONUMENTAL-MEDIEVALISM-PUBLIC-MONUMENTS-THE-MISUSE-OF-THE-MEDIEVAL-PAST-TICKETS-385605214577?KEEP_TLD=1

LOOKING AT LANGUAGE, INDEX OF MEDIEVAL ART CONFERENCE; 12 NOVEMBER 2022 (IN-PERSON)

LOOKING AT LANGUAGE

Gold reliquary pendant/medical amulet (?), 10th–11th c, reverse. British Museum, London, inv. no. AF.354. © Trustees of the British Museum

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2022

9:00 am to 5:30 pm with reception to follow

Julis Romo Rabinowitz A17, Princeton University

Pending any major changes in university COVID protocols, the conference will be hosted in person and also livestreamed. All registration is free.

Eight scholars in a wide range of specializations will address the many relationships between language and works of art, including the literal use and/or representation of language in creating a work; the linguistic traditions that surrounded its creation and reception, and the language now used to analyze and understand it. Speakers will include:

Ludovico V. Geymonat (Louisiana State University), “Twisted Latin in Monumental Images: Two Case Studies from 13th-Century Europe.”

Margaret S. Graves (Indiana University), “The Limits of Language.”

Ruba Kana’an (University of Toronto, Mississauga), “Words and Worlds: Iconography and Polemics in a 1526 Painting from Safavid Tabriz.”

Sean Leatherbury (University College Dublin), “Scripted Offerings: The Verbal and Visual Languages of Early Byzantine Votives.”

Sarit Shalev-Eyni (Hebrew University, Jerusalem), “Looking at Language in a Multilingual Environment: The Case of the Iberian Kaufmann Haggadah.”

Kathryn Starkey (Stanford University), “Inscribing Women: Stories within Stories in Medieval German Literature.”

Benjamin C. Tilghman (Washington College / The Material Collective), “Looking through the Gloss: Script, Style, and Historical Consciousness in Early Medieval England.”

Warren T. Woodfin (Queens College, City University of New York), “By the Book? What Mosaic Misspellings Tell Us about Iconographic Models.”

A FULL CONFERENCE SCHEDULE WILL BE POSTED SOON. TO REGISTER FOR FREE IN-PERSON ATTENDANCE, PLEASE VISIT OUR CONFERENCE REGISTRATION PAGE.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: https://ima.princeton.edu/conferences/

GRADUATE STUDENT TRAVEL GRANT

This year, the Index will offer one graduate student travel grant for a non-Princeton student who wishes to attend the conferences but lacks the financial resources to do so. Review the application process here.

ONLINE TAXONOMY WORKSHOP

In connection with the “Looking at Language” conference, on Tuesday, 8 November 2022, 12:00 – 1:00pm EDT, the Index will be holding a workshop on Zoom titled Looking at (Index) Language: A Dive into Taxonomy at the Index of Medieval Art. This workshop is open to anyone interested in learning about Index language standardization practices and preferred terms in Index cataloging. Find out more about the workshop and how to register here.

"Archive Fever - Now" - Les Enluminures New York; 8 September to 6 October 2022

Archive Fever - Now

September 8 to October 6, 2022, (Tuesday to Saturday, 10 am to 5 pm)

Opening: September 8, 6-8 pm

Les Enluminures, 23 East 73rd Street, 7th Floor, Penthouse, New York, NY 10021


Les Enluminures New York is back and in full swing. Join us for a series of exciting and innovative events throughout the year.

Our inaugural exhibition this fall “Archive Fever - Now” takes Jacques Derrida’s seminal essay “Archive Fever” (1995) as a starting point to explore the idea of the archive in art from the Middle Ages to the present.

Seventeen 19th-century photographs of medieval French architecture and sculpture form the core of the exhibition. The represent the first public photography project known as the Mission Héliographique, which included pioneering photographers Henri Le Secq and Emile Pécarrère, along with others under their influence such as the Frères Bisson and Charles Marville. Apart from their importance as an early archive of medieval art, these photographs reveal a critical moment in the development of photography, documenting a shift from glass to calotypes printed on salt paper. Their artistic merit also lies in the experimental strategies employed toward composition and shading.

Medieval manuscripts and contemporary art accompany and complement the collection of photographs, exploring further the notion of the archive. Books of Hours have been called an “archive of prayer”; they also functioned as memory banks for family events. Cartas ejecutorias likewise document genealogical strains of upwardly mobile families in 16th- and 17th-century Spain. A medieval manuscript with a chain reminds us that hte ultimate archival repository, the library, sought to preserve its treasures, chaining them to the shelves at readers’ desks.

Three series of contemporary photographs round out the exhibition. Works by Thomas Ruff, Stan Douglas, and Robert Polidori, each resonate on their own terms with the 19th-century photographic collection. Ruff’s Zeitungsfotos and Negatives question the archive, reappropriating and recontextualizing them, leading the viewer to question assumptions. Douglas questions the very intention of photography as a record while still capturing the American past. Polidori, much like the Mission Héliographique, portrays a French monument, Versailles, yet his approach is steeped in a critical understanding of the socio-political realities involving the building and renovation of Versailles under François Mitterand.

Identity, objectivity, and originality are all concepts at play in this unusual display of art in “Archive Fever - Now.”

GRANT OPPORTUNITY for graduate students for research on Chartres; DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS: December 2, 2022

Call for Proposals

 

The Servane de Layre-Mathéus Grant Fund of the

American Friends of Chartres

 

 

In 2022, the Servane de Layre-Mathéus Grant Fund of the American Friends of Chartres will offer its first annual research grant for the study of medieval Chartres. This grant will honor the memory of Dr. Dietlinde Hamburger, art historian and spouse of esteemed advisor, friend, and supporter of the American Friends of Chartres, Professor Jeffrey F. Hamburger. Although herself a scholar of German painting of the first half of the twentieth century, Dietlinde took a keen interest in pre-modern art and shared Jeffrey’s enthusiasm for the art and architecture of the Middle Ages, especially that of Bavaria, her home region.

 

The grant will help to support a research project requiring on-site research in Chartres that promises to advance knowledge and understanding of the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Chartres or of medieval history related to Chartres.  The American Friends of Chartres will provide a stipend of $2,000.00 and will facilitate access to the cathedral, the Centre International du Vitrail, the municipal library, archival collections and related resources. Lodging in Chartres may be facilitated through Chartres, Sanctuaire du Monde and/or the Cultural Department of Chartres City Hall.

 

Applications are encouraged from current graduate students in the fields of art history, history, and related disciplines.  Topics might include, for example:  architecture, stained glass, sculpture, urban development, manuscripts, the cathedral Treasury etc. Following the research project, the grantee is asked to provide a synopsis of the research and conclusions, which will be publicized through the cultural activities and website of the American Friends of Chartres.

 

Applicants should supply:

 

  • A description of up to 500 words of the proposed project, including:

    • questions to be researched and their importance to scholarship on the art, culture, and history of Chartres;

    • requirements for access to monuments, works of art, and archival resources;

    • projected length of time and tentative dates to be spent in Chartres;

    • expectations for publication of conclusions, whether alone or as part of a larger project, including a Ph.D. dissertation

  • A current Curriculum Vitae

  • Names and contact information of two references

 

Please send application materials as e-mail attachments in Word or PDF format to ChartresResearchGrant@gmail.com

 

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS: December 20, 2021

 

 

The Servane de Layre Fund for Research on Chartres Cathedral

 

The American Friends of Chartres has established a special fund honoring the memory of Servane de Layre (1939-2020), co-founder of Chartres--Sanctuaire du Monde, of the Centre International du Vitrail, and of American Friends of Chartres. Servane dedicated much of her life to the preservation of Notre-Dame de Chartres Cathedral, and to the pursuit and transmission of knowledge of medieval art, culture, and spirituality. In recognition of her contributions, she was made chevalier of the Légion d’honneur, officier des Arts et des Lettres, and officier de l’ordre national du Mérite. The fund is intended to support research that furthers her work.

 

ROBERT BRANNER FORUM FOR MEDIEVAL ART: ERIC RAMÍREZ-WEAVER, "TEASING APART TERZYSKO’S TOOLS: ASSESSING ASTRONOMY AND ASTROLOGY IN LATE MEDIEVAL PRAGUE," 14 OCTOBER 2022 2PM (In-Person)

"TEASING APART TERZYSKO’S TOOLS: ASSESSING ASTRONOMY AND ASTROLOGY IN LATE MEDIEVAL PRAGUE"


ERIC RAMÍREZ-WEAVER

Medieval Art, University of Virginia 

Friday, October 14th, 2:00 PM ET (In-Person)

Schermerhorn Hall, Room 807, Columbia University

The first Robert Branner Forum event of the 2022-2023 series.

Astronomical Anthology for Wenceslas IV, Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm 826, fol. 8r, Introductory Diagram, Portrait of the Astrologer Terzysko, after 1400 (Photo: Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich)

An astrological curriculum prepared in Prague for Wenceslas IV (d. 1419), King of Bohemia, presents an ideal example of astronomical erudition in central Europe, 1390-1400 (Astronomical Anthology for Wenceslas IV, Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm 826, made after 1400; Astrological and Astronomical Anthology with Alfonsine Planetary Tables, Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Cod. 2352, ca. 1392-93; Aegidius de Tebaldis’ Latin translation of ‘Alī ibn Riḍwān’s Commentary on Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos/Quadripartitus, Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Cod. 2271, ca. 1400). In recent years, there has been an efflorescence of scholarship rethinking the kinds of intellectual work diagrams perform and their relationship to memory practices. A rich new direction for the art historical study of medieval astronomical manuscripts seeks to recreate lost libraries and source materials from the texts and imagery on display, or ideas, culled for inclusion and lavish presentation in diagrammatic forms. Through a detailed analysis of an introductory series of diagrams associated with the late medieval court astrologer, Terzysko, aspects of the compiler’s craft surface on the folios of the Astronomical Anthology for Wenceslas IV. Arabic, Jewish and Christian astronomical and astrological traditions intertwine within these celestial diagrams, and their fusion invites a reconsideration of the pedagogical work they were intended to perform for period readers, most importantly King Wenceslas IV himself.

Following the lecture, attendees are invited to a reception in the Stronach Center located in Schermerhorn Hall.

ICMA-SPONSORED SESSION AT VI FORUM KUNST DES MITTELALTERS, 28 SEPT - 1 OCT 2022, FRANKFURT GERMANY (30 SEPTEMBER 2022, 16.45–18.15 UHR)

ICMA-SPONSORED SESSION AT VI FORUM KUNST DES MITTELALTERS, 28 SEPT - 1 OCT 2022, FRANKFURT GERMANY

30 SEPTEMBER 2022

16.45–18.15 UHR (10:45AM-12:15PM ET)

Duft und Sinne: Geruchssinn und Erinnerung in der materiellen Kultur des Mittelalters

Scent and Sense: Olfaction and Memory in Medieval Material Culture

Leitung: Elina Gertsman, Cleveland

Organisation: International Center of Medieval Art – ICMA, New York

Campus Westend, Hörsaalzentrum, HZ 3

  • Elisabeth Sobieczky, Wien

“And my breath was refreshed by the pleasant fragrance of the Lord“ (OdSal 11, 13/15). Image, Word, and Scent in the Freudenstadt Lectern

  • Hila Manor, Jerusalem

 “Beds of Spices and Towers of Sweet Herbs“: Sensing and Commemorating in Medieval Jewish Spaces”

  • Robert Vogt, Baltimore

Spheres/Worlds: The Scent of Creation

  • Reed O’Mara, Cleveland

Sensation and Olfaction: Experiencing Images of Jacob and Esau in Fourteenth-Century Sepharad

For more information: https://www.dvfk-berlin.de/en/forum-2-2/

48th Annual Byzantine Studies Conference at UCLA; 3-6 November 2022

48th Annual Byzantine Studies Conference at UCLA

Hosted by the UCLA CMRS Center for Early Global Studies

November 3-6, 2022 | Los Angeles, California

We welcome the Byzantine Studies Association of North America (BSANA) and participants to the 48th Annual Byzantine Studies conference at UCLA!

Click the registration button below to register to attend. In-person and By-Zoom-Only rates apply. Register before September 15 to take advantage of the early registration rates.

Most conference activities will take place at the Luskin Conference Center and Hotel on the UCLA campus. Hotel rooms are available for conference attendees at the Luskin and at the UCLA Guest House, which is also located on campus about a 15-minute walk from the Luskin. To receive the conference rate, be sure to use the hotel links from this website when reserving your room. Book your rooms early as space is limited. There are other hotels near the UCLA campus to choose from. Click on the Hotel Information button for complete information about finding accommodations.

Conference Registration

Hotel Information

Local Arrangements Committee

  • Co-Chair: Sharon E. J. Gerstel, Professor of Byzantine Art & Archaeology, and Director of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Center for the Study of Hellenic Culture, UCLA

  • Co-Chair: Zrinka Stahuljak, Professor of Comparative Literature and French, and Director of the CMRS Center for Early Global Studies, UCLA

Program Committee

  • Galina Tirnanic, Chair, Associate Professor, Oakland University (Art History)

  • Nicole Paxton Sullo, M. Seeger O’Boyle Postdoctoral Fellow, Princeton University (Art History)

  • Luis Sales, Assistant Professor, Scripps College (Religion)

  • Shaun Tougher, Professor, Cardiff University (History)

  • Vessela Valiavitcharska, Associate Professor, University of Maryland, College Park (Literature)

ICMA IN TORONTO: EXHIBITION TOUR OF FAITH AND FORTUNE: ART ACROSS THE GLOBAL SPANISH EMPIRE; 23 September 2022 3 PM In-Person

ICMA IN TORONTO
EXHIBITION TOUR
FAITH AND FORTUNE: ART ACROSS THE GLOBAL SPANISH EMPIRE
FROM THE COLLECTION OF THE HISPANIC SOCIETY MUSEUM & LIBRARY

ART GALLERY OF ONTARIO

FRIDAY 23 SEPTEMBER 2022
3PM, IN-PERSON


REGISTER HERE

Attributed to Manuel Chili, called Capiscara (Ecuador, ca. 1723 – Quito, Ecuador, 1796), The Four Fates of Man: Death, Hell, Purgatory, Heaven. New York, The Hispanic Society of America.

Join Adam Levine for an in-person tour of FAITH AND FORTUNE: ART ACROSS THE GLOBAL SPANISH EMPIRE at the Art Gallery of Ontario! The exhibition examines the visual culture of the global Spanish Empire through more than 200 works of art from Latin America, the Philippines and Spain - all from the collection of the Hispanic Society Museum & Library. An informal drinks reception will take place nearby following the event.

Register HERE
 

Art Gallery of Ontario
317 Dundas Street West
Toronto, Ontario   
M5T 1G4

Notre-Dame de Paris: Rebuilding a Legacy - 26 September 2022 6:00-7:30 PM

What does it take to rebuild one of the most visited, recognizable, and semantically loaded works of architecture in the world? Presented at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., in partnership with the Catholic University of America, Philippe Villeneuve, Chief Architect of Historic Monuments in charge of Notre-Dame de Paris, and Rémi Fromont, Chief Architect of Historic Monuments, will deliver their first public lecture in the United States since taking on the extraordinary task to stabilize and restore the cathedral of Paris in the aftermath of the catastrophic 2019 fire. Lindsay Cook, Assistant Teaching Professor of Architectural History at the Pennsylvania State University and translator of the book Notre Dame Cathedral: Nine Centuries of History, will translate the lecture from French into English and moderate the discussion following the talk.


http://go.nbm.org/site/Calendar/2074725395?view=Detail&id=129570

CFP: IMC 2023 Leeds, ICMA sponsored session, due 23 September 2022

Call for Proposals 
International Medieval Congress (IMC 2023)
3-6 July 2023, University of Leeds
due 23 September 2022

Upload HERE

The International Center of Medieval Art (ICMA) seeks proposals for sessions to be held under the organization’s sponsorship in 2023 at the International Medieval Congress (IMC) at Leeds, England.  

While session proposals on any topic related to the art of the Middle Ages are welcome, the IMC also chooses a theme for each conference. In 2023 the theme is “Networks and Entanglements.”  For more information on the Leeds 2023 congress and theme, see:  https://www.imc.leeds.ac.uk/imc-2023/ 

Session organizers and speakers must be ICMA members at the time of the conference. Proposals must include a session abstract, and a list of speakers, as one single Doc or PDF with the organizer’s name in the title, and a CV, again as a Doc or PDF with the organizer’s name in the title. Please upload here by 23 September 2022.

Please direct inquiries to the Chair of the ICMA Programs and Lectures Committee: Bryan C. Keene, bryan.keene@rcc.edu 

MEDIEVAL TIMES DINNER AND TOURNAMENT IN DC/BALTIMORE - FRIDAY 30 SEPTEMBER 2022, 7PM - REGISTER TODAY!

Medieval Times, A Quarter of a Century Later

Let’s rekindle the enthusiasm that Michael Camille (1958-2002) had for Medieval Times: Dinner & Tournament with a trip to our local castle! In 1996, Camille visited the Chicago venue with Ira Glass of This American Life to record a lively episode about the joys and foibles of medievalisms. To complement the exhibition at the J. Paul Getty Museum, The Fantasy of the Middle Ages, Larisa Grollemond and Bryan C. Keene will take a valiant crew to the Buena Park location of Medieval Times. The visit includes pre-show festivities, such as the Hall of Arms and the Museum of Torture, as well as the famed dinner plus a lively joust set to an epic musical score. We’ll cheer for our knight of the realm in the presence of Queen Doña Maria Isabella!

DATE: FRIDAY 30 SEPTEMBER 2022
TIME: 7pm

Register HERE. We are organizing carpooling options based on responses.

PLEASE REGISTER BY FRIDAY 23 SEPTEMBER 2022.

Note we are collecting responses to see if we're able to get a further discount. ICMA will buy the tickets and will subsidize part of the ticket price. It will be up to attendees to pay the ICMA. More information will follow as we sort out the details - but first we need to know the number of attendees. The current price for a ticket is $71.65 (ADULT - tax included) and $44.65 (CHILD - tax included) - but it will be less!