The latest research, news, and reviews from the world of Medieval Art History
The Dictionary of Medieval Names from European Sources aims to document all given names recorded in European sources written between 500 and 1600. New editions are published quarterly.
Looking for a particular name? Browse the entries.
Wondering how to interpret an entry? See the guide.
Want to know more? Read about the project.
See: http://dmnes.org
Deadline for submissions: 20 January 2019
Keynote Speaker: Professor Kathryn Rudy (University of St. Andrews)
With the release of its inaugural issue in 2006, The Senses and Society journal proclaimed a “sensual revolution” in the humanities and social sciences. The ensuing decade has seen a boom in sensory studies, resulting in research networks, museum exhibitions, and a wealth of publications. This interdisciplinary conference hosted at the University of Oxford aims to shed light on how sensory perception shapes and is shaped by the experience of pilgrimage across cultures, faith traditions, and throughout history.
Pilgrimages present an intriguing paradox. Grounded in physical experiences—a journey (real or imagined), encounters with sites and/or relics, and commemorative tokens—they also simultaneously demand a devotional focus on the metaphysical. A ubiquitous and long-lasting devotional practice, pilgrimage is a useful lens through which to examine how humans encounter the sacred through the tools of perception available to us. Focusing on the ways in which pilgrimage engages the senses will contribute to our knowledge of how people have historically understood both religious experience and their bodies as vehicles of devotional participation. We call on speakers to grapple with the challenges of understanding the sensory experience of spiritual phenomena, while bearing in mind that understandings of the senses can vary according to specific cultural contexts. While the five senses are a natural starting point, we are open to including papers that deal with “sense” in a more general way, such as senses of time and place.
Sample topics may include (but are not limited to):
The organisers invite 20-minute papers from any discipline on topics related to the themes outlined above, especially in the fields of anthropology, archaeology, art history, history, literature, musicology, religious studies, sociology, and theology. We welcome submissions relating to aspects of pilgrimage of any faith or historical period. Doctoral students and early career researchers are particularly encouraged to apply.
Please submit a title, abstract (max. 250 words), and brief bio to pilgrimagesenses2019@gmail.com by January 20th. Successful applicants will be notified by February 5th. All submissions and papers must be in English.
Click here for more information
On Weds 21st November 2018, Lloyd de Beer, Naomi Speakman, and Oliver Cooke kindly allowed students and staff from the Courtauld Institute of Art and elsewhere into the horological storerooms of the British Museum, the latest in a series of handling sessions organised by Medieval Touch. Dr Jeanne Nuechterlein of the University of York led the group in a joint examination of a series of mostly sixteenth-century scientific instruments, including replicas from her own collection.
We began by looking together at an astrolabe. Astrolabes were observational and calculating instruments and allowed users to tell the time through the position of the stars in relation to the astral map on the astrolabe itself, however your ability to do so was contingent upon any number of factors, not least the environmental conditions.
As well as explaining their purpose, Jeanne attempted to instruct us all in their use and as each of us tried and frequently failed to grasp the fundamentals of astrolabe reading, it became apparent that astrolabes are not intuitive instruments. Their use implies and demands significant technical experience and knowledge. We questioned whether this knowledge was simply more widespread in the early modern world or whether utility was not their only value. Even when we consider astrolabes purely in practical use, several limiting factors would have dictated how and by whom they were employed. Astrolabes are geographically specific instruments, each backplate designed for a set latitude – the mobile user would have required multiple plates. Moreover, larger instruments were more easily legible and produced more accurate readings.
Certain instruments that survive like this column shaped sundial were too elaborately shaped to be of any functional use. Their design seems to effect other concerns, perhaps commemorative (was this the model of a larger monumental sundial?) or aesthetic.
However, other instruments were clearly more useable. Ivory diptych sundials like these 16th-century examples from Nuremberg, appear to have been designed for the Early Modern traveller. Handy and conveniently pocket sized, they also offered a range of adjustable settings depending on location.
London to Naples, Portugal to Constantinople: the lists of cities on these objects, clustering around the cities of Mitteleuropa and Northern Italy, Bremen, Königsberg, Venice and Genoa, spoke to some of us of a now lost trading geography of Europe. However, made of ivory and not unelaborately decorated, these objects were demonstrably prestige items and must have elicited viewing as much as reading.
A glance at the range of sundials in the cabinets of the horological department reveals the complex interplay of aesthetic and practical motives at work in these objects.
Here’s what we saw, all visible on the British Museum’s website:
| Sundial/horary quadrant, England 14th c., 1972,0104.1 |
| Sundial etc., Hans Dorn 1492, 1894,0615.1 |
| Astrolabe, Georg Hartmann 1532, 1871,1115.3 |
| Crucifix polyhedral sundial, Georg Hartmann 1541, 1894,0722.1 |
| Astronomical compendium/wind-vane, Christopher Schissler c. 1550, 1855,0904.1 |
| Sundial in the form of dividers, Christopher Schissler 1558, 1888,1201.283 |
| Universal equinoctial dial with case, Christopher Schissler c. 1570, 1922,0705.3 |
| Regiomontanus-style sundial, Caspar Vopel 1551, 1895,0319.1 |
| Crucifix sundial, Melchior Reichle 1569, 1874,0727.3 |
| Standing cup in the form of a celestial globe, French, 1569, AF.3060 |
| Pillar dial in the form of a Corinthian column, Germany, 1593, 1888,1201.282 |
| Scaphe sundial, Germany late 16th c., 1922,0705.6 |
| Sundial etc., Netherlands late 16th c.?, 1871,1115.5 |
| European celestial globe from 1659, 1896,0322.1 |
| 17c armillary sphere, 1855,1201.221 |
| Diptych dial, Hartmann, 1562, 1900,1017.1 |
Many thanks again to Jeanne for a fascinating session!
The Courtauld Institute of Art’s 24th Annual Medieval Postgraduate Colloquium (London, Friday 8 February 2019) invites speakers to consider issues and opportunities encountered by medieval artists and viewers in relation to size and scale.
Deadline: 16 November 2018
From micro-architectural reliquaries and minute boxwood prayer beads to colossal sculpture and the built spaces of grand cathedrals and civic structures, size mattered in medieval art. Examples of simple one-upmanship between the castles and palaces of lords and kings and the churches and cathedrals of abbots and bishops are numerous. How big to make it was a principal concern for both patrons and makers of medieval art. Scale could be manipulated to dramatic effect in the manufacture of manuscripts and the relative disposition of elements within their decorative programmes. Divine proportions – of the Temple of Solomon or the Church of the Holy Sepulchre – were evoked in the specific measurements and configuration of contemporary buildings and decisions were made based on concern with numbers and number sequences.
Inspired by the ‘Russian doll’ relationship between the Sainte Chapelle in Paris and its micro-architectural miniature in the form of a gilded reliquary in the Musée de Cluny, Scaling the Middle Ages seeks to explore a range of questions surrounding proportion, scale, size, and measurement in relation to medieval art and architecture. The Sainte Chapelle, built by the saint-king of France Louis IX to house the relics of Christ’s Passion, is itself often described as an over-sized reliquary turned inside-out. The Cluny reliquary – made to house relics of Saints Maxien, Lucien, and Julien held within the chapel – both complicates and compliments that comparison, at once shrinking the chapel back down to size through close architectural quotation of its form in miniature and pointing the viewer’s attention back to that same, larger space. The relationship between these two artefacts raises a host of questions, including:
Scale and making
How were ideas about size and scale communicated between patrons, architects, craftspeople, and artists? In an age without universal standardised units of measurement, how did craftsmen negotiate problems of scale and proportion?
How were the measurements of a medieval building determined? What techniques did architects, masons, and artists use to determine the scale of their work?
Scale and meaning
Problems of scale
Applicants to the colloquium are encouraged to explore these and related issues from a diverse range of methodologies, analysing buildings and objects from across the Middle Ages (broadly understood in geographical and chronological terms). The Medieval Postgraduate Colloquium offers an opportunity for research students at all levels from universities across the UK and abroad to present, discuss and promote their research.
To apply, please send a proposal of up to 250 words for a 20-minute paper, together with a CV, to teresa.lane@courtauld.ac.uk and oliver.mitchell@courtauld.ac.uk no later than 16 November 2018.
Organised by Oliver Mitchell and Teresa Lane (The Courtauld Institute of Art)
‘Medieval Seas’ brings together scholars from the fields of history, archaeology and literature to explore our medieval maritime past. Dr Aisling Byrne, Dr David Harrap, Dr James Barratt, Dr Craig Lambert and Dr Alfred Hiatt will examine representations of the sea in literature and cartography, the development of maritime liturgies and the latest maritime projects which have aided scholars in learning more about the sea in the Middle Ages. Over lunch join Dr Rachel Moss as she discusses the new project ‘Women at Sea’ and asks ‘can we build a feminist medieval maritime?’
Click here for tickets
Organised by the London Medieval Society
Venue: Senate House, Bedford Room 37 (8th Nov); Bush House, KCL S2.01 and Instituto Cervantes (9th Nov)
Keynote speakers: Prof Trevor Dadson and Dr Alexander Samson
During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, minorities in the Iberian peninsula experienced both peaceful coexistence and, at times, violent intolerance. But despite restrictions, persecutions, and forced conversions, extensive cultural production and exchange among Jews, Christians and Muslims defined the life in towns and cities across the centuries, particularly in Al-Andalus. In this context of religious (in)tolerance, the question of limpieza de sangre (blood purity) played an important role in preventing newly converted Christians from occupying high social positions. Recent approaches have highlighted how the question of limpieza de sangre was not only a matter of anti-Judaism or hostility towards Jews and Moors, but was also driven by personal enmity, ambition, and political interest. Also relevant are a series of political decisions concerning minorities, such as conversos or moriscos, which appeared in the two first decades of the seventeenth century and deeply affected the social climate of the time. This is reflected in literary works from the period, when a number of prominent pieces dealt directly with the issues raised by the political reforms. While some of the decisions are very well studied, such as the expulsion of the moriscos in 1609 and 1610, others such as the issue of the Pardons, in which the both Duke of Lerma and the Count-Duke of Olivares were involved, are less well known. It is clear that these circumstances affected the lives of many authors, their poetic trajectories and determined their voices and their works.
Click here for a full programme and here to book tickets
Organisers: Roser López Cruz (King’s College London) and Virginia Ghelarducci (School of Advanced Study)
Conference website: https://iberianintolerance.com
Deadline: Nov 15, 2018
Medieval and Early Modern Spaces and Places: Experiencing the Court, 2019
The early modern court adopted and developed exemplary cultural practices where objects and spaces became central to propagating power as well as places for exchange with other powers. This combination of images, objects, and sounds confronted the senses, making a powerful and distinctive impression of the resident family and the region they represented: flickering candlelight on glass and gold vessels adorned credenze (sideboards); musical instruments announced royal entries or provided entertainment; brightly coloured tapestries covered the palace walls along with paintings of biblical or mythological stories; cabinets displayed antiquities or rarities; perfume burners permeated the air; while the smells and tastes of rare delicacies at the centre of dining tables made for a multi-sensory spectacle.
This year the Open University’s Spaces & Places conference will address the theme of ‘Experiencing the Court’ by exploring the senses and the lived experiences of courtly life, whether based in a particular residence or defined by the travels of an itinerant ruler. This annual conference is fundamentally interdisciplinary: literary, musical, architectural, artistic and religious spaces will be the subjects of enquiry, not as discrete or separate entities, but ones which overlapped, came into contact with one another, and at times were in conflict.
The conference will examine life at court and will consider the following questions:
– How can approaching the court in terms of the senses provide new methodologies for understanding each institution?
– How were medieval and early modern courtly spaces adapted and transformed through the movement of material and immaterial things?
– Which particular aspects of political, social and economic infrastructures enabled the exchange of objects and ideas?
Papers that address new methodologies, the digital humanities, object-centred enquiries, cross-cultural comparisons, or new theoretical perspectives are particularly welcome.
Please send a 150 word abstract along with a short biography to Leah Clark (leah.clark@open.ac.uk) and Helen Coffey (Helen.coffey@open.ac.uk) by 15 November 2018.
The conference will take place at the Open University’s partner institution Trinity Laban Conservatoire on 3 and 4 April 2019. As Trinity Laban’s King Charles Court was once the site of Greenwich Palace, it is a fitting venue for a conference exploring court life.
For updated information visit our website: http://www.open.ac.uk/arts/research/medieval-and-early-modern-research/spaces-places
Depuis quelques décennies l’archéométrie et l’archéologie du bâti connaissent un développement conjoint remarquable. Appliquées aux édifices médiévaux, ces disciplines aident de manière substantielle à leur compréhension : si l’étude des élévations permet de restituer la progression, l’économie et l’organisation du chantier, les méthodes de l’archéométrie permettent, lorsque les matériaux chronologiquement significatifs sont conservés, d’obtenir une datation absolue.
Dans les efforts déployés pour la compréhension de l’édifice et l’établissement de datations scientifiquement argumentées, l’apport de l’image tend à être sous-estimé, voire négligé: de nature interprétative, le style et l’iconographie apparaissent parfois comme des indices de moindre valeur objective. Forts de l’idée que les « savoir-faire » et les « vouloir-dire » sont tout autant révélateurs de l’histoire des édifices, nous nous proposons ici de démontrer que sa pleine et juste compréhension ne peut être obtenue que par le croisement des indices, dans une approche multi- et pluri-disciplinaire.
Dans le cadre de ce colloque les différents acteurs de la recherche sur le monument sont appelés à partager leurs expériences, acquises autour d’un ensemble de monuments ou d’un cas particulier dont la complexité rend nécessaire le croisement des regards. L’intervention concertée des historiens de l’art et de l’architecture, archéologues du bâti, épigraphistes, spécialistes des techniques et des matériaux démontrera la nécessité d’une synergie des disciplines pour mieux comprendre les monuments et obtenir des datations fiables, contribuant ainsi au renouvellement de la recherche dans notre domaine.
Université de Lausanne, bâtiment Extranef, salle 125
Jeudi 25 octobre 2018
Introduction
9h00-9h30
Accueil des participants
Président de séances: Mathieu Piavaux
9h30-10h15
Nicolas Reveyron: introduction et historiographie / le cas de Cluny III
10h15-11h00
Jean Wirth : Pour une approche multidisciplinaire du monument
11h00-11h30
Pause café (salle 221)
11h30-12h00
Barbara Franzé : Saint-Gilles-du-Gard
12h00-12h30
Discussion sur les présentations de la matinée
12h30-14h00
Déjeûner
Après-midi
Président de séances: Nicolas Reveyron
14h00-15h00
Lei Huang et Térence Le Deschault de Monredon : Sainte-Foy de Conques
15h00-15h30
Elodie Leschot: la façade sculptée de Charlieu
15h30-16h00
Pause café
16h00-17h30
La cathédrale de Strasbourg (bras sud du transept) et le passage du roman au gothique
Marc C. Schurr et Ilona Dudzinski
17h30-18h30
Discussions sur les présentations de l’après-midi
Vendredi 26 octobre
Matin. Présidence de séances: Marc C. Schurr
09h00-11h00
Pour un croisement des regards. La datation des collégiales du diocèse de Liège (XIIe-XVe s.)
Equipe dirigée par Mathieu Piavaux (Namur)
Antoine Baudry, Frans Doperé, Patrick Hoffsummer, Aline Wilmet
11.00-11h30: Pause café
11h30-13.00
Approches pluridisciplinaires des monastères aquitains
Equipe dirigée par Christian Gensbeitel
Philippe Lanos, Jean-Baptiste Javel
13h00-15h00 Pause de midi
.
Après-midi. Président de séance: Barbara Franzé
15.00-15.30
La tour-porche de Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe
Laura Acosta Jacob
15.30-17.00
Dal sepolcro alla basilica : culti e monumenti nell’Abruzzo medievale
Equipe dirigée par Gaetano Curzi
Maria Carla Somma, Carlo Tedeschi.
17.00-17.30 Pause café
17.30-18.30
Discussion sur la session de l’après-midi/de la journée
Samedi 27 octobre
9h30-12h00
Table ronde
Avec la participation de Laurence Terrier Aliferis, Jacques Bujard et Michel Fuchs.
New Europe College, Bucharest
Deadline: Nov 30, 2018
CALL FOR APPLICATIONS
for a series of three one-week seminars on periodization in the history of art to take place at the New Europe College-Institute for Advanced Study in BucharestA program supported by the Getty Foundation as part of its Connecting Art Histories initiative
We propose a series of three seminars of one-week duration each on periodization and related issues in the history of art, whose addressees are to be early-career art historians from East-Central Europe, and which would include a number of invited guest speakers, from this region, and outside it. Though a sense that the conventional periodizations are in need of revision can be detected earlier, a more pointed reflection on this topic can be noticed after the demise of communism and the dismantling of the colonial system. In the aftermath of the 1989 events in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, a number of scholars felt the pressing need to reconsider the place of local art histories within the established narratives, and to reflect on how these local histories might fit within the Western canon, or to question its authority.
This series of seminars aims, on the one hand, to address questions that are (or so we deem) of interest to art historians in the countries of East-Central Europe in ways that would counter a piece-meal approach, mostly dictated by national borders, in favor of a more unified one, and would provide an opportunity to identify common concerns, and perhaps also case studies that could (or should) encourage cross-border collaboration. A broad framework for researching art historical narratives in the region on a comparative basis is still lacking. There is also limited cross-cultural knowledge at the level of curricula and teaching methodologies. In universities across the region Western Art is researched and taught mostly according to the established periodization and categories (the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque, historical avant-gardes, contemporary art etc.). Should it, and could it be taught differently? There is less consensus regarding the same categories in Eastern and Central Europe, which is not a homogenous cultural entity. Can such a consensus be reached? In what ways would this prove productive?
STRUCTURE AND CONTENT
The Program will consist of a series of three one-week seminars with the participation of up to 20 early career scholars from East-Central Europe, up to 4 keynote/guest speakers, the Coordinator and the Consultants.
During each of the seminars we would expect about a third among the participants to present their work in progress on a case study, which would make for six-seven papers in all. Scholars presenting papers will be identified in advance (and their agreement to do so secured), and papers will be – whenever possible – circulated before the seminar among the participants, so as to make possible a productive, in-depth discussion.
Dates:
– First seminar: mid-May 2019;
– Second seminar: first half of November 2019;
– Third seminar: last week of May 2020
Guest speakers:
Zdenka BADOVINAC, curator and writer, since 1993 Director of the Museum of Modern Art in Ljubljana;
Mieke BAL, Professor of Theory of Literature and founding Director of the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA), University of Amsterdam;
Patrick FLORES, Professor of Art Studies at the Department of Art Studies at the University of the Philippines, Curator of the Vargas Museum in Manila, and Adjunct Curator at the National Art Gallery, Singapore;
Andrea GIUNTA, Professor of Art History at the Universidad de Buenos Aires and former Chair in Latin American Art History and Criticism at UT Austin;
Krista KODRES, Professor at the Institute of Art History and Visual Culture of the Estonian Academy of Arts, Tallinn, and Head of the Doctoral Curriculum in Art History;
Saloni MATHUR, Professor, Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art, Department of Art History, UCLA;
Matthew RAMPLEY, Professor, Department of Art History, Curating and Visual Studies, Chair of Art History, University of Birmingham;
Miodrag ŠUVAKOVIĆ, Professor of Theory of Art and Theory of Culture at the Transdisciplinary Master and Doctoral Studies at the Faculty of Media and Communication, University of Arts in Belgrade;
Christopher WOOD, Professor and Chair, Department of German, New York University (Affiliated Faculty, Department of Comparative Literature and Institute of Fine Arts).
ELIGIBILITY
The program targets early-career art historians from Central and Eastern European countries. They should hold a PhD or be in a demonstrably advanced stage of work on the thesis and be citizens of one of the former socialist states in East-Central Europe or of the post-Soviet republics. Once selected, the applicants are expected to take part in the whole series of seminars.
Travel, accommodation and meals will be arranged and covered by the organizing institution.
HOW TO APPLY
Applications will be submitted in electronic format only, to the address:
applications@nec.ro
Candidates are asked to enter in the Subject field of their e-mail message “Periodizationseminar series”.
There is no application form for this program. More information regarding the documents that the application should contain can be found on the following webpage:
http://www.nec.ro/data/pdfs/public-events/2018/october/Call%20for%20applications%20(4).pdf
The deadline for the submission of applications is November 30.
The results of the selection process will be communicated by February 15
CFP deadline: Monday 3 December 2018
Much recent scholarship on the medieval Mediterranean focuses on shifting borders and cultural identities. Conquest is one of the causes of such shifts. This one-day symposium will examine how the consequences of conquests were manifested in conquered cities and landscapes, asking how conquerors responded to their new environments and how conquered communities were built and re-built.
Papers might touch on any of the following in relation to conquest, conquerors or conquered territories in the Mediterranean world, in the period 500 – 1500.
Papers are welcome on all areas of the Mediterranean world (including the Islamic, Byzantine and Latin areas, Jewish communities, the crusades and border zones).
Please send proposals for 20-minute papers to Clare Vernon (c.vernon@bbk.ac.uk), by Monday 3 December 2018, including a paper title, an abstract (max 300 words) and contact details.
Medieval Art Research