Call for Applications: Reginald Taylor and Lord Fletcher Essay Prize, British Archaeological Association, Due by 1 December 2023

Call for Applications

Reginald Taylor and Lord Fletcher Essay Prize

British Archaeological Association

dUE by 1 December 2023

Reginald Taylor was an active member of the British Archaeological Association for many years and acted as the Association’s secretary from 1924 until his death in 1932. With the agreement of his sister, Miss S. May Taylor, it was decided to use the monies he bequeathed the Association to found an essay prize in his memory. In 1996 a further decision was taken to combine this with a second legacy, one which had been left to the Association by Eric George Molyneaux Fletcher, Lord Fletcher, who died in 1990.

The Reginald Taylor and Lord Fletcher Essay Prize is a competitive award conferred biennially in recognition of an outstanding paper and consists of a bronze medal and cheque for £500. The paper should normally be no longer than 8,000 words (not including footnotes), be of high academic and literary quality and embody original and rigorous research. It should be appropriately footnoted. Essays should relate to the Association’s areas of interest, which are defined as the study of archaeology, art and architecture from the Roman period to the present day, principally within Europe and the Mediterranean basin. The core interests of the BAA are Roman to 16th century. We only entertain applications that cover the 17th to 21st centuries if they are of an historiographical, conservationist or antiquarian nature and link back to the BAA’s core interests. Papers submitted for publication in the Journal of the British Archaeological Association and those written expressly for the Prize competition are equally eligible. However, because the Prize seeks to recognise developing researchers (of any age), established scholars with a substantial list of publications to their name already are ineligible to apply.

The next closing date for submissions is 1 December 2023. The prize is now included in the British Archaeological Awards scheme, and candidates will be informed whether or not they have been successful in early 2024. The presentation of the award would follow at a time convenient to the recipient. The successful candidate will be invited subsequently to read their essay before the Association. Prize-winning essays are commonly published in the Journal of the British Archaeological Association (subject to approval via peer review).

The Association’s Council deals with all matters relating to the adjudication of essays, and the decision of its members shall be considered final. No award will be made unless the Council feels that a sufficiently high standard has been attained by at least one of the candidates.

Prospective candidates are advised they should send notification of the intended subject of their submission in advance by email to the Honorary Editor, Dr John Munns – editor@thebaa.org. A copy of the final text of the essay should then be sent as an email attachment so as to arrive with Dr Munns by 1 December 2023.

For more information, https://thebaa.org/scholarships-awards/reginald-taylor-lord-fletcher-essay-prize/

Call for Papers: The Senses, Cognition, and the Body in Medieval Devotional Practices; 2nd International Multidisciplinary Conference of the Series ‘Experiencing the Sacred’, Due By 30 Nov. 2023

Call for Papers

The Senses, Cognition, and the Body in Medieval Devotional Practices

2nd International Multidisciplinary Conference of the Series ‘Experiencing the Sacred’

Due By 30 November 2023

Starting with the 12th century, the upsurge of interest in Christ’s humanity and the more intense focus on his corporeal nature fostered more individualized and embodied approaches to spirituality, as emphasized by Caroline Walker Bynum. The human body of the believers themselves became a focal point, as a tool through which individuals could aspire to connect with the divine. Mary Carruthers and Michelle Karnes have illustrated that the incorporation of Aristotelian theories into Christian thought by theologians such as Thomas Aquinas played a crucial role in shaping these changing paradigms. They provided a new framework for understanding the moral and spiritual interpretations of the senses, the body and cognitive processes. This intellectual shift created innovative avenues for communicating complex spiritual concepts through somatic experiences, making the divine more accessible and even tangible. Over the centuries, the dissemination of these ideas among the laity through sermons, as noted by Giuseppe Ledda, and devotional literature such as the Meditationes Vitae Christi, led to the creation of a widespread culture of sensation. As a result, the integration of sensory and bodily experiences into religious practices became a shared cultural phenomenon, shaping the way people perceived and interacted with their faith.

To better grasp the relations between the senses, the body and the mind we propose to incorporate recent developments in the field of cognitive sciences. The intersection between cognitive sciences and medieval studies is a very recent and still rare occurrence (Blud & Dresvina, 2010), yet it holds promise. For the purpose of the present conference, we are interested in the fact that in cognitive sciences, the dynamics of interaction among mind, body, and material world are now deemed crucial to understand mental states and processes. Cognition is indeed understood to be embodied (it does not depend solely on the brain but is also influenced by the body) and embedded, meaning it is inextricably linked to its social and material environment. This interpretative framework proves particularly useful in analyzing medieval religious practices, where material items, environments, and individual experiences were inextricably connected.

The interdisciplinary focus of this conference, integrating sensory studies, material culture studies, cognitive studies, and historical research, provides a rich platform for understanding the profound changes in religion during the medieval period. By exploring somatised spiritual experiences, the conference aims to shed new light on the intricate ways in which the senses, cognition, and the body were engaged in devotional practices, emphasizing the multisensory nature of medieval spirituality.

We welcome abstracts for 25-minute papers, in English or Italian. Desirable themes include (but are not limited to):

• The intersection of material objects, the body, and immaterial practices in devotional contexts;

• The role of the body, emotions and cognition in the sacred spaces and its perceptions;

• Living and dead bodies in religious spaces and practices;

• Touching and dressing bodies in sacred spaces;

• The role played by the senses in cognitive processes, for example the use of the body and the senses as metaphors to facilitate the understanding of religious concepts;

• Individual, collective, and gendered forms of embodied and embedded devotion;

• The agency of objects in extended forms of cognition in religious contexts;

• Theories (medical, physiological, theological, etc.) on the body and mind in medieval culture.

By November 30th please submit to the conference organizers Zuleika Murat (zuleika.murat@unipd.it), Pieter Boonstra (pieterhendrik.boonstra@unipd.it), Micol Long (micol.long@unipd.it) and Davide Tramarin (davide.tramarin@unipd.it):

• full name, current affiliation (if applicable), and email address;

• paper title of maximum 15 words;

• abstracts of maximum 300 words;

• a biography of maximum 500 words;

• three to five key-words.

• Notifications of acceptance will be given by December 18th.

Selected papers will be invited for publication in a collective volume in the Brepols series “The Senses and Material Culture in a Global Perspective’’.

This conference is organised by the ERC research project SenSArt – The Sensous 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/)

Organising Committee: 

Zuleika Murat (Associate Professor, Università degli Studi di Padova)

Pieter Boonstra (Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Università degli Studi di Padova)

Micol Long (Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Università degli Studi di Padova) 

Davide Tramarin (Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Università degli Studi di Padova)

For a PDF of the call for papers, click here.

Call for Applications: 2024-2025 Research Residencies, Center for the Art and Architectural History of Port Cities “La Capraia”, Naples, Due on 31 January 2023

Call for Applications

2024-2025 Research Residencies

Center for the Art and Architectural History of Port Cities “La Capraia”, Naples

Due on 31 January 2023

Photo: Claudio Metallo

Founded in 2018, the Center for the Art and Architectural History of Port Cities “La Capraia” (Centro per la Storia dell’Arte e dell’Architettura delle Città Portuali “La Capraia”) is a collaboration between the Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte, the Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History at the University of Texas at Dallas, Franklin University Switzerland, and the Amici di Capodimonte.

The Center for the Art and Architectural History of Port Cities “La Capraia” (Centro per la Storia dell’Arte e dell’Architettura delle Città Portuali “La Capraia”), housed in “La Capraia”, a rustic eighteenth-century agricultural building at the heart of the Bosco di Capodimonte, engages the museum and the city of Naples as a laboratory for new research in the cultural histories of port cities and the mobilities of artworks, people, technologies, and ideas. Global in scope, research at La Capraia is grounded in direct study of objects, sites, collections, and archives in Naples and southern Italy.

Through site-based seminars and conferences, collaborative projects with partner institutions, and research residencies for advanced graduate students, La Capraia fosters research on Naples as a site of cultural encounter, exchange, and transformation, and cultivates a network of scholars working at the intersection of the global and the local.

The Advisory Committee of the Center for the Art and Architectural History of Port Cities “La Capraia” invites applications for Research Residencies for PhD students in the earlier stages of their dissertations. Projects, which may be interdisciplinary, may focus on art and architectural history, archaeology, music history, the digital humanities, or related fields, from antiquity to the present. Projects should address the cultural histories of Naples and southern Italy as a center of exchange, encounter, and transformation, and, most importantly, make meaningful use of local research materials including artworks, sites, archives, and libraries.

Research Residencies in the 2024-2025 academic year will run from 9 September 2024 through 2 June 2025. Applications are due on 31 January 2024. Download a pdf of the Call at https://arthistory.utdallas.edu/port-cities/residencies/

Learn more about the Center for the Art and Architectural History of Port Cities “La Capraia” at https://arthistory.utdallas.edu/port-cities/, where you will also find digital editions of our annual research reports. Learn about our Research Residencies at https://arthistory.utdallas.edu/port-cities/residencies/. View past and upcoming scholarly programs at https://arthistory.utdallas.edu/port-cities/programs/.

Download an overview of La Capraia at https://arthistory.utdallas.edu/port-cities/La_Capraia_Overview.pdf.

Call for Journal Article Proposals: Perspective : actualité en histoire de l'art, Due 10 December 2023

Call For Journal Article Proposals

Perspective : actualité en histoire de l'art

Due 10 December 2023

The journal Perspective : actualité en histoire de l'art will explore, in its 2025 – 1 issue, the relations between labor and art history, understood both as a scholarly discipline and the material under study.

That which we collectively term “labor” is today the subject of rapid changes and fierce debates which, in an often caricatural way, pitches those for whom labor is a value in and of itself (work or else laze about) against those who question the value of labor: Which type of work is useful to society? Are the conditions acceptable where labor is active? Is labor a form of domination ()? Posing these questions from an art-historical point of view allows us to start from scratch. This volume suggests that we study the relationships between labor and art history along four axes:

1. The debate over art as labor: How has art history participated; effected changes in its vocabulary; and interacted with those artists, art critics, or philosophers who played a role in this debate?

2. Art as a process of production: Which strands of art history have turned their attention more to the production of art than to its reception and through what type of theoretical, methodological, and ideological apparatus?

3. The iconography of labor: What contributions does art history furnish, through the analysis of images, to our knowledge of the realities or representations of labor? What does it borrow from or contribute to other humanistic disciplines that study labor?

4. Art history as labor: What are the material conditions in which art history is produced? How do these conditions vary in relation to individual, local, and/or historical situations?

Taking care to ground reflections in a historiographic, methodological, or epistemological perspective, please send your proposals (an abstract of 2,000 to 3,000 characters/350 to 500 words, a working title, a short bibliography on the subject, and a biography limited to a few lines) to the editorial email address (revue-perspective@inha.fr) no later than December 11, 2023. Perspective handles translations; projects will be considered by the committee regardless of language. Authors whose proposals are accepted will be informed of the decision by the editorial committee in January 2024, while articles will be due on May 15, 2024. Submitted texts (between 25,000 and 45,000 characters/ 4,500 or 7,500 words, depending on the intended project) will be formally accepted following an anonymous peer review process.

For additional information, visit the journal’s page on the INHA website and browse Perspective online.

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PDFs of the Call for Papers are available in English and French.

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La revue Perspective : actualité en histoire de l'art consacrera son n° 2025 – 1 à la question du travail dans ses relations avec l'histoire de l’art, entendue comme discipline scientifique et comme champ d’étude.

Ce que l’on appelle communément « travail » fait aujourd’hui l’objet de mutations rapides et de débats brûlants qui opposent, souvent de manière caricaturale, celles et ceux pour qui le travail est une valeur en soi (travailler ou fainéanter, telle serait l’alternative) à celles et ceux qui questionnent la qualité du travail : quel travail est utile à la société ? Les conditions dans lesquelles le travail s’exerce sont-elles acceptables ? Le travail est-il une forme de domination ? Aborder cette question du point de vue de l’histoire de l’art permet de la considérer à nouveaux frais et de l’approfondir. Ce numéro se propose d’étudier les relations entre le travail et l’histoire de l’art selon quatre axes :

1. Le débat sur l’art comme travail : comment l’histoire de l’art y a-t-elle participé, fait évoluer son vocabulaire, interagi avec les artistes, les critiques d’art, les philosophes qui y ont pris part ?

2. L’art comme processus de production : quels courants de l’histoire de l’art ont porté leur attention sur la production de l’art plus que sur sa réception, avec quel appareillage théorique, méthodologique et idéologique ?

3. L’iconographie du travail : quelles contributions l’histoire de l’art apporte-t-elle à la connaissance des réalités ou des représentations du travail à travers l’analyse des images ? Qu’emprunte-t-elle ou qu’apprend-elle aux autres sciences humaines qui étudient le travail ?

4. L’histoire de l’art comme travail : quelles sont les conditions matérielles dans lesquelles l’histoire de l’art est produite ? Comment ces conditions varient-elles selon les situations individuelles, locales, historiques ?

En prenant soin d’ancrer la réflexion dans une perspective historiographique, méthodologique ou épistémologique, prière de faire parvenir vos propositions (un résumé de 2 000 à 3 000 signes, un titre provisoire, une courte bibliographie sur le sujet et une biographie de quelques lignes) à l’adresse de la rédaction (revue-perspective@inha.fr) au plus tard le 11 décembre 2023. Perspective prenant en charge les traductions, les projets seront examinés par le comité de rédaction quelle que soit la langue. Les auteurs ou autrices des propositions retenues seront informées de la décision du comité de rédaction en janvier 2024, tandis que les articles seront à remettre pour le 15 mai 2024. Les textes soumis (25 000 à 45 000 signes selon le projet envisagé) seront définitivement acceptés à l’issue d’un processus anonyme d’évaluation par les pairs.

Pour plus d'informations, visitez la page de la revue sur le site internet de l'INHA et parcourez Perspective en ligne.

Exhibition: Point of View #27: A Masterpiece and its (Almost) Forgotten Collector: The So-Called Benda Madonna and Gustav von Benda's Legacy, Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, 23 June 2023 - 14 Jan. 2024

Exhibition

Point of View #27: A Masterpiece and its (Almost) Forgotten Collector: The So-Called Benda Madonna and Gustav von Benda's Legacy

23 June 2023 - 14 January 2024

Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien

Maria-Theresien-Platz, 1010 Wien (Vienna), Austria

The Kunsthistorisches Museum owes a great deal not only to the Habsburgs: especially in the early 20th century, bourgeois collectors repeatedly ensured that the holdings grew. With Ansichtssache #27, the museum would like to commemorate one of the most important of these patrons, namely Gustav von Benda (1846 - 1932). He donated his rich collection of sculptures, paintings and other works to the Kunsthistorisches Museum in 1932. Initially housed in the Neue Burg, Benda's art treasures were distributed among the various departments of the museum against his will as early as 1939. The fact that Benda had belonged to the Jewish community until 1895 certainly contributed to this decision.

Supplemented by historical photographs and other works, the centerpiece of Viewpoint #27 is a masterful painting of the Virgin Mary that is part of Benda's 1932 legacy. Named after this painting, its creator is known to experts as the "Master of the Benda Madonna." This anonymous artist is certainly one of the most fascinating painters who were active at the end of the 15th century on the Upper Rhine, in the direct environment of Martin Schongauer. After the recent elaborate restoration, his namesake work will be made accessible to the public again for a few months as part of Ansichtssache #27. At the same time, we would like to remember the collector to whom we owe this masterpiece of the late Gothic.

The 27th edition of Ansichtssache can also boast a novelty: for the first time, the series will be accompanied by an open access publication (German and English). This is intended to offer interested audiences worldwide the opportunity to gain free insight into the research results of the house.

For more information, https://www.khm.at/en/visit/exhibitions/point-of-view-27/

Exhibition: Raphael. Gold & Silk, Kunst Historisches Museum Wien, 26 September 2023 - 14 January 2024

Exhibition

Raphael. Gold & Silk

26 September 2023 - 14 January 2024

Kunst Historisches Museum Wien

Maria-Theresien-Platz, 1010 Wien (Vienna), Austria

The School of Athens Series title: Tapestries after Frescoes by Raphael in the Vatican; Design: Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (Urbino 1483–1520 Rome), 1509/11; Woven under the direction of Pierre-François Cozette (1714–1801) and Michel Audran (1701–1771) in the Manufacture Royale des Gobelins, Paris, 1765–1771; Wool, silk; Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Kunstkammer, inv. no. T XIII/2

The large autumn exhibition at Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna is devoted to tapestries.

The momentous painter Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, called Raphael (1483–1520), was commissioned by Pope Leo X. to create the famous series depicting the life and acts of the apostles St Peter and St Paul for the Sistine Chapel in Rome. His designs set Flemish tapestry art on a new course.

For more information, https://www.raffael-gold-seide.at/en/

Exhibition: Graphic Design in the Middle Ages, GETTY CENTER, The J. Paul Getty Museum, 29 August 2023 - 28 January 2024

Exhibition

Graphic Design in the Middle Ages

August 29, 2023–January 28, 2024

GETTY CENTER, The J. Paul Getty Museum

Medieval scribes and artists were some of the world’s first graphic designers. They planned individual pages and entire books in creative ways, using handwritten text and painted decoration. From layout to script to images, a wide variety of different design elements influenced how medieval books were read and interpreted. This exhibition explores the role of page design, text, and ornament in the organization of books to surprise, delight, and inform their viewers.

This exhibition is presented in English and Spanish. Esta exhibición se presenta en inglés y en español.

For more information, https://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/manuscript_design/index.html

Exhibition: New on the Bookshelf: Expanded Narratives, Walters Art Museum 07 June 2023 - 07 December 2023

Exhibition

New on the Bookshelf: Expanded Narratives

June 07, 2023–December 07, 2023

Walters Art Museum

Centre Street Building, Level 3, Medieval Gallery

With New on the Bookshelf: Expanded Narratives, the Walters Art Museum invites visitors to our new, permanent book gallery to explore some of the most recent additions to the Walters collection of Rare Books and Manuscripts. This intimate installation showcases new acquisitions on view at the Walters for the first time.

The installation features 17 works, including stunning Judaica, illustrated Japanese books, manuscripts made for children, rediscovered pages from one of our 12th-century manuscripts, Ethiopian prayerbooks, and later manuscripts created during the era of print.

The installation provides an exciting and rare opportunity for visitors to see how the collection is intentionally expanding and celebrates recently acquired books with insights into the curatorial strategy for growing the collection in meaningful ways. Visitors will encounter themes of accessibility, religion and spirituality, fables, and the oftentimes deeply personal nature of books. More, these works introduce new voices into the collection and elevate underrepresented cultures and makers.

Curated by Lynley Anne Herbert, Robert and Nancy Hall Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts, this installation is part of a series exploring updates to the collection of Rare Books and Manuscriptsllection of Rare Books and Manuscripts.

For more information, click here.

Call For Papers: Owning Gothic Ivories: Buying, Giving, Circulating, British Museum and V&A (25-26 October 2024), Due By 15 January 2024

Call For Papers

Owning Gothic Ivories: Buying, Giving, Circulating

British Museum and V&A (25-26 October 2024),

dUe by 15 January 2024

Full: Front - Casket; ivory. Rectangular plaques carved with scenes relating to courtly life and romance; lid: siege of Castle of Love and tournament; front: medieval legend of Aristotle succumbing to charms of Campaspe or Phyllis while Alexander looks on; Fountain of Youth, group of infirm men and women approach fountain in which four youthful figures bath; back: Lancelot attacks phantom lion and crosses Sword-Bridge; Gawain(?) sleeps on magic bed; left end: hunter transfixes unicorn running to seated lady beneath tree; Tristram and Isolde converse beneath tree in which King Mark is concealed; right end: knight greets hooded figure who advances from gateway holding a key, Parceval receiving his talisman. 1325-1350, Paris. © The Trustees of the British Museum (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/image/1027900001

Over the last three decades, research on Gothic ivories has seen a significant shift from studies concerned with stylistic attribution and classification towards the investigation of their materiality, iconography, function, and – last but not least – patronage. Although we now have a much better understanding of the social, devotional, and cultural contexts in which especially religious ivories were commissioned and produced, overall, we still know comparatively little about the owners of Gothic ivories. This is especially true for the secular sphere, where it has not yet been possible to link any surviving fourteenth-century carving to its first owner.

This conference aims to return to the question of the ownership of Gothic ivories, an area which offers great potential for further discoveries, particularly (but not only) through the combination of art historical object analysis with evaluations of contemporary written sources such as inventories, wills, and other documents. Illuminating the stories of historic owners, be they individuals or institutions, and their Gothic ivories is the first aim of this two-day conference, while the second is to shed light on the later life of these objects, and on their transition into new ownership contexts and uses.

We welcome proposals for 20-minute papers exploring material across these themes that deal with either case studies or broader methodological questions. Papers which take an interdisciplinary approach, breaking the traditional boundaries between art history, history of collecting, museum studies or conservation, are particularly welcome. Topics of interest may include but are not limited to:

Individual patrons and collectors of Gothic ivories.

• Commissioning, buying, and trading Gothic ivories.

• Gothic ivories in written sources.

• Gothic ivories in their archaeological contexts.

• The circulation of Gothic ivories.

• The adaptation, restoration and/or change of function of Gothic ivories over time.

• Object biographies of Gothic ivories in a conservation context.

• The provenance of Gothic ivories.

• The changing status and perception of Gothic ivories.

• The reproductions of Gothic ivories, i.e. fictile ivories, electrotypes, photography etc.

• The role of museums and curators as the custodians of Gothic ivories.

• The display of Gothic ivories through time in treasuries, private collections, and museums.

• The dispersal of Gothic ivories such as fragments, ensembles, and collections.

Please submit your abstracts of 250 – 300 words and a short biography of 100 words in one PDF document to Manuela Studer-Karlen (manuela.studer-karlen@unibe.ch), Naomi Speakman (nspeakman@britishmuseum.org) and Michaela Zöschg (m.zoschg@vam.ac.uk ) by 15 January 2024. Please note that travel and accommodation costs for speakers will be covered, and that the conference papers will be published.

Conference and Publication Timetable:

• 15 January 2024: Deadline for submission of abstracts and biography.

• 15 February 2024: Feedback on abstracts.

• 25-26 October 2024: Conference.

• 31 January 2025: Submission of papers for publication.

Organised by Manuela Studer-Karlen (University of Bern), Naomi Speakman (British Museum, London) and Michaela Zöschg (Victoria and Albert Museum, London). This conference is supported by the project “Love and War. Secular images on Gothic ivories”, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation.

Online Cambridge Medieval Art Seminar: Binski, Guerry, Wrapson: The Wall Paintings of Angers Cathedral, Paul Binski, Emily Guerry, and Lucy Wrapson, 27 Nov 2023 17:00-19:00 GMT (12:00 - 14:00 EST)

Online Cambridge Medieval Art Seminar

Binski, Guerry, Wrapson: The Wall Paintings of Angers Cathedral

Professor Paul Binski, Dr Emily Guerry, and Dr Lucy Wrapson

Mon, 27 Nov 2023 17:00-19:00 GMT (12:00 - 14:00 EST)

To register, click here.

This online lecture focuses on the Gothic Wall paintings of Angers Cathedral, their story, date and significance.

British Archaeological Society and Universidad de Valladolid Conference: Romanesque and the Monastic Environment, Valladolid, 8-10 April 2024 (Scholarships Due 31 January 2024)

Conference

British Archaeological Society and Universidad de Valladolid

Romanesque and the Monastic Environment

Valladolid, 8-10 April 2024

A Three-Day International Conference in Valladolid on the relationship between material culture and monasticism during the 11th and 12th centuries. There is also an opportunity to stay on for two days of visits to Romanesque buildings. For a booking form send an email to conference@thebaa.org

The British Archaeological Association will hold the eighth in its biennial International Romanesque conference series in conjunction with the Universidad de Valladolid on 8-10 April, 2024. The theme is Romanesque and the Monastic Environment, and the aim is to examine the design and functioning of monastic space as found in the Latin West between c.1000 and c.1200. The Conference will be held at the University of Valladolid with the opportunity to stay on for two days of visits to Romanesque buildings on 11-12 April.

While a particular approach to monastic planning can be observed in Carolingian Benedictine circles in the early 9th century – one in which ranges were organized on three sides of a garden with the church on a fourth – the extent to which this arrangement was widely adopted before the second half of the 11th century is unclear. Nor was it the only type of monastic plan in circulation. Semi-coenobitic orders had little use for ranges, even if the adoption of a garden surrounded by covered walks on four sides became more or less de rigeur in Latin monastic planning by c. 1100. When cloisters, chapter-houses, refectories, dormitories and work-rooms were established with clear relationships to each other and to the monastic choir, it becomes possible to speak of a core precinct, but what of other facilities, or precincts; infirmaries, outer courts, cemeteries, kitchens, gatehouses, and monastic choirs?

Speakers include Dustin Aaron, Verónica Abenza, Kirk Ambrose, Claude Andrault-Schmitt, Peter Scott Brown, Eric Cambridge, Eduardo Carrero Santamaría, Mañuel Castiñeiras, Kathleen Doyle, Barbara Franzé, Alexandra Gajewski, Richard Gem, Cecily Hennessy, Wilfried Keil, Nathalie Le Luel, Javier Martínez de Aguirre, John McNeill, Juan Antonio Olañeta, Julia Perratore, Neil Stratford, Béla Zsolt Szakács, Elizabeth Valdez del Álamo, Rose Walker, Tomasz Weclawowicz and Angela Weyer.

CONFERENCE (8-10 APRIL)

The conference will open at 09.30 on Monday, 8 April with lectures in the University of Valladolid’s Palacio de Congresos Conde Ansúrez. Teas, coffees and lunch will be provided on all three days, in addition to dinner on two evenings. The conference will also include an evening reception. More information will be provided in the joining instructions.

Participants will need to arrange their own travel and accommodation. Valladolid is well provided with hotels and bed and breakfasts, and the conference organisers will send a list of hotels and B&Bs when they acknowledge receipt of your booking form.

VISITS (11-12 APRIL)

We will also organise two days of visits to Romanesque sites for those who wish to stay on. These will include major surviving Romanesque monuments in Salamanca along with Santa Maria la Mayor in Toro, and a special out-of-normal-hours visit to the monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos.

SCHOLARSHIPS

A limited number of scholarships for students are available to help cover the cost of the conference. Please apply by 31 January 2024, attaching a short CV along with the name and contact details of one referee. Applications should be sent to: jsmcneill@btinternet.com or fbanos@fyl.uva.es

It would not be possible to mount this conference without John Osborn, and the British Archaeological Association wishes to take this opportunity to thank him for the boost to Romanesque scholarship afforded by his great generosity.

Conference Convenors: Fernando Gutiérrez Baños and John McNeill

Conference Secretary: Kate Milburn

For more information, https://thebaa.org/event/romanesque-and-the-monastic-environment-valladolid/

Call for Applications: Franklin Research Grants, American Philosophical Society, Due By 1 December 2023

Call for Applications

American Philosophical Society

Franklin Research Grants

Due By 1 December 2023

The Franklin program is particularly designed to help meet the costs of travel to libraries and archives for research purposes; the purchase of microfilm, photocopies, or equivalent research materials; the costs associated with fieldwork; or laboratory research expenses.

Franklin grants are made for noncommercial research. They are not intended to meet the expenses of attending conferences or the costs of publication. The Society does not pay overhead or indirect costs to any institution, and grant funds are not to be used to pay income tax on the award. Grants will not be made to replace salary during a leave of absence or earnings from summer teaching; pay living expenses while working at home; cover the costs of consultants or research assistants; or purchase permanent equipment such as computers, cameras, tape recorders, or laboratory apparatus.

December 1, 2023, for a March 2024 decision for work beginning April 2024 through January 2025

Contact Information

Questions concerning the eligibility of a project, applicant, or use of funds, as well as requests to confirm receipt of the application and required two letters of support, should be directed to Linda Musumeci, Director of Grants and Fellowships, at LMusumeci@amphilsoc.org, or 215-440-3429.

Deadlines

For applications and two letters of support.

For application information, FAQ, and current and past recipients, https://www.amphilsoc.org/grants/franklin-research-grants

Online Workshop: Beginner’s Guide to the Index of Medieval Art Database, 14 November 2023, 10-11 AM EST, Zoom

the Index of Medieval Art, Princeton University

Online Workshop: Beginner’s Guide to the Index of Medieval Art Database

Tuesday, 14 November 2023, 10:00 – 11:00 am EST

Zoom

Fox preaching to birds, Book of Hours, ca. 1440, New York, Morgan Library and Museum, M.358, fol. 110v, left margin.

Please join us for our second training session to learn more about the Index database! It will take place via Zoom on Tuesday, November 14, 2023 from 10:00 – 11:00 am EST.

Have you been wondering if you are getting the best results for your searches? Are you unsure about how to use our Browse Lists? This session, led by Index specialists Maria Alessia Rossi and Jessica Savage, will demonstrate how the database can be used with advanced search options, filters, and browse tools to locate works of medieval art. We will also look at the new subject taxonomy search tool that encourages further discovery of the online collection. 

There will be a Q&A period at the end of the session, so please bring any questions you might have about your research! To register for the workshop and receive the Zoom link, please fill out this form. Please note that this session will not be recorded.

Call For Papers: 7th Forum Kunst des Mittelalters: Light: Art, Metaphysics, and Science in the Middle Ages (Jena, 25-28 Sept. 2024), Due By 15 Nov. 2023

Call for Papers

7th Forum Kunst des Mittelalters

Light: Art, Metaphysics, and Science in the Middle Ages

Jena, Germany, September 25–28, 2024

DUe BY 15 November 2023

(organized togehter with Juliane von Fircks, Svea Janzen, Department for Art History and Film Studies, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany)

In numerous creation myths, light stands at the beginning of the cosmos. In the Middle Ages, the concepts of light, beauty, and the good were inseparable. Darkness, ugliness, and the evil formed the opposite pole. The degree of perfection of nature, people, and artifacts could be measured by their beauty, which was essentially determined by brightness, brilliance, and luminosity. This concept applied to Byzantium as well as to the Christian West, Judaism, and Islam. To communicate this idea and to enable its experience was not only the highest goal of religious art in the Middle Ages, but also shaped secular and courtly culture. Centering around the topic of light, the 7th “Forum Kunst des Mittelalters” (Jena, September 25–28, 2024) will focus on the multifaceted connections between art, metaphysics, and science in the Middle Ages.

By emphasizing the light-related properties of materials (transparency, reflectivity), medieval artists imbued their creations with an aesthetic quality that pointed beyond the beautiful to the divine as the origin of all things. Questions about the relationship between luminous or light-reflecting materials (gold, silver, gemstones, alabaster, bronze, ivory, silk) and objects, as well as the connection between material, light, and aura were of highest significance across cultures and genres. Rock crystal objects between East and West have recently been the focus of several exhibitions and scholarly studies. Glass as a translucent material par excellence also raises transcultural questions, ranging from the significance of the material as a substitute for gemstones to the realm of its allegorical readings and its function in making the sacred visible.

In architecture, the topic of artists working with and manipulating light can be addressed with reference to cathedrals, castles, and palaces as well as mosques, madrasas, and synagogues. Possible fields of investigation are the relationship between light and built space, the role of light in the design of facades, wall openings, and windows, or the function of dark, windowless spaces in the staging of the sacred.

Luminiferous objects such as candles, chandeliers, and other sorts of lamps served to mark meaningful places or to stage prominent persons and ritual actions, thus offering great potential for further studies. Questions about illumination and light design at masses, coronations, or funerals as well as about lights in motion, for example at processions and festive entries, could contribute to a more precise understanding of the performative potential of light in the Middle Ages.

In encyclopedias, diagrams, and calendars, Western art of the Middle Ages dealt with the connection between light, cosmos, and man. From the 13th century onward, the rational exploration of light and the optical knowledge imported from the Arab world increasingly shaped medieval art. Deepened knowledge of the human vision influenced linear perspective and the representation of light in the arts of the late Middle Ages.

Painters and sculptors now devoted themselves to studying and depicting light phenomena. It remains intriguing to examine how painting and sculpture react to the lighting conditions at their place of installation, how an artwork’s gilding combines aesthetic and theological aspirations, and how the painterly representation of light may reference the divine or may simply be profane surface gloss.

Finally, the topic of light and the sciences builds a bridge to radiation-based art-technological investigation methods of the present day, such as X-ray fluoroscopy, UV or infrared reflectography, which can make the process of the creation of an artwork visible.  

We now invite applicants – senior and junior researchers alike – to submit paper proposals (preferably in German or English) to these individual sessions. Sessions include one chair and a maximum of three speakers. Presentations usually last 20–30 minutes. Paper proposals of max. 200 words (+ contact details) may be submitted to kontakt@dvfk-berlin.de by November 15 2023. Please note that only one person is scheduled per presentation at a time. The results of the selection and the programme will be published in the first quarter of 2024 at www.dvfk-berlin.de and through other relevant online channels.

For a PDF of the Call for Papers, the List of Sessions, and more information, https://www.dvfk-berlin.de/en/call-2/

Job Posting! Arthur H. Dadian and Ara Oztemel Chair of Armenian Art and Architectural History, Tenured Full Professor, Tufts University, Application Reviews Begin 15 December 2023

Call for Applications

Arthur H. Dadian and Ara Oztemel Chair of Armenian Art and Architectural History, Tenured Full Professor

Tufts University: School of Arts & Sciences: History of Art and Architecture

Review of Applications Begins 15 December 2023

Description

The Department of History of Art and Architecture at Tufts University seeks an outstanding scholar at the rank of tenured full professor to teach and advise undergraduates and graduate students in the MA in Art History and MA in Art History and Museums Studies programs. The department offers majors in Art History and in Architectural Studies, as well as several minors, including Museums, Memory, and Heritage.

Research focus should be on Armenian art, architecture, and visual culture of any time period, with additional interest and expertise in cultural connections, diasporic relations between Armenia and the wider world, as well as issues of cultural heritage preservation, among others. The successful applicant will be expected to teach art history undergraduate and graduate courses on Armenian art, architecture, and visual culture, on specific topics related to their own research, and broader thematic and/or theoretical threads that place Armenian Studies in larger art historical narratives.

Qualifications

The successful candidate will hold a Ph.D. and be internationally recognized, demonstrate outstanding scholarly accomplishments and promise of research, and exhibit a record of excellence in teaching at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The position seeks a tenured full professor, but applicants at the advanced tenured associate professor level will be considered.

Application Instructions

All application materials are submitted via http://apply.interfolio.com/134542 Please provide a cover letter, a CV, a research statement, a teaching statement that includes evidence of the candidate’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, teaching evaluations from the most recent two years of teaching to be uploaded in a single PDF, and a recently published journal article or book chapter of at least 8,000 words. Finalists will be asked to provide the names and contact information for three references.

For any questions regarding this position, please email amy.west@tufts.edu. Review of applications will begin on December 15, 2023, and will continue until the position is filled.

All offers of employment are contingent upon the completion of a background check.

Tufts University, founded in 1852, prioritizes quality teaching, highly competitive basic and applied research, and a commitment to active citizenship locally, regionally, and globally. Tufts University has also committed to becoming an anti-racist institution and prides itself on the continuous improvement of diversity, equity and inclusion work. Current and prospective employees of the university are expected to have and continuously develop skill in, and disposition for, positively engaging with a diverse population of faculty, staff, and students. Tufts University is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. We are committed to increasing the diversity of our faculty and staff and fostering their success when hired. Members of underrepresented groups are welcome and strongly encouraged to apply. See the University’s Non-Discrimination statement and policy here https://oeo.tufts.edu/policies-procedures/non-discrimination/.

If you are an applicant with a disability who is unable to use our online tools to search and apply for jobs, please contact us by calling the Office of Equal Opportunity (OEO) at 617-627-3298 or at oeo@tufts.edu. Applicants can learn more about requesting reasonable accommodations at https://oeo.tufts.edu

16TH ANNUAL LAWRENCE J. SCHOENBERG SYMPOSIUM ON MANUSCRIPT STUDIES IN THE DIGITAL AGE: THE IMAGE OF THE BOOK, 16-18 Nov. 2023, In-Person & Online

16th Annual Lawrence J. Schoenberg Symposium on Manuscript Studies in the Digital Age

The Image of the Book: Representing the Codex from Antiquity to the Present

16-18 November 2023

Van Pelt-Dietrich Library, the Free Library of Philadelphia
Parkway Central Library, and Online

Free to the Public

To Register: https://libcal.library.upenn.edu/calendar/kislak/image-of-the-book

A great deal of recent research has focused on the objecthood of the pre-modern book and its associated materiality. But only sporadic attempts have been made to understand the role of visual representations of the book in conveying ideas about knowledge. How can our understanding be transformed when the dictum that “a picture is worth a thousand words” is put into practice, when the how of depiction is accorded as much importance as the what of textual content? This symposium will examine the means by which the book, and in particular the manuscript, is described across a wide variety of media, from painting and sculpture to digital media and film. Topics to be addressed include the book as a symbol of authority, wisdom, or piety; the visual archeology of otherwise vanished bookbinding styles, reading practices, and study spaces; and the re-imagining of the physicality of the codex through digital means. The event will also mark the public launch at Penn Libraries of the Books as Symbols in Renaissance Art (BASIRA) project, an innovative, public-access web database of thousands of depictions of books in artwork produced between about 1300 and 1600 CE. The database, like the symposium itself, aims to engage historians of religion, literacy, art, music, language, and private life, as well as book artists, conservators, and interested members of the public. The symposium is organized in partnership with the Rare Book Department of the Free Library of Philadelphia (view on map).

The program will begin Thursday evening, November 16, 5:00 pm, at the Free Library of Philadelphia in the Rare Book Department, with a reception and keynote address by Jeffrey Hamburger, Kuno Francke Professor of German Art & Culture, Harvard University. The symposium will continue November 17-18 at the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts (view on map).

The symposium will be held in person with an option to join virtually. All are welcome to attend. Use the link above to register.

Program and Speakers

Thursday, November 16, 2023 - Rare Book Department, Free Library of Philadelphia, Parkway Central Library, third floor, 5:00 - 7:00 pm

Keynote Address

Avatars of Authorship
Jeffrey Hamburger, Harvard University

With opening remarks by Janine Pollock, Free Library of Philadelphia; Sean Quimby, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, Penn Libraries; and Nicholas Herman, Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies, Penn Libraries

All registrants are invited to a reception before the lecture. The lecture will begin at 6:00 pm.

Friday, November 17, 2023 - Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, Class of 1978 Orrery Pavilion, Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center, sixth floor

9:30 – 10:00 am: Coffee

10:00 am: Welcome and Introduction

Nicholas Herman, Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies, Penn Libraries

10:15 - 11:30 am: Meaning

Book History’s Genesis in Exodus: Revisiting the Round Topped Tablets, Sonja Drimmer, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Under Construction: Making and Metaphor in Medieval Images of Book Production, Beatrice Kitzinger, Princeton University

11:30 - 11:45 am: Coffee

11:45 am - 1:00 pm: Making

Representations of Wax Tablets: Codices in Greco-Roman Art and their Importance for Understanding their Making and Use, Georgios Boudalis, Museum of Byzantine Culture, Thessaloniki

Visual Metaphors: Exploring Bookbinding Structures through Visual Representations, Alberto Campagnolo, University of Udine

1:00 - 2:30 pm: Afternoon Break

A selection of manuscripts real and replica items will be on view during the break.

2:30 – 4:00 pm: Format

Artisanal Books: Ceramic and Lacquer Imitations from the Qing Court, Devin Fitzgerald, Yale University

A Sampling of Blooks: A Foray into the Fascinating World of Book-form Objects, Mindell Dubansky, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

This session will conclude with a showcase of book-form objects.

4:00 – 4:15 pm: Coffee

4:15 – 5:00 pm: Official Launch of BASIRA, The Books as Symbols in Renaissance Art Database

Barbara Williams Ellertson, Independent Scholar and SIMS
Nicholas Herman, SIMS

5:30 – 6:30 pm: Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies 10th Anniversary Celebration Event

Join us to raise a glass or two of champagne and help us blow out the candles on a cake to celebrate ten years of manuscript studies in the digital age at Penn Libraries!

Sunday, November 18, 2023 - Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, Class of 1978 Orrery Pavilion, Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center, sixth floor

9:30 am: Coffee

10:00 – 11:15 am: Identities

The Image of the Book at the Ottoman Court, Emine Fetvacı, Boston College
Imagining Religious Identity and Difference through Book Formats: Scrolls and Codices in Judaism and Christianity, Thomas Rainer, University of Zurich

11:15 – 11:30 am: Coffee

11:30 am – 12:45 pm: Avatars

Scrolling through Scrolls and Books in Books of Hours, Dominique Stutzmann, Institut de Recherche et d’Histoire des Textes

Virtual Manuscripts in Virtual Spaces, Sabina Zonno, University of Southern California

12:45 – 2:15 pm: Afternoon Break

Demonstration: Experience Manuscripts in VR! 

2:15 – 3:30 pm: Icons

The Medieval Book as Gateway: Contemplation, Meditation, and Image Making in the Lives of the Desert Fathers, Denva Gallant, Rice University

Iconic Books in Renaissance Art, James Watts, Syracuse University

3:30 – 3:45 pm: Coffee

3:45 – 5:00: Transformations

Manuscript Images of the Destruction and Salvage of Books, Lucy Freeman Sandler, New York University

Pop Bibliography: Finding Book History in Popular Media, Allie Alvis, Winterthur Library

5:00 – 6:00 pm: Closing Reception

For More Information and Abstracts of the Presentations: https://www.library.upenn.edu/events/lawrence-j-schoenberg/image-book-representing-codex

Lecture Series: Online Mmmonk School Autumn 2023, Mmmonk and Henri Pirenne Institute for Medieval Studies (UGent), 17 and 24 November and 1 December 2023 (4-6pm CET/10am-12pm ET)

Lecture SEries

Online Mmmonk School, Autumn 2023

Mmmonk and Henri Pirenne Institute for Medieval Studies (UGent)

17 and 24 November and 1 December 2023 (4:00-6:00pm CET / 10:00am-12:00pm ET)

Mmmonk and Henri Pirenne Institute for Medieval Studies (UGent) will host the second edition of Mmmonk school in the autumn of 2023. Mmmonk School offers lessons for advanced beginners about the medieval book. It is an interdisciplinary practice-focused programme about medieval Flemish manuscripts. Six experts introduce the main concepts, skills and methods of their given field of expertise. The lessons are online, free and open for everyone.

Join us on three consecutive Fridays (4-6pm CET) in November and December!

Programme

17 November (4-6pm CET)

• Elaine Treharne (Stanford University): The human experience as an integral part of the history and identity of a book

• Ann Kelders (KBR Royal Library Belgium): An Introduction to Polyphony Manuscripts in Medieval Flanders and Brabant

24 November (4-6pm CET)

• Élodie Lévêque (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne): An Introduction to Biocodicology – The material studies of medieval manuscripts

• Thomas Falmagne (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main): An Introduction to Medieval Cistercian Reading Culture

1 December (4-6pm CET)

• Lisa Demets (Ghent University): An Introduction to Multilingual Manuscripts in Medieval Flanders

• Jeroen Deploige and Wim Verbaal (Ghent University): ‘Spotlight on Mmmonk Research’: Medieval Reading Strategies – The Liber Floridus as a circular enclosure of creation, history and incarnation

To Register: https://brugge.bibliotheek.be/formulier/mmmonk-school-2023

For More Information: https://www.mmmonk.be/en/news/mmmonk-school-2023-programme-and-registration

Call for Proposals: ‘Environmental Narratives and the Eremitic Turn’, Different Visions Journal, Due By 30 November 2023

Call for proposals

‘Environmental Narratives and the Eremitic Turn’

Different Visions Journal

dUE By 30 November 2023

Different Visions invites proposals for contributions to a special issue, “Environmental Narratives and the Eremitic Turn.” This encompasses the locus of eremitic experience, which might be from any religious tradition or geographical location, whether wilderness, mountain, or desert, broadly conceived. It also encompasses the bodies – individual and communal – who chose to inhabit that landscape (as a real or imagined place), and their lived experience. This special issue seeks to explore the diverse ways in which eremitic bodies, ascetic practice, and the landscape of the wilderness, were represented and imagined in visual culture.

We welcome submissions that:

• consider the resonance and meaning of the ascetic tradition across time and space

• investigate the ascetic tradition and its entanglement with notions of the landscape as wilderness and holy mountain

• adopt an environmental or ecocritical approach to the eremitic experience

• explore the tensions between, for example, wilderness and cultivation, inhospitable and fertile landscapes, ascetic practice and the eremitic impulse

• consider the re-imagining or invocation of the historical desert in monastic, mendicant or other contexts

• explore the continuing resonance of the eremitic, in symbolic or ecologic terms, in our contemporary world

• approach the themes above from a global perspective

This special issue engages with urgent contemporary concerns about the impact of human activity on the earth that sustains us. It resonates with recent scholarly interest in the relationship between humanity and nature in the pre- and early modern period, seeking a broad, inclusive, and cross-disciplinary reflection on the visual representation of this interdependence.

Please submit a proposal of no more than 300 words to differentvisionsjournal@gmail.com by Nov 30th. First drafts of accepted essays of no more than 12,000 words will be due August 1, 2024.

For questions please reach out to differentvisionsjournal@gmail.com.

For more information, https://differentvisions.org/calls-for-papers/.

Call for Applications: for Fully-Funded PhD in Art History Project, Medieval Painting and the End of Life: From the Monumental to the Personal, NU London, Due By 31 October 2023

Call for Applications

for Fully-Funded PhD in Art History Project (UK or International Students)

Medieval Painting and the End of Life: From the Monumental to the Personal

Northeastern University London (NU London)

To Start 29 January 2024

Due By 31 October 2023

Supervisors (*lead): Dr Niamh Bhalla* (Northeastern University London) and Dr Emily Guerry (University of Kent)

Northeastern University London

As part of a major investment, Northeastern University London (NU London) has multiple, fully-funded PhD studentships available to accelerate its interdisciplinary research in the humanities, social sciences, and computing, maths, engineering and natural sciences. Each scholarship is fully-funded for three and a half years (UKRI rates) and includes full course fees, an annual stipend (including an additional London allowance) and associated costs, such as training.

NU London is both a UK university governed by UK higher education regulations, and the European campus of Northeastern University – a large, top-tier research intensive, Boston-based institution. Founded in 1898, Northeastern University is known for its high-impact research, aimed at solving problems across the globe. Interdisciplinarity, experiential learning, and connection to partners beyond academia are at the heart of the Northeastern University ethos. Northeastern received $230.7m of external research funding in 2022, and is the recognized leader in experience-driven lifelong learning. It has campuses across the United States and Canada (in Boston; Charlotte, North Carolina; Portland, Maine; Oakland, California; San Francisco; Seattle; Silicon Valley; Arlington, Virginia; the Massachusetts communities of Burlington and Nahant; Toronto and Vancouver). Whilst the PhD will be a UK qualification, students will have the opportunity to engage with and visit the Northeastern University network overseas as part of their London-based doctoral studies, providing a truly unique and highly sought-after dimension to their research training.

The Project

This research will contribute methodologically to current debates across the humanities concerning the importance of visual and material objects within human experience. The student recruited to the research project will be required to work on medieval visual culture pertaining to the end of life, to demonstrate how imagery held agency in medieval people’s navigation of formative moments in the human lifecycle.

The specific regions and materials of focus will be shaped by the candidate.

Areas identified as being of particular interest by the supervisors are:

• The monumental: Medieval wall paintings concerning death and judgement in Europe – an area of great interest that is currently underdeveloped in scholarship. A comparative approach concerning wall paintings of judgement in eastern and western Europe from the tenth to the fourteenth century may be beneficial to exploring the movement of people and the exchange of ideas in the Middle Ages, specifically shared understandings and uses of images that were implicated in the end-of-life process across various regions.

• The personal: Images pertaining to death and the afterlife in manuscripts and on other portable objects where the encounter with the imagery was more personal and the theological treatment of death sometimes different to that of public images. Again, a culturally comparative approach between East and West would be encouraged in this regard. Preference should be given to objects that facilitate access to the experiences of persons often omitted from mainstream historical record.

The research will involve the usual methodological apparatus pertaining to art history, including direct empirical engagement with primary visual and material sources such as paintings and/or illuminated manuscripts, the interrogation of relevant primary written sources pertaining to the topic, regions and artefacts under study, and the application of the critical theoretical apparatus that informs the humanities more generally. This research will lend itself naturally to an interdisciplinary approach touching on gender studies, anthropology, philosophy and theology.

The successful candidates will:

• Have a proven, strong educational background in art history or a related subject (see eligibility criteria)

• Be excited and inspired by the proposed project area

• Be a self-starter

• Have great communication skills

• Have an inquiring mind and be willing to challenge themselves

The successful candidates will benefit from a brand new campus on the banks of the River Thames next to Tower Bridge. This is an interdisciplinary, vibrant research environment with international collaboration and networking opportunities and dedicated research space. It will form the hub of a highly experienced, multi-institution supervisory team from NU London, Northeastern University and the University of Kent. In addition, successful candidates will benefit from the unique connection to the wider Northeastern University network in North America, providing a range of additional research opportunities and learning resources.

Shortlisted candidates will be interviewed in November. Candidates are welcome to contact the NU London supervisor with informal enquiries before the application deadline: niamh.bhalla@nulondon.ac.uk

Eligibility:

• Bachelor's degree in a relevant subject - 2:1 or 1st (essential)

• Master’s degree in a relevant subject (optional)

English Language requirements:

If applicable – IELTS 7 overall (with a score of at least 6.5 in each individual component) or equivalent.

Nationality:

Applications are open to UK and international students. Please indicate if you are likely to require a visa on your application. We are unable to support visa costs.

Funding:

This scholarship covers the full cost of tuition fees, an annual stipend and an additional London allowance (set at UKRI rates) for 3.5 years. For the 2023/2024 academic year the annual stipend is £20,622. Annual increments will be in line with UKRI rates.

International travel:

Students will have the opportunity to optionally travel to Northeastern University in North America to further their research training and experience.

How to Apply:

Please send a CV and a Covering Letter stating how you meet the requirements and why you are interested in the proposed research project via the 'Apply' button above on the website below. Please reference your application “PHDM1023”

https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DDF025/phd-scholarship-fully-funded-in-art-history-medieval-painting-and-the-end-of-life-from-the-monumental-to-the-personal

Online Lecture: Zero Hour for Illuminated Manuscripts? The Acquisition and Alienation of Medieval Art in Post-World-War II Nuremberg, William Diebold, 14 Nov. 2023 (5:30-7:00 PM GMT), Zoom

institute of Historical Research, School of Advanced Study, University of London
London Society for Medieval Studies

Zero Hour for Illuminated Manuscripts? The Acquisition and Alienation of Medieval Art in Post-World-War II Nuremberg

William Diebold (Reed College)

14 November 2023, 5:30-7:00PM GMT

Online - Zoom

This event is free, but registration in advance is required.

This paper examines two decisions regarding medieval illuminated manuscripts made during the 1950s by the Germanic National Museum in Nuremberg. The first was to acquire a spectacular Ottonian-era gospel manuscript, a book used in the Christian liturgy.  The other was to sell two late medieval haggadahs (the book used by Jews to celebrate Passover) that had been in the collection of the Nuremberg museum for a century.

This paper documents these stories, one of acquisition and the other of alienation, and locates them in their post-World-War-II German historical context.  Because the Nazis had so heavily capitalized on the Middle Ages, which they saw as the “First Empire” that was reincarnated in their Third Reich, the status of medieval art was fraught in Germany after 1945.  And nowhere was this more true than in Nuremberg, the city that had been the site both of the Nazi Party’s annual rallies and of the postwar trials of the leading Nazis. To try to deal with this impossibly difficult legacy, many Germans viewed the end of the Second World War as the “Zero Hour,” a moment when their country began entirely anew.  This paper argues, however, that the acquisition of the early medieval gospel book and the alienation of the two haggadah manuscripts show that, assertions of a Zero Hour to the contrary, the legacy of the Nazi era was not an easy one to leave behind. Instead, the acquisition and deaccession policy of the Nuremberg museum instead shows more continuities with Nazi practices than breaks from it.

For more information: https://www.history.ac.uk/events/zero-hour-illuminated-manuscripts-acquisition-and-alienation-medieval-art-post-world-war-ii