2023 marks the 100th anniversary of Arthur Kingsley Porter’s seminal Romanesque Sculpture of the Pilgrimage Roads, providing an opportunity to revisit one of medieval art history’s foundational thinkers. While Porter’s work continues to underpin scholarship today, surprisingly few studies have examined him or the paradigms he created. These sessions aim to address the work of Porter and his contributions to the study of medieval art. Through discussions of both his broad, international vision of style, and his narrow, regional contributions, papers will aim to assess Porter’s idiosyncratic work and the legacy it holds within scholarship today.
We welcome papers that consider and contextualize Porter’s life and works. Sessions will address Porter’s literary and scholarly output. Papers might address questions such as: what is the relevance of Porter’s methodologies to art historical approaches of the 20th and 21st century? How have Porter’s approaches contributed to the continued nationalization of medieval art and architecture? How have the Porters’ photographs contributed to a legacy of architectural representation? How have ‘big ideas’ such as a pilgrimage road style fared in the development of medieval historiography? How do we understand Porter’s more idiosyncratic writings in relation to his scholarly work?
These sessions will take place, in person, as part of the 58th International Congress on Medieval Studies, 11-13 May 2023. Proposals should be submitted by September 15, 2022 at https://icms.confex.com/icms/2023/cfp.cgi.
Please contact organizers Meredith Fluke (mfluke@holycross.edu) and Erik Gustafson (egustafson.phd@gmail.com) with any questions. We anticipate a session keynote paper by Kathryn Brush drawing from her current monograph project on Porter.
Medieval Art Research 