Decorated Revisited
English Architectural Style in Context, 1250-1400
Edited by John Munns
ISBN 978-2-503-55434-1
Thirty-Five years after the publication of Jean Bony’s seminal work on the so-called Decorated style of English architecture (The English Decorated Style: Gothic Architecture Transformed, 1979), this volume brings together a selection of groundbreaking essays by the most promising emerging scholars of English medieval architecture, together with contributions by two of the leading established authorities on the subject: Nicola Coldstream (The Decorated Style: Architecture and Ornament, 1240-1360, 1994) and Paul Binski (Gothic Wonder: Art, Artifice, and the Decorated Style, 1290–1350, 2014).
The contributors revisit Bony’s work and reassess the scholarly legacy of the past three-and-a-half decades. Drawing on a range of innovative methodologies, they then present exciting new insights into the nature and significance of English architecture in the period, focusing particularly on its broader European context. The essays are developed from papers delivered as part of a major seminar series at the University of Cambridge in 2013-14.
John Munns teaches the history of medieval art at the University of Cambridge since 2011, where he is a Fellow and Director of Studies at Magdalene College.
More info: http://bit.ly/2lfNQ8K
Memory and Redemption
Public Monuments and the Making of Late Medieval Landscape
By Achim Timmerann
ISBN 978-2-503-54652-0
Erected in large numbers from about 1200 onwards, and featuring increasingly sophisticated designs, wayside crosses and other edifices in the public sphere – such as fountains, pillories and boundary markers – constituted the largest network of images and monuments in the late medieval world. Not only were they everywhere, they were also seen by nearly everyone, because large sections of the populace were constantly on the move. Carrying an entire spectrum of religious, folkloric and judicial beliefs, these monuments were indeed at the very heart of late medieval life. This is the first critical study of these fascinating and rich structures written by a medievalist art historian. Focusing on the territories of the former Holy Roman Empire, this investigation considers such important edifices as the towering wayside crosses of Wiener Neustadt and Brno or the elaborate pillories of Kasteelbrakel and Wrocław, though less ostentatious works such as the Bildstöcke of Franconia and Carinthia or the high crosses of Westphalia and the Rhineland are equally examined. In addition, the study looks at the homiletic, literary, devotional and artistic imagination, in which wayside crosses and other such structures helped constitute a spiritual and allegorical landscape that very much complemented and put pressure on the physical landscapes traversed and inhabited by the contemporary public.
Achim Timmerann teaches medieval and northern Renaissance art and architecture at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is author of Real Presence: Sacrament Houses and the Body of Christ, c. 1270-1600.
More Info: http://bit.ly/2xELbLf
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 
University of Leeds and The Hepworth Wakefield, 
Workshop and workshop practices represent a core and dynamic research strand in the history of art. This strand encompasses the study of canonical artists but equally of the anonymous producers whose activities can be deduced from the surviving art objects, thanks to ever developing research questions and methodologies. This topic helps us to think about the agents and their networks (artists, patrons and other market consumers), objects and socio-economic factors (making, buying and trading) as well as the broader cultural issues of the transmission of skills and ideas (the movement of artists, objects and imagery). Our lecture series brings together leading experts in medieval and early modern historical periods in and beyond Europe, particular highpoints for the study of workshop practices, and also those researching workshop continuities and changes in later centuries, including digital mediation.
This was first published in 2000: Introduced by Joanna Cannon, this volume of essays by postgraduate students at the Courtauld Institute, University of London, explores some of the ways in which art was used to express, to celebrate, and to promote the political and religious aims and aspirations of those in power in the city states of central Italy in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The contributions focus on four centres: Siena, Arezzo, Pisa and Orvieto, and range over a number of media: fresco, panel painting, sculpture, metalwork, and translucent enamel. Employing a variety of methods and approaches, these stimulating essays offer a fresh look at some of the key artistic projects of the period. The dates cited in the title, 1261 and 1352, refer to two well-known works, Coppo di Marcovaldo’s Madonna del Bordone and the Guidoriccio Fresco in the Palazzo Pubblico of Siena, here newly assigned to this date. By concentrating on individual cases such as these, the essays provide rewardingly sustained consideration, at the same time raising crucial issues concerning the role of art in the public life of the period. These generously-illustrated studies introduce new material and advance new arguments, and are all based on original research. Clear and lively presentation ensures that they are also accessible to students and scholars from other disciplines. Art, Politics and Civic Religion in Central Italy, 1261-1352 is the first volume in the new series Courtauld Institute Research Papers. The series makes available original recently researched material on western art history from classical antiquity to the present day.
La Sacra Cintola, la cintura della Vergine custodita nel Duomo che per secoli è stata il tesoro più prezioso di Prato, è un simbolo religioso e civile, fulcro delle vicende artistiche della città ed elemento cardine della sua identità. La sottile striscia (di 87 centimetri) di lana di capra broccata in filo d’oro è il fulcro di un’esposizione che comprende altre opere di valore, prima tra tutte la pala di Bernardo Daddi del 1337-1338 che racconta la leggenda di come la reliquia sia stata consegnata a San Tommaso dalla Madonna al momento dell’Assunzione, sia stata portata a Prato verso il 1141 dal mercante pratese Michele Dagomari e da questi donata nel 1172, alla pieve della città.
In this book, Liz James offers a comprehensive history of wall mosaics produced in the European and Islamic middle ages. Taking into account a wide range of issues, including style and iconography, technique and material, and function and patronage, she examines mosaics within their historical context. She asks why the mosaic was such a popular medium and considers how mosaics work as historical ‘documents’ that tell us about attitudes and beliefs in the medieval world. The book is divided into two part. Part I explores the technical aspects of mosaics, including glass production, labour and materials, and costs. In Part II, James provides a chronological history of mosaics, charting the low and high points of mosaic art up until its abrupt end in the late middle ages. Written in a clear and engaging style, her book will serve as an essential resource for scholars and students of medieval mosaics
Medieval Art Research 