CFP: Venice, Materiality, and the Byzantine World, Sponsored by the ItalianArt Society, 53rd International Congress on Medieval Studies, May 10-13,
2018, Western Michigan University
Deadline: 15 September 2017
The Dumbarton Oaks Byzantine Symposium leading to the 2010 publication of San
Marco, Byzantium, and the Myths of Venice introduced new perspectives on
Byzantine and Venetian visual and material culture that extended Otto Demus’s
survey of Saint Mark’s basilica. The authors’ application of more recent approaches—
such as the social function of spolia, the act of display, the construction of identity,
and cultural hybridity—brought fresh analyses to a complex and richly decorated
monument. This panel seeks to expand this methodological discourse by taking into
account questions related to materials, materiality, and intermediality between
Venice and Byzantium. The arrival of material culture from the Byzantine world to
Venice as gifts, spoils, or ephemera during the centuries surrounding the Fourth
Crusade allowed for both appropriation and conceptual transformation of material
culture. In light of the renewal in interest of Venice’s Byzantine heritage, this panel
seeks to reflect on the interaction of material culture between la Serenissima and the
Byzantine world, especially during the eleventh through fifteenth centuries. Topics
may be wide-ranging, including, but not limited to: issues of reception and cultural
translation; changing concepts of preciousness; different valuation of materials
between Venice and Byzantium; the fluctuating simulation of material visual effects;
the transformation of Byzantine objects incorporated into Venetian frames;
intermedial dialogue between Byzantine and Venetian art; and the process and
technique of manufacture of works between Byzantium and Venice. Some points of
departure may include: the building of San Marco itself; Byzantine objects in the
Treasury; Byzantine manuscripts included as part of the Cardinal Bessarion gift to
the Republic; the monuments on Torcello; or issues raised as a result of recent
conservation projects. New cross-cultural methodologies from art historical,
anthropological, or sociological fields are welcome.
Please submit a 300-word abstract and a completed Participant Information Form
Kopta, Pratt Institute, jkopta@pratt.edu
In addition to the travel awards available to all Congress participants (http://www.wmich.edu/medievalcongress/awards), the
Italian Art Society offers competitive travel grants:
Medieval Art Research 