Medieval Art Research

Exhibition: Hebrew Manuscripts: Journeys of the Written Word, British Library, 1 Sep 2020 – 11 Apr 2021

Journey beyond the Bible to discover the history, culture and traditions of Jewish people from all corners of the world through the ages.

Through rarely-seen treasures from as far back as the 10th century, this exhibition takes you from Europe and North Africa, through to the Middle East and China to explore the relationships between Jews and their neighbours in the communities that they lived in.

How much knowledge and culture was exchanged between these groups? Fascinating works displayed on music, science and philosophy by famous Jewish scholars suggest there was more than we might think.

Witness both the high points and the lows of these relationships. An Italian rabbi’s reply to Henry VIII, who sought advice on divorcing his first wife. A 13th-century Anglo-Jewish charter showing the passing of property between people of different faiths. And the signs of conflict as we encounter Christian censorship in Jewish texts.

Along the way, meet the sages versed in magic, Kabbalah and alchemy, and even learn a love potion or two, as we discover the power of the written word.

More information can be found here.

CFP: Mary on the Move: Marian Iconography in Late Medieval France, International Congress on Medieval Studies Kalamazoo 2021, deadline 15 September 2020

Session 1363

The proposed session concentrates of Marian iconography of the Late middle Ages, with particular emphasis on fourteenth to sixteenth century. It focuses on the movement of iconographies in/from/towards France by highlighting connections and influences pertaining to Italian, Spanish and/or geographical areas. Furthermore, it situates Marian visual depictions in the context of the development of Marian devotion (rise in her cult and liturgical feasts) and specific theological debates (Immaculate Conception).

The session is dedicated to the iconography of the Virgin Mary, generally speaking. This implies that any aspect of Marian iconography is accepted, into the session, starting with general or particular episodes of Mary’s life, development(s) of iconographic details or specific iconographies. The session aims at approaching such representations in a comparative manner either by focusing on the visual-textual relationship or by highlighting influences and movements of iconographies from one geographic area to the other. It focuses on material from various media be that miniatures, frescoes, altarpieces, etc.

Please submit an abstract 200-300 words for 15-20 minutes papers via the submission portal here by 15 September 2020.

Contact information: Andrea-Bianka Znorovszky, Ca’ Foscari University, Venice, Italy (andrea.znorovszky@unive.it)

Online Lectures: British Archaeological Association sponsored panels for the IMC 2020

As the IMC 2020 could not take place this year, the British Archaeological Association has recorded their sponsored panels which you can now watch online. All papers are chaired by Dr Harriet Mahood.

Havens for Burial: The Convents of Constantinople and their Female Founders, Dr Cecily Hennessy

This paper considers certain convents founded in Byzantine Constantinople and the design of their houses of worship, focusing on the places of burial the founders provided for themselves, their families and their communities of nuns. In Byzantium, many religious institutions were founded by members of the imperial family, both men and women. Of the six Byzantine convents for which we have the foundation rules, known as the typika, five were built by women in Constantinople, all connected with the imperial family. These documents include evidence for the buildings, their daily use, as well as the key regulations of worship. This paper examines them for what they tell us about the burials and their rituals and considers the networks and relations between the various women founders.

It also looks at what evidence we have for the design of the buildings by looking at both lost and surviving structures in Istanbul and at other visual records, considering how these designs are particularly appropriate for burials. One piece of evidence comes from an illumination in the illustrated typikon, Oxford, Lincoln College, MS Gr 35, depicting the foundress of the convent, Theodora Palaiologina Synadene, presenting a model of her church to the Mother of God. The convent, dedicated to the Mother of God of Bebaia Elpis (Good Hope), was founded in about 1300. The design of the building is discussed in the context of other related churches which existed in Constantinople.

The Surviving Early 16th-Century Chantry Chapels at St Stephen’s, Westminster, Dr Elizabeth Biggs

Within the iconic Houses of Parliament built by Charles Barry in the nineteenth century a sixteenth-century cloister and two rooms opening off its western walks, now known as the oratories, survive. While these rooms have been much altered over the centuries, it is clear that they are unusual pieces of sixteenth-century architecture whose original purposes are not clear. They have been called oratories, a chapter house, and simply chapels in various contexts over the centuries. The oratories invite comparisons with the chapter house of Old St Paul’s Cathedral in London, where the chapter house opened off of the cloisters there. Other possible comparisons are the chantry chapels built in the early sixteenth century at Windsor and Eton, or Abbot Islip’s chapel at Westminster Abbey.

This paper explores what is known of the oratories’ construction, their history within the Palace of Westminster, and the institutional context that provides clues as to their original uses. In doing so it identifies a lost chantry chapel belonging to a fifteenth-century bishop of St Davids, William Lyndwood.

‘Timor mortis conturbat me’ – Commemoration and the Macabre at Rosslyn Chapel , Dr Lizzie Swarbrick

Rosslyn Chapel is an idiosyncratic late medieval collegiate church in Midlothian, Scotland. The building is unusually ornate and has survived remarkably well. Both its exterior and interior are marked by an extraordinary level of surface ornament, which includes a variety of figural sculpture. Despite these surviving visual riches, and in contrast to the majority of comparable institutions, Rosslyn has no surviving tomb commemorating its founder, Sir William Sinclair.

In this paper, Lizzie examines this apparent omission by exploring the macabre images which make up a significant part of Rosslyn’s superabundant sculpture. She shows that representations of death and dying are concentrated in particular spaces within the church. In particular, she analyses images of the Ages of Man, the Dance of Death, and the Three Living and the Three Dead. Using their iconography and their placement within Rosslyn’s topography she reimagines the commemorative functions which the church once fulfilled, and reveals the probable site of the tomb of William Sinclair.

The Placement of Furnished Burials by Ecclesiastical Sites, Danica Ramsey-Brimberg

Viking settlement blurred boundaries in various ways. In areas already converted, such as Britain and Ireland, furnished burials in or near ecclesiastical sites in the ninth to eleventh centuries sat on the border, metaphorically and literally. They represented a style of burial similar, yet different from those interred nearby. However, it is their placement at the various ecclesiastical sites, the natural landscape and their related boundaries that adds further intrigue. Through understanding what their positioning is in the natural and man-made landscape, why they might have occurred or what they may have represented may be then more easily understood.

Lordly buildings amongst peasants: Displays of authority within manorial centres, Dr Duncan Berryman

This paper discusses how the buildings of the manorial farmstead, the curia, were designed and positioned to act as a display of the lord’s wealth and their authority over the tenants of the village. As well as the agricultural buildings, it will think about the relationship between the village, the church and the curia to indicate the relationships between the lord and the villagers. This work focuses on southern England and combines documentary research with landscape analysis (through maps) and archaeological excavation.

The Web-Foot Queen of Saint-Bénigne, in Dijon, Professor Kathleen Nolan

Monumental statue columns in the portals that followed Saint-Denis are thought to evoke the ancestry of Christ, their authority affirmed by the court attire they wear. But in Burgundy, the identities of column figures underwent a metamorphosis from their Parisian models. In the majestic monastic church of Saint-Bénigne, in Dijon, the identity of an Old Testament queen was marked by an appendage, a webbed foot, that seems to undermine the authority of the figure. How can we understand the message of this queen that blurred the boundary between species? Can the webfoot be a neutral attribute, or does it stigmatize the only female figure on the portal jambs?

Life in the Shadow: Power Relations in Medieval Wensleydale, Erik Matthews

This paper explores how the on-going archaeological fieldwork programme and documentary research at Hornby Castle in Wensleydale illustrates the often fraught relationship between elite landscapes of pleasure with the working agricultural landscape surrounding, together with the wider spiritual landscape. It looks in particular at the relationship of the adjacent Deserted Medieval Village to the buildings of the elite complex and its park and also the relationship between the site and the church in terms of investment by the owners in many forms.

CFP: Medieval Ars Memoriae in Italy: Theory, Technique, and Practices at International Congress on Medieval Studies Kalamazoo 2021, deadline 15 September 2020

Organized by: Elisabeth Trischler and Leon Jacobowitz Efron

Sponsor: Italians and ltalianists at Kalamazoo

From the pseudo-Ciceronian Ad Herennium to Pietro da Ravenna’s Phoenix, the vibrant intellectual climate of the Italian peninsula was the core of many important contributions to Europe’s mnemonic traditions, bridging not only Eastern and Western cultures but also adapting the classical tradition to its own epoch. This panel aims to explore the variety of memory techniques developed and practiced in Italy during the medieval period. Medieval memory has become a key topic of discussion amongst contemporary scholars from many disciplines, our panel will therefore accept papers from a variety of fields, including but not limited to: art, history, literature, philosophy, and theology.

Potential paper topics include but are not limited to:

the use of ars memoriae in Italian literature
the differences between theory and praxis
the influence or rejection of classical authors illustrations as pedagogical tools and/or their absence
Ars memoriae and the sermo modernus
the practice in relation to different audiences
real and imagined architectural spaces and ars memorae
the roles of affect and sensorial play
art and mnemonics: from manuscript decoration to cloister frescoes

We welcome proposals for 20-minute papers on (but not limited to) the above-mentioned topics. In order to submit an abstract please find the paper session here, by 15 September 2020.

Online Lectures: Church Conservation Trust, August-September 2020

All of the Church Conservation Trust lectures are all free to get involved with and are Livestreamed them via their Facebook page, this allows you to really engage with the talk and to submit your questions live. These lectures are recorded and will be available to watch afterward.

Upcoming Lectures

Thursday 27th August at 1pm – Matilda of Canossa: the life of a woman who changed the course of history

Many of you who watched the lecture, Matilda of Canossa (1046-1115) and the Conservation of Ancient Churches, given by Michèle Spike on July 30, 2020 as part of The Churches Conservation Trust Lunchtime Lecture Series expressed an interest in learning more about the life of the Countess Matilda and about the “scandals in her life” which were discussed in the question and answer section.

On August 27, 2020, Prof. Spike will offer a second lecture to examine the rich details of Countess Matilda’s life and times entitled, Matilda of Canossa: the life of a woman who changed the course of history.

In Part I, Prof. Spike illustrated how Matilda’s construction of over one hundred churches throughout her ancestral domains — much of Italy north of Rome — fulfilled her promise made in the Fall of 1077 to donate of all of her ancestral territory to Pope Gregory VII and his successors as popes in Rome.

In Part II, Prof. Spike will discuss how Matilda and her mother, Beatrice, two women born into a feudal male hierarchy, managed to accomplish that transfer in the face of strong, at times overwhelming, male resistance. As in all human stories their road to victory involved sex, violence, war, and many rumors and innuendos which Prof. Spike will piece together to provide more details of Matilda’s extraordinary life.

The title of the lecture is based upon the exhibition curated by Prof. Spike at the Casa Buonarroti in Florence in 2016 and catalogue of the same name.

Thursday 3rd September at 1pm – Harey Coppar, bell ringer and the historical graffiti in Winchester Cathedral

Winchester Cathedral has a large amount of historical graffiti across all areas of this building, now nearly 1,000 years old. A survey and photographic record of this graffiti can be analysed to help an understanding of how this building has been used and viewed across the centuries by people who were not etherise commemorated here. This talk will consider this graffiti as evidence for an alternative view of its history and will also allow a discussion on how it may be viewed, conserved or even discouraged in the future.

This talk is given by Dr Cindy Wood. Dr Wood is a Senior Lecturer in Medieval History, at The University of Winchester, teaching both subject specific and generic historical themes. These include, the Crusades; material culture; monasticism; local history; medieval death and the late medieval period in general.

Her research areas are religion in the late medieval period, intercession, churches and the late medieval royal family. She is also involved in a local project collecting and collating graffiti in Winchester Cathedral, which is the subject of this talk, with students with the Winchester Research Apprenceship Project (WRAP) and has links with the Hampshire Field Club Graffiti Group. She is also on the editorial board of the Southern History Society, as Hon. Membership Secretary and also Secretary of the Friends of Clarendon Royal Palace.

Thursday 10th September at 1pm – Unlocking the Church: the lost secrets of Victorian sacred space

The Victorians completely transformed our churches: not only building thousands, but restoring – which often meant rebuilding – thousands more. Still more importantly, they transformed how the British understood and experienced their churches. No longer mere receptacles for worship, churches became active agents in their own right, capable of conveying theological ideas and designed to shape people’s emotions.

In this talk, Professor William Whyte explores this forgotten revolution – and its effects on us today. These church buildings are now a challenge: their maintenance, repair or repurposing are pressing problems for parishes in age of declining attendance and dwindling funds. By understanding their past, by unlocking the secrets of their space, there might be answers in how to deal with the legacy of the Victorians now and into the future.

William Whyte is Professor of Social and Architectural History in the University of Oxford. A fellow of St John’s College, the Royal Historical Society, and the Society of Antiquaries, he is Chairman of the Oxford Preservation Trust and the Oxford Historical Society. His most recent book is Unlocking the Church: the lost secrets of Victorian sacred space.

Call for Submissions: Eikon Imago, vol. 10 (2021). Miscellany and Monographic Issue, deadline 15 October 2020

The scientific journal Eikón / Imago, edited by the CAPIRE research team at the Complutense University of Madrid, is already working on the next issue. It is an annual academic publication whose research interest focuses on iconography and visual culture, from a thematic scope that encompasses the forms and meanings of the images of any era, culture or country, as well as any thematic, typological or disciplinary variant: religious, mythological, political, musical, fantastic, animalistic and other.

Each issue of Eikón / Imago Magazine consists of three sections:
– Miscellany: related to any aspect of the general thematic coverage of the Journal (free peer review articles).
– Monographic: the topic changes every year. This year 2021 it is: Eternal Sadness: Representations of Death in Visual Culture from Antiquity to the Present Time (ed. by Luis Vives-Ferrándiz Sánchez)
– Reviews and Chronicles of new books, exhibitions, and conferences.

We are accepting article proposals for the monographic and miscellaneous sections before October 15th, 2020.

You can know more about us in http://www.capire.es/eikonimago/index.php/eikonimago
or writing to our email eikonimago@ucm.es

Online Lecture: ‘Cluny and Vézelay: The Paradox of the Romanesque Capital in Burgundy’, Professor Neil Stratford, CRSBI Annual Lecture 2020

The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland (CRSBI)’s Annual Lecture 2020, given by Professor Neil Stratford, is now available to watch online. This an opportunity to hear his analysis of Romanesque capitals, using well-known Romanesque buildings as examples, developed over decades of careful study of the subject.

Online Conference: CARMEN Virtual Annual Meeting, 1-2 September 2020

The annual CARMEN open meeting – Program – brings together scholars and professionals from across the world

Every CARMEN meeting since our beginnings in 2007 has spotlighted the host city and its medieval heritage, and part of the meeting has focused on the local / national community of researchers. So this year we invite you to join us virtually in Dublin, with, among several choices, a virtual city walk and an opportunity to meet Irish medievalists and their projects and work.

Program

(all times are IST – Irish Summer Time)

Virtual walking tour of medieval Dublin

coordinated by Caoimhe Whelan. The tour will consist of a series of pre-recorded videos, provided by colleagues in the heritage and research group the Friends of Medieval Dublin. The tour will be running continuously through both days via Twitter, #CARMEN_2020, starting with Tuesday, Sept. 1, 9:00 IST

FORUM/ Medieval research in Ireland

The two well-known formats of the CARMEN meetings will, in the virtual version, be present on Twitter both day and ongoing, #CARMEN_2020.

Tuesday, Sept. 1

13 – 14

Welcome TCD (Gail McElroy, the Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at Trinity College Dublin)

Welcome CARMEN (Catherine Clarke, academic director of CARMEN)

Round Table “Environment”

Convenor: James L. Smith, UCC

As the practices of the Environmental Humanities and medieval studies intertwine–and Leeds IMC takes on the 2021 theme of Climate–collaboration in Irish environmental humanities projects across a trans- inter- and multi-disciplinary spectrum continues to grow. Many of our Irish attendees will be dealing with this material in their own work, and the Trinity Centre for Environmental Humanities has embedded robust collaboration across time period, discipline and subject matter. In this roundtable, we discuss the current environment in Irish and European research, emerging societal challenges and sustainable development goals, and the role of pre-modern source materials in this debate.

14.15 – 15

Workshop: Digital Medieval Studies in Ireland

The proliferation of interdisciplinary studies availing of digital methodologies has offered medieval studies new opportunities and approaches for research. In particular, Irish institutions boast a number of ongoing digital medieval studies projects that exemplify this marriage of disciplines. As such, this workshop focuses on three exciting digital humanities projects currently being undertaken by medievalists across Ireland. Presenters include Pádraig Ó Macháin (UCC) who will discuss the DIAS-led online repository of MSS, Irish Script on Screen (ISOS) [https://www.isos.dias.ie/]; Greg Toner (QUB) who will address his recent IRC-funded project (co-led with David Stifter (MU)) exploring the impact of digitisation on how manuscripts are accessed and research on medieval Ireland and Scotland is conducted; and Lynn Kilgallon (TCD) who will talk about Beyond 2022’s Medieval Exchequer Gold Seam project, which aims to reconstruct entire series of medieval Irish financial and administrative records.

15.15 – 16

Workshop: Edited Volume on Medieval Minds and Matter (Merel E. Veldhuizen, Southampton) Zoom

In this workshop we will discuss the development of an edited volume on the theme ‘Minds and Matter’, containing papers originally presented at the International Medieval Congress in Leeds 2019. I act both as contributor and co-editor (with James Smith) for this volume, the proposal for which is currently under revision at request of the journal Medieval Worlds (Proposed format: 2-3 x thematic clusters of 4-6 essays, 3 x editorials, 3 x response essays). The papers already gathered investigate intersections between medie¬val minds and materialities, bringing together new theoretical approaches to mental landscapes, medieval and medievalist. Medieval Worlds now offers the flexible publication format to create an ongoing conver¬sation through clusters with editorials and response essays as well as a forum to explore and enlarge the definition of the medieval mind, medieval materiality and the notion of the ‘medieval’ itself in a global context, as well as the paradoxical, ambiguous, and slippery relationships between the material and im¬material.

In this workshop we would like to open the discussion on these themes with some of our authors –namely Catherine Clarke (IHR) and James Smith (UCC)- and anybody who shares our interest in these topics or who would be interested in answering our call for papers. The workshop will begin by briefly highlighting some of the themes by having a few collaborators share a bit about their contribution, then extend the discussion by raising some prominent questions with participants, opening up themes and ideas they feel need to be included in a comprehensive and modern take on Minds and Matter in the Middle Ages.

Wednesday, Sept. 2

13.15 – 14

Workshop: Bishops and religious leadership(s) (Andrea Vanina Neyra/ Mariel Pérez/ Victoria Casamiquela Gerhold, Buenos Aires) Google Meet

This project aims to comprehensively research the role of bishops as religious leaders in Medieval Christia-nity, in relation both to local societies and secular authorities. This is a part of an ongoing line of research on different aspects of the episcopal figure that has already led to the organization of two workshops (Buenos Aires, 2018 and 2019) and the recent publication of a collective book on bishops and monaste¬ries (2020). Our proposal seeks to discuss the possible developments of this subject and to organize, upon this basis, a new research project integrating new potential members interested in this line of work. — Suggested topics of discussion are: the role of the bishop as a spiritual leader within his diocese, both in relation with local priests and their parishioners/ links between religious leadership and political power/ the role of tradition and innovation in spiritual leadership/ the place given by bishops to spiritual tasks among the different responsibilities connected to the episcopal role/ representations of spiritual leader¬ship/ Relationship between religious leadership and other kinds of leadership/ Strategies and tensions of religious leadership. — If you are interested in participating in the workshop or integrating our project, please contact our group at grupodeestudiosobispos@gmail.com to express interest, with a short outline of your research area and how it connects to the project theme.

14.15 – 15

Workshop: New Perspectives; New Approaches in Medieval Studies in Ireland

This final session showcasing medieval studies projects currently being undertaken in Irish institutions, ex-plores some new perspectives on the medieval period as well as some new approaches to its study. Pre-senters include Catherine Emerson (NUIG) who will discuss her ongoing research on networks of manus-cripts and manuscript owners in fifteenth-century Paris; Carrie Griffin (UL) topic: TBC; and staff from UCD’s School of Archaeology who will talk about their innovative and unique Centre for Experimen-tal Archaeology and Material Culture.

15.15 – 16

Workshop: Online events and conferences: what works? (Catherine Clarke, Institute of Historical Research, School of Advanced Study, University of London) Zoom

In this workshop, we’ll reflect on the move to online events and conferences necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic – and likely here to stay, either in the form of fully ‘virtual’ events or blended formats. With the summer’s online conference season – and the CARMEN virtual meeting – to look back on, we’ll share experiences, insights and tips. We’ll discuss academic conferences and meetings, as well as public-facing events. How do we build participation into our online content? How do we facilitate discussion and interaction? What are the barriers to engagement, and how have colleagues dealt with ‘screen fatigue’? What might a ‘blended’ future look like for conferences and events? This will be a participatory session – not an instructional lecture – so please come with experiences and ideas to share.

You will find all events of the folloqing program in the online event site of this Eventbrite announcementThe CARMEN annual meeting always has a thematic strand: this year’s is Environment. A Plenary Round Table will take place during the meeting and will be accompanied on Twitter. We now invite proposals for the workshops which will take place on both days between 2 and 4 pm GMT +1 in webinar format. The organiser of the workshop will be responsible for online hosting, and will provide a link together with a short description; registration will be necessary. The one-hour workshops will have a break to start or boost twitter exchanges.

Workshops are interactive sessions which facilitate development of new projects and partnerships. Workshop sessions should take about 60 minutes and can present a project, or project idea, at any stage of development. Workshops are most successful when the convenor has a clear aim for the session and a plan for fostering discussion, and when the theme has cross-disciplinary reach. They are a valuable way to make links and find new collaborators, and can be on any topic (not limited to the thematic strand).

Proposals for workshops in 2020 including a theme and an abstract of about half a page as well as information on the video conference tool of choice should be sent to felicitas.schmieder@fernuni-hagen.de by July 31st the latest. Workshops will be scheduled in the CARMEN meeting programme and publicised as part of the event. The links to the fixed-time (synchronous) meetings (plenary, workshops) and if applicable the registration tool will be provided on Eventbrite.

We will also host the annual Forum, in virtual format — an opportunity for any medievalist to facilitate outreach, connection and communication between individuals, organisations and projects by presenting their new or planned books, projects, centers. The Forum will take place on Twitter throughout the meeting and will run asynchronously. We will list all projects that are sent to cristina_pimenta@sapo.pt by July 31 st the latest; ideally you will already have a twitter presentation.

Please spread the word and join us via Eventbrite and Twitter. CARMEN relies on your worldwide participation! You can follow our hashtag at #CARMEN_20.

Get a ticket now for further information and communication as the timetable takes shape.

Online Exhibitions: The Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies, University of Pennsylvania

The Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies at the University of Pennsylvania have a number of online exhibitions for you to enjoy.

A Legacy Inscribed: The Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection of Manuscripts

Originally exhibited March 1-August 16, 2013, this exhibit showcases the Schoenberg Collection of manuscripts held at the University of Pennsylvania. Each section of the exhibition – Arts and Sciences, Communication, Design, Education, Engineering, Law, the Medical Arts, and Social Policy and Practice – showcases texts, textbooks, documents, and letters that embody the history and mission of the schools that form the University. Often illustrated with complex diagrams and stunning imagery, the manuscripts bring to the present the intellectual legacy of the distant past.

Reactions: Medieval/Modern

Originally exhibited August 25-December 16, 2016, this exhibition explores the many and varied ways that people have reacted to, and acted upon, manuscripts from the Middle Ages up to today.

Intertwined Worlds

Originally exhibited August 23-December 22, 2017, this exhibition explores pre-modern religious traditions of South and Southeast Asia including Jainism, Buddhism, and Hinduism.

A Liberal Arts Education for the (Middle) Ages: Texts, Translations, and Study

This online exhibition explores the study of the liberal arts, the texts of Boethius, and the intellectual life of early medieval monasteries through a selection of manuscripts from the collections of the University of Pennsylvania Libraries. Curated by Christine E. Bachman.

Making the Renaissance Manuscript: Discoveries from Philadelphia Libraries

Originally exhibited March 16-July 25, 2020, this exhibit draws on local collections. It attempts to encompass the broadest possible scope of ideas and material manifestations associated with the European Renaissance. It explores the numerous ways in which the production of hand-written and hand-decorated documents flourished during this period, even as the age of the printing press dawned. The 100 items in the exhibit, drawn from ten local collections, encompass a broad array of ideas and material manifestations associated with the European Renaissance. Curated by Nicholas Herman.

New Publication: Fra Angelico: Painter, Friar, Mystic, by Timothy Verdon

A lavishly illustrated exploration of the art and theology of Fra Angelico.

Beato Angelico offers a unique encounter with the celebrated painter, Fra Angelico, seen through the eyes of Monsignor Timothy Verdon. As an art historian and (like Angelico) a Catholic priest, Monsignor Verdon approaches the work of the only artist ever beatified through the theological lens it deserves, bringing together Fra Angelico’s art and his faith.

Praised by his contemporaries, by later art historians, and by generations of viewers, Fra Angelico’s art is known for its exceptional combination of piety and painterly skill. In this book, Monsignor Verdon explores the spiritual and mystical foundations of the friar-painter’s work, and traces his artistic evolution from his early work, to the frescoes for the covent of San Marco in Florence, his Annunciations, and the chapel for Pope Niccolò V.

Lavishly illustrated with over 200 high-quality images, Beato Angelico illuminates Fra Angelico’s art and his faith.

Monsignor Timothy Verdon was born in the U.S. and educated at Yale University (Ph.D. 1975) and has lived in Italy for over 50 years. He is the Director of the Diocesan Office of Sacred Art and Church Cultural Heritage and the Museo dell’Operal del Duomo and a Canon of the Cathedral in Florence. He is also a Fellow of the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, and currently teaches in the Florence Program of Stanford University.

Order the book here.