CFP: ‘From Taxonomy to Fluxus: Nordic art at the borders between Medieval and Early Modern’, NORDIK 2025, deadline 28 February 2025

NORDIK 2025 conference, Helsinki, 20-22 October 2025

This session aims to critically examine the art historical hierarchy that traditionally positions certain figures or centers as the primary sources of artistic influence in the Nordic countries. Since the 1970s, and particularly throughout the 1980s, a shift in perspective emerged with social and technical studies revisiting established ideas about borders, centers, and peripheries in Medieval northern art. However, some forces have resisted this shift, and there remains a tendency to revert to national perspectives.

Today, there is a timely opportunity for a comprehensive, renewed view of Medieval Nordic art, prompted by the emergence of global art history, advancements in technical art history, and an increasing distance from earlier art historical paradigms.

This session seeks contributions that offer fresh perspectives on Medieval Nordic art. We welcome submissions that address:

  • Art Historiography: Topics illuminating the contributions of the early generation of scholars as well as the contemporary currents that resist or challenge a radical reassessment of art historical traditions.
  • Defining “Nordic” in Medieval Art: Studies exploring the concept of “Nordic” within the discipline, notions of being localised “inside” or “outside” the region and the implications of horizontal art history.
  • Cross-Disciplinary Case Studies: Investigations merging art history with conservation science, where material studies either challenge or reinforce traditional assumptions about the boundaries of Nordic art.
  • Network Studies: Research on artistic networks, clusters, and interactions between agents and “actors” within the Nordic region’s art production and trade.

Session chairs:
Kristin Kausland, kristin.kausland@niku.no Julia Trinkert, trinkert@hhu.de

Please submit your proposal to session chairs by 28th of February 2025.

Find out more here.

New Publication: ‘Representations of Saint Anne and the Virgin Mary from the Middle Ages to the Early Modern Period: Exploring Iconographic Flexibility and Permeability’, edited by Andrea-Bianka Znorovszky 

Between the thirteenth and the sixteenth centuries, the cult of the Virgin Mary underwent significant changes, a shift clearly revealed by an increase in artistic representations of Mary, as well as a flourishing devotional literature in her honour, written in both Latin and the vernacular. One aspect of this change was a broader attention to Mary’s genealogical line, and in particular to her relationship with St Anne. The result was not only a renewed focus on the vita Annae, but also a significant overlap in how these two women were represented, juxtaposed, and perceived.

This volume traces the often significant iconographic flexibility in terms of both how the Virgin Mary and Saint Anne were presented and perceived, and what can be termed a permeability between visual representations of the two saints. Focusing on the multiple readings, layers of meaning, and the visual interplay between the vita Mariae and the vita Annae, the chapters gathered here explore the overlap and influence between different iconographic motifs, and how these were used to advance political, religious, and social ideologies at the time of their creation, as well as exploring representations across a range of different media, from sculptures and frescoes to panel paintings, and manuscript illuminations.

Published with Brepols Publishers (https://www.brepols.net/products/IS-9782503608853-1).

Conference: ‘IBERSAINTS: Making and Remaking Saints in the Iberian Peninsula and Beyond during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period c. 600-1600’, Universidad de Salamanca, 24-26 March 2025

This international conference explores the means of constructing and reconstructing saints in and beyond the Iberian Peninsula with particular emphasis on:

  • the import of new saints into the Iberian Peninsula from the Holy Land, neighbouring territories, occupied territories;
  • the export of saints from the Iberian Peninsula to Europe, Latin America;
  • the re/creation of saints in the Iberian Peninsula;

To attend the conference online, contact the organizer not later than 19 March 2025 at znorovszkyandrea@usal.es.

For more information: https://eventum.usal.es/go/ibersaints

Conference programme

Monday 24 March/Lunes 24 de marzo

Sala de Grados, Facultad de Geografía e Historia, calle Cervantes, s./n.

09:20-09:40 Registration

09:40-10:00 Welcome (Iñaki Martín Viso, Andrea-Bianka Znorovszky)

10:00-11:30 Session 1. The Virgin Mary Chair: Andrea-Bianka Znorovszky

  • Maria do Carmo Raminhas Mendes, Universidade da Beira Interior, From Penha to Seixo: Medieval and Modern Marian Devotions in the Portuguese Beira Region
  • Danai Thomaidis, Princeton University, Iconic Crossings: Unveiling Religious Imagery in Mediterranean and Atlantic Colonization
  • Mario Lozano Alonso, Universidad Eclesiástica San Dámaso, A Failed Attempt to Create a Local Catholic Church in an Orthodox Country: The Importation of Catholic Iconographies, Saints and Marian Devotions in Ethiopia During the Jesuit Mission (1557-1632)

11:30 – 12:00 BREAK/DESCANSO

12:00 – 13:30 Session 2. Holy Queens and Princess(es) Chair: Isadora Martins Fontoura de Carvalho

  • Giulia Rossi Vairo, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Saint Elizabeth of Portugal, the Holy Queen: from Ibersaint to Global Saint
  • María López-Monís Yuste, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, “Vas admirabile, opus excelsi”: the Iconographies of St Elizabeth of Hungary in the Iberian Peninsula (13th-14th centuries)
  • Kristin Hoefener, Center for the Study of the Sociology and Aesthetics of Music, Between Royal Duty and Religious Devotion: Princess Joana of Portugal and the Dominican Convent of Aveiro
  • Sunghoon Lee, University of Wisconsin, Catarina de San Juan’s Portrait: Transpacific Journey and Visionary Experiences of an Enslaved Asian Woman in Seventeenth-Century Puebla

13:30 – 15:00 LUNCH BREAK/ALMUERZO

15:00 – 16:00 Session 3. Cross-dressed Saints Chair: Giulia Rossi Vairo

  • Andrew M. Beresford, Durham University, The Legend of Saint Eugenia in Early Iberian Art and Literature
  • Andrea-Bianka Znorovszky, Universidad de Salamanca, Visualizing Saint Marina the Monk in the Iberian Peninsula: Image, Relics, and Cult

16: 30 – 18: 30 Cultural visit: Salamanca -UNESCO World Heritage site

                          (N.B. visit schedule could be subject of change)

Tuesday 25 March/Martes 25 de marzo

Sala de Grados, Facultad de Geografía e Historia, calle Cervantes, s./n.

10:00-11:30 Session 4. Women Martyrs and Mystics Chair: María López-Monís Yuste

  • Haruko Nawata Ward, Columbia Theological Seminary, Santa Anastasia between Ancient Rome and Early Modern Kirishitan Japan
  • Sylvia Alvares-Correa, Christ Church College Oxford, Translating the Relics, Hagiography, and Imagery of St Auta
  • Susan E. Matassa, University of Dallas, St. Teresa of Avila in Richard Crashaw’s “The Flaming Heart”: The Art of Reading Hagiography

11:30 – 12:00 BREAK/PAUSA

12:00 – 13:30 Session 5. Apostle(s), abbots, monks Chair: Kristin Hoefener

  • Ildikó Csepregi, Universidade de Vigo, From Riches to Rags: The Curious Life and Miracles of San Rosendo
  • Israel Sanmartín Barros, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, The Historiographic Circulation of the Traveller Saints to Paradise in Medieval Iberia
  • Steffen Hope, Universitetet i Oslo, Santiago and the North – Transmission and Reception in the Twelfth-Century Nordic Sphere  

13:30 – 15:00 LUNCH BREAK/ALMUERZO

15:00-16:30 Session 6. Clerics, friars, monks Chair: Andrea-Bianka Znorovszky

  • José Manuel Simões, Universidade de Évora, History, Synchronic Awareness and the Multifunctionality of ‘Vita Martini Sauriensis’
  • Adrian Bremenkamp, Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max-Planck-Institut for Art History, The Early Image Cult and Delayed Sainthood of Raymond of Penyafort
  • Carlos Tejerizo García, Universidad de Salamanca, Gonzalo J. Escudero Manzano, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, “It is very true he has come from Saint Martin of Castañeda”. A Transdisciplinary Analysis about the Creation of Saint Giles of Casayo Myth (13th-17th Centuries)

17:00-18:00 Museo de Salamanca, Patio de Escuelas, 7

Poster Presentations. Chair: Andrea-Bianka Znorovszky

  • Isadora Martins Fontoura de Carvalho, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Topografía transferida y reimaginada. La sacralización de la naturaleza en el culto de las mujeres mártires en Galicia
  • Kyle Lincoln, Southeastern Oklahoma State University, Los santos y sus sucesores en Castilla a finales del siglo XII. Tres casos de estudio de santos putativos y sus sucesores pragmáticos (c. 1180 – 1210)
  • Tomás Bado Michel, Universidad de Salamanca, La santidad de los obispos en la Península Ibérica: ¿por qué era necesario el poder para alcanzar la gloria?
  • Emma Ferrari, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, San Isidro Labrador en la Milán del siglo XVII. Reflexiones sobre Cerano y su taller
  • Azucena Francina María Donkervoort, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, La reconstrucción del rey santo medieval Fernando III en la novela histórica y la prensa del siglo XIX español

18:00  Cultural visit: Museo de Salamanca, Salamanca

Wednesday 26 March/Miércoles 26 de marzo

Sala de Grados, Facultad de Geografía e Historia, calle Cervantes, s./n.

  • 10:30-11:30 Session 7. Apostles, Martyrs, and Rural Saints Chair: Andrea-Bianka Znorovszky
  • Rose Walker, Courtauld Institute of Art, Canonising the Early Friendship Circle
  • Kati Ihnat, Radbound Universiteit, Why Martyrs? The Prevalence of Martyred Saints in the Early Medieval Iberian Canon
  • Ricardo Fernández González, Stockholms Universitet, Saints and Blood: Saint Isidro, Saint María de la Cabeza and the Dismissal of Madrid’s Islamic Past

11:30-12:00   BREAK/PAUSA

12:00 – 13:30 BOOK PRESENTATION /Presentación

Book: Andrea-Bianka Znorovszky (ed.) Representations of Saint Anne and the Virgin Mary from the Middle Ages to the Early Modern Period. Exploring Iconographic Flexibility and Permeability. Turnhout: Brepols Publishers, 2025.

In-presence: Andrea-Bianka Znorovszky, Universidad de Salamanca

Online: Nina Chichinadze, Ilia State University

             Mihnea Alexandru Mihail, Universitatea Naţională de Arte Bucureşti

             Elliott D. Wise, Brigham Young University

             Fiammetta Campagnoli, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne

             Stefanie Paulmichl, Università di Trento

             Letícia Martins de Andrade, Universidade Federal de São João del-Rei 

             Rosie Bonté, Brepols Publishers 

13:30 – 13:45 CLOSING REMARKS / Conclusiones

14:00 – 14:30  Cultural visit: Biblioteca General Histórica, Universidad de Salamanca

14:30  LUNCH/Almuerzo

Murray Seminar: ‘Leonardo and Melzi: the role of illustrations in the composition and creation of meaning in the Libro di pittura’ with Juliana Barone, 12 February 2025 (5-6.30pm GMT)

12 Feb 2025, Birkbeck, 43 Gordon Square, Keynes Library and Online, 17:00 — 18:30 GMT

It is well known that Leonardo intended to write a treatise on painting. His thoughts on the structure and content of his projected treatise are often found in his manuscripts. But no final piece of writing has come down to us, at least not as a complete work in our sense. Where we now find the bulk of his ideas on painting is in the sixteenth-century compilation by his heir and student, Francesco Melzi. Housed in the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana and titled Libro di pittura di M. Lionardo da Vinci pittore et scultore fiorentino (Codex Urbinas Latinus 1270), Melzi’s compilation offers materials extracted from eighteen of Leonardo’s manuscripts (some now lost). This paper newly discusses some of the difficulties that Melzi must have faced during the rather complex process of selecting and extracting materials from a large number of Leonardo’s manuscripts in composing the Libro di pittura. More specifically, it sheds lights on some key ways in which Melzi used Leonardo’s illustrations for composing and creating meaning. In also discusses the extent to which Melzi’s choices are a direct translation of Leonardo’s ideas and affected the visual corpus of a book that was meant to be seen as Leonardo’s official treatise on the art and theory of painting.

Dr Juliana Barone is Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of History of Art at Birkbeck College, University of London, and Associate Research Fellow at the Warburg Institute. She was awarded her Doctorate at Trinity College, Oxford University. Her research encompasses European Art, theory and culture in the period of 1400-1700,  with a focus on Leonardo da Vinci and the ways in which knowledge has been expressed, assimilated and transmitted. Her main publications include: Leonardo da Vinci: A Mind in Motion (2019); Leonardo in Britain: Collections and Historical Reception (with Susanna Avery-Quash, 2019); Leonardo in Seventeenth-Century France: Paradoxical Legacies (2013); I disegni di Leonardo da Vinci e della sua cerchia. Collezioni in Gran Bretagna (with Martin Kemp, 2010); The Codex Arundel (2008). She has also curated exhibitions in London (British Library; Peltz Gallery); Milan (Biblioteca Ambrosiana) and Florence (Museo Galileo). She is currently working on a volume entitled Leonardo da Vinci’s Papers: Invention and Reconstruction.

Please Book Here for the In Person

Please Book Here for the Livestream

CFP: ‘Medieval Images of the Virgin: Materialities, Environments, Ecologies’, University of Bamberg, deadline 15 March 2025

University of Bamberg, Institute for Archaeological Sciences, Heritage Sciences and History of Art, Chair of Medieval Art History, 22–23 May 2025

Medieval images of the Virgin do not exist in isolation, but as part of living, constantly changing environments. They interact with human and non-human actors. And, most importantly, they possess a specific materiality that deepens their message as artefacts, but can also be in tension with it, complicate it or even call it into question.

A central assumption of the workshop is that both materials and environments of medieval images of the Virgin Mary are meaningful: The materials because of their chemical properties, their histories and cultural encodings. The environments – natural and artificial light, sound, scent, heat, cold, moisture, and the contact with living nature in general – because they have physical effects on the artefact and also determine the conditions for its perception.

The aim of the workshop is to examine these complex interactions and to explore possible references to the multifaceted and changing medieval concepts of Mary – Virgo, Theotokos, Sedes Sapientiae, Queen of Heaven, Mediatrix and many more.

The workshop will focus on three-dimensional, medieval images of the Virgin. The notion of sculpture is deliberately interpreted widely and explicitly includes all kinds of materials (stone, wood, metal, plaster, wax, ivory and many more). But contributions from the fields of painting, mural painting and book illumination are also welcome.

The environments and ecologies to be discussed include the multi-sensory church space and its liturgical settings, museum settings, as well as the contact with plants and the elements in specific outdoor scenarios (both historical and contemporary).

The keynote lecture is given by Heather Pulliam (Professor of Medieval Art, University of Edinburgh): “Eco-iconography of eighth-century Iona: The Virgin Mary, ‘dark waters’ and ‘the tabernacle of the sun’”.

The workshop is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and will be published with University of Bamberg Press. The costs for travel and accommodation will be reimbursed within the usual limits. Conference language is English.

Application:

  • Please send proposals with an abstract of ca. 300 words together with a short CV to the following address by March 15, 2025: katharina.schueppel@uni-bamberg.de

Image credit: Tilman Riemenschneider (c. 1460-1531), The Virgin and Child Enthroned, Germany, Lower Franconia, Würzburg, c. 1500-1505

Conference: ‘Les arts de l’autel médiéval: De la genèse des objets aux stratégies muséographiques’, Paris EHESS / Musée du Louvre, 3-5 February 2025 

Au cours des dernières années, l’équipe interuniversitaire TEMPLA a développé un projet de recherche qui étudie, à partir de sources documentaires et des dispositifs visuels conservés in situ ou dans des musées, la mémoire des cultes permanents ou changeants pratiqués par des religieux et des laïcs dans des églises médiévales. Ce projet propose une étude holistique des sanctuaires d’une série de sites cathédraux (IXe-XVe siècles). L’étude des contextes matériels des sanctuaires est menée de front avec l’examen des dispositifs artistiques destinés à orner les autels et leur environnement immédiat, à révéler et à exalter les saints titulaires et la divinité et à identifier le promoteur et le concepteur de l’œuvre (à travers l’héraldique et l’écriture).

Les analyses de la matérialité des structures architecturales et des dispositifs visuels sont combinées avec une approche phénoménologique des œuvres et une compréhension liturgique des rites et des dévotions spécifiques. D’un point de vue méthodologique, nous examinons le décor visuel en relation avec les manifestations sociales attendues au moment des célébrations rituelles. Ce colloque est convoqué pour suivre cette ligne de pensée, dans laquelle le maître-autel est envisagé comme l’épicentre rituel, spirituel, mais aussi matériel et émotionnel de toute église.

Au fil du temps, et dans le contexte de l’autel de nombreuses productions artistiques ont été privées de l’usage, du contexte et des significations envisagées lors de leur genèse. La matérialité de certaines de ces œuvres a pu être détériorée, altérée voire fusionnée avec d’autres supports pour revêtir de nouvelles valeurs sémantiques. Les questions de conservation et d’exposition dans des musées fondés à partir du XIXe siècle offrent une excellente occasion de réfléchir à la biographie de ces objets. Ces transformations montrent qu’une œuvre peut être lue selon de nouvelles conditions de perception et d’usages culturels, contextuels ou environnementaux modifiés, de telle sorte qu’elle peut être reconsidérée et réinterprétée dans son intégralité.

En prenant en considération ces différents angles d’approche et des méthodes éprouvées dans le cadre de l’étude de la « longue vie » des objets, ce colloque a pour objectif d’attirer l’attention sur ce phénomène répandu, mais largement négligé par l’historiographie, à travers diverses lignes thématiques :

– la « seconde vie » et la réception ultérieure de certains artefacts à usage liturgique ayant perdu leur fonction originelle, mués en objets de collection ou destinés à la contemplation esthétique ;

– les valeurs théologiques, apotropaïques et thaumaturgiques conférées à certains objets à travers des stratégies religieuses ou des traditions populaires quant à leur matérialité ;

– l’influence des multiples facteurs (politiques, religieux, commerciaux) qui ont conduit à la variation matérielle et idéelle des œuvres d’art liées à des autels médiévaux ;

– la prise en compte d’exemples de ces phénomènes dans les collections des musées, à commencer par celles du Musée du Louvre, du Musée national du Moyen Âge, du Museu Episcopal de Vic et du Musée de l’Université de Bergen.

Ce colloque offre l’occasion de reconsidérer les œuvres en elles-mêmes, comme autant de points de départ pour la compréhension de significations modulables en fonction des contextes successifs de leur usage. Les discussions et les résultats de cette rencontre permettront également d’envisager de nouvelles stratégies muséographiques et de médiation pour présenter ces œuvres au public.

Conference Programme

Lundi 3 février 2025

Location: Musée de Cluny

15.00-17.00 : Visite et débat sur place guidée par Christine Descatoire (réservé aux intervenants)

// Rendez-vous: 6, pl. Paul Painlevé //

Mardi 4 février 2025

Location: École des hautes études en sciences sociales

// CAMPUS CONDORCET. HUMATHÈQUE 10 cours des Humanités, 93322 Aubervilliers //

Inscription: vincent.debiais@ehess.fr

08.45 : Bienvenue – Présentation du colloque. Gerardo Boto (Univ. de Girona)

Président de séance : Jean-Claude Schmitt (EHESS)

09.00: Bissera Pentcheva (Stanford Univ.) – Choros of Fire: Crowns, Altars, and Saints in the Ecclesiastical Space

09.30: discussion

09.45 : Vincent Debiais (EHESS – CNRS – Templa) – Déplacements d’écriture autour de l’autel : la crypte de la cathédrale d’Essen

10.15 : discussion

11.00 : Devis Valenti (Soprintendenza Archeologia Belle Arti e Paesaggio per il Comune di Venezia e Laguna (Ministero della Cultura) – La chapelle de la crypte de la cathédrale de Torcello (IXe siècle) : nouvelles découvertes à la suite des récentes restaurations

11.30 : discussion

11.45: Francesca Dell’Acqua (Univ. di Salerno) – 3D glowing holy. The altar and its surroundings in eighth- and ninth-century Rome, Milan, and Francia

12.15 : discussion

Président de séance : Dominique Iogna-Prat (EHESS)

14.00 : Marc Sureda (Museu Episcopal de Vic – Templa) – Décor et sacralité de l’autel médiéval en Catalogne romane

14.30 : discussion

14.45 : Manuela Gianandrea (Sapienza Università di Roma) & Elisabetta Scirocco (Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max-Planck-Institut für Kunstgeschichte) – In ambitu altaris: dispositivi spaziali per potenziare il sacro

15.15 : discussion

15.30 : Sophie Kelly (Univ. of Bristol) – Objects from tomb of Hubert Walter (d. 1215) in Canterbury Cathedral and the material evidence for altar furnishings in medieval England

16.00 : discussion

16.45 : Fernando Gutiérrez Baños (Univ. de Valladolid) – Decoraciones de altar de los siglos XIII y XIV en la Corona de Castilla : retorno a las fuentes literarias y documentales

17.15 : discussion

17.30 : Marcello Angheben (Univ. Poitiers – CESMC – Templa) – La création des retables de Burgos à la fin du Moyen Âge : une réponse originale aux besoins de la liturgie, du culte et de la dévotion

18.00 : discussion

18.15 : Esther Lozano (Univ. Nacional de Educación a Distancia-Templa) & Marta Serrano (Univ. Rovira i Virgili-Templa) – Visibilia et invisibilia dans les sanctuaires des cathédrales de Tarragone et de Saragosse. Retables-cloison et redéfinition des espaces rituels et de circulation

18.45 : discussion

Mercredi 5 février 2025

Location: Centre Dominique–Vivant Denon – Musée du Louvre

// Porte des Arts, 2 Quai François Mitterrand, Paris //

Inscription : programmation-centre-vivant-denon@louvre.fr

Président de séance : Philippe Cordez (Musée du Louvre)

09.30 : Pierre Alain Mariaux (Univ. Neuchâtel) – Mettre en scène le numineux ? Le reliquaire, de l’autel à la vitrine

10.00 : discussion

10.15 : Julie Glodt (Univ. Paris I) – Entre l’autel et le musée. Regards modernes sur les antependia textiles médiévaux

10.45 : discussion

11.15 : Christine Descatoire (Musée de Cluny – Musée National du Moyen Âge) & Frédéric Tixier (Univ. de Lorraine) – Parements et décors d’autel des collections du musée de Cluny

11.45 : discussion

12.00 : Florian Meunier (Musée du Louvre. Département des Objets d’art) – La question des chandeliers de la cathédrale de Bethléem (XIIe siècle) du Terra Sancta Museum de Jérusalem

12.30 : discussion

Président de séance : Anne-Orange Poilpré (Univ. Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne)

14.00 : Gerhard Lutz (Cleveland Museum) – Hans Schnatterpeck and Hans Schäufelein in Niederlana (South Tyrol). Questions on Alpine altarpieces around 1500

14.30 : discussion

14.45 : Justin Kroesen (Univ. Bergen – Templa) – Medieval Altar Furnishings at the University Museum of Bergen. From Cult to Culture

15.15 : discussion

15.30-15.45 : Conclusions. Xavier Barral i Altet (INHA)

16.00-18.00 : Visite et débat sur place guidée par Pierre-Yves Le Pogam (réservé aux intervenants)

Informations pratiques

Entrée gratuite. Capacité d’accueil limitée

Study Day: Miracles in Glass: the Study and Conservation of Canterbury’s Stained Glass Heritage, Canterbury Cathedral, 31 March 2025

Monday 31 March 2025, 10:45-17:15

Organised by the Stained Glass Studio and the Archives and Library of Canterbury Cathedral, in conjunction with the Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, University of Kent.

Canterbury Cathedral is a storehouse of some of Europe’s finest medieval stained glass, including the unique Thomas Becket ‘Miracle Windows’ portraying medieval men, women, and children experiencing the healing touch of the saint.

This study day takes advantage of the removal of one of the Miracle Windows for a day of lectures and guided tours, including the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for participants to see panels from the window up close in the Cathedral’s Stained Glass Conservation Studio.

Speakers will include Prof Rachel Koopmans of York University, Toronto; Leonie Seliger, Director of the Stained Glass Studio; Dr Emily Guerry of the University of Oxford; and Dr Tom Nickson of the Courtauld Institute.

Participants will become acquainted with the many twists and turns of the long history of the conservation and study of the Cathedral’s glass. Rare archival materials will be on display in the Cathedral Archives, alongside a newly acquired set of material relating to recent study of the glass.

Participants will also be provided with a guided tour of the Trinity Chapel, where the miracle windows were installed around Thomas Becket’s shrine in the early thirteenth century.

Booking essential. Spaces are limited.

On the day, please arrive promptly at 10:30 for registration.

See full event details and outline programme

General admission: £60. Includes lunch and refreshments.

Bursaries available for unwaged/students. Please enquire, via email: email archives@canterbury-cathedral.org

New Publication: ‘Art and Drama on a Late Medieval Rood Screen: Unveiling a Mystical Passion’ by Michael Calder

With little scholarly attention having been given to the late medieval iconography that features on rood screens in the southwest of England, the significance of the figures painted at Berry Pomeroy has long been underappreciated. The unlocking of their meaning by the author has led to the discovery of a unique iconographic program. The gestures adopted by many of these figures belong to a common visual culture in the art and drama of the medieval church. The iconography, which reflects a Gothic Mannerist style of the early sixteenth century, displays a marked theatricality giving expression to the mysteries of the faith in the form of a drama. The narrative recorded has notable similarities to that found in a dramatic trilogy which was once performed in Cornwall called the Ordinalia. This book makes an important contribution to scholarship in the genre of mysticism in art and to our understanding of popular devotional practices on the eve of the Reformation.

Find out more about the book on De Gruyter website. 

About the author

Michael Calder, an independent scholar and author who worked as a specialist advisor to the National Trust in England, brings a multi-disciplinary approach to art history.

CFP: ‘Sanguis Christi: Visual Culture / Visionary Culture (13th–18th centuries)’ (December 2025), deadline 1 April 2025

Dates of conference: December 3–5, 2025  |  Location: Louvain-la-Neuve

The subject of the Blood of Christ has fueled Christian devotional culture in Europe since the mid-Middle Ages. Rooted in the veneration of relics, it quickly became central with the progressive establishment of the dogma of transubstantiation, particularly at the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), and the development of a liturgy specifically celebrating the Corpus Christi: the Feast of Corpus Christi, universally promoted within Christendom by the papal bull Transiturus (1264).

This interdisciplinary conference aims to explore how devotion to the Holy Blood, in its various forms and manifestations (relics, sacraments, miracles), shaped and nourished the emergence of a visual culture in Europe from the Middle Ages to the 18th century.

Through the lens of visuality—whether visible and/or visionary—this colloquium will examine the theological debates, the development and evolution of a devotional culture, including its social and political dimensions, and their impact on modes of representation in iconography. By visual/visionary culture, we aim to investigate what is rendered visible of the Blood of Christ and to explore the tension between what miracles make perceptible to the senses and what remains beyond perception, opening the faithful to a spiritual and sacred dimension and inspiring new modes of rendering the divine visible.


Proposals for contributions may align with one of the following three thematic axes:

1) Doctrinal Foundations and Eucharistic Liturgies

This axis will address the doctrinal points leading to or following the establishment of the dogma of transubstantiation and the institution of the Eucharistic liturgy. The question of the visible/visionary, which arises with the affirmation of Christ’s full and real presence in each species, created profound theological challenges concerning the status of miracles that made Christ’s Blood visible (mirari). Proposals may focus on theological debates or disputes surrounding this dogma and liturgy, examining key milestones such as the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), the Council of Constance (1418), or the Council of Trent (1545). Special attention could be given to the Feast of Corpus Christi, the cult of the Holy Blood, or specific Eucharistic miracles, such as those of Bolsena (1263), Florence (1230), Fécamp (11th century), Louvain (1347), Bruges (1146), Brussels (1370), Paris (1290), Passau (1477), or Deggendorf (1337). Contributions might also consider theological writings that sought to define or interrogate the status of these miracles and their narratives.

2) Visual/Visionary Culture in Social and Cultural History

This axis will explore the role of visual/visionary elements in cultural and social history related to the devotional culture surrounding the Holy Blood and transubstantiation. Proposals might examine dynamics contributing to a new visual culture, particularly in lay contexts and observance practices. Submissions could also address the materiality-centered liturgies, sensory-focused preaching styles blending sensory, mental, and spiritual images, or the construction of miracle narratives at the intersection of the visible and the visionary. Social and political dimensions may also be considered, analyzing how accounts of Eucharistic miracles and manifestations of the Holy Blood (pilgrimages, rituals, theatrical performances, processions) were used by clerical and secular authorities to foster community unity or as instruments of division and controversy.

3) Visualizing the Holy Blood: Object-Image Culture

This axis focuses on the visual and visionary devices that rendered the Holy Blood visible through a culture of object-images, which diversified and expanded over the centuries with the development of new media. Contributions could explore visual/visionary strategies in liturgical and para-liturgical ceremonies, increasing attention to images and their staging, the use of mobile images, the interplay of veiling and unveiling, the theatricality of certain representations, or the dialogue between illustrated manuscripts and image walls. Proposals might also consider the proliferation of small-format prints. These facets of the Holy Blood’s visual culture provide an opportunity to analyze how images functioned in thaumaturgic, visionary and soteriology, mediating between the visible and invisible and shaping new visual or visionary experiences for the faithful.

Submission Guidelines

The conference will take place from December 3–5, 2025, at the Université Catholique de Louvain (Louvain-la-Neuve). Proposals, in French or English, should not exceed 500 words and must include a CV. Submissions are due by April 1, 2025, and should be sent to manon.chaidron@uclouvain.be and mathilde.mares@gmail.com.

Selected contributions will be published in a collective volume. Proposals should emphasize themes related to visibility/invisibility and visual/visionary dynamics.
Where possible, accommodation and travel expenses will be covered.

We encourage participation from researchers across disciplines to enrich the analysis of visual culture mechanisms and foster a collective reflection on their modes of apprehension. This interdisciplinary approach offers an opportunity to situate these dynamics within a broader mental and social history of devotional movements.

Online lecture: ‘Golden Wreaths for Hippocrates: Art, Learning, and Lineage on a Medieval Cup’ with Dr Mary Franklin-Brown, 4 February 2025 (5:30 – 7pm GMT)

Join this lecture on a medieval cup made for Humfrey & Eleanor, Duke & Duchess of Gloucester, and owned by Lady Margaret Beaufort.

Register for a spot over on Eventbrite. 

For the coming months, Christ’s College, Cambridge has lent its Foundress’ Cup to the British Library, where it is featured in the exhibition ‘Medieval Women: In Their Own Words’ (25 October 2024-2 March 2025).

Medieval cups of this shape were used during dinner for drinking wine or after dinner for a sweetened, spiced wine called ‘Hippocras’. This drink was named for the ancient physician Hippocrates because it was thought to promote health by aiding digestion. Cups were large because they were commonly shared between two individuals. At the end of a meal a cup could be passed round the whole table.

The Christ’s College cup is one of the few to survive. It was commissioned in the 1430s by Humfrey and Eleanor, Duke and Duchess of Gloucester. Humfrey was the son of the first Lancastrian king, Henry IV, brother to Henry V and uncle to the ill-fated Henry VI. The cup disappeared from the historical record during the Wars of the Roses, but after the accession of the first Tudor king, Henry VII, the cup reappeared in the possession of the king’s mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond. At her death in 1509, it came to Christ’s College.

Christ’s was not the first learned community to have used the cup. The Gloucesters established a humanist court at their property in Greenwich, now the Royal Observatory, and they commissioned new copies, translations, and summaries of inherited knowledge. Duke Humfrey made generous donations to Oxford University Library. Lady Margaret was an influential patron of early English printers and endowed two Cambridge colleges.

Despite its beauty and significance, the cup has never before been studied as an artwork. No one has considered its relation to other Gothic arts or attempted to identify the many plants in the garlands figured on its surface. How do the plants relate to the intellectual interests and familial affections of the Gloucesters? What meaning may have been attributed to the cup by Lady Margaret and College Fellows of the early Tudor period?

These questions are asked in new research by Dr Mary Franklin-Brown, Fellow in Medieval Studies and Honorary Keeper of the Plate at Christ’s, University Associate Professor in Modern and Medieval Languages, and author of Reading the World: Encyclopedic Writing of the Scholastic Age (University of Chicago Press, 2012). In this lecture, she will present her current understanding of the cup. She will show how the goldsmith asserts the specificity of his craft and materials in relation to the other arts of the age and how the patrons adapt the canons of Gothic ornament to create a shining spiral of references to poetry, heraldry, cuisine, medicine, and alchemy.

The event will be hosted by Dr Sophie Read, Fellow of Christ’s and University Associate Professor of Renaissance English Literature. Dr Read is the author of Eucharist and the Poetic Imagination in Early Modern England (Cambridge University Press, 2013), and she is now at work on a new book, Speaking Sweet: Renaissance Rhetorics of Smell.