The Courtauld Institute of Art’s 23rd Annual Medieval Postgraduate Colloquium invites speakers to consider the nature of medieval collections, the context of their creation and fruition, and their legacy – or disappearance – in the present.
Existing approaches to the subject help to understand the formation, dispersal, and reassembly of groupings of objects. However, broadening the scope of what a medieval collection is can open new paths of exploration. From immense palace networks to single-volume manuscripts, a wide range of objects can pose complex and exciting questions regarding how physical and conceptual similarity and proximity shaped making and meaning in the Middle Ages.
The Medieval Postgraduate Colloquium offers the opportunity for research students at all levels from universities across the UK and abroad to present and promote their research.
Organised by Costanza Beltrami (The Courtauld Institute of Art / The Auckland Project) and Maggie Crosland (The Courtauld Institute of Art) with the generous support of The Sackler Research Forum.
Programme
09.30 – 10.00: Registration
10.00 – 10.10: Welcome
Session 1: Assembled Objects — chaired by Teresa Lane
10.10 – 10.30: Gesner Las Casas Brito Filho (University of Leeds): Níðwundor’, terrible wonder: The Beowulf Manuscript as a compilation about the ‘East’ (Nowell Codex part in British Library Cotton Vitellius A.xv)
10.50 – 11.10: Krisztina Ilko (University of Cambridge): Collecting Miracles: Visualising the Early Saints’ Cult of the Augustinian Friars
11.10 – 11.30: Elizabeth Mattison (University of Toronto/ KIK-IRPA): The Collection as History: Collecting with and on the Reliquary Bust of Saint Lambert in Liège
11.10 – 11.30: Discussion
11:30 – 12:00: TEA / COFFEE BREAK – Seminar Rooms 1 & 2
Session 2: Strategies of Collecting — chaired by Charlotte Wytema
12.00 – 12.20: Noah Smith (University of Kent): The Courtrai Chest: A Matter of Personal Collection
12.20 – 12.40: Oliver Mitchell (The Courtauld Institute of Art): Collecting relics, curating an image: regicide, martyrdom, and the sacrificial kingship of Louis IX in the Sainte Chapelle
12.40 – 13.00: Maria Lopez-Monis (The Courtauld Institute of Art): Collecting the profane: Conversion of earthly objects into reliquaries
13.00 – 13.20: Discussion
13.20 – 14.30: LUNCH (provided for speakers only in Seminar Room 1)
Session 3: Collaborating across media — chaired by Nicholas Flory
14.30 – 14.50: Maria Harvey (University of Cambridge): Across time and space: Byzantin(ising) objects in the hands of the Del Balzo Orsini
14.50 – 15.10: Sophia Ong (Rutgers University/INHA): “Autres petiz Joyaulx et Reliquiaires pendans”: Pendants and the Collecting of Jewelry in the Valois Courts
15.10 – 15.30: Adriana Concin (The Courtauld Institute of Art): Collecting medieval likenesses: Archduke Ferdinand II and his Genealogy of Tyrolian Landesfürsten
15.30 – 15.50: Discussion
15.50 – 16.20: TEA / COFFEE BREAK – Seminar Rooms 1 & 2
Session 4: Spaces of Display — chaired by Harry Prance
16.20 – 16.40: Lesley Milner (The Courtauld Institute of Art): From Medieval treasure room to Renaissance wunderkammer: Sir William Sharrington’s strong room at Lacock Abbey
16.40 – 17.00: Sarah Randeraad (University of Amsterdam): Medii Aevii, Medio Evo, Tempi di Mezzo: ‘Amorphous’ Middle Ages in 19th century Florentine private and public display
17.00 – 17.30: Discussion
17.30 – 17.45: Closing remarks: Joanna Cannon (The Courtauld Institute of Art)
17.45: RECEPTION (Front Hall)
With special thanks to Michael Carter for his contribution and support for the colloquium.
This workshop focuses on the so-called ‘Pallio di San Lorenzo’, a thirteenth-century Byzantine textile given to the Cathedral of San Lorenzo in Genoa within the framework of diplomatic relations between Genoa and the Byzantine court. The bright red samite embroidered with various coloured silk threads, as well threads in silver and gold, represents the Lives of St. Lawrence, St. Sixtus, and St. Hippolytus, accompanied by Latin inscriptions, and a depiction of Michael VIII Palaiologos visiting the cathedral of Genoa. The textile’s actual state of preservation after many years of meticulous restoration and the results of the recent analyses of the dye, the stitching technique, and the precious metal threads provides insight into its unique materiality. Furthermore, its specific iconography, Latin paleography, and possible functions offer various points of departure for a comprehensive reconsideration of the Pallio. This work epitomizes the transcultural encounters in the Mediterranean. This interdisciplinary workshop, organized in collaboration with the textile restoration experts of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure and the Museo Sant’Agostino, Genoa, is an extraordinary occasion to discuss the results of the restoration of the ‘Pallio di San Lorenzo’ before its return to Genoa.
Institut für Kunstwissenschaft und Historische Urbanistik – Fachgebiet Kunstgeschichte, Technische Universität, Berlin, Straße des 17. Juni 150/152, Architekturgebäude, Raum A 060, 16.02.2018
Decorated Revisited
Memory and Redemption
The Birkbeck Medieval Seminar is an annual event. It is free and open to all scholars of the Middle Ages. It is designed to foster conversation and debate on a particular topic within medieval studies by providing the opportunity to hear new research from experts in the field. We are a welcoming and inclusive environment. This venue is fully accessible. Please contact Isabel Davis (i.davis@bbk.ac.uk) for futher information or if you need help using the 
Medieval Art Research 