Online Course: London Art History Society presents – Early Christian Rome with John McNeill, 11 – 25 November 2020

Begins: Wednesday 11 November 2020 – Wednesday 25 November 2020 (11am-12pm)

Programme
Imperial capital until the early fourth century and home to the papacy, Rome was the city where Octavian was proclaimed Augustus and SS Peter and Paul were martyred. This online study event considers how Rome became a Christian city. The very earliest Christian art and architecture emerged, almost imperceptibly, out of the allusive religious art of the eastern Mediterranean. Its forms often amounted to no more than simple signs and inscriptions, and its monuments were almost invisible to view – an ordinary house front, an underground burial chamber. Constantine’s granting of a legal personality to the Church in 313 changed that. Henceforth, a public monumental Christian art and architecture was possible, and was actively embraced as vast ecclesiastical building projects transformed the city. This online study event is arranged as three one-hour lectures, which respectively discuss the emergence of Christian imagery in the catacombs between c.250 and c.400 AD, the development of ecclesiastical building types such as basilicas, baptisteries and martyria, and the birth of Christian narrative art.

Lectures:
Wednesday 11 November 2020, 11am-12pm
The Catacombs: Planning and Painting

Wednesday 18 November 2020, 11am-12pm
Architecture in Rome from Constantine to Pope Honorius I (625-38)

Wednesday 25 November 2020, 11am-12pm
Monumental Imagery: Apse mosaics and the emergence of Narrative Painting c.350-c.650

John McNeill lectures for the Department of Continuing Education at Oxford University and is a Vice-President of the London Art History Society. He is the Honorary Secretary of the British Archaeological Association, for whom he has edited and contributed to volumes on English medieval cloisters, chantries and Romanesque material culture. He has a longstanding interest in Rome and early Christian culture

*You must be a member of the London Art History Society*

Please note that you will need to be familiar with Zoom in order to participate – we do not have the capacity to provide any back-up or advice on the use of Zoom. We recommend that you log on to Zoom 15 minutes before the start time of the event even if you are familiar with the app since the process can take some time if a lot of participants are logging on at the same time. You will receive an email first thing on the day of each lecture with details of how to join the event. If you do not receive it please check your spam/junk mail folder.

Find out more here.

Conference: Fourteenth International Conference of Iconographic Studies – Iconography and Hagiography: Visualising Holiness, 15-16 October 2020

Center for Iconographic Studies – University of Rijeka, Société des Bollandistes and Hagiotheca Croatian Hagiography Society are organising the Fourteenth International Conference of Iconographic Studies – Iconography and Hagiography: Visualizing Holiness on 15th and 16th October 2020.
The range of literary sources that concern the saints has been immensely wide over the long period of time and has presented central feature of the Christian literary and visual culture. This conference seeks to explore the ways and mechanisms of the translation of these sources in visual language in Eastern and Western Christianity. Scholars will present proposals on different topics on the relation between hagiography and iconography such as: martyr acts and lives, hagiographical romances, and edifying tales represented in visual arts in East and West; individualization vs. generalization in hagiography and iconography; question and role of gender in visualizing sanctity; saintly bodies in visual arts – relics, spectacles, perfomances, and religious devotion; new research instruments for hagiographical texts and images; popular iconography in the age of the printing press; saints and the new media (movies, comic books etc.). Academic papers will approach these subjects from interdisciplinary and methodologically diverse angles.

Please see the programme of events via the link below:

http://cis.ffri.hr/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/PROGRAM-1.pdf

It will take place online on the ZOOM Pro platform. The participation is open to wider audience. The program and all the relevant info please find at: http://cis.ffri.hr/en/conference-2020/

The Zoom conference rooms can be accessed via the links below:

Thursday, 15 October:
https://zoom.us/j/93812581590?pwd=c0w1Ri9vWjh3ODR5YnlXN1lLVVN1dz09

Friday, 16 October:
https://zoom.us/j/93947492797?pwd=MHRDeC9kWHo0SlFNSFV4ZE9aeExLZz09

Call For Submissions: Transitioning Historic Houses to a Virtual Experience, Deadline: Nov 30, 2020

History Dis-placed: Transitioning Historic Houses to a Virtual Experience concentrates on the unique histories and challenges of house-museums. In addition to being historic landmarks, house-museums can be sites of civic engagement and reflection; centers for activism and cultural discourse; and places for public events and gatherings. In the digital age, house-museums have had to renegotiate these identities and interactions with contemporary audiences through innovative practices. This was further challenged when museums across the globe were suddenly forced to pivot to, for many, an unfamiliar online discourse during the 2020 Covid-19 crisis. Many of the educational tropes utilized to great affect by house-museums – including living history and other direct contact strategies with an active audience – had to be jettisoned for online engagement. Museum staff were challenged to create content, develop educational recourses, and provide access to collections with little preparation and amidst severe budget cuts. There has, perhaps, never been a greater challenge to museums around the globe, and historic homes are among the hardest hit in these unprecedented times.

This edited volume asks for submissions that address, but are not limited to, the tactics taken by house-museums after February 2020, when it was clear that closing was imminent and re-opening in the near future was not an option.  How do museums that strive to bring in-person encounters to life continue to do so through an online presence?  How can these site-specific museums re-create or re-produce an aura or indexicality of space and place – a interaction that differs somewhat from other types of museums? What types of decisions need to be made when re-creating the museum collection for online perusal, which, for most house museums, are traditionally and fully experienced through the domestic spaces in which the collection is housed and the site-specificity of the museum? How do those at house-museums envision these decisions to move content online affect the future engagement of the museums with visitors and educators?

We invite submissions for scholars, students, and those personally involved with the day-to-day operations of a house-museum that reflect upon of the strategies undertaken for both historical and financial survival in the precarious position that house-museums find themselves during and after 2020.

Submission Guidelines
Please send abstracts of no more than 500 words to Karen Shelby (karen.shelby@baruch.cuny.edu) and Emily Stokes-Rees (ewstokes@syr.edu) by November 30, 2020 with the subject heading “House Museum Submission.” Abstracts and a two-page CV should be sent as one PDF and titled with the author’s last name. Editors will respond to submissions by December 15. Final papers will be due June 15, 2021. Papers should range from 6,000-8,000 words in length.

Online Lecture: ‘Wording the Crucifixion: art, inscriptions and polemics of two Romanesque ivory crosses’ by Professor Sandy Heslop, 16 November 2020, 6-7pm

Carved crucifixes with long inscriptions are a rarity – usually the image of Christ on the Cross, whether shown triumphant or suffering, is deemed sufficient content. Two important exceptions, both made of walrus ivory, were created in the twelfth century. The earlier was commissioned c. 1110 by Gunhild, the daughter of King Sweyn Magnus of Denmark (he died 1075). Its imagery and biblical citations promote charity, especially of the wealthy to the poor. The more famous ‘Cloisters Cross’ of c. 1175 (now in New York) is more complex, emphasising the extent to which the Crucifixion was the fulfilment of prophecy. Unfortunately its place of origin is not known, but its links with Gunhild’s Cross have been acknowledged though not explored in any detail. Professor Heslop will explore how closely related both crucifixes may be.

Sandy Heslop is Professor of Visual Arts at the University of East Anglia. He has published widely on the art and architecture of medieval Europe, in various media. Current projects include a book on the Parish Churches of Medieval Norwich and another on St Anselm’s Canterbury.

*You must be a member of the London Art History Society*

Find out more information here.

New Publication: La Bouquechardière of Jean de Courcy-Critical Edition and Commentary by Catherine Gaullier-Bougassas

Jean de Courcy, lord of Bourg-Achard in Normandy, wrote la Bouquechardière at the beginning of the 15th century. In this broad, hitherto unpublished chronicle, he departs from the model of universal history, selecting above all the history of one part of the world: Greece and the European and Asian territories linked to it. His work offers a history of ancient Greece in six books, from the foundation of Argos and Athens to Alexander the Great and his successors. Choosing, at the beginning of the 15th century and in France, to devote an entire work to the history of ancient Greece is an innovation. The Bouquechardière then combined two major legacies that had not yet been reconciled on such a scale, that of the mythological fables of Antiquity and that of universal history. Its second originality is that Jean de Courcy continuously glosses the historical narrative, following the models of sermon writing. He then succeeds in reconciling two objectives: to amplify the narrative of the history of Ancient Greece, by praising the virtues of illustrious pagan figures, and to continually “moralize” it, giving his text the status of an edifying work, offered to the devotion of lay readers.

This first critical edition is based on an examination of all known manuscripts (31) and the present volume, the first, is devoted to the account of the origins of Greece, from the foundation of Argos and Athens to Hercules.

Catherine Gaullier-Bougassas is Professor of Medieval French Language and Literature at the University of Lille (France) and Senior Member of the Institut Universitaire de France. She is the author of numerous studies on the reception of Antiquity and the figure of Alexander the Great in the Middle Ages.

For more information about this new publication, please see the link below:

http://www.brepols.net/pages/ShowProduct.aspx?prod_id=IS-9782503581620-1

Online Lecture: Book and Print Initiative: ‘Introduction to the Ethiopian manuscripts in the British Library’s collection’, by Eyob Derillo, The Warburg Institute, 22 October 2020, 13:00 -14:00 (GMT)

Eyob Derillo (British Library): ‘Introduction to the Ethiopian manuscripts in the British Library’s collection’

The Book and Print Initiative was founded in 2017 to bring together scholars of books, printed material, and printing, at all career stages, across the School of Advanced Study (SAS). It is an umbrella for new and existing projects. As part of the UK’s research centre for the humanities, it provides a national focal point for the interdisciplinary, global study of word, image, and other written content from before the print era (manuscripts, palaeography, codicology) through to its future (digital humanities).

The Book and Print Initiative unites the study of printed material as a physical object with the information it contains and its influence on society. Rejecting the conventional limits of ‘text and image’, its inclusive remit spans artefacts of bindings to zoological illustrations.

The Book and Print Initiative’s directors are Raphaële Mouren (Warburg) and Elizabeth Savage (Institute of English Studies).

FREE VIA ZOOM. PLEASE BOOK IN ADVANCE – BOOK HERE.

Find out more information here.

CFP: 20th Vagantes Conference on Medieval Studies (University of Wisconsin-Madison 18-20 March 2021) Deadline for Submissions 30 November 2020

 The Vagantes Conference on Medieval Studies invites abstracts from graduate students and recently graduated Masters students from all disciplines on any topic that is related to the Middle Ages. 

Abstracts of 300 words, paper title, and a 1–2 page CV in one PDF are due Monday, November 30th, 2020 to vagantesboard@gmail.com. 

Your anonymized submission will be reviewed by an interdisciplinary panel fo graduate students. Since Vagantes is an interdisciplinary conference, you should provide a clear summary of your proposed paper with language that is accessible to non-specialists. 

All submissions will be considered for a CASH PRIZE, which will be awarded for the best paper!

For more information about the conference and paper submission, please see the link below:

http://vagantesconference.org/

CFP: ‘Sacred Scripted Images – The Iconic Presence of Script in Medieval Liturgical Space’ (Heidelberg, 20-22 Jan 2022), Deadline 13 November 2020

Inscribed artefacts in liturgical space, from apse mosaics to liturgical vessels, are not only evidence of the wide range of the use of script within the context of mass, but also testify to the presence of something written at a sacred place. “Presence”, here, is understood as a dynamic category, surpassing the act of reading as one form of reception and broaching the issue of the material quality of script and letters in liturgical space, as well as the visual implementation of sacred authority and power.

During the past years, the historical, art historical and liturgical sciences, as well as the visual culture studies have extensively researched the forms and requirements of presence effects (as in the exertion of sovereignty). Research has also been conducted on the different means, practices and strategies by which visual implementation (as in images, gestures and rituals) is achieved. The conference will build on this research, transferring these questions to the media of script – be it painted, chiselled, scratched, sewn or embossed. As previously indicated, the conference will focus less on the ways in which liturgical books served the reading and recitation during mass. Instead, we aim to question the material form, iconicity, and effectiveness – in short, the presence – of script in the context of mass: To which extent did script within liturgical space, especially script at and on top of the altar, produce presence and suggest sacredness? Was a sacred or sacramental significance attributed to the material appearance and presentation of single scripts and books, particularly to the “Holy script“ of the bible? Could we maybe even speak of a “sacramental presence of script” within this context? Last but not least, the conference has set the goal to test the scope and the limits of this questionable category by means of an interdisciplinary discussion. Consequently, we hope to receive contributions of art historians, theologists, historians, German philologists, liturgical science and visual culture specialists, as well as experts in other relevant scientific fields. We explicitly encourage junior scientists to submit their proposals.

Proposals for lectures of 20 – 30 minutes with a follow-up discussion can be submitted until November 13th, 2020. Please send the title for your submission, as well as a brief summary (max. 500 words), a short academic curriculum vitae (max. 1 page), and your contact information to: schriftbilder@zegk.uni-heidelberg.de.

Online Lecture:‘Early Rus’ Jewry: Byzantine Connections, Alexander Kulik, October 14 2020

‘Early Rus’ Jewry: Byzantine Connections, lecture by Alexander Kulik (Hebrew University of Jerusalem), University of Cambridge via Zoom, October 14, 2020, 5:00 pm BST

Join Cambridge Ukrainian Studies and the Byzantine Worlds Seminar for the 5th Annual Medieval and Early Modern Slavonic Studies Lecture at the University of Cambridge. 

The open lecture-webinar on the topic of ‘Early Rus’ Jewry: Byzantine Connections’ will be delivered by Alexander Kulik, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Russian and Slavic Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The talk will reassess the evidence on the connections of early East European Jewry with Byzantium. It will focus on new or newly interpreted data which can help to define the origins of pre-Ashkenazi communities in Rus’ and possibly also help to solve some puzzles relating to literary activity in Kyivan Rus’.

Alexander Kulik is Associate Professor and Chairman of the Department of German, Russian and East European Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His research in diverse fields concentrates on the cross-cultural transmission of texts and ideas. His scholarly interests encompass Slavic studies (palaeoslavica, medieval and modern Judeo-Slavica, and broader aspects of Russian and East European cultural history) and Jewish studies (Jewish literature and thought of the Hellenistic and Roman periods, early history of East European Jewry). 

Advance registration required. Register your interest via the link below!

https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_G6tq3RF-SkisWkiS4NRToQ

Virtual Exhibition: Black Monuments Matter – A Virtual Exhibition of Sub-Saharan Architecture

Please visit the exhibition website for more information via the link below:

https://black-monuments-matter.zamaniproject.org

Organisers: Professor Stephane Pradines and Professor (emeritus) Dr. Heinz Rüther 
The Aga Khan University Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations and the Zamani Project at the University of Cape Town are pleased to present the online exhibition “Black Monuments Matter”. 

Black Monuments Matter recognises and highlights African contributions to world history by exhibiting World Heritage Monuments and architectural treasures from Sub-Saharan Africa. 

In doing so, this exhibition sweeps away ideas based on racist theories and hopes to contribute to both awareness of African identity and pride of African Heritage. The exhibition is inspired by the “Black History Month” in the United Kingdom. 

Black monuments matter and Black cultures matter. Sites and monuments are physical representations of histories, heritage, and developments in society. This exhibition aims to display the diversity and richness of African cultures as part of world history through the study of African Monuments; bringing awareness and pride of African roots and contributions to other cultures. 

African cultures suffered extensively from slavery from the 16th to the 19th Century, and during the acceleration of European colonisation through the 19th and early 20th Century. Black Monuments Matter aspires to create links to living African heritage by making it visible, assessable, and known to as many people as possible. 

In general, we would like to raise awareness of and respect towards Black cultures and Africa’s past to a larger audience. At the Aga Khan University, the University of Cape Town and the Zamani Project, we believe in the relevance and knowledge of cultures, and the importance of education towards its understanding and appreciation. 

Through an approach founded on the latest knowledge and technology, this online exhibition offers visitors an opportunity to learn more about the glorious monuments and sites of African heritage and black cultures across Sub Saharan Africa. 

The African continent has numerous sites and monuments of historic and cultural importance, and our exhibition showcases some of its diversity and richness. From the Pyramids of Sudan, the Great Mosque of Timbuktu, to the Swahili cities of East Africa, each site is presented in a virtual room and is introduced by short texts written by African scholars. 

Many of Africa’s monuments are protected by UNESCO and have been given world heritage status. They are also protected and supported by national heritage authorities and by the support of international organisations such as the World Monument Fund and the Aga Khan Trust for Culture. 

Our hope is that visitors to this exhibition will recognise and support the work of national and international organisations committed to the support of African heritage. 

All the documentation presented in the exhibition are the result of many years of dedicated work by the Zamani team from the University of Cape Town in South Africa.  

Commentary on the Exhibition:

Dodé Houéhounha, African World Heritage Specialist 
Bryan Koffi Opoby, Junior African World Heritage Specialist

Patiently but surely, we make our way. As protests spread across the globe against systemic racism, police brutality, and injustice, 2020 turned out to be an exceptional year to reflect on what can be done to empower Black lives. This desire to correct an outdated and racially targeted system applies to many different areas such as education systems, employment opportunities, health care, and also, to the history and richness of the African continent. 

In “Black Monuments Matter”, as in the expression “Black Lives Matter”, it is the philosophical precision that counts. “To matter” is of course about the importance of social recognition, but what stands out in these words is surely the refusal of discrimination and the desire for equality. The desire of a community to rediscover, make known, and have its history and heritage recognised. It is this dynamic that currently drives the African heritage sector. 

Indeed, African experts are today multiplying actions in order to preserve and promote a heritage that is unfortunately endangered. Over the last few years, many actions have been carried out with the aim of continuously improving the conservation and management of African World Heritage sites. There are numerous examples testifying to the successes of recent years. 

The creation in 2006 of the African World Heritage Fund, whose objective is to provide financial and technical support for the effective conservation and protection of cultural and natural heritage, is one such example. This is also reflected in the growing involvement of motivated young people, in the increased participation of schools, and the growing number of training courses accessible in the heritage field. We should also note the increase in international funding collaborations, particularly in terms of capacity building workshops for site managers and, above all, in assistance provided to strengthen nomination files for the inscription of sites on the World Heritage List. These actions, taken collaboratively by a wide range of heritage actors, bear witness to the current dynamic. 

In this virtual exhibition, you will be guided through some of Africa’s World Heritage sites. The Old Towns of Djenné, inscribed in 1988 are an exceptional witness to the pre-Islamic civilizations of the inland Delta of the Niger, and an outstanding example of an architectural group of buildings that illustrate a significant historic period. The Rock-Hewn Churches, Lalibela represent a unique artistic achievement, in size and the variety and boldness of their forms. It is also an exceptional testimony to the medieval and post-medieval civilization of Ethiopia. As for the Asante Traditional Buildings, they are the last remaining testimony of the unique architectural style of the great Asante Kingdom. 
The diversity of the sites that are here presented is a reflection of the diversity of African heritage. With this exhibition, you will discover the richness and variety of a heritage that transcends time, ages and eras. 

In this exceptional context of health crisis, where these sites of exceptional value are now hardly accessible, it is this form of digital initiative that keeps our heritage alive. The use of new technologies to promote our incredible heritage and allow us to make it accessible to as many people as possible. It is only this way, by multiplying actions for its promotion and accessibility, that we will succeed in showing, raising awareness and educating people about the wealth of African history and heritage. This is a task that requires a lot of initiative yet, patiently but surely, we will make our way.