Senate Room, Senate House, London, United Kingdom, May 17, 2014
Registration deadline: May 6, 2014
This conference is organized by three Junior Fellows of the Institute
of Historical Research from diverse scholarly backgrounds: Dhwani Patel
(KCL), Wendy Sepponen (University of Michigan) and Jo Edge (RHUL). It
will bring together two fields of research – the material and the
ceremonial – that are intimately connected but rarely explored together
in a conference setting.
The Art of Ritual aims to bring focus to how material culture and art
(broadly defined) fits into and shapes ritual, and will be organized
into three principal thematic strands. The first is art that influenced
ritual, for example space and site specificity, or the importance and
history of a particular place, site or space in connection with ritual.
The second is art that reflected ritual, for example representations of
processions. The final strand concerns objects and images that
functioned as an integral part of ritual, for example relics and
magical diagrams.
PROGRAMME
9.00-9.30
Registration and coffee
9.30-10.45
Urban Architecture and Religious Ritual
Chair: Dhwani Patel
Zoë Opacic (Birkbeck)
‘The Architecture of Ritual in Central Europe’
Tom Nickson (The Courtauld Institute)
‘New Rituals? Art in the Age of Reconquest’
10.45-11.15 Morning coffee
11.15-12.30
Art and Communal Devotion
Chair: Wendy Sepponen
Achim Timmermann (University of Michigan)
‘Golgotha, Now and Then: Image and Sacrificial Topography in Late
Medieval and Early Modern Europe’
Marianne Gilly-Argoud (Université Pierre-Mendès-France)
‘Living Incarnation within depictions of the sacraments: art and ritual
in late medieval alpine iconography’
12.30-1.30 Lunch
1.30-2.45
Ritual and the Unorthodox Imagination
Chair: Jo Edge
Natalia Petrovskaia (University of Cambridge)
‘Literary Fiction or Anthropology: Mapping Imaginary Ritual’
Sophie Page (University College London)
‘Art and ritual in medieval learned magic’
2.45-3.15 Afternoon coffee
3.15-4.30
Place, image and everyday ritual
Chair: Wendy Sepponen
Andrew Murray (University College London)
‘Everlasting and Transitional Rituals Amongst the Mourners of Philip the
Bold’
Adriana de Miranda (University of Bologna)
‘Ancient custom between Art and Rituality’
4.30-5.00
Round table discussion
5.00-7.00 Wine reception
Registration costs £10 (£5 students/retired/unwaged) which includes
refreshments, lunch and wine reception on the day. Registration deadline
is Tuesday 6 May 2014.
To reserve your place please email artofritualconference@gmail.com as
soon as possible.
Medieval Art Research 