Medieval Art Research

Online Conference: ‘Until Death do us Part: Historical Perspectives on Death and those Left Behind, c.1300-c.1900’, Royal Holloway, 15-16 April 2021

Royal Holloway, University of London, will host an online conference on the theme of historical perspectives on the impact death and dying had on those left behind. The keynote speakers for ‘Until Death’ are Professor Julie Marie-Strange (Durham University) and Dr Jessica Barker (Courtauld Institute of Art). The conference will take place on MS Teams on 15-16 April 2021.

The subject of death and commemoration has been well-treated in the historiography of all periods, but its social and psychological impact on individuals close to the deceased has been much less studied. As such, this conference aims to take a multi-disciplinary and cross-period approach to this topic, examining the ways in which the role of death and grief in society have changed over time. Broadly defined, this includes the reactions and responses to death (however it was expressed or experienced) of widows and widowers, orphans, friends, relatives, and wider communities, as well as its social and cultural impact and the sources and material culture which emanated from death.

Registration is free but essential– to register, please follow this link. Follow on Twitter: @RHULdeathconf

Conference Schedule

Thursday 15 April

9:30-9:45 – Introductions

9:45-10:55 – Panel 1: Performing death

Dr Dan O’Brien (University of Bath) ‘Like a nightmare that haunts a murderer’s brain’: Imagining funeral workers’ feigned sorrow in eighteenth-century England
Megan Shaw (University of Auckland) ‘Either really or in show’: Performance in the mourning portraits and commissions of Katherine Villiers, Duchess of Buckingham
Dr Antonio Chemotti (Villa I Tatti – The Harvard University Centre for Italian Renaissance Studies) Music and Emotion in post-Tridentine Liturgies for the Dead

10:55-11:15 – Break

11:15-12:35 – Panel 2: The materiality of death

Rachel Wilson (Cardiff University) ‘All Dublin is as black as black can be’: the material culture of Irish mourning for the Stuarts and Hanoverians, 1694-1801
Frederick Lloyd Williams (University of Nottingham) Beyond the Material: The pilgrim badges of King Henry VI
Dr Clodagh Tait (Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick) ‘Ailliliu child, I’m perished with the cold’: Clothing the dead in Irish tradition

12:35-13:45 – Lunch break

13:45-14:55 – Panel 3: Belief and regulation

Dr Polina Ignatova (Lancaster University) The (Un)dead and the Reformation: Change and continuity in the medieval and early modern perceptions of life after death
Professor Helen Parish (University of Reading) Ars Moriendi?: Pandemics and the art of life and death
Dr Andrew Vidali (University of Graz) Laying Down the Mourning Robes? Patrician families, ruling class, and the politics of grief in Renaissance Venice

14:55-15:20 – Break

15:20-16:40 – Panel 4: Death and the family: children, inheritance, and heirs

Dr Eyal Levinson (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) ‘My beloved daughter Minne of blessed memory has brought me very low’: Paternal grief in Europe during the high and late middle ages
Chris Woodyard (Independent) ‘Putting the nursery into mourning’: Children in crape
Professor Laura Ugolini (University of Wolverhampton) Death, Loss and Inheritance: Middle-class fathers and sons in late Victorian England

16:40-17:00 – Break

17:00-18:00 – Keynote lecture

Dr Jessica Barker (Courtauld Institute of Art) Love after Death in the Middle Ages

Friday 16 April

9:40-9:45 – Introductions

9:45-10:55 – Panel 1: Death in communities

Nat Cutter (University of Melbourne) Death, Succession, and Community in the English House at Ottoman Tunis, 1695-1711
Dr Miriam Wendling (KU Leuven) The Benefits of Death: endowments for students at the old university of Leuven
Catriona Byers (KCL) ‘The gathering place of sin and death’: Social order and public perception at the Paris morgue

10:55-11:15 – Break

11:15-12:35 – Panel 2: The body after death: burial and physical responses

Dr Billie-Gina Thomason (Liverpool John Moores) James Allen, Gender Passing, and the Body after Death
Dr Taline Garibian (Oxford Centre for the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology) Dealing with Corpses after Mass Violence from the French Revolution to the First World War
Dr Aoife Bhreatnach (Independent) Inclusion and Exile: Burying the destitute in Cork city, 1830-1880

12:35-13:35 – Lunch break

13:35-14:55 – Panel 3: The gendered experience of mourning: widows and widowhood

Karolina Morawska (University of Warsaw) Death as a New Beginning: Position and perception of widows in late medieval Poland
Andreia Fontenete Louro (Centre for the Humanities, NOVA University Lisbon) Life after husband’s death: Manorial management and widowhood of Infanta Isabel (1511/12-1576)
Dr Amanda Bohne (University of Illinois) Mourning and Responsibility in Fourteenth-Century Deportment Books and The Wife of Bath’s Prologue

14:55-15:14 – Break

15:15-16:35 – Panel 4: Death and portraiture

Dr Emily Knight (V&A) Portraiture as ‘melancholy consolation’: The case of Princess Charlotte
Jean Marie Christensen (Southern Methodist University, Dallas) The king is dead: Transformation of the royal body and the dynastic portraiture of Charles I’s execution
Holly Marsden (University of Winchester and Historic Royal Palaces) ‘We are the wound’: Studying the relationship between sickness and celebrity in the death of Queen Mary II

16:35-17:00 – Break

17:00-18:00 – Keynote lecture

Professor Julie Marie-Strange (Durham University) ‘Loved, mourned & missed’: The emotional cosmos of pet death and grief in the long nineteenth century

All times in GMT; this schedule may be subject to change.

Online Conference:’Interdisciplinary Workshop in Textile Studies: Byzantine and Post Byzantine Productions’, University of Thessaloniki, 20-21 March 2021 (EEST)

The University of Thessaloniki will host an online interdisciplinary workshop examining textile production in the Byzantine and Post-Byzantine eras, convened by Paschalis Androudis (Assistant Professor of Byzantine Archaeology and Art, Department of History and Archaeology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki), and Elena Papastavrou (Director of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Zakynthos). The event will be hosted on Zoom, and can be accessed via this link.

Programme

Saturday 20 March (Eastern European Standard Time)

16.00-16.20 – Introduction: Paschalis Androudis, Elena Papastavrou

Α. Medieval Perspectives on the Material Culture of Religiosity (Chair: Pagona Papadopoulou, Assistant Professor of Byzantine Archaeology and Art)

16.20-16.40 – Arielle Winnik (Bryn Mawr College) Wrapping the Body in the Psalms: Inscribed Textiles in Coptic Christian Burials
16.40-17.00 – Marielle Martiniani-Reber (Musée d’art et d’histoire, Geneva) La chasuble de saint Ebbon de Sens, un vêtement liturgique, relique et reliquaire

17:00-17:20 – Break

17.20-17.40 – Nikos Toutos (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) Sponsors and Dedicators of Palaiologan Embroidered Epitaphioi
17.40-18.00 – Ηenry Schilb (Index of Christian Art, Princeton University) Anomalies or Evidence? Variants in Categories of Iconography on Epitaphioi of the Fourteenth through the Sixteenth Centuries

18.00-18.40 – Discussion-Pause

Β. Dress, Textiles and Textility in Later Byzantium (Chair: Melina Paisidou, Associate Professor of Byzantine Archaeology and Art)

18.40-19.00 – Georgios Makris (University of British Columbia) Threading and Adorning the Aristocracy: Representations of Dress and Accessories in the Late Medieval Southern Balkans
19.00-19.20 Paschalis Androudis (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) The Role of Textiles in the Transmission of Motifs and Patterns in Palaeologan Art (13th-15th c.)
19.20-19-40 Nikolaos Vryzidis (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) From Constantinople to Konstantiniyye: Late Byzantine and Ottoman Textile Cultures in Comparative Perspective

19.40-20.00 – Discussion

Sunday 21 March

Α. Balkan Perspectives (Chair: Natalia Poulou-Papademetriou, Professor of Byzantine Archaeology and Art)

16.00-16.20 – Alice Isabella Sullivan (University of Michigan) The Romanian Embroidery Tradition and Byzantium (15th and 16th c.)
16.20-16.40 – Nikos Mertzimekis (Ephorate of Antiquities of Chalcidice and Mount Athos) Double-Sided and Signed Labarum from Zografou Monastery, Mount Athos (16th c.)
16.40-17.00 – Tatjana Vuleta (Independent Scholar, Vienna) On the Back of a Turtle: The Elibelinde Motif on Embroidery and Kilims in Late Medieval and Post-Byzantine Serbia

17.00-17.40 – Discussion-Pause

B. Technical Art Historical Perspectives (Chair: Anastasios Tantsis, Assistant Professor of Byzantine Archaeology and Art)

17.40-18.00 – Sumru Berger Krody (Textile Museum, George Washington University) Woven Comfort: Early Medieval Wool Textiles in Compound Weave
18.00-18.20 – Elena Papastavrou (Ephorate of Antiquities of Zakynthos) & Daphne Filiou (Byzantine and Christian Museum) Between Byzantium and Italy: Ecclesiastical Embroidery on the Ionian Islands (17th-18th c.)
18.20-19.00 – Fani Kalokairinou (Folklore Museum of Larissa) Block-Printed Textiles of Tyrnavos: From the Dying Workshops to the Folklore Museum of Larissa
19.00-19.20 Anna Karatzani (University of West Attica) Evolution of Metal Threads and their Use in Post-Byzantine Ecclesial Fabrics

19.20-19.40 – Discussion

End of Conference

CFP: Medieval and Early Modern Studies Summer Festival, Online Conference (18-19 June 2021), deadline 30 April 2021

The Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies at the University of Kent will host its 7th annual Summer Festival on the 18th and 19th June 2021. This two-day event celebrates Medieval and Early Modern history, 400 – 1800, and encourages a wide range of interdisciplinary topics, including but not limited to, politics, religion, economics, art, drama, literature, and domestic culture. MEMS Fest aims to be an informal space in which postgraduate students, early career researchers, and academics can share ideas and foster conversations, whilst building a greater sense of community. Undergraduate students in their final year of study are also welcome at the conference.

MEMS Fest invites abstracts of up to 250 words for individual research papers of 20 minutes in length on ANY subject relating to the Medieval and Early Modern periods. The research can be in its earliest stages or a more developed piece.

MEMS Fest also encourage 700-word abstracts proposing a three-person panel, presenting on a specific subject or theme in Medieval or Early Modern studies. If you have an idea and would like us to advertise for it, please contact us at memsfestival@gmail.com.

Deadline for all Paper and Panel Proposals is Friday 30th April 2021. All applications must be sent to memsfestival@gmail.com with ‘MEMS Fest 2021 Abstract’ as the subject of the email.This opportunity allows you to showcase your research in a friendly environment and to network with fellow scholars from far-reaching institutions. For more information please contact the team on Facebook, Twitter, or at memsfestival.wordpress.com. Please do not hesitate to ask questions.

CFP: ‘Liminality: Crossing Borders, Crossing Boundaries’, University of Edinburgh, online (June 2021), deadline 5 April 2021

The Late Antique and Medieval Postgraduate Society (LAMPS) at the University of Edinburgh will host a one-day conference with the theme ‘Liminality: Crossing borders, crossing boundaries’, taking place virtually in late June 2021. This conference seeks to explore texts, events, and ideas that exist between and beyond traditional boundaries, and to further our understanding of a complex Late Antique and Medieval period that cannot be easily categorized and contained. It also aims to strengthen interdisciplinary connections within and outwith the University of Edinburgh, including but not limited to the fields of archaeology, history, classics, history of art, literature, language studies, Islamic studies, and theology.

The Society welcomes submissions for papers on the above theme and hopes to engage with a wider audience by providing a forum for postgraduate and early career scholars to present their research. Submissions for abstracts may include, but are certainly not limited to:

Hybrid identities
Journeys
The supernatural
Crossing linguistic borders
Legislating difference
Deviating from the norm
Interdisciplinary approaches.

Early career scholars and postgraduate students are invited to submit abstracts of up to 200 words for a twenty-minute paper, as well as a short biography of up to 100 words to lampsedinburgh@gmail.com by 5 April 2021.

Online Exhibition: ‘Visions of the End: A Virtual Exhibition’, Marco Institute for Medieval and Renaissance Studies

The Marco Institute for Medieval and Renaissance Studies presents a virtual exhibition, ‘Visions of the End’, curated by Jay Rubenstein and Gregor Kalas. Visitors can view pre-modern art and objects relating to ideas of the apocalypse, salvation and revelation. The exhibition features illuminated manuscripts, stained glass, sculpture, and enamelwork amongst other media. The artefacts are organised under three headings: The Culture of the Apocalypse, Conflict and Hope, and The Era of Peace.

Pictures of the artworks are accompanied by a description of their provenance, subject matter, and relevance to the exhibition’s key themes and ideas. You can even take a virtual tour of the physical exhibition, which was on temporary display at the McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture, with commentary from Curator of Academic Programs Katy Malone.

This exhibition was an important part of a broader array of classes and events at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville during the spring of 2020. “Apocalypse Semester,” as it came to be known, included courses in departments across the humanities on themes such as hell, climate change, zombies, visions of the end in early English literature, and apocalypticism in Medieval and Reformation Europe.

‘Visions of the End’ brings together artefacts from:

The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Glencairn Museum
The Morgan Library and Museum
Free Library of Philadelphia
The Walters Art Museum
National Gallery of Art

Explore the exhibition now via this link.

Online Lecture: ‘Reimagining a Hieronymite Choir Book from Seville’ with Matthew Westerby, The Maius Workshop, 23 March 2021, 17.00 GMT

The Maius Workshop welcomes Dr Matthew Westerby to discuss his latest research via Zoom on the 23rd March at 17.00 (GMT). This work-in-progress talk will present some new findings on the iconography and provenance of a series of cuttings from a richly illuminated choir book. Dr Westerby argues that the parent manuscript, a Gradual, was probably created in the late fifteenth century for the Observant Hieronymites of San Isidoro del Campo in Santiponce, near Seville. As used by this Hieronymite community, and later pasted into an album of cuttings by William Stirling Maxwell after 1849, he explores the continued production of meaning of these cuttings and their digital remediation.

Dr Matthew Westerby is Robert H. Smith Postdoctoral Research Associate for Digital Projects at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (CASVA), National Gallery of Art, Washington DC.

The event will take place on Zoom. Please register here to join. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Call for Submissions: New Book Series: Reinterpreting the Middle Ages: From Medieval to Neo

A new book series, Reinterpreting the Middle Ages: From Medieval to Neo, co-edited by Dr Claire Kennan (University of Reading) and Dr Emma J. Wells (University of York) and published by Brepols, was announced earlier this week. The series warmly welcomes volume proposals for both monographs and thematically coherent essay collections.

The aim is to provide a new publication platform for interdisciplinary studies of the Middle Ages; that is, research which analyses the impact and approaches to the study of the medieval era from its origins to the present day to create a unique dialogue between scholars, professionals, and practitioners. In moving away from traditional approaches and towards the inter- and multi-disciplinary, the premise is to gain a snapshot of how (and why) the Middle Ages have been formed and are perceived across fields as well as over vast periods of change and countries, boundaries, and borders; to continue driving and moulding this innovation through examinations of the phenomenon/movement (in traditional or ‘neo-’form), its historiography, representation, image, presentation, and pedagogies.

The Series offers radical, exciting, informed, and innovative readings of the importance and prominence of the Middle Ages in the twenty-first century, how and why its significance has endured since the post-medieval era, and, most importantly, how critical curiosity of the era has been received, imagined, invoked, used, abused, and refashioned in the Medieval, Early Modern, Modern and Contemporary periods (so to speak). Rich collisions and fresh perspectives reveal ideas and exercises across centuries of practice and provide a new set of reference points that reframe the ‘medieval’ itself thereby presenting a fresh, broad, and representative picture of the deep connections between the modern and pre-modern world.

Titles will cover all forms of engagement with the more emerging field of neo-medievalism—at least as a revivalist subdiscipline over the last two generations—from the academy to modern pedagogies and constructs in popular culture from a multitude of fields, including history, art, architecture, archaeology, literature, musicology, public engagement and interpretation, digital humanities/heritage. Welcoming burgeoning topics such as film & TV, video games, social media, performing arts/cinema/drama, and particularly education, race, gender and decolonisation, as well as traditional approaches including historiography and renaissance/revival studies, it is based on the premise that the Middle Ages should be cultivated within and expanded beyond the academy, thereby bringing the media, education, popular, historical, and political discourses, into an engagement and dialogue with the past.

Fields of interest
History, art, architecture, literature, performing arts, media, digital humanities, teaching, archaeology, music, languages, archives, heritage, museums, philosophy, education, religious studies, theology, anthropology, sociology.

Method of Peer Review
Double-blind undertaken by a specialist member of the Board or an external specialist.

Publishing Manager
Jirki Thibaut – jirki.thibaut@brepols.net

General Editors
Claire Kennan, University of Reading – c.m.kennan@reading.ac.uk
Emma J. Wells, University of York – emma.wells@york.ac.uk

Editorial Board

Jaume Aurell, University of Navarra
Richard Utz, University of Northern Iowa
Allison Gulley, Appalachian State University
Oleg Benesch, University of York
Peter Frankopan, University of Oxford
David Matthews, University of Manchester
Simon Trafford, The Institute of Historical Research (IHR)
KellyAnn Fitzpatrick, Affiliated Researcher at Georgia Tech
Katherine Lewis, Huddersfield University
Kavita Mudan Finn, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Vincent M. Ferré, Université Paris Est Créteil
Kenna Olsen, Mount Royal University
Guy Halsall, University of York
Michael Fordham, University of Cambridge
Nadia Altschul, University of Glasgow

Author Information
Brepols Publishers’ general guidelines in English and a proposal form for authors and editors are available here.

All volumes in this series are evaluated by an Editorial Board, strictly on academic grounds, based on reports prepared by referees who have been commissioned by virtue of their specialism in the appropriate field. The Board ensures that the screening is done independently and without conflicts of interest. The definitive texts supplied by authors are also subject to review by the Board before being approved for publication.

Why Publish with Brepols?

Authors work closely with and benefit from the expertise of the Editorial Board.
Comprehensive peer review ensures books published with Brepols have a reputation for high-quality scholarship.
Continuity of care – authors work with the same publishing manager throughout the publication process.
We offer comprehensive copyediting by experienced editors with a background in Classical, Medieval or Early Modern Studies.
All volumes published with Brepols are distributed and marketed worldwide

Podcast Series: Cathedral Stories by Canterbury Cathedral

Canterbury Cathedral created this special podcast series during lockdown to give you a sense of what makes the site so special and to learn something of its unique and colourful history.

UNESCO World Heritage Site, Seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and The Mother Church of the Worldwide Anglican Communion, the Cathedral has been a place of worship for 1,400 years. This podcast will give you an insight into the events and people who have helped to shape and mould it, the moments it has witnessed, and how what you see at the Cathedral today reflects all the people and ideas that have gone before.

The series celebrates the Cathedral’s history and heritage, art and architecture, as well as the personal experiences of those living and working on site today. Particular highlights from the series include the episodes on the Ancestors of Christ stained glass windows, the Black Prince, and the work of the Cathedral’s medieval masons.

All episodes streaming now on the Canterbury Cathedral website.

Online Course: Mosques in Sub-Saharan Africa with Aga Khan University, 21 and 28 May 2021, 13:30 – 16:30 (GMT)

This two-day online course introduces participants to Muslim architecture in Sub-Saharan Africa. Following an introduction on Islamic architecture and mosques, the first session will explore mosques in West Africa, from the Sahara to the tropical forests. The second session will look at the mosques in East Africa, from the Nile valleys to the Swahili coast. This day will be based on Professor Stephane Pradines’ extensive knowledge and fieldwork in Egypt, Ethiopia and the Swahili coast.

This short course provides the basis for understanding and critically examining the development of Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa. It approaches architecture through building materials and African construction techniques, from earthen monuments to coral stone buildings. Two important themes will be developed: first, the diffusion of ideas, people and material cultures across the Sahara Desert; second, the role of Islam in the building of maritime regional identities, international trading networks and urbanisation of the Swahili coast.

Learning Outcomes

This course presents Muslim architecture in a very specific context: Sub-Saharan Africa during the Medieval and Modern Ages. Following this short course, participants will be able to:

– Differentiate between mosques in Sub-Saharan Africa from their counterparts in North Africa and the Middle East.
– Recognise the different types of African mosques by geographical areas and by chronological phases.
– Learn about the importance of cultural exchanges across the Sahara Desert and the Indian Ocean.
– Receive a methodological background on archaeology, history, and the history of architecture in Sub-Saharan Africa.
– Distinguish between different types of building materials and natural resources in Africa.
Study the impact of the past to understand the political tensions in West Africa today.

Course Convenor

Professor Stephane Pradines is an archaeologist and Professor of Islamic Art and Architecture at the Aga Khan University’s Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations (AKU-ISMC) in London. Professor Pradines was the Director of the excavations of the Walls of Cairo (Egypt) and many other excavations in the Indian Ocean and East Africa. Currently, his main excavation project is at Lahore Fort in Pakistan. He is a specialist of Islamic archaeology in Sub-Saharan Africa, Indian Ocean medieval trade and Muslim material culture of war. Professor Pradines is the Founding Editor of the Journal of Material Cultures in the Muslim World (MCMW). He has published many articles and books on Swahili architecture, urbanism, and mosques. Professor Pradines is a mosque expert on the Indian Ocean region for UNESCO and the WMF. He has excavated several mosques in Ethiopia (Nora), Kenya (Gede), Tanzania (Songo Mnara, Sanje ya Kati and Kua) and the Maldives (Fandiyaaru and Bodha Miskiy, Koagannu, Hulhumeedhoo, Addu Atoll and Fenfushi, Ari Atoll). Professor Pralines’ latest book Historic Mosques in Sub-Saharan Africa, from Timbuktu to Zanzibar, by Brill Publishers, is due this summer.

Date and Time

21 and 28 May 2021, 13:30 – 16:30 ( London Time).

Tickets and Booking

Tickets: £75 professionals | £45 students, AKU alumni and AKU and AKDN staff.

For African professionals and institutions, please enquire for further information by contacting: ismc.marketing@aku.edu.

*The course will be delivered via Zoom. Readings and further details will be provided later upon registration.