Crossing the Hanseatic Threshold and Beyond: Making Connections in Medieval Art, c. 1200-1500 (Kalamazoo 2016)

The Hanse, also known as the Hanseatic League, was a trade network of
merchants and cities across the Northern and Baltic Seas that
flourished in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Due to its
geographic reach, the Hanse provided a framework to connect distant
towns, peoples, cultures, ideas, and materials together. This session
aims to explore the often-overlooked artistic production in the
transnational Hanseatic region. Artistic exchange across Hanse trade
routes was extensive and wide reaching. Art objects traveled long
distances and were produced with great variety to reflect the
multi-faceted identities and goals of their patrons.

For this session, we invite papers that address artistic circulation,
mobility, exchange, networks, identity, media, and/or patronage in the
Hanseatic arena. We welcome both specific case studies as well as
papers that interrogate larger questions on ‘Hanseatic art’, Hanse art
historical historiography, and the self-fashioning of Hanse merchants
or patrons. Along these lines, papers could also explore artistic links
between the Hanse and other trade networks or more generally, art and
mercantile trade in littoral and riverine towns in Europe, c. 1200-1500.

The Student Committee of the International Center of Medieval Art
involves and advocates for all members with student status. As a
committee that addresses the concerns of students, we see this session
as a forum for discussion and informal mentorship within our field.

To propose a paper, please send an abstract, C.V., and a completed
Congress Participant Information Form
(http://wmich.edu/medieval/congress/submissions/index.html#PIF) to
Lehti Mairike Keelmann (lehtik@umich.edu) and Laura Tillery
(tillery@sas.upenn.edu).

Proposals should be emailed no later than September 15th, 2015.