Conference: ‘The Gigantic in Medieval and Early Modern Art’, University of Vienna, 18-20 June 2026

University of Vienna, Department of Art History, Garnisongasse 13, Campus courtyard 9, Seminarraum 1, 18–20 June 2026

Giants captivated medieval and Early Modern cultures – not merely as myth, but as imagined realities grounded in bones, ruins, and landscapes. This conference explores their visual forms, cultural functions, and the broader concept of the “Gigantic.”

More information can be found on the University of Vienna website.

Conference Programme

Thursday, 18 June 2026

10:00-10:30: Greetings

• Assaf Pinkus, University of Vienna
• Raphael Rosenberg, Head of the Department, University of Vienna

Morning Sessions: 10:30-12:00 — Manipulating Scale

Moderator: Manuela Studer-Karlen, University of Vienna

• Alixe Bovey, The Courtauld Institute: Miniature Giants: Paradoxical Scale in Medieval and Early Modern England
• Robin O’Bryan, Independent Scholar: The ‘Gigantic’ against the ‘Miniature’ in Italian Art: Bodily Construction, Pictorial Relationships, and Audience Perception
  

12:30-14:00 — Biblical Giants I: Scaling Up

Moderator: Giosuè Fabiano, University of Vienna

• Michael Viktor Schwarz, University of Vienna: Michelangelo’s David: Colossus in Foro Florentino
• Alfons Puigarnau, Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca: The Giant in Eden: Adam and the Language of Scale in Medieval Art
  

Afternoon Session: 15:30-17:30 — The Marvelous

Moderator: Lucia Simonato, University of Vienna

• Sophie Page, University College London: The Dragon, the Whale, and the Questing Beast: Giant Animals and Narratives of Extinction and Fantasy in Medieval Europe
• Jutta Eming, Freie Universität, Berlin: Facing the Giant: Knightly Identity between Adventure and the Marvelous
• Thomas Kuster, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Schloss Ambras Innsbruck: “Von aim Rysen”. Gigantic Collector’s Items in the Princely Ambras Collection
  

Friday, 19 June 2026

10:00-11:30 — Overscaling: Mediating Human and Divine

Chair: Aleuna Macarenko, Pächt Archive, University of Vienna

• Anna Kónya, Hungarian Museum of Architecture and Monument, Budapest: Visual Contexts of Monumental Images of Saint Christopher in the Medieval Kingdom of Hungary and Beyond
• Manuela Studer Karlen, University of Vienna: The Gigantic in Byzantine Cosmology: Visualizing Cosmic Scale in Sacred Space
  

12:00-13:30 — Biblical Giants II: Rhetoric of the Gigantic

Moderator: Esther Pitoun, University of Vienna

• Naïs Virenque, École des Hautes Études en Science Sociales, Paris: Giant Creature and Gigantic Construction: Figurations of the Giant of Babel in the Romance-Speaking West
• Michal Ozeri, Tel Aviv University: ‘Whom the Lord Knew Face to Face:’ Moses and the Gigantic Transgression
  

Afternoon Sessions: 14:30-16:00 — Into the Wilderness

Chair: Andreas Nierhaus, University of Vienna and Wien Museum

• Assaf Pinkus, University of Vienna: Into the Wilderness: St. Christopher the Giant and the Four Ways of Knowing God
• Robert Mills, University College London: “Great lyke a giant”: Eremitism, Wildness and the Politics of Scale in Late Medieval England
  

16:30-18:00 — Keynote

• Moderator: Assaf Pinkus
• Greeting: Sebastian Schütze, Rector of the University of Vienna

Keynote: Emanuele Lugli, Stanford University: Giants, Bigger Giants.

Saturday, 20 June 2026

09:30-11:00 — Gigantomachia: The Politic of Aesthetics

Moderator: Silvia Tammaro, University of Vienna

• David Zagoury, Université de Fribourg: In the Eye of Polyphemus: Cyclopean Gazes at Palazzo Te
• Claudio Castelletti, Tor Vergata University of Rome: “Giganti stolti.” Muslim ‘Infidels’ as Giants in Renaissance Rhetorical Imagery and Political Iconography
  

11:30-13:30 — The Giant of Kenaan

Moderator: Markus Ritter, University of Vienna

• Sandra Hindriks, University of Vienna: Forces at Play: Strength and Strain in Northern Saint Christopher Paintings of the 15th and Early 16th Centuries
• Thomas Dale, University of Wisconsin–Madison: A Saintly Giant, Merchants, Converts and Plague Victims: Saint Christopher in the Art of Medieval & Early Modern Venice